Chapter 26 – Nick and Lisa planing

Nick felt Aniya’s doubts in her voice, and he spoke as he looked up at the sign of a restaurant, “House Alfredo, Italian cuisine. I guess I know where I am going to have lunch. Tell Lisa that I am going to stuff my stomach with meatballs! I want to hear her drooling! Take care Aniya. I will call tomorrow or maybe later, depending on the situation.”

Aniya frowned as she hung up the phone. “Why was that bloody idiot talking about meatballs in this situation… Oh!”

A quick search online, and Aniya opened the privacy window and showed the screen of her phone to Davis. “Go to this address. My friend Nick is there, and I think he wants to deliver a message to Lisa. It’s better if you park a bit ahead, and Lisa goes on foot because he told me he was being followed.”

Lisa heard her and waited for her explanation. Aniya told everything about their conversation, at least Nick’s part, because he was whispering and Lisa couldn’t hear him.

She nodded and asked, “Do you think he will be in danger in that group? He is alone in there, with no one to back him up in case of danger.”

“Do you think I don’t know that? I just… I don’t know what to do! I can’t go to him and risk the Hunters finding out about him or me, but I don’t want him to be all alone.”

Davis spoke, trying to calm her down, “Miss Aniya, who is that Nick? Your friend?”

Aniya spoke with so much emotion in her voice that she had to make a tremendous effort not to cry. “Yes, and… the man I love… We kind of have a special bond… I shine like a small sun when I am near him…”

“If Lisa doesn’t mind asking where he will be after dinner, I can come to check on him after driving her home. Tomorrow is my day off, and I can follow him around, making sure he is not in danger.”

“You won’t mind doing that? It’s your day off…”

“Miss Aniya, I never had a day off. I am always near you. I told you that. Instead of following you tomorrow, I will follow him, as long as you don’t put yourself in any weird situation that makes me run to you.”

Aniya gave a big smile and shook her head. “No, I won’t do anything besides go visit Lisa’s father and then I will go to my company to work! Lisa will always be with me, and in my company I have a lot of security.”

Davis smiled and made a turn left, taking a shortcut to the address that Aniya had shown him. In less than ten minutes, they went past the restaurant where Nick said he was going to eat, and Davis parked the car on the next block, in front of a jewellery store. Aniya left for the store, and Lisa walked in a hurry along the sidewalk, going straight to the building that had the restaurant on the lower level.
She easily spotted the man who was following Nick, disguisedly seated on a bench at an empty bus stop, glancing at the restaurant window, pretending to be looking at his phone. Lisa approached him from the side when he was again looking at the restaurant on his right, and with a powerful punch, knocked him out. She leaned him against the side of the bus stop, as if he was sleeping, and took his phone and wallet. She smirked and left, going straight to the restaurant.

Inside, a waiter came to her, and she smiled and waved at Nick, who was seated at a table near the window. The waiter took her there, and she asked as soon as she sat at the table, “So, I heard you were going to eat meatballs. I won’t mind eating that as well and some wine.”

As soon as the waiter left to take care of her order, she lowered her voice, “Why did you want to talk with me? You have something to say that you couldn’t talk about over the phone, or what?”

Nick explained what he learned from Adrian Gordon about the change during the day and that he tried that method but stopped before he changed completely, and pretended to fail so that Adrian and his friends didn’t get suspicious. He told her his plan to catch the Werewolves by pretending to be a trap for the Hunters when, in fact, it was a trap for the Werewolves.

Lisa listened to everything in silence and only asked when the waiter brought the food and left. “Are you sure you want to do that? They are beasts as well, you know? And that guy might have fooled them and it led them to believe they needed to eat Humans to control the change.”

“I was about to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I saw the weird smiles they had on their faces when we were talking about eating Human flesh. I looked at the kitchen as I left, and I saw pink steaks over the balcony. Too pink to be pork or cow. They are cannibals, and they don’t deserve to live. They are far too dangerous.”

Lisa nodded while looking at the meatball on her fork. “I almost lost my appetite with this conversation. Luckily for me, this looks too good to waste. By the way, that guy that was following you, he was at that bus stop on your right. I knocked him out and took his phone and wallet. It would probably be better if you took him with you and told him someone robbed him while you were talking with me. Maybe you should tell that Adrian guy you wanted to meet me to prepare that trap and to check what happened after you went with him. Will you do me a favour and give that guy a message from me? Tell him that the next time he threatens my family, I am going to slice his dick and make him swallow it.”

You know, that is a nasty thing to threaten a guy with. What about Aniya? What was that about a meeting with the Hunters’ High Council?"

