Stephen felt more than concerned for Y/N. Three attacks within a month. Though she was an imposition he wished to avoid, honestly pleased by his agrestic alpha status, he couldn't help but be protective of her no matter what. But her lack of zeal to live and unlikely luck of attracting disasters was further adding fuel to his burning incumbrances. I want her, he realised and was more than willing than any of his kind to smoothly explain to her about the world she had unexpectedly made herself a part of only if... she had not enraged him by her vague will to live and being maddened at the fact that her life mattered to someone or he had tried saving her.
He watched helplessly as she slammed the door and walked away straight. She was hurt. And it was all because of me. The anger got the better of him. Maybe it was because he was tired. The Council meeting was nowhere near to being fruitful and he had this uneasy feeling in his chest since morning - And Tony would be alone to face the Council the next day. He had come back immediately when Wanda called having seen Y/N go out without Rachael or Mathew. Rachael's werewolf connections and Matt's combat skills had given him some hope she would be safe with them when she was out of her house. As for being alone, her house was a safe haven with all those protective spells. Even though she was safe now, he thought of following her till she reached home. He couldn't relax about her.
"Shall we leave?" she asked them, her tone worried. He wished he could use the time stone, go a few minutes back and make everything right.
Stephen felt the cloak's gentle tap on his shoulder and looked back. It pointed towards the trench coat. It struck him a second late that Y/N didn't have her jacket. I didn't have to go back in time to make things right. Just walk to her and ask politely if the girls minded if I joined them for dinner. He grabbed the coat and tried to walk casually towards them.
Stephen was inches away from her when he felt the strange smell of grass and lemons fill his senses. It was similar to the one he had detected near her house the morning after the chupacabra attack. And a few days ago - near the accident site.
The uneasiness puffed once again inside him. The scent came from one of her friends, whom he had never seen before, not only with Y/N but anywhere near Rockport. And she stopped immediately, surprised after she caught sight of him. The rest of Y/N's friends were looking at him surprised too. So it made him somewhat unsure of the other girl. Anyways, he wasn't going to take any chances against Y/N. He smoothened the coat over her shoulders, a bit awkward, as she stared at him incredulously.
"Sorry – we ate while waiting," Emily said in a guilt-laden voice. A near memory of them eating together, unconcerned about Y/N who had been late on meeting them, flashed in her mind.
Lily cursed and was wishing Stephen had called them a bit earlier. I would have a dinner date with the doctor. Cassidy will be so jealous about it when I would have told her about it on Monday.
As for the other girl, she was bored. She was worried about refurbishing her new cottage. Nothing seemed abnormal about her yet...
"It's fine, let's go," Y/N said, looking down.
"I think you should eat," he interrupted unceremoniously. Emily and Lily seemed worried about getting home late while the other girl was suspicious Y/N had called him over to their night out. "Do you mind if I drive Y/N home?" For the kind of information he wished to share with Y/N, it couldn't be done with her friends around. He looked deep into the eyes of the girls trying to intimidate them; a powerful stare of persuasion - a feat every alpha vampire exploited.
Does Y/N want to stay with him? Who wouldn't want to be alone with Dr Rochester? Lily thought, staring at Y/N for confirmation.
Will she be okay with him? What would Chief Henley say to this? She is going to be late home, even if she comes with us. Emily was genuinely worried about her.
"Matt's fine with it," Stephen lied before Y/N could speak anything.
Matt would definitely not agree to this. Y/N thought glaring at him.
Matt knew him well. He didn't doubt if he called him, the man would disagree. But after his behaviour earlier, he wasn't expecting much of her to take on his offer.
"I'll call you guys after I reach home," she declared to her friends. The odd way he and Anna looked at each other had her considerably discomfited. Besides she needed answers. Cannibalism, sorcery and everything else - as dangerous as they sounded she felt Stephen radiated - though not warmth - but safety. "You better explain yourself, doctor," she whispered to him once her friends were at a safe distance from them.
Stephen smirked and looked at the grill. It wasn't much of a crowd. And with her having witnessed his murderous rage, he felt she would hardly feel safe when he would reveal his true identity. Somewhere crowded yet private. "Mind if we go somewhere else?" She glanced at him suspiciously before agreeing.
Y/N was surprised when Stephen called Matt and he agreed with her returning late.
