Chapter Nineteen: Hot chocolate

I stood there shocked. I know exactly what he was on about now, remembering my conversations with Elijah and Orla. I guess I should have known or picked up on it already, but how could I? I was never brought up with this drilled into my mind…I was human…or I had thought I was for years.

I looked Alpha Lukas up and down and couldn’t deny I felt attracted to him. He was built like nothing else. Although, can I truly believe he was built for me? I think about my appearance right now and I must look like a mess. I can’t even remember the last time I brushed my hair.

He could see I was starting to panic. He moved his arms around me and hugs me, unexpectedly. I feel calmer from his scent. “Aliana. We can discuss this another time. I know it’s all too new for you and I’m sure I can restrain myself from jumping on you.” He stops, laughs and then pulls me away a bit so he can look me dead in the eye. “We must speak with the Elders first though, which again, we can do later. Let’s just relax and enjoy getting to know one another today.”

I could do that. Otherwise I’m going to drive myself insane. I take a deep breath, and I push him slightly forward and he starts walking with me up a path.

We say nothing to each other for a short while. I’m still trying to process the whole mate thing, and at some point I will ask a tonne of questions, but for now, I enjoy the walk. I feel safe next to Alpha Lukas as we walk past lots of cottages. I can see lots of people around, enjoying their day. Everyone nods their heads in respect to the Alpha. Some give me strange glances and looks, but go back to minding their own business.

“Don’t mind them, usually when I’m walking around, I’m with one of the other ranked members.” He says as I notice a lot of people looking at us.

“Ranked members? What other ranks are there?” I ask, unsure what that means or what comes after an Alpha.

“In the pack, there is a hierarchy for command. There’s my second, which is our Beta. His mate is our Beta female. Then there’s my third, which is our Gamma and then naturally the mate of him is the Gamma female.” He says. That seems simple enough to comprehend. I had one burning question though.

“So, would your mate be your Alpha female?” I ask, slightly hesitantly, wondering if there’s someone who’s already taken my place. I realise what I’m thinking, already referring to myself. My emotions change from anger to jealously to nothingness whilst I try and listen to his answer.

He looks at me and has a smile on his face. “No…I’m unsure why it is named differently, but my mate would be the packs Luna.”

I think about the name for a few moments and smile. Luna is a nice name, much more sophisticated than Alpha female.

I drop the conversation for now as we pass by a small lake, which reminds me of Lake Nonite where my family and I used to go fishing. The water is a deep blue and I feel slightly drawn to it. I want to ask about it but I reserve my questions as they don’t feel important for now. I’m sure we’ll come back another time.

We continue walking, and in the distance, I can see larger looking houses. Similar to those that I used to see in the human world. In the far distance, I can see a massive house…possibly a mansion? It looks very similar to that of one that wealthy humans used to live in.

As I stare out to it, Alpha Lukas notes what I’m looking at. “That’s where I’d like to take you. That’s mine and my family’s home, as well as the home of our other ranked wolves. It’s what we call the Pack house.”

I look at him and gasped, a bit shocked. The shock passes quickly after I remember that this man is basically the king of everyone here. I’d expect him to live in the biggest house. Surely he doesn’t mean that we’d go there today though?

We continued walking towards the mansion, taking as many re-routes as possible. It was nice to see things fairly normal here, at least normal from back when humans were still living. There were roads here but I didn’t see any cars. Apart from that, it looked much like what it was in the human side of the world.

We started getting to the larger houses, and I was starting to feel a bit hungry. Right on cue, my stomach makes a noise. Alpha Lukas looks at me with an eyebrow raised.

“What? I’ve actually not eaten since….since before entering the dark forest.” I say, surprised I’ve managed to last this long without fainting or something.

“Don’t worry, Doctor Lowe would have topped you up when you got to the hospital.” He says, answering my unanswered question. I try not to think about that, I suspect that means I was tube fed.

Alpha Lukas starts taking me in a slightly different direction.

“Where are we going?” I ask him, curious. It seemed to be more away from the mansion he was leading me to.

“We have a nice Café just down here. They sell some food and they have the best coffee.” He says slackly.

I look at him with my eyes wide. “You have coffee here…do you have hot chocolate?” I ask, astounded. Hot drinks weren’t a commodity anywhere I had been since leaving my old home, and I would actually die to have some.

He looks at me and smirks. “Of course. You not had any in a while, I assume?”

“No...last time I saw any kind of hot drink was a long time ago. I never particularly liked coffee or tea, but I loved hot chocolate.” I sadly tell him.

We pick up the pace slightly, and we turn a corner to the left and see a small line of shops. One of which has a cute little blackboard sign on the outside.

“That’s the place. Let’s go in and get some food, huh?” Alpha Lukas says.