“Nothing unusual, just Aniya being Aniya and rubbing the floor with those guys. She is fun to be with, but you don’t want to be with her in a meeting on the other side of the table! She is scary! Those guys never stood a chance!”

Lisa explained everything that happened inside the house, Aniya’s past that Davis told them about, including the discovery that Hunters convinced the women that worked for them to use IUDs to prevent any unexpected pregnancy, and that was probably what made Aniya so angry to the point of exploding, which eventually happened during the meeting with the Council members.
Nick was shocked. Everything else was surprising enough, but finding out that Aniya was the daughter of an Alpha that came from a big family of Werewolves made him nervous. He stared at his now empty dish, trying to make some sense of everything he had heard.

Lisa noticed the way he looked so doubtful and touched his hand while making a slight smile. “I know Aniya may seem a bit over the top and way over your head, but I could tell the moment I saw you both together that she likes you. Despite all her wealth and all the expensive things that she is used to, I also know that she values people way more than her money. If something goes wrong and you have to flee, I am sure she won’t hesitate to abandon everything and go with you. Besides, she just found out that she has a big family of Werewolves in another country, and that means she has little to do with the Rossi family and money.”

“That’s what makes me nervous, her having a big family of Werewolves. I don’t care if her parents don’t approve of me, but with Werewolves in her family, I may have to prove to them I am worthy.”

“Well, you already have a pack with three members, and if everything goes well tomorrow, Aniya will get a few more to join us. With her making them used to the wolf’s bane, and if we manage to control the change, things will get pretty interesting. I am so going to test that method tonight!”

Nick warned her, “What if this time you won’t be able to wake up? I didn’t let my change go all the way, so I am not sure what would happen.”

“Well, I guess I can restrain myself in my room and see if I can change. If I am able and if I am still conscious, it will be so amazing that I can’t even think of all the possibilities!”

“I can. We could fight any pack of mindless beasts and kill any Hunter that dared to come after us, no matter their number. One thing is fighting Hunters as a mindless beast that is all instinct and no thinking, another is doing that while you are in full control. I can fight pretty well as a Human but as a thinking Werewolf? I would be unstoppable. Well, maybe not unstoppable, because Aniya beat the crap out of me two times already.”

Lisa muffled her laughter. “Pfft!… Yeah, she is one heck of a fighter. I am pretty good myself, but she is on a totally different level.”

Nick made an awkward smile, remembering how Aniya so easily sent him flying on the first day they met, and how she was about to split his head when they were Werewolves and she woke him up.
After Lisa finished her plate and confirmed where Nick would be that night, she left and glanced at the man who was still unconscious over the seat of the bus stop.

Some minutes later, Nick exited the restaurant, went to the man, shook him, and waited for him to focus his sight. Nick disguised a smile and asked, “What are you doing here? You were in that apartment with Adrian, weren’t you?”

“Yeah… He told me to follow you, and I was seated here watching you. Then someone hit me and…”

The man suddenly remembered something and searched his pockets. “My phone… and my wallet! Someone robbed me! What the heck!”

While Nick helped the man to get up and they both went to the apartment to meet Adrian Gordon and the others, Lisa was already near the limousine, happily chatting with Davis, pure happiness on her face. From the jewellery store, Aniya came, accompanied by an employee carrying some bags. Davis grabbed the bags and put them in the trunk while the employee was thanking Aniya for the visit and for buying such exquisite jewellery. She smiled at him and thanked him for all the help, and entered the car, followed by a puzzled Lisa.

Inside, Aniya noticed the frown on her friend’s forehead and asked, “Why the long face? Did you eat something spoiled or what?”

“Did you really thank that guy for his help? Who are you and what did you do to my favourite brat? My Aniya would never thank an employee! She would not even look at the guy!”

“Shut up and tell me what Nick said, will you? Is he alright? He is not in danger?”

“For the moment, no, but it’s better if Davis follows him tomorrow. I grabbed a new phone that we could use to call Nick. I took it from the guy that was following him, together with…”

Lisa took the wallet from her pocket and opened it, making a big smile. “Oh, the guy was packing a nice amount. What about if we went to find a joint to grab some food? I am paying! I already ate, but I didn’t have dessert.”

Aniya looked at Davis through the rearview mirror and saw him smiling. “It seems like even my normally serious driver liked that idea. He has been smiling a lot lately. Do you have any idea why?”

“Nope, nothing. Maybe he found someone he likes? Maybe it’s that.”

Aniya laughed, with Davis and Lisa joining her.