Chapter Twenty-six: Family

Lukas had relaxed very quickly and so I raised my eyebrow at him. I look to the doors which suddenly swung open, revealing a very distraught Mandy with quite an upset expression. She pointed at Lukas and started stomping down the gravel path towards us both.

Lukas moves me away from him slightly, which makes me feel a bit uneasy, and I can feel Athena worry a little. I make no move to intervene though, knowing they’d probably not fight physically in front of their home.

“How dare you get your side boys to bring me home!” she roars at him, her face sour. “They dragged me all the way home – do you know how embarrassing that was for everyone to see!” She shouts, visibly shaking from rage. Her eyes glaze over slightly and I worry a little more knowing her wolf may jump out at any moment.

“I’m sorry Mandy. I was worried about Aliana, I wish you had told me you took her away from the hospital. Please ask Faith to back down, she won’t fight her brother.” He says calmly to her without making any other movements. Faith? I assume Faith is her wolf.

Mandy instantly goes quiet and eyes her brother. I can still tell that she’s angry, but it seems there’s something else in her look….confusion? I can’t quite tell.

She looks my way and cocks her head to the side a little. I shrug my shoulders at her and she continues to stare for a few moments more, before coming towards me, hugging me, and then whispering as quietly as possible “I have no idea what you have done, but what have you done with Lukas?”.

I pull away from her and look at her for a few moments surprised at what she’s just said. What did I do? She notices my confusion and just smiles at me, then looks back over to Lukas.

“I accept your apology but know that I am still not happy! You owe me new shoes!” Lukas smirks and steps over and hugs his sister.

“Ok Bean, I’ll get you new shoes. Maybe we can go to the Dome together, with Ali at some point?”

She looks at him as if he just said something strange, then shakes her head. “I’ve no idea what she’s done to you but she’s staying.” She then turns to me and grabs my hand and takes me up towards the pack house turning away from Lukas and flicking her long black hair at him in a sassy gesture.

“Everyone has been waiting for you both, the Omegas have been busy preparing a feast and we’re all starved!” I look at Mandy and then towards Lukas a bit unsure what an Omega is.

Lukas catches onto my confusion immediately. “Ah, basically anyone that is not within the ranked families, the Elders families and not a pack warrior or healer is an Omega.” He puts plainly.

I nod my head but have a lingering question. “So what do they do in the pack house?”

“There are a few who clean and cook, among other things in the pack house. They also have other roles within the community.”

We start to go up the stairs and Mandy and Lukas lead me into the door Mandy had just come out of. We get into a nicely lit hallway and I take a few seconds to take it all in. The hallway was impressively large and was at the centre of the front of the house. The hallway was made of glistening white tiles which led to multiple different rooms, and towards the end of the hallway in front of us was an impressive circling staircase, leading upstairs.

I gawked at the hallway and to the side I hear Lukas pull up to my ear. “There’s a lot more to see, but come on, everyone’s waiting for food and we’re holding them up.”

I nodded and gulped down any anxiety I was feeling in this massive place, and allow Lukas and Mandy to grab my hands and take me to the right of the pack house through some doors, passing many others, and we start to hear conversations being held in a room we were approaching.

Before we reached the room, we were stopped by a little girl who came out of a door from our left.

“Ooops, sorry Alfa Luka.” She said ever so sweetly. I smiled down at her and she noticed me and jumped behind Lukas and peeked around at me. “Who are you? I like your hair.” She says shyly.

I smile, and slightly move past Lukas to get a better view of her. Her cute afro was tied into a bun towards the back of her hair and her pink bow matched her pink dress. Her facial features were similar to that of the man who I believe is Blaine, the man with the dreadlocks. Her eyes are a light brown, lighter than Blaine’s from memory. I went down onto one knee so she could get a better look at me.

“My names Aliana, it’s nice to meet you. Thank you – I like your hair too, your matching bow and your dress is very cute!” I say to her. She looks up to Lukas and Mandy and they give an approval nod to her and she smiles at me.

Just as she is about to say something, Lukas grabs her attention. “Rosella, we should go eat now, are you not hungry?” He asks, trying to divert her attention to food.

“Yes, we’ve been waiting ages Alfa, let’s go!” She takes Lukas’ hand and essentially drags him to the room where there is a continuous conversation going on.

We’re just about to get through the door when we hear a loud, deep voice travelling across the room.

“Yes but I wish he’s bring her here so we can finally…..” The voice stopped as soon as Lukas, Mandy, Rosella and I get through the door.

The room, to say the least, was massive. The red brickwork walls were as elegant as the round table in the middle of the room, and hanging above that was a crystal chandelier. The table itself looked to be made of a rich hardwood, with multiple chairs around the table all pleated with a red fabric.

