Xander's eyes slowly open, as he wakes up from his slumber. For the first time in a while, he feels well rested. A restful sleep has been too unfamiliar to him. But Sunday morning's bring peace, and he can't be thankful enough. Within seconds of being awake, his mind wanders to Isabella. She seems to be the last thing he thinks of before he falls asleep, and the first thing he thinks of when he wakes up. He grabs his phone quickly unlocking it, without noticing the time. When he turns on his side he lets out a groan of pain. He forgot his side is still a little injured from Octavious' bite. He ignores it, knowing it will heal soon. Xander clicks Isabella's name and waits anxiously as a ringing meets his ear.
"Hello?" Isabella answers.
A smile appears on Xander's face at the sound of her voice.
"Good morning. I didn't wake you up, did I?" He ask.
A light giggle comes through the phone line. Xander can picture her smile, and that brings a smile to his lips as well.
"Alexander, have you not seen the time yet?"
Xander's eyebrows furrow together in confusion. He pulls the device away from his ear to see the time "2:03" at the top of his screen.
"Oh...wow. This is embarrassing." A bashful laugh escapes his lips.
"It's ok. So you're not a morning person, I get it." She comforts him.
"I was going to ask if you want to get breakfast, but now a late lunch seems more fitting."
"Yeah lunch sounds good."
Xander let's out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, relieved she said yes.
"OK. I'll pick you up in about half an hour?"
"Perfect. See you then!" The line cuts off quickly and unexpectedly, leaving Xander confused but he doesn't dwell on it.
As soon as Isabella hangs up the phone, she hops out of bed, trying to find something to wear. She had already gotten ready for the day, but what she has on is not good enough for a date. Wait. She stops dead in her tracks. Is this a date? She wonders. Now her heart is pounding even harder. Isabella convinces herself that it's not a real date, just a casual lunch date. It may not make sense, and she knows this, but it's still comforting.
After deciding on a cute romper, and a minimal makeup look, she's satisfied. She looks in the mirror and her eyes trail up to the curly, frizzy, mess on her head. As much as she wishes her wash and go could last her another day, it just simply will not. Isabella pulls out the gel and decides a sleeked back bun will have to do.
Isabella skips down the stairs to see her father in the kitchen.
Her father turns to her, seeing her attire, "So you just assumed I would say yes to letting you go out?" He teases her.
Isabella laughs but slyly rolls her eyes because she knows there is some seriousness behind his statement. "Can I please go out?"
"Sure. Thanks for asking." He smiles sarcastically.
"Oh I forgot to tell you," Isabella remembers what she saw outside her window last night, "I saw wolves outside my window last night. At least I think they were wolves. It was weird because-dad? You alright?"
Isabella eyes her dad curiously when his expression quickly changed from happy to scared.
"Yes, I'm fine." He answers.
Isabella just nods, unconvinced. She looks at her phone to make sure she didn't miss a text from Xander.
"Isabella, maybe you should stay in today."
She looks at her dad puzzled, "Why?"
"I just want you home today, Isabella."
"You just said I could go out dad. And I already told Xander yes. He should be here any minute."
"I know but-wait who's Xander?"
Isabella mentally slaps herself at her slip of words. She laughs nervously, "That doesn't matter right now," she looks at him, "Please let me go out. Please."
"Ok, fine. Just be back before it's dark.
She smiles, "Thank you!"
Right on cue, she hears the doorbell ring. She was expecting a text, but she appreciates this a lot more.
"See you later!" She yells to her father.
"Don't think I'm going to forget about this Xander boy either!" He yells after her, as opens the door.
Isabella has to manage to keep herself together when she sees Xander standing right in front of her. He just looks so good, despite being in a casual outfit. He immediately smiles the door opens, revealing his mate. Her romper compliments her brown skin tone so well. He swears at that moment that the suns only job is to make Isabella's skin glow. He thanks the Moon Goddess for pairing him with someone who is beautiful beyond belief.
As soon as she closes the door behind her, Xander is eager to have her in his arms. He wraps his arms around her waist, and she naturally wraps hers around his neck. He breathes in her wonderful scent, his body so close to hers. Her scent is intoxicated, and it's quickly becoming his favorite.
"Hi, Alexander." She says smiling
"Hi, Izzy. You look beautiful."
Her smile grows, and her voice softens. "Thank you."
The pair pulls apart just enough to admire one another. Isabella nervously breaks eye contact first. Xander smirks and grabs her hand, leading her to the passenger side of the car. He opens the door for her, and she thanks him as she gets in.
"So where are we going?"
Isabella ask as Xander turns his car on.
"A restaurant not too far from here. It's amazing."
"I'm excited," Isabella smiles, "my first time going somewhere local since I've moved here." Xander looks at her while she grins from ear to ear. She's bouncing a little in her seat, with her hands in her lap. She looks absolutely adorable. He wants to point out that it's only a restaurant, but why not let her excitement flourish.
Xander begins to pull out of her driveway but he's stopped.
"You're not going to put on your seatbelt?" She questions.
He looks at her, "Izzy, I'm a skilled driver. A grown man."
"And grown men still get into car accidents. Safety first. Buckle up."
If it was anyone else, and he means anyone else, he would argue. But it's his mate. So he does as she says.
"I feel so..." He starts.
"Safe? I know." She smiles.
"I was going to say restricted, but sure." He teases.
The drive to the restaurant is quite short, but Isabella was still able to see a good amount of her new home along the way. The pair walks into the restaurant to be greeted by a smiling hostess.
"Hi Al-Xander." The hostess stops herself from calling Xander by his title of Alpha when she realizes she does not recognize the girl he is with. She thinks back to his announcement when he told the pack he found his mate, and her smile grows. This must be the packs future Luna.
"Hi Melanie. Melanie, this is Isabella. Isabella, this is Melanie, a family friend." He decides in that moment that a "family friend" is what he will call pack members.
Isabella smiles warmly. "Hi, nice to meet you."
"You too. Would you two like a table outside or inside?"
Xander looks down at Isabella, wanting het to pick.
"Um," she ponders both options, but then her eyes light up when she decides, "outside would be perfect."
As the waitress walks them to the table, Isabella notices Xander is a little tense.
"Are you ok?" She ask. "You look tense."
"Oh I'm fine. My side just hurts" he states, "I think I slept weird," he lies. Isabella nods, understanding.
Xander pulls Isabella's seat out for her, then takes his own seat. He looks at her to see her looking around.
He suddenly becomes nervous the restaurant isn't good enough for her. "Is this place ok?"
"Yes!" she smiles, "it's beautiful." She admires how elegant the outside seating is. There are flowers, and beautiful outside landscaping. While she's observing, she hears a camera click, and quickly looks at Xander. He's holding his phone up, ready to take another picture.
"Stop!" She covers her face.
"Oh c'mon, Iz, don't hide your face. You look beautiful."
Isabella feels her cheeks flame, and she slowly reveals her face.
"Are you done?" She laughs.
He takes one last picture. "Now I am."
He puts his phone down and sends her an award winning smile across the table.
"Do I get to take a picture of you now?" Isabella ask.
"Oh no," Xander shakes his head, "Not at all."
"That's not fair!" Isabella claims as she rolls her eyes. "How are you going to take a plethora of photos of me, but I can't take one of you?"
Xander looks at her, "Because you were made to take pictures of. I