Waiting For You

Chapter Twenty-two

Hunter is also wearing jeans and a button-up.

Aurora was the first to react, hugging her. The woman immediately lit up with a smile and hugged her back.

"Little princess!" she exclaimed and cupped her face. Then she looked at Aaron.

"Elaine, how are you doing?" he asked her and lowered to give her a kiss on the cheek, seeing as he was at least a head taller than her.

"Oh, I'm fine, my dear. How are you?" she asked back.

"We're good..." he said and walked in, going to stand behind her. Her blue eyes then wandered to me. So this is where Hunter gets them?

"Hunter... who is your friend?" she asked, for a moment her voice turning ice cold.

"Grandma meet Alex, my soulmate," he told her with a smile. Her eyes ran over me thoroughly, making me gulp. I could only imagine what she thought of me. Finally, she smiled at me.

"Nice to meet you! What took you so long?" she said.

"Um..." I replied not really sure what to say.

"Come on in, let's meet the rest of the gang," she told me and pulled both Hunter and me inside.

"I'm going to go ahead and apologize for all of them..." Hunter told me through our bond as we headed through the house to the back yard.

"No need, I'm just confused... old people don't really dig the whole rebel style," I said.

"Well, out of all of them, Elaine is the toughest. So, you're doing great," he replied and pulled me closer, our hand still intertwined.

Elaine stopped by the porch and cleared her throat and getting everyone's attention. There were around a dozen people in the garden, mostly adults, holding beers or wine glasses. "Everyone, meet Hunter's soulmate!" she exclaimed, bringing color to my face.

"Elaine is the toughest?" I repeated through our bond and Hunter just gave a small laugh out loud. Aaron and Aurora walked off, leaving Hunter to introduce me to everyone.

The first ones to approach us were two old men, both older than Elaine, who was talking with a young woman. They were both wrinkly and wore welcoming smiles.

"Alex, this is great-grandpa Stefan," Hunter began, touching the shoulder of the man with the most wrinkles, who walked with a cane.

"I'm Elaine's father," he told me.

"He's ninety-one and Elaine is seventy-three, in case you were wondering," Hunter said.

"And I'm Jean," the other man said, with a faded accent, "Aaron's father".

"It's nice to have you in the family," Stefan told me and started walking away. As Jean was leaving a couple approached us, both in their sixties.

"I'm David and this is my wife Marcella, I'm Elaine's younger brother and that woman over there talking to Aurora is our daughter, Samara," the man said.

I could have guessed she was their daughter due to the fact that they looked so alike. She shared the curly hair Marcella had, as well as the dark skin color. But she also shared her father's grey eyes. She must have been a little younger than Aaron.

After them, two other people approached, a man and a woman. The man was bald and had dimples, even when he wasn't smiling. While the woman had long brown hair, a curvy body, and extraordinary eyes.

"I'm Ron and I used to be the soulmate of Elaine's youngest brother," the bald man said and put his hand next to his mouth to hide it from Hunter. "Run, this family is nuts," he warned me, but couldn't help himself and laughed. I laughed back shedding Hunter a sideways glance.