Beastly

Chapter 55

"Good evening Alpha Xander. Good evening Luna Ava." the waiter near the table bowed, his sudden

appearance attracting my attention "Shall I bring in your appetizers?"

"Yes please." I said with a smile, seeing as how Xander wasn't giving him a speck of recognition "And

could you please have this put in water? I'll have it back before we leave."

"Yes ma'am."

"Thank you."

Was it weird that I had gotten used to being treated this way? I had given up on pushing everyone to

call me by my name. It didn't really matter to me, as long as those close to me respected my wishes.

During the week that Xander had been gone, it had gotten much worse for some reason. There were

still rumours about me, but they did nothing to stifle the choking sense of respect the pack members

had.

"What's your favourite colour?" Xander's odd question made my face squeeze up into a frown

"What?" I asked in confusion, "That's random."

"Can I be honest with you?"

"I doubt I'd be able to stop you, Alexander." Although I was half-serious and half-joking, his facial

expression showed that he was focused and wasn't playing around "What is it?"

He leaned back again, his eyes looking sharper than before as they regarded me "I'm nervous."

"What?"

"I want to talk to you, but this is the first time I've ever been on a date and although I'm interested in

knowing more and making sure you enjoy this night, I'm afraid that I'll do nothing but make things

worse."

Leave to Xander to say this kind of thing with such an expression. It was not a new thing for Xander to

be honest to a fault about how he felt. It seemed that the years he had spent unable to truly express

himself were fading away and he was vocal about just what he was feeling, especially when it came to

me. It was overwhelming because if he didn't open up on his own, it was difficult to know what was

going on with him. His eyes were the only way, even though sometimes they were so blank. Yet, when

he opened, I would be unable to handle the amount of emotion he was giving me.

He hadn't given up any indication of being nervous. Cool, composed and collected and only making me

the jittery one tonight. It must have been something he had mastered at a young age. Knowing just how

his father had raised him, it was probably not by choice he had turned out this way. There was

absolutely nothing wrong. Maybe it just annoyed me how much I couldn't read him when I desperately

wanted to.

The door opened and the waiter walked in, pushing a cart. Once he got to the table, he placed different

plates on the table, with two glasses.

"To start you off; sweet bread with salted butter, pickled shrimp with creamy spinach dip, oven-baked

chicken bites with caramelized onion dip and our finest white wine." he said, his tone elated. He was

obviously happy to be here and the smile didn't wipe off his face as he poured us our wine. It was Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

almost comical.

"Thank you." I said to him, staring at all the meals. Everything looked delicious and honestly I was

excited to taste it all.

Xander nodded at him and he bowed again before leaving the room. I started to pick different pieces of

everything onto my plate, sneaking some into my mouth and doing a little happy dance in my head as

the flavours danced across my tongue. Xander let me pick till I was content and then when he noticed I

was finished, began to fill his plate as well. I picked up a pickled shrimp and slathered it with dip.

"White." I said, as I brought it up to my lips and looked at him "White has always been my favourite

colour somehow to me, it's the purest colour. What's yours?"

My insides were a jumble of nerves as I ate the shrimp and watched his eyebrows rise. I took it as a

sign that he was somewhat glad.

"Green."

I swallowed before giggling a little "Green? That's unexpected. I thought you would say black or

something."

"Why?"

Because that was probably the colour of his soul, but I knew I couldn't say that so I just shrugged my

shoulders nonchalantly.

"How long have you liked green?"

"For about 13 years."

13 years? That was a long time to commit to something like a favourite colour. Too many years had

passed to not be influenced enough to want to change that simple thing about someone. That meant

that when Xander made his mind up about something, there was really no changing it. That was

something I already knew though. It was pretty cool. He probably liked the colour so much because he

liked plants.

"Alexander..."? I asked, watching as his head tilted to the side "When and why did you start

gardening?"

He seemed to contemplate a little before answering "It's another coping mechanism I have. I've liked

flowers and plants since I was a child. I guess you could say I got my green thumb from my mother. I

guess you could say instead of acting on the urge to kill, I grew a garden."

His mother? It shocked me how he mentioned her. Her name and the fact that she existed was

something that was ignored by every single person in the pack. If I didn't know the relationship between

Alphas and their mates, I'd have assumed she was dead. Now that he mentioned her, my curiosity

couldn't help but be quipped.

"You've never spoken about her before." I said, hoping I wasn't entering dangerous waters "How

come?"

"My mother? There's not much to say." he answered, resting his chin on his hand "You seem

interested. What do you want to know?"

Everything. I wanted to know everything. Would he tell me anything? Instead of answering, I kept silent

and chewed on some more food. He picked up his glass and sipped its contents before leaning back

again.

"My mother and father had a somewhat complicated relationship." he started, "After I was born, things

seemed to get worse between them. She wasn't the most compassionate person, then again neither

was he. Her plants interested her more than I did and she made sure I knew it. When I was about 7, I

woke up one morning and she was gone. I don't remember much about her, only that she loved to tend

to her plants and flowers and that she seemed afraid to be near me."

He didn't flinch, didn't sound moved and only spoke in a tone that was no different from speaking about

the weather.

"Nobody talks about it and frankly, I think most people have forgotten that she was here. That's about

it."

"I'm really sorry about that." I finally replied after some seconds "I hope it wasn't too uncomfortable for

you."

"Not at all. I'm willing to tell you anything."

"Have you ever..." I started "Wondered where she was? Looked for her?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I've never been interested in searching for anyone else but you." a ghost of a smile appeared on his

face "You're the only thing that's ever made sense."