Chapter 3: Chapter 3

THREE

Zaira had a wide smile when she walked out of the house, her mate Dylan was walking behind her holding one of the twins while she held the other. Black stepped out of the car and smiled at his best friend before bowing his head in respect to the Alpha that was mated to his friend.

“Black,” Dylan acknowledged. “It’s been a while, how are you?” He greeted but Black only nodded, letting him know that he is okay.

“Please take care of her and the twins, they are quite a handful I hope you manage. I am glad that I won’t have to suffer for a few hours.” Dylan said with a look of relief on his face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zaira turned to her mate, looking offended and ready to throw hands.

“It means what I said...Evie and Allie never keep quiet, if one falls to sleep then the other wakes up it’s almost like they want to drive me insane.” Dylan said with a horrified look on his face, remembering how the twins kept switching roles on who gets to cry.

“I don’t even know why you’re complaining, I’m the one that takes care of them like eighty per cent of the time.” Zaira fired back at her mate while glaring at him.

“Exactly, they keep you away from me,” Dylan said looking sad.

Zaira rolled her eyes and tsked at her mate. “Your sister was right, you’re such a big baby.”

“Aleisa will poison your mind against me if you keep hanging out around her,” Dylan warned his mate against his sister.

Black looked at them as they kept their banter going between them, he had to admit that they looked cute and he could see how much they loved each other. It gave him a sense of relief to know that Zaira had found happiness, she had gone through so much and she deserved all the happiness. They had all gone through so much and now they were allowed to find their happiness. Black accepted that he would find his happiness through everyone’s happiness. He would be happy because those he loved were happy.

Isaac, his cousin was happy with his mate, Aleisa and their kid, Kace and Zaira, his best friend was happy with her mate Dylan and their twins, Evie and Allie. He would be happy because the important people in his life were happy, he did not need a mate to be happy. Being able to see them happy, and protect them and his pack was enough to keep him sane and happy.

“You know what?” Zaira glared at her mate. “You’re gonna be on night duty.” She said and the horrified look on Dylan’s face was enough to convey to Black that night duty was a bad thing.

“Come on, baby you can’t do that to me. I get stressed during the day, I can’t suffer through the night as well.” Dylan tried to persuade his mate but she shook her head, her braids bouncing around her.

“Zee baby, you know that being an Alpha isn’t easy.”

“Who said it was? Being a Luna with two kids ain’t easy too, y’know.” Zaira countered. “Give Evie to Black now, we have to go since we ain’t appreciated ‘round here.” She added.

“Zaira please,” Dylan continued begging as he placed the nearly two-year-old Evie into Black’s arms.

“No,” Zaira said firmly and walked to the car, securely putting Allie in the baby seat before doing the same with Evie after Black handed her to the baby. Zaira got into the passenger seat and Black took his place as the driver.

Dylan was still by the porch looking sullen while Zaira looked satisfied. Black was amused at the two, he could not think of a time over the last two years when Zaira would not have the last say between her and Dylan. It reminded him of how Isaac was also a Sucker for whatever Aleisa wanted.

“Where are we going?” Black asked Zaira, maintaining his stare on the road. He drove down the roads that led out of the pack.

Dylan was the Alpha of the Sullivan pack and Zaira was his Luna since they were mates. Black got to learn over the last two years that the Sullivan pack was run differently as compared to Mediam Noctem Sidus, which was his pack with his cousin Isaac as the Alpha and Aleisa, Luna. Dylan of course was also Aleisa’s elder brother which tangled everyone’s relationship to another level and now they were a whole big family. Two different packs with mutual understanding and family bonds, it was really a whole different big thing.

But this relation came in handy as they were allies and it was easy to fend off threats when two packs are involved. Black could still remember how Aleisa and Isaac’s relationship had been Rocky in the beginning because his cousin had been a fool. Isaac was a fool most of the time but he was the biggest fool when he almost ruined his relationship with his mate, Thankfully that had been sorted out before a formal rejection.

“I want to visit Nina but before that, we should stop by this really cool restaurant, it’s on the outskirts of the city but a bit near Mediam Noctem Sidus.” Zaira aggressively clicked at the screen of her phone, texting her immature mate.

“Near the pack?”

“Yeah, they got these real great ribs, I used to grab our lunch there when it would be my turn to organise lunch.” Zaira continued speaking and finally put her phone in her purse.

“Oh, I remember those ribs...those were great actually. I always wondered where you got them.”

Black did remember the times when Zaira would leave an hour before their lunch break and would come back with food saying the restaurant was far. They had organised a way to have their lunch while they trained at Mediam Noctem Sidus’s training facility. He remembered it like it was yesterday when Zaira would challenge him to spar before she went out to bring lunch. He had to admit those were the good days.

“Come on keep driving I'll show you the way,” Zaira said and Black concentrated on the road ahead.

Black was driving down the road that led to the restaurant but he could sense the change in the air, the air was contaminated. He parked the car in front of a modern restaurant with glass windows that showed it’s interior. Black was not very pleased with the place, he preferred to be in private when eating not with the eyes of passers-by staring through the windows. He always did not favour the idea of restaurants.

