The Spare Mate

Family dinner

Chapter 5

Raquel’s pov

I lay in my new bed, in my new room, and tried to meditate to let the time pass quicker and to stop worrying about what has been said and what is going to happen in my life. It took quite a while before I was calm enough to clear my mind.

Now, in a much more relaxed mood, I was pleasantly surprised when Danielle came to my room to see me. Goddess, she is so sexy as she crawls up my bed with all the grace and nimbleness of a feline. My new name for her is perfect as she is just so adorable and sexy like a kitten.

It doesn’t take too much guessing to come up with how she is now calling me princess, but the word has never sounded better to me than coming out of her mouth. Hell, she could call me whatever she wanted, and it would sound sexy coming out of that mouth.

I admit that I got nervous when she said she would be introducing me to her family tonight. With the way Xavier has been acting, it made me worried that this wasn’t a very accepting pack, even though I had seen how open and friendly his parents are at various events.

I am not worried about her brothers, I have enough male relatives to know how to deal with them, besides, in my family, it is the females who are more likely to embarrass someone. The men have nothing on them. They are much more open and dirty minded.

I am a bit disappointed that we don’t have more time together before we have to head down, I was also disappointed that Xavier hadn’t bothered to come up, even if I was not surprised by it. I just hope he warms up to me soon.

Everyone was already there chatting by the time we arrived. Xavier went from carefree and happy to grumpy the second he saw me with my hand in Danielle’s. It made my heart flip, and not in a good way. I quickly put a smile on my face, not wanting anything to dampen Danielle’s happiness at me meeting her family.

Doris and Gavin were both wonderful, instantly enveloping me in a hug and welcoming into their family, giving me compliments, as Danielle beams in happiness that her parents are so happy for us. It warms my heart, knowing my in-laws are so accepting of me and our unusual bond.

“Wow sis this mate is much hotter than your other one” Alan says smiling, trust it to be the teenager that says something stupid, pi.ssing off our grumpy mate.

“Shut up Alan” his mum says, slapping him upside the head.

“Mum, ouch. Just stating the obvious, no offence Xavier, I am just not that into you” he says, laughing, making his brother snicker.

“He has a point, it’s nice to meet you, Raquel. I am obviously the good-looking brother, Connor” he says to me, holding out his hand for me to shake.

“Pleased to meet you Connor” I say back with a smile, shaking his hand as Xavier growls.

“Woah calm down, alpha, no one is trying to steal your new mate” Connor says, putting his hands up in surrender.

“Shut up Connor” Xavier grumbles as Connor just laughs at him. They have been friends since they were pups. That’s probably the only reason Xavier is putting up with his teasing.

Xavier places Conner next to him at the table with Danielle on the other side of him. He is making it more than obvious that he doesn’t want me near him. Everyone looks slightly embarrassed for me at his actions. Before he can send me to the other end of the table, Danielle gets me to sit next to her, so at least I am beside one of my mates.

Doris sits next to me, and Kelly is beside her on the right of Sebastian, who is at the head of the table, and the rest of Danielle’s family sit across from us. I get asked loads of curious questions, like, what is it like being a hybrid? How is life like growing up as a princess? And things like that.

I think they are a bit surprised that I wasn’t treated like a pampered princess. Yeah my dad’s gave me everything I could possibly want, but we were also trained from an early age, and they went harder on us because they thought we should be stronger and better than our peers. It gave us much less time for socialising, but it was worth it in the end, and we still had time for friends and family time.

“You could probably help with the training, we haven’t had the luck to have one of the elite squad mated into our pack, and your aunt is a formidable fighter. I think it would greatly benefit our warriors to get your experience in fighting taught to them” Alpha Sebastian says to me, I guess he is a fan of Auntie Rayne.

“I would be happy to, I have always enjoyed training, and it may help them with knowledge on how to fight the different species” I reply smiling, I absolutely love physical training so I am more than happy to help my new pack become stronger.

“We may finally have a chance of winning or at least placing in the top three of the tournament this year” Gavin says excitedly.

“Well I know Auntie Rayne has officially retired from it now” I tell them.

“Even better, she has been the clear winner for years now, and now we will have you to join our team” Gavin replies.

Auntie Rayne was starting to get bored a few years ago. My cousins were more grown up and didn’t need her as much, and she missed her old days in the elite squad. Because of this, she decided to come up with the tournament.

It gave packs the chance to mingle with each other and it also gave the elite squad the chance to recruit more members, while giving everyone the chance to show off how strong they were as a pack/coven etc. It has been well attended since, but no one has beat my aunt yet, so news of her hanging up her gloves finally so to speak, will be exciting for everyone as they have a better chance of winning finally.

“That sound good and all, but I don’t want Raquel to start training before her welcome party, the last thing I need is for her to be injured before we introduce her to the pack” Kelly says firmly.

“Of course darling, I wouldn’t even think of upsetting your plans. We can start the new training on Monday, and it will give Raquel the chance to think how she wants to do it” Sebastian agrees straight away.

“Perfect, now we just need to sort our what is happening with the party. Danielle thought you might want to help us with the arrangements, I am guessing you have had training on that as well, besides it will give me time to get to know you better, Doris you are more than welcome to join us as well” Kelly says excitedly.

“Yes I had many lessons on that. It wasn’t my favourite sessions, but I don’t mind it at all. So I would love to help out” I say, smiling back at her.

“Count me in too any chance to spend time with my daughter and get to know my new one I am all for” Doris says happily, I am actually looking forward to party planning for the first time.

“Remember, Raquel will be announced as our mate and not the future luna” Mr Grumpy mate says, firmly wanting to make sure everyone knows my place, me included.

“Really son, you don’t need to be like that, people will find it stranger that only one of your mates are your luna, than having two Luna’s” Kelly says exasperated, while Xavier looks more and more pi.ssed off.

“It’s fine luna Kelly, I don’t care about being a luna, I am happy for Danielle to be the only luna the pack has and support her when she needs it” I say, which is totally true, I have never cared about having a position in a pack, all I ever cared about was having a loving mate. Well, at least one out of the two of them likes me. We can hopefully work on the other one.

“Of course you dont” Xavier scoffs.

“Xavi baby, be nice, Raquel has done nothing to warrant your behaviour. She should be luna with me” Danielle says, upset.

“Please don’t be upset, Dani. I really don’t mind at all, and I will always support you even without a title. I have always been the princess, and I never really cared for the title, I preferred people to just see me as Raquel. You were his first mate, just like the first child, the role should go to you” I say, trying to calm her down.

“This discussion isn’t over, but I will keep my peace for now” she says with a warning look to Xavier as he sighs in response.