53: Tension at the dinner table

**Tristan**

“OH MY GODDESS! It’s Tristan!” This came from London who had now apparently become my biggest fan. She engulfed me into a tight hug, squeezing the very soul out of my body, and then let go. Ah yes, this was exactly how I wanted to end off my emotionally hectic week- being suffocated to death by Lucien’s sister.

“Hey London! Could you refrain from attempting to murder my mate?” Lucien asked as he grabbed my hand and yanked me away from her.

London squealed and engulfed him into one of her bone-crushing hugs too, forcing him to knock my hand away.

“Sorry about this. She drank a few shots of tequila before she came here. It’s her Friday tradition.” Amber said as she emerged into the doorway. 

“Chester, Damon says that you are welcome to leave,” she said as she addressed the man who had opened the door for us. He nodded and smiled before bidding us goodbye.

“Are you all going to come in or are you staying at the door?” My sister asked from behind London. I still couldn’t get over her being alive and in front of me and as I stared at her, I almost lost the ability to breathe. It was at times like this that I thought she was an apparition, or rather another figment of my imagination.

She smiled at me fondly and held a hand out, which I took. It was only when I felt the familiar warmth of her hand in mine that she finally felt real to me again.

“Thanks for bringing her.” She said warmly as she looked over my shoulder and smiled at Lucien.

“Oh Jasmine, you make it sound as if you gave me a choice.” He chuckled. The irony was that Lucien hadn’t really given me sufficient time to have a choice either.

Jasmine dismissed Lucien’s comment and dragged me further into the house, quite literally, I might add. It wasn’t my first time here but at least now, I had the time to take a good look around. The walls were covered in family pictures and something about them brought a sense of warmth and homeliness to this place. It smelled good in here too. Of lavender and cinnamon and food. Was this what a real home was supposed to feel like? I couldn’t really describe it into a particular feeling, but rather a colour. A warm, soft golden. Gentle like the rays of sunlight shining through the glass windows in the early morning. That was what it was like to be here in this home.

“I’m so excited for you to meet everyone!” Jasmine said as she tugged me into what I remember to be the grand dining room.

“Everyone?” I uttered out confused. From what Lucien had told me this morning when he ambushed me with this family dinner in the first place, was that this was going to be a small family gathering. How many more Michaelses were there and why hadn’t I said no to the son-of-a-bitch in the first place? Oh yeah! Because saying no to Lucien was virtually impossible, especially when his skin touched mine- a tactic which he shamelessly used this morning as well.

My answer came in the form of three strangers who conversed together, as though they’d known each other their whole lives.

“Everyone, I’d like you to meet my sister, Tristan.” Jasmine said. Immediately their talking stopped, and their attention was set solely on me.

“Well, I’ll be damned. She’s beautiful.” This came from a woman whose beauty was absolutely breath-taking. She offered a smile and reached her hand out. “Hello, my name’s Loren Parker.”

I stood frozen at the sound of her name. *Loren Parker*… as in Oliver’s mate? Looking at her and feeling the warmth of her smile, I couldn’t quite imagine how Oliver could have had the heart to walk away from her. She gave off that same bright goodness that Jasmine did.

“It’s nice to meet you.” I said after recovering, and then took her hand in mine. She gave it a firm shake. Then her smile suddenly faded as it landed on something… or rather someone behind my shoulder.

“If it isn’t satan incarnate. Lucien.” Judging by the way she spoke to my mate, she wasn’t his number one fan. I couldn’t say I blamed her. Lucien was an acquired taste. You either really loved him or you really hated him.

“Loren. Still a sex-deprived bitch, I see.”

I smacked at his shoulder, and he grinned mischievously.

“Oh Tristan, you truly have my sympathy for having to deal with this pain-in-the-ass all the time.” This was said by a tall, dark and handsome man who had his hand intertwined with his handsome mate’s.

“Hi. I’m Landon, and this is Jared.”

Jared smiled brightly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”

Once again, his face fell when he gazed up at Lucien. “Lucien.”

“Jared my man! Still haven’t managed to replace the stick up Landon’s ass with your di-”

“I think that’s enough brother.” Damon said as he marched into the dining room with a big smile and a roast chicken. He set it carefully on top of the table, allowing for it to join the rest of the food.

I’d always known that Lucien lacked any filter whatsoever, however seeing it in action here was something else. I felt… *embarrassed* just standing next to him, and that was a rarity on my part. But his asshole-ish behaviour did a good job of masking how he really felt here- uncomfortable and out of place.

“Now then, can we all try to get along at least throughout this dinner. This is, after all, Tristan’s first time having a family dinner here. We don’t want her to think we’re a bunch of assholes, do we Lucien?”