He looked in the back and noticed that the twins were not asleep and so he grabbed one while Zaira grabbed the other. “We’re just gonna order and be on the way to the pack, I know that you don’t like restaurants.”

Black did as she said and followed after her into the building, the air had gotten thicker after he got out of the car and on instinct Black was vigilant with his surroundings. He was trained to take care of any situation and to always be vigilant when something seems off-putting. He followed Zaira to the counter, as she started giving the order to the woman that stood behind the counter.

“Is that all ma’am?” The young woman smiled politely out of courtesy.

“Yes,” Zaira replied. The woman turned and went into the kitchen while Zaira turned to stare at Black. “We should get some food for Nina as well, she’s always in the kitchen.”

“It smells awful,” Black’s eyes scanned the entire restaurant.

“Huh?” Zaira was confused at Black’s reaction and she also sniffed the air. “Nothing smells off, just smelling food.”

Black looked at her for a second too long before he spoke, “Can you not smell that? It smells like rogues.” He was still smelling the air while searching the restaurant for any possible threat.

Zaira sniffed the air once more before realisation sank on her and she looked back at her friend in panic. “Rogues?!But why? This is too close to a pack for rogues to be hanging around.” Zaira was now worried.

“Let’s leave,” Black said but a brown-haired girl walked out from the back with a smile that was clearly for business. Black noticed that her smile faltered when she noticed them but she managed to not break the act.

“Do you mind waiting for ten minutes? Your order will be ready, fresh and warm.” She looked stoic and frightened while she said that, Black could surely see through this girl’s effort to seem unfazed.

Her brown eyes showed fear and Black certainly knew a scared person when he saw one and her whole body was tense even as she gave great customer service. But what worried him more is how he could not look away from her scared honey-brown eyes or how he thought the freckles that dotted her pale cheeks made her look beautiful. It worried him that this girl was staring back at him too but she looked frightened and worried as if he were her enemy.

What’s wrong with her?

“Ten minutes? Damn, I don’t think we can stay for that long.” Zaira voiced out, clearly worried about the safety of her kids.

“Sir, ma’am we’re sorry to disadvantage you but your order is already being prepared. You can take a seat and your food will be ready very soon...perhaps you can even buy some milkshakes for your...um kids.” Willow was sweating under her clothes. She wanted to tell them to leave and walk away because she knew what they were but she was stuck with her eyes looking at the huge man behind the beautiful woman.

Of course, every beautiful person I see has to be a fucking werewolf. She thought as she looked down at the gorgeous little girls in the man's and the woman’s hands, they seemed to be twins and she could only guess that only a beautiful woman and handsome man like the ones that stood in front of her were capable of having such gorgeous children. The woman’s dark skin shined and her big eyes only made her more intimidatingly stunning with long braids.

Just like the mother, the kids also had big eyes and their light skin was enough to have Willow guess that the scary, huge man was the father even though he seemed to not share any physical comparison to the twins. Willow never thought werewolves could have kids and look happy in a family. Is this even real? The ones she met never seemed to care for family. They just thought of sex, drugs, alcohol and a ton of other bad and unhealthy things.

“Then we’ll just pay,” The woman chimed, she looked like she wanted to leave the restaurant as soon as she could.

Willow was tongue-tied as she looked back at the woman, “W-well uhm...” She had never encountered a situation where a customer cancelled their order. One of the restaurant’s policies was for a customer to pay if they cancel an order and most people would not waste their money like that. But this woman was here acting like it did not even bother her.

Luckily for Willow, she did not have to say anything else. “We’ll wait then,” The tall man was the one who spoke.

Willow could feel her body wake up when she heard him speak, his voice was low and intimidating. His voice alone made her open her eyes wider and she had to remind herself that she had been in such a position before...falling for a werewolf was something she could not do, ever again. When the man placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder, Willow felt something within her break.

She told herself that she was not allowed to end a woman who had a husband and kids. She did not even know the man. Why the heck did she feel jealous? Why was this man looking at her though? She could feel his intense stare that started shifting into a glare.

Why is he glaring at me?

Black kept glaring at her because he did not have a reasonable explanation for why he wanted to stare into her eyes only. He had seen more physically appealing women than this girl. And it bothered him more because she smelled like rogues.

“Black? The twins! I don’t want my kids to be around rogues.” Zaira whispered harshly to him. She was really concerned about the well-being of her twins and the waitress behind the counter worried her more. “She smells like a lot of rogues,” she added in Latin in order to be precautious.

“I know,”

Willow looked at them silently as they spoke to each other, she had to admit that they acted different from most werewolves she had encountered and they smelled different too but she could tell that they were werewolves. Levi had been generous enough to give her some portion that helped her recognise werewolves just by the smell. This was a precaution in order to avoid werewolves and she was thankful.

“Black, let’s go.” Willow heard the woman say more strictly. She eyed the man who was staring back at her. So his name is Black. Why is he staring?

After a moment of eye contact shared Black looked back at Zaira and nodded before putting a hundred-dollar bill on the counter.

“Sir, this is too much.” But the man had already pulled the woman towards the door and out of the restaurant. Willow looked at the Black car that revved smoothly before driving away from the restaurant and she sighed.

Weird.