I look around the room at the faces….which were all staring at me. Two of those faces I recognise from earlier when they took Mandy away and I assume they are the Beta and gamma. The rest around the table were all foreign to me. I start to shyly inch backwards slightly hoping I can run out the room, but Lukas notices and grabs my hand, pulling me forward to a chair towards an older couple at the table. Rosella and Mandy both go to separate seats at the table, knowing where they’re meant to be sitting already.

We had interrupted everyone’s conversations and I felt a bit awkward. Lukas felt this and cleared his throat, making sure he had everyone’s attention. I looked at Mandy who winked at me with a sly smile.

“Everyone, this is Aliana. As most of you know from this morning’s meeting, I have found my mate, and she is going to be staying here with us…for a while. Aliana, I’ll go round the table to my left.”

I could see a few slightly confused faces after he said that I was staying for a while, but most brushed it off.

Lukas looked at me and smiled encouragingly, and I smiled back. I guess now’s the time to be ready to greet his family. He started to his left and took the woman’s hand and kissed it. I saw the love between her and him instantly, and I had no doubt that this was his Mother.

“This lovely lady here, is my Mother, Melinda.”

Melinda and Lukas shared some features. His hair colour and his natural eye colour were both from her from what I can tell. She kept her hair in a bob, fitting for her appearance. I can see that her nails have been done and are very pretty, and she wears minimal makeup as I can tell she’s starting to wrinkle but is trying her best to cover it, which I didn’t think was needed as she was very pretty.

She looked at me and smiled warmly. “Welcome Aliana. I hope you’ll stay with us and learn about our culture here. We look forward to knowing you more”. I smile at back at her.

Lukas then moves onto the next person, who I assume is going to be his Father as they look very much like each other, except his hair and eye colour, which I can now confirm he takes from his Mother. Markus has Green eyes and dark brown hair, close to black but not close enough. Markus looks extremely similar to Lukas, except he looks older and is starting to grey and his wrinkles are starting to show.

“This, is Daddy dearest, Markus.” He says with a slight chuckle, his Father giving him a menacing look. “Lovely to meet you Aliana, I’m sure you’ll find plenty to do here!” He says with a wink.

I give him a big smile, already knowing that he’s got a great personality. Lukas then moves onto the next man, who, to say the least, is massive. He is built like a bear, his dreadlocks falling past his shoulders.

“This is Blaine, my Beta. You saw him yesterday but er…wasn’t introduced.” Blaine gives me a big smile, and brushes off the last comment from Lukas. His dreadlocks swaying as he bows his head slightly.

“Hello Aliana. Lovely to meet you. I suspect you’ve already met my darling, Rosella?” He says, motioning his hand towards the little girl to his left who I met in the corridor.

Before I could say anything, Rosella looked at her Father and said “Daddy, I want to have long hair like Aliana!” Everyone around the table chucked and she looked round unsure what she said that was funny. Her Father looked at her and kissed her head. He then looked at the woman to Rosella’s left.

“This is my beautiful wife, Estelle.” Estelle looked at me and smiled shyly. “Hello Aliana. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She nods in respect whilst saying this and I already feel I can connect to her.

Her hair was tamer than her daughters, curls tightly bouncing on her shoulders. I can tell she takes great care of it. Her eyes are a lighter brown and I can tell Rosella gets the lightness from her. I make a mental note to try and get to know her more.

Lukas then moved onto the man next to Estelle, who I believe is the Gamma I had seen earlier along with Blaine the Beta. “This is my Gamma, Albion.” Albion gives me a curt nod. “Hello Aliana. It’s nice to finally meet you, formally.”

He turns to his left and takes the hand of the woman next to him. “This is Nina, my precious wife.”

Nina has brown eyes and her hair looks blond but is more ashen, different from Albion’s. She looks at me with a big smile. “Hey Aliana. I’m looking forward to hanging out!”. I give her my most confident smile and nod my head back at her.

Lukas then goes round to Mandy. “You’ve obviously met this troublemaker.” He says while giving her the side eye, and she laughs. She looks to her left at a guy I’ve not seen before.

“This is Nolan. He’s my mate.” I looked at Mandy unsure how old she actually was as I hadn’t asked her. Before I could ask, she clicks her tongue. “I’ve only just turned eighteen, so we’ve only recently realised we were made for each other.” She says with a huge grin.

Nolan looks at me with his blue eyes, bowing slightly. He gives me a small smile. “Hi Aliana, nice to meet you.” He says slightly uncomfortable, fidgeting with his hand on the back of his head, roughing up his black hair. I note that Lukas is looking down on him a bit, probably intimidating him. I make a note to speak to him about that.

