The Hybrid's Hope

Chapter 16: Getting Settled

Levi

I paced in my apartment, trying to make the time go faster. I found a nice restaurant for us to go to tonight for dinner. I made reservation for seven o’clock for Mr. and Mrs. Knight. Then I ordered a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to her apartment later today. I know she won’t be around to enjoy them after today, so I keep it small, but I want her to know how happy I am to have her here.

I’m hoping things go well with Hope and Alpha Liam. If they don't or she doesn’t think she can work for him, I wanted to help her find something she would like to do.

The knock on my door came almost exactly one hour after I left her upstairs.

I opened it to see a rare vision - Hope with a huge smile on her face. I was so startled that I almost forgot to breathe. I did forget to invite her in, but thankfully she was so excited, she didn’t notice,

I close the door and turn as she breezes past me. She’s so excited, she's practically bouncing on her toes. I grin. Her excitement is infectious.

“Guess who I’m going to be working for??” she asks excitedly. “Well, I’ll meet them tomorrow, and hopefully they’ll like me …”

“They’re going to love you. Who is it?” I ask, reaching out to take her hands.

“ERIKA EDWARDS!” she squeals.

“The musician?” I ask, shocked. I've never been on a job with anyone so prominent.

“YES! Can you believe it?” she asks. I’ve never seen my girl so excited, but I have to admit, I’m a bit shocked that she’s getting such a huge job for her first assignment.

“Hope, that’s fantastic!”

I swing her into my arms then spin her around as she hugs me tightly, squealing in my ear.

“Tell me all about it. What does she need? What are you going to do?” I ask her, sitting us on the couch.

“She’s apparently got a stalker, and he got into her house, Levi. Into her room and took a picture of her while she was sleeping. Eww!”

“Sick! Do they know who it is?” I ask her.

“No. But they want someone close to her age who looks more like a friend than a security guard and guess who fits that description?” she says, waving her hands in front of herself and wiggling on the couch.

Now it makes sense. Hope won’t look like security, she’ll just be staying close and keeping Erika Edwards safe.

“Holy Mother Moon Goddess, Hope! This is a friggin’ dream job!”

“I KNOW! I wanted to tell you before you had to go to work, but I want to call Mom and tell her too. Wait … am I allowed to tell her who I’m working for?”

“Hmm, did Alpha Liam say you had to keep it strictly confidential?” I ask her.

“No. But maybe I should check before I call mom.”

“Did you get his direct number to the reception desk?” I ask her.

“No.”

I chuckle and send her the contact information for the reception desk. “That will put you through to Justine, or whoever is manning the desk. It changes a lot, but most of the women are desperate for work, so they try really hard. Plus, they’re usually scared because of whoever they’re running from, so having all this security around helps them to feel safe. Call him and then we can go set up your apartment. And THEN, we’re going to go celebrate.”

“Wait, don’t you have to work today?” she asks.

“Alpha Liam gave me the day off. He said if you accepted this job, you’d be gone for a least a month.”

“Hold that thought. I want to talk about that but first let me see if I can ask him about telling others.”

She calls the number and while she’s talking to Alpha Liam, I get her keys and lead her to her apartment. It doesn’t look like she did a lot of unpacking in the hour I was upstairs. That’s okay, we can spend the day making things comfortable for her now.

“Okay, he says it’s no big deal to tell shifters, since most of them don’t interact with humans, but in the human world, I can’t say a thing,” she says when she hangs up.

“Why don’t you call your mom, and I’ll start unpacking your boxes,” I tell her.

She rushes over and presses a quick kiss to my lips. I growl softly, pulling her against me and deepening the kiss before letting her go.

“Go call your mom before I strip your down and we celebrate in a very different way.”

I grin as her pupils dilate and the scent of her arousal increases around us. But she steps away and soon enough she’s chatting excitedly with her mother about her new potential job.