But she looked quite uncomfortable as he held the restaurant door open for her. "Something's wrong?" he asked, looking at the sea of people that flooded the Asian restaurant.
"Too many people, there's-"
"Good evening, Welcome to Umigawa Canting. Please follow me." The hostess interrupted her. Y/N sighed and followed her. She led them to the near middle of the crowd towards a two-seated table. Stephen shook his head. Handing over her a bill, he requested the booths that looked over the shore.
Peeking at the bill, she led them to the far end of the walkway toward the less noisy booths. "How's this?" She perked up. "Perfect," Y/N unexpectedly announced before smiling widely at her. "Your server will be there shortly," she said resentfully before merging with the crowd. He tried to strife a chuckle at the scornful Y/N.
"What's wrong darling?" he playfully asked, sliding inside the booth. "You have brought us out here where I can barely escape you."
"So you want to escape me?" he asked, feeling a bit indignant, but surely it was his fault. When she didn't answer, he tried rephrasing his question. "Why didn't you protest when I lied about Matt? You know, you could have gone with your friends?"
"You seemed pretty adamant about letting me go," she answered immediately. He guessed that was right but it still didn't quench his curiosity over the fact that she was here with him when she wanted to escape from him. "Besides," she continued, "I wanted to know what changed your mind. You wanted to just drop me off and leave." He smiled at her apologetically. She sighed and looked away. "Dr Rochester-"
"Stephen," he insisted.
"You... are an s-sorcerer?" he nodded, getting a hint of why she had stayed. "Then you knew the other man- sorcerer?" He shook my head. "I was too busy fighting even to read his mind."
"You can read minds?" she asked, amused. "Yeah, I'm a sorcerer; I can do a few things that normal humans can't do."
"So you can read my mind too?"
"I'm not always reading people's minds, Y/N. It's their personal space and I respect privacy. I don't do it unless it's required to." She still looked at him disbelievingly. "You can trust me. I'm not reading you."
She sighed once again. "Why did you bring us here? I can't rush through this crowd in case your homicidal rage returns."
"Angry or not, I would never hurt you." She wasn't much surprised at his confession. "Always says the one who hurts the most," she whispered lowly under her breath. Stephen sighed at her. "I won't," he insisted. This time Y/N was taken aback. She had not expected him to hear her. "I brought us here so that by seeing the people around, you would feel safe."
"Then why not sit in the middle of the crowd than corner me in some booth?"
"As close as I can see, I'm the one who is actually cornered," he replied honestly. She gave out another frustrated sigh. And that was it. Then she had no intention of even looking in his direction let one talk any further. When the waitress came to take their orders, she remained stubbornly silent. Giving in, he ordered veg yakisoba for both of them. He had no idea of her preferences, and since he asked her to trust him over not reading her mind, he didn't want to take away any trust she had in him. He just hoped she would eat some of it or ask for anything else.
The silence stretched till their food was delivered. Even after contemplating different ways, he was still clueless about how to bring up the vampire truth without scaring her.
"Dr Rochester-"
"Stephen," he corrected.
"Stephen," she took a bite before continuing, "I am sorry." He thought she was going to say that she didn't like it or something but she didn't. "Apology accepted," he chimed in as they continued eating.
"Well?" he hummed.
"When you said that there was no point in hiding it, what did you mean?" Stephen let out a breath of relief. Finally. "Will you freak out and try to run away, if I told the truth?" She shook her head firmly. "What do you know about mythical creatures?"
She furrowed her brows into a deep V. "Mythical as if mermaids, fairies... werewolves and vampires?" He gave a slight nod. "Nothing much other than the information available in books and over the internet."
He hadn't realised she was waiting for him to speak up. This was much more complicated than he had thought. "Well... I'm a vampire besides a sorcerer," he blurted out.
"Oh."
"Y-you don't have anything else to say?"
She shook her head but then spoke, "You are lying, right?"
Stephen denied.
"Well, if you are a vampire then you can't be a doctor in the first place..."
His laughter cut her off. "I'm- sorry," Stephen said in between his laughs. "I wasn't expecting this reaction from you." She frowned and continued to eat. "I won't deny that it was difficult in the beginning but with practice, I hardly notice any difficulty now."
"I have questions," she said, abruptly enthusiastic.