Lucien rolled his eyes in response and took my hand as he led us to our seats. From the corner of my eye, I could see Jasmine smiling at us fondly. I almost instinctively pulled my hand away from Lucien’s, afraid because now she’d seen the extent of our relationship. It was more instinctive than anything else and it stemmed from the disapproval I knew Ambrose would have if *he* saw us. But it took less than a moment for me to realise that I was safe here and with it, I felt a sense of reassurance. There was no need to hide the affection I clearly had for Lucien.

Once we’d taken our seats, I couldn’t help but sense the overwhelming tension at the table, most of which, stemmed from the three strangers and Lucien.

“I can’t help but notice that you all don’t seem to get along… what did you do Lucien?” I asked sternly as I stared up at him. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit how curious I was as to why Jared, Landon and Loren seemed to detest Lucien’s presence.

His brows furrowed and he looked down at me, rather surprised. “Oh, how dare you! How can you just assume that it’s all my fault!”

“Because it is!” Said Landon, Loren and Jared simultaneously.

Lucien scoffed and then placed his arm around my shoulder as he reclined slightly in his seat. “Fine… it was my fault.”

“Uh huh… what’d you do?”

“I tried to kill them.” He said with a shrug.

“Twice.” Loren said. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. The real question here should have actually been: who didn’t Lucien try to kill?

Lucien shrugged again and reached for a roast potato from one of the trays. Damon smacked his hand away and growled. “Announcement first, then food!”

“Announcement?” I questioned, attempting to sound intrigued. It wasn’t that I wasn’t excited to hear the news, but more that I already knew what they were going to announce.

Jasmine smiled brightly and took Damon’s hand in hers. He looked down at her fondly and squeezed at her hand reassuringly. Before I’d met Lucien and come face-to-face with my sister again, I probably would have been sick seeing such a pure portrayal of genuine love, but now I gazed at it in absolute adoration. I was happy that my sister had someone to love her that deeply.

“We’re pregnant!” She said enthusiastically.

The entire table literally exploded in a series of cheers and congratulations. London even started crying- I wondered if she’d be able to remember this tomorrow- and even Lucien smiled brightly. Now that she’d said it, it all felt so real. My sister was pregnant… I was going to be an aunt and the thought of it had me feeling a sense of subtle excitement. This all felt so normal, and I revelled in it unashamedly.

“I’m so happy for you Jas!” I said. She smiled at me and reached out her hand for me to take in mine. I did so and squeezed at it.

“Are you though? You never seem to smile.” Loren said teasingly. I was about to brush her comment off with a light-hearted lie when Lucien kicked her from underneath the table and she growled at him. In response he gave a cheeky grin. 

“I take it we can eat now?” He said. I couldn’t help but stare up at him in wonder at what he’d done. It wasn’t unlike Lucien to look out for me, but I still couldn’t quite get used to it.

As we began to eat, the table settled into a strange silence. I could tell that the three on the opposite side of the table were still itching to ask questions, and so to avoid the topic from once again reverting back to me, I decided to ask a question of my own.

“So how do you all know Damon and Jasmine?”

Loren turned to Jasmine with a surprised look on her face. “You didn’t tell her?”

Jasmine shook her head. “We only just found each other again Loren. I haven’t really been able to unpack my entire life story.”

She then turned her attention back to me and began to explain how she knew Jared and Loren. Oliver had told me before that Jasmine had worked with a few other werewolves, as a vigilante. Strangely enough, I knew about this little organisation before he’d told me about them. They were one of our targets for recruitment, however they moved around too much for us to successfully capture and indoctrinate any of them. I could only imagine how strong and skilled my sister must have been to have worked with Jared and Loren though. Their skillset was envied even by my father.

“…and Landon here is Damon’s closest friend and Beta.”

From the way Damon and Landon interacted, I wouldn’t have even guessed that they had an Alpha-Beta relationship. Unlike the strict boundaries my father and I had, they seemed more like friends than anything else. With my father, I was his Beta first and his adopted daughter second. It was a dynamic I’d grown used to, but now that I knew differently, it had become a dynamic I was slowly growing uncomfortable with. I wasn’t one to compare, but Damon’s pack seemed to be happier and healthier than the one I belonged to. 

“By the way,” Jared began, “we do have an opening in our team if you’re interested? Now more than ever we need to up our numbers with these frequent rogue attacks.”

The idea of having the world know about my rogue pack was honestly beginning to seem like a bad one. In fact, the more people spoke about the notorious rogue attacks, the more I wanted to distance myself from my pack. Truly I deserved a “best beta of the year” award.

“So what do you say?” Jared asked.

“No thank you…” I said, trying to sound as polite as I could. There would be nothing worse than me joining a team of people who now dedicated their time to taking down the pack I was the beta of.

Slowly our conversation moved from interrogatory to relaxed and casual… until there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it!” Jasmine said rather suspiciously. She left the table for a moment and when she returned it was with someone rather familiar.

“Oliver…”