I grab a box and open it, starting to move things into the room where I think she’ll want them to be. Since the apartment is a one-bedroom and her room in the packhouse was more like an efficiency, she’ll have more space to spread things in this apartment.

“The apartment is fantastic, Mom. I probably should go. Levi is unpacking everything for me and I’m not doing anything.”

“I love you, too.”

“Yes, I’ll let you know if I get the job. As soon as I know if they accept me, I’ll call you. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to call you, but hopefully, at least once a week.”

“I will. Tell Dad and Faith I love them too. Okay, bye, Mom.”

She hangs up and smiles at me guiltily. “Sorry. What can I do?”

I laugh. “It’s your apartment, you should be directing me. I’m just here to help. But if you want to make it up to me, you can buy lunch. There’s at deli downstairs that delivers.”

“Done!” she says.

We find her speaker and turn on some music and the rest of the afternoon goes by quickly. By the time we’re done, the place smells enough like her that it feels like home. There are pictures of her and her family and the two of us scattered around her bedroom and her living room. The bouquet I bought her is sitting on the bar that opens out to the living room. When I finally look at the time, it’s already five o’clock.

“Alright, my beautiful mate. That’s enough for one day. You’ve got a date with your man and we need to leave here in just over an hour.”

“What? You didn’t mention that earlier. I thought we were going to stay in and watch movies tonight.”

While the thought appeals to me, I want to celebrate my mate and her transition into her new life.

“We’ll do movies when you’re back from your job. Tonight, I’m taking my girl out for a nice dinner, so wear one of those two dresses you own.”

“Are you at least going to tell me where we’re going?”

“No. It wouldn’t mean anything to you anyway. Just know it’s an Italian restaurant since I know how much you love pasta puttanesca.”

She purrs softly. “Is it good there?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

I go back to my place and get ready, then walk next door to get my mate. I could definitely get used to this. I wave at Justine as she comes down after her work day.

“You look very nice, Levi. Are you going out?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m taking my girlfriend out for dinner,” I say, knocking on her door.

“Have a great time.”

“Thank you. Are you doing okay? No one is bothering you?” I ask her. I’m sure Alpha Liam has people on it, but I want Justine to know she’s safe here.

“I’m good, thank you, Levi,” she says as Hope opens the door.

“Oh wow! You two look great together. Have fun,” she says as she steps into her apartment.

I watch, listening as she throws every lock on her door, more locks than the other apartments have because she didn’t feel safe without that many locks on her door.

“I wonder if Tanya will be like that,” Hope says softly as we walk to the elevator.

“Who’s Tanya?” I ask.

“Oh, that’s Erika’s real name. Erika Edwards is her stage name.”

I push the button for the elevator and look behind us to Justine’s door. “Probably. It’s a lot different for humans. They don’t have the enhanced senses that we do. You may have to prove to them that you can see, hear, and smell better than they can,” I say as we step into the elevator.

“Have you ever spent time with humans?” she asks.

“Not until I worked here. I didn’t realize how limited their senses were until I started working with them. It’s a significant difference, even for me. Qadira, with her bear sense of smell, has even more heightened senses than I do. Like I said, you may have to prove yourself to them, but I have no doubt that you’ll succeed.”

Dinner is as romantic as I hoped it would be. Since it’s a human restaurant, we couldn’t order wine, but Hope doesn’t drink much anyway. Instead, we got appetizers and dessert along with dinner, and spent the entire meal talking.

When we get back to our apartment building, I walk her to her door.

“That was one of the best nights I can ever remember having,” I say, meaning it. I kiss her hand as she opens her door.

“Aren’t you coming in?” she asks as she steps in.

“I don’t know. You haven’t invited me in or to stay the night,” I say, feeling Malcolm push forward. Qadira is immediately forward in Hope’s eyes, answering the call of her mate.

“Will you stay the night with me, Levi?” Hope asks.

My mate never has to ask me twice.