"Okay but you eat while we talk," he said pointing towards her cooling food. "Okay," she agreed, chewing in a bite.
"You have a Cloak that follows you around and your orders?"
"Yeah, that was the Cloak of Levitation. It has a mind of its own."
"You can heal quickly?"
"Yes."
"Sleep in coffins?"
"No. Literal myth."
"Burned by the sun?"
"Not exactly but kind of." She waited for further elaboration. "I have this theory that our subspecies suffer from a disease known as Porphyria. In the case of chronic porphyrias, there are four types. One is X-linked dominant, in that case, after some time of exposure to UV rays there is severe pain, burning, and discomfort in exposed areas and on continued exposure those result in swelling and redness similar to a sunburn. Next question."
"How can you eat this?" She asked, pointing at his plate. "Aren't you supposed to just drink... blood?" She shuddered at the end.
"Blood alone can't cover our nutrient requirement." She nodded and continued towards finishing her plate. He was worried that she was scared. "I don't feed –"
"I know." She interrupted. "I have read about vampires that survive on animal blood."
They didn't talk much after that until they got back to the car.
"Stephen?" She finally spoke soon after they hit the highways. "Yes," he encouraged her to continue. "Why are you so...? I don't know but... why are you trying to protect me?"
"Do you know about different types of personalities – alpha, beta, gamma, delta, sigma, and omega?"
"Yeah," she choked out. For the second time in the evening, she looked worried. "Okay so... similarly like humans we vampires, werewolves, and other subspecies have certain traits that divide us into different categories. In the case of vampires, especially male ones, we have two categories – alphas and non-alphas. When it comes to finding partners, alpha vampires have a characteristic feature of imprinting-"
"I thought only werewolves imprinted."
"Not all werewolves, just alpha werewolves, and unlike us, an alpha in case of werewolves can be a male or a female, though females are rare. But that isn't your concern. So through imprinting, we find our mates. And by mates, it isn't normal like the mates of other vampires. They are more like our soul mates. And just like any other living creature; we are very protective of someone that means so much to us. We can't see them hurt like any other member of the coven. But though we are responsible for other members towards our mate... it's painful to see them getting hurt. If they," he paused, not being able to think about it. He knew at one point in time this imprinting thing would happen but he had always been so busy he had never given thought to any of this.
"If they what, Stephen?"
He took a deep breath before saying anything. "If they die, it mostly kills us." She bit her lips and tore her gaze away from him. A screaming silence chilled the space between them.
"So you imprinted on me" It wasn't a question though he answered, "Yes."
"So your family... it's your coven?" She asked after some time. "No, it's Tony's coven. I'm just an on-and-off member of it."
"I thought you were the alpha, it's supposed to be yours."
"He's alpha too, and so is Donald. Covens and packs don't work the way you have read in books. There may be more than one alpha in them. But only one of them is the head. The leader alpha position of a pack or coven is different from who they actually are. For example, look at your sister's boyfriend's family-"
"Jade's family are vampires too-"
"No. They are werewolves. Both Natasha and Bucky are alphas but it's Natasha who leads the pack. She is the pack's alpha while Bucky is the pack's beta. But in a coven, we have a leader, no second in command. The leader may or may not be an alpha. But in packs, the leader is always an alpha."
"So Rachael knows this about Jade?"
"He is an alpha too. Rachael is his mate. She not only knows about them but also about us too."
"Then why did she lie to me about you? Called you cannibals and all? Asked me to stay away from you and your family?" She was agitated.
"Y/N," Stephen cooed. "Vampires and werewolves have had a conflict from time immemorial. Besides, there are several other things I haven't told you. She had the right reasons to ask you to stay away from me."
"But you won't hurt me, right?" She looked at him with emotions he failed to comprehend. "I won't hurt you or leave you," he promised. "But now," he said, pulling in front of the driveway, "you need to go home."
Startled, she looked outside and then at her watch. It was a quarter past eight. "H-how did we reach so fast? Even Lily took an hour to drive us there. You took like less than thirty minutes."
"I don't like driving slow." Stephen mused, reaching over to unbuckle her seatbelt. She glared at him. Then the front door of her house cracked open. It wasn't the frowning Matt that strained him but the man that stood behind him with a grin on his face.