We get to the door, and the Alpha removes himself from my arm to open the door for me, smiling. As soon as he pulls the door open, I smell some of the best things I have smelled since leaving my home, second best obviously to his scent. There was so many things going on in here, and my mouth slightly watered. I go in and he follows behind me. As soon as we get inside, I see the place has multiple mahogany tables and cute little chairs to match. There’s what looks like a small bar to the right, and further on I can see a couple of doors. A young man wearing a small bow-tie comes up to us and we are shown to our seats. As we head to our seats, the other people in the Café nod their heads in respect to their Alpha.

We are seated and the young man says that someone will take our order in a few moments.

“Here’s the menu, please choose whatever you want.” The Alpha tells me.

“Thank you, Alpha.” I say, and start to look at the menu in front of me. Before I get a chance to actually look at the items on it, he pulls the menu down slightly with an upset expression on his face.

“Can you please stop calling me by my title? I would much rather you call me Lukas.” He says in a whisper, but I can see a few heads turn and I feel my cheeks get red from embarrassment.

“Yes, Alpha” I say, supressing a laugh.

He narrows his eyes and plants a sly grin on his face. Oh dear, I bet I’ll regret that later.

I pull my menu back up and read through it. I can’t remember the last time I had seen food like this. Don’t get me wrong – the elven food was good, but it was all plant based. I can’t remember the last time I ate meat that wasn’t either a rabbit or a squirrel, and especially red meat which I had always loved when I was younger. I spotted steak and chips on the menu and I instantly knew that was what I was getting. I saw on the drinks section that they had hot chocolate and that was my piece sorted.

A few moments later, someone had come to the table. I hadn’t noticed who because I was still eyeing everything on the menu. As soon as the person stood to the left of our table, I heard a huff.

“What can I get you?” As soon as she speaks, I instantly winced and my body went rigid. It was Valencia.

I look at Lukas and frown. Did he know she worked here? He gives me an apologetic look. Why would he bring me here?

I decide to be the bigger person and ordered what I wanted, ignoring her glare at me. I keep my gaze on Lukas, letting him know I’m going to interrogate him as soon as she gets lost.

He orders the same as me, but with a coffee instead, and asks for water and two glasses. As soon as he’s done ordering, she gives me a look of disgust and then struts off to what I believe is the kitchen area.

“Why would you bring me here, with her here?” I ask in a lower tone, obviously portraying annoyance.

He sighs and holds his hands up. “I’m sorry. It was the closest place for food and I thought she was off-shift.”

I roll my eyes at him. I suppose he can’t know where thousands of his pack are all at once.

“What is her problem? I get that I’m a newcomer, and I guess I startled her last night, but why is she acting like that?” I ask, genuinely concerned that I’ve done something to upset her.

He looks at me apologetically. “She’s a…er….ex of mine.” He states. Ah, so that means I’m automatically enrolled in her hate list. I sigh.

Lukas takes my hands into his and I instantly let go of the tension I didn’t realise I had built up.

We sat there for several minutes, just enjoying each other’s company. I looked around and just realised that it was a lot like being back home, back with my family. No death, no screaming, no corpses.

A different waiter came from the bar with our drinks, then he went into the kitchen and came out with our food. The plate in front of me was massive, but I didn’t care at that point as I was starving, and this food looked and smelled amazing. After thanking the waiter, I dived right into the steak.

I moaned when I placed that steak into my mouth. It was actually divine. As I munched on my steak, I could see Lukas eyeing me, his eyes darkening with a look of….lust? It was weird. I stopped chewing after seeing his stare.

“Sorry, Aliana. Please, carry on.” He said, gesturing for me to continue, and that is exactly what I did.

I ate maybe about half of it before I was full. Damn I wish I could eat more, but I’d burst. The water that Lukas ordered was much needed. After I placed my fork and knife down, I took a sip of the hot chocolate, which had now cooled and I loved that it was topped with whipped cream. It was heavenly and I let out a long sigh when I finished it. I’ve missed these little things from my past. Things I hadn’t thought about till now.

Lukas lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him. “What’s wrong little one? You look upset.” He says worried. “Did you not enjoy the food?”

“I did, it was excellent. I’ve just not had food this good since….since I was last with my family.” I say, sadly.

He seemed sad at this. But there was not much he could do. It’s just something I have to face alone. I give him a small smile and he smiles back at me.

“It’s time for us to go.” He says abruptly. I was enjoying my time just sitting here, relaxing. But I also want to see more of the territory, if we could even cover it all today.

He stands and reaches out his hand. I hear a scoff from the bar and see Valencia sneering over at us. I ignore her completely and take Lukas’ hand.

We walk towards the exit and he pushes the door open. We head back in the direction we came, and then we head towards the mansion.

As we walk, he reaches out and takes my hand. I get a slight jolt from it and smile as he grips my hand tighter. He looks at me as we walk, with a slight smile on his face.

“So….are you wanting to meet the family?”