Out of the World

19. Emma and Alexander

Nina

The door opened for us on its own accord, and we walked into an elegant hall, filled with delicate lilac flowers that seemed like out of a painting. Everything was elegant without being over the top, but more than that, this place radiated sweetness. My eyes were lost in the flowers and vines wrapped around the pillars, just like in Disney movies. If a princess shows up singing and dancing along with her animal buddies, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Instead, a pretty girl with dark hair and bright green eyes walked toward us, wearing a leather jacket and denim. A gigantic man with the same eyes as hers and a sexy, rough appearance was right behind her. Was that Zorion’s aunt?

“This is my cousin Emma and her father, uncle Richard. He is an Alpha werewolf,” Zorion explained, his arms around my shoulder both reassuring and tender. I needed that, there was way too much magic in the room and the werewolf part could be scary, right? Even though I always liked dogs; only these people were no pups.

“Hello, Emma. Where is Lea? Are we early for dinner? I think we said at 8 pm,” Queen Liv asked, hugging her niece as we walked into a huge living room decorated with many flower vases.

“Lea said that the dinner would be tomorrow. She’s currently busy with Valentin in the Fae Realm,” the tall werewolf, Richard, said. His voice was very raw and deep, and it commanded some sort of respect, submission even — not in the kinky way.

So, Zorion’s aunt forgot about the dinner? Auch! Maybe we should leave now. I was about to tell that to Zorion when Emma’s chuckle attracted me,

“Mum is very busy!” Emma said. Alpha Richard gave her a knowing look that did nothing to stop her. “It’s her pregnant brain, Dad. Mum has been so lost and confused lately, but my baby sister is coming out soon and she will be normal again.”

“Should we come back tomorrow?” Lola asked.

“No, Lola. You should definitely stay and have dinner with us. Mum should be back before dessert time,” a tall man with black hair and beautiful purple eyes said, “Nice to meet you, Nina. I’m Alexander, Zorion’s cousin.” He smiled at me and kissed the back of my hand in a charming way. “It’s nice that you are back, Zorion, and even better with your lady by your side.” Alexander gave Zorion an enthusiastic half-hug and patted his back.

“I might have some business to deal with since I didn’t know about the dinner, but everything can be done. I will ask for food to be made,” Alpha Richard said, leaving the room.

“Business?” Lena asked, arching her brows as her cousin Alexander wrapped her in a hug.

“Hello, Lena! He received some of the Alphas of the packs around his Realm to discuss a few matters, nothing important,” Alexander explained, as he went to hug Lola and Auri.

“So, we might have some hot werewolves, or better said, hot dog for dinner. I have nothing against it.” Lena shrugged, making the Dad Devil chuckle.

“We can’t eat puppies, Mamma,” Little Auri told Liv, and my queen-in-law, or in mate, giggled.

“Don’t worry, we won’t sweetie. Lena is only joking,” she comforted the wide-eyed little girl, scooping her up in her arms.

“You should behave, trouble-maker!” Avalon told Lena, shaking his head. To my surprise, his voice wasn't austere or angry. He sounded almost playful, almost. Maybe he is only a part-time j.erk. My jer.k-in-law.

“Oh, Av! You know I never behave, it’s not one of my powers,” Lena chuckled, winking at Zorion and me.

Alpha Richard came back and nodded at us, “Dinner should be ready in a few minutes, take a seat,” he motioned to the sofa.

“Maybe we can go to the other living room, the fun one while you old people talk,” Emma smiled, taking Lola and Lena by their hands and motioning to us to follow them to an equally large living room. This one had a television and more modern decoration.

“Where are your brothers, Emma?” Lena asked, taking a seat.

I was about to sit between Zorion and Emma when he sat down in a fast movement and placed me on his lap, wrapping his strong arms around me. To my own surprise, it didn’t feel strange to be like that in front of everyone, in front of all these magical strangers. It felt rather warm, right, so good!

“Alaric and Ragnar are in the werewolf realm. They say they are working but we all know they are partying and hooking up with everything that has a tail,” Emma laughed at her own words.

“Alaric is surely doing it, but Ragnar is working. He is very committed to helping Daddy Richard and being a good Alpha Prince,” Alexander chimed in, but Emma shook her head in denial.

“Nope! My dear twin is very committed to rolling in the hay with omega ladies, bro! Maybe that’s his way of getting to know some of his future subjects!” Emma chucked again. Were omegas some kind of werewolf from a university fraternity? I didn’t know, but I was sure that this Emma girl had to be related to Helena. None of them had a filter.

“It’s incredible that your aunt has many mates too,” I murmured to Zorion’s ears only, but it seemed like everyone around had a super hearing.

“Hopefully it’s something that runs in the family!” Emma chuckled.

“I hope not! I couldn’t even think about sharing my woman as our dads do,” Alexander commented, shaking his head at his sister.

“Me neither!” Zorion held me tighter in her arms, pressing me against his strong chest. I didn’t want it either, he was much more than enough, more than I could dream of and certainly way out of my league. On its own accord, my hand squeezed his in reassurance and he placed a sweet kiss on my shoulder.

“I could totally imagine myself with a harem of mates. Uh-la-la!” Lena uttered, throwing a cushion at Lola as if to ask what she thought about it, but Lola only shook her head.