Lukas introduced the man next to Nolan. “This is our head pack trainer, Will, and his wife Karina”. Both of them gave bright smiles, and their nods. I notice Will must be older, his head of hair fully grey and I notice he’s missing a front tooth, his eyes look a sort of grey also. Karina also has grey hair but her eyes are a shade of grass in spring time.

To the left of them, there was a woman, with unnatural bleach blond hair and deep brown eyes. Everyone on the table seemed very happy to meet me or at the least put on their best smiles. This woman however was looking at me like I was sitting in her place. I wonder what she has against me. I assume she’s probably after Lukas no doubt. I feel Athena getting restless at the thought. Guess I’ll find this out later.

“This is Emma, she’s our Elder Irish’s daughter.” He said simply, not adding anything else to it. She looks me dead in the eye. “Hello Aliana.” She leaves it short and I catch a glimpse of Melinda’s annoyance, but she brushes it off. Lukas swiftly moves onto the young man that sits to the left of Emma.

“This is Jorge. He is our Head Omega.” Jorge has grey hair around the sides of his head but none on top. His kind light blue eyes look down to the ground as he respectfully bows his head. “Hello Aliana. I’m so glad you’ve joined us. Please do let me know if I can be of any assistance, it would be my pleasure.” I smile at him and nod my head slightly.

Lukas then stops at my right, where an empty chair sits. He then looks around the room. “Where is Loretta?” He asks into the table.

“She’s round at Hugo’s…again”. Mandy says openly, resulting in Melinda giving her a stare.

Lukas shrugs. “Loretta is my youngest sister.” He looks to Mandy menacingly. “Double trouble as you can already tell.” He says with a chuckle, Mandy gives him the evil eye as he does.

Lukas then goes round to his seat, and before sitting down, he looks down to me. “No need to rush to greet everyone in person, but please do make yourself acquainted. This is my close family. Of course the whole pack is my family and I am sure all here would do anything for them.“

He then looks to Jorge, the head Omega. “Jorge, please can we get started with drinks and the starters and we can get on our way to discussions around the table.
Jorge bows his head politely and stands, before moving away, he stops and looks to me. “Miss Aliana, are you allergic or dislike anything?” He asks softly.

I smile, grateful he’s being so accommodating. “Thanks for asking Jorge, but no, I eat everything and anything.” I say. He then starts heading towards what I assume is the kitchen. When he opens the door the smell hits me and the inside of my mouth starts watering. I am starving and I didn’t even notice because I’ve been covered by adrenaline whilst meeting all here.

Lukas sits down and the conversation starts around the table. Lukas takes my hand into his and moves it around so he starts brushing the knuckles. A few of the Omegas come and pour water in the glasses next to our seats and also they provide what looks like a wine. I’m not too fond of wine but right now I’d take any alcohol I can get.

I start to take a few sips of the wine when Lukas’ Father, Markus, looks over at us with a big smile. “So son, when’s the ceremony?”

I get some of the wine caught in my wind pipe and start to cough a bit, spluttering. I started getting a few worried glances from some of those around the table till I calmed down. The woman a few seats to my right, Emma, scoffs.

“Dad, not now. We’ll talk later.” Lukas gave his Father a look and his smile faltered slightly, but regained a few moments later.

“Don’t mind him, he’s just wanting to secure the packs future.” Melinda says to me over Lukas, who in return tuts.

“She’s just got here and she was worried about coming here meeting you all, leave her be!” He says, but not harshly, more in a playful way. Both he and his Mother chuckle, and I put on a smile. However, whilst I smile away, I wonder what ceremony they are on about?

Just then the Omegas, along with Jorge come out with the food. It smells divine and we all waste no time to eat the three courses served to us.

When all of the food had been eaten, and a lot of wine had been drunk, everyone started formally leaving the table, bowing to Lukas and some of them also bowing to me. I thought it a bit strange but brushed it off as politeness at that point.

Lastly, it was Lukas and myself along with his parents left at the table. Both Melinda and Markus stood up. “It’s been lovely finally meeting you sweetheart. I hope you’ll stay with us and give this son of mine a kick up his arse!” Markus said. I laughed at his comment and at Lukas’s astonished face, which was a sight to see. I could smell the wine in his breath and knew that he was drunk, but it was hilarious none the less.

Melinda slapped her husband’s shoulders though to try and get him to move along. She kisses both of my cheeks. “Goodnight Aliana. We’ll catch up tomorrow, maybe?” She asks as a request and I nod my head.

“That would be nice. I hope to get to know you all.” I say whilst smiling. She gives a sweet smile back then grabs her husband’s hand and pulls him along.

Only the Omegas cleaning the table were left in the room, along with Lukas and myself. He looks at me as if it were only us here.

“So, are you ready to see our room?”