“I couldn’t ever share my female either!” Delric said. It was the first time he said something since we arrived here. It seemed that all teen guys were strange, even the magical ones. He should be around seventeen, just like his cousin Emma.

Emma burst into laughter, wrapping her arms around her body to brace herself.

“What are you laughing about? Did I say anything funny?” Delric frowned, giving Emma an angry look.

“You are always so funny, like a Pixie-monkey in a Circus from Hell! I mean you don’t want to share a female, as if your mate would accept you.” Emma laughed even more hysterically.

“You are mean, Little Cousin! That’s why I like you!” Lena winked at Emma and she shook her head.

“I’m not mean, my wolf is. I’m a sweetheart.” Emma flashed us a sweet smile, fluttering her eyelashes in an angelic way. Her wolf? So, she could really shift to a wolf like in the movies? That was really a lot to process. This place was really something else, out of my world and reality.

Delric burst of anger brought me back from my thoughts, “You are so stupid! You will be the one to be rejected, Emma! I feel bad for your future mate, having to put up with an evil fleabag.” He threw a cushion on his cousin. Oh, kids!

“I feel worse for yours!” She fired back. To my surprise, an animalistic growl left her.

“Let’s get some popcorn, this fight is about to get good!” Lena encouraged them, clapping her hands.

Delric huffed, attracting my eyes to him. He didn’t say anything, only waved his hand softly in the air. A gasp left me as Delric made popcorn rain not only on Emma but Zorion and me.

“Delric! Don’t you ever use your magic on my mate again! You could have hurt her!” Zorion said, covering me with a thin shed of blue light. What was it? A protective shield? Zorion ran his fingers through my hair, taking off all the popcorn lost in it.

“I didn’t mean to hurt her. Come on, it was only popcorn and I wanted to throw it only at the rabid she-dog, but it was so much that it flooded away!” Delric told his brother.

“The food is served,” The Elf King, Elric, said as he came together with Avalon. Looking between us and the sea of popcorn covering the sofa, the floor and even my lap. “What is happening here?” he asked, looking at Delric. Somehow, he knew that his biological son was the culprit of the popcorn rain.

“He attacked me!” Emma said dramatically, placing a hand on her chest.

“I didn’t! It was just popcorn, it’s harmless!” Delric told his father.

“Don’t use your magic to attack your cousin, Delric!” Elric said calmly but firmly. He seemed like a reasonable man.

Emma stuck her tongue out at Delric before collecting some of the popcorn on her lap and eating it.

“But Emma was bullying me.” Delric frowned, gazing between an amused-looking Emma and his father.

“Oh, baby! Now you are crying to your daddy, what will you do next? Suck or thumb?” Emma asked, making a baby voice.

Avalon looked at Elric shaking his head and, before leaving the room, they exchanged a tired look and left the room.

“Ems, you scared them away!” Lena laughed.

“Of course, she did, with that face of hers!” Delric muttered. These two were about to start again when Lola intervened.

“The food is ready, guys. Let’s go,” she stood up and Lena did the same.

“Next time, make it sweet popcorn, Delric!” Emma chuckled, standing up and heading to the dining room.

“Are you okay, Honey?” Zorion asked me, taking my face between his hands and examining me attentively as if his brother had actually attacked me.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t ever complain about raining food, especially popcorn.” I told him with a smile. Even their fight was fun to watch, it was really nice to be part of a family, to feel part of something. Standing up together, we followed Zorion’s cousins and siblings to a beautiful dining room. There was a big chandelier made of floating candles over the giant marble table. It surely fits more than thirty people. They had a huge family, but that was still too much.

“Delric and Emma behave like two little kids, bickering with each other every time they meet. To our luck, it wasn’t that often, otherwise, they might have already killed each other by now,” Zorion told me, chuckling and shaking his head at the same time.

Zorion pulled a chair for me, and I took a seat on a very comfortable beige velvet-covered wood chair. My fascinated eyes couldn’t leave the candles, how I wanted to paint this place! All this magic was feeding my imagination like never before and, for the first time in years, I wanted to let it flow freely.

Three pretty ladies walked into the room bringing trays of drinks. Were they werewolves too? Just after we were served, the doorbell rang and one of the tall and tanned model-looking ladies rushed to the door.

Maybe Zorion’s aunt was finally done with her business with her mate.

We heard the sound of approaching steps and Lena moved abruptly in her chair as her glass fell from her hand, spilling red wine on the table.

“Alpha King, Alpha Hector is here,” the maid announced as she came back into the room with a tall, strong, handsome and very wide-eyed man by her side. His hazel-green eyes were glowing slightly, fixed on Helena as if she was the only person in the room. As if she was the only person in existence; breathing and living art.

She was very hot, but I knew it was something beyond that. His gaze wasn’t of cheap desire like I used to see in the men in the club. That was the look of longing, of adoration. He looked at Lena almost in the same way my Queen-in-law’s mates looked at her. I didn’t know Lena had a boyfriend.

“Tor, join us for dinner. Take a seat,” Alpha Richard told the guy, but he didn’t even seem to listen. Looking like he was possessed by a powerful spell, the man ignored everything and everyone else, and walked straight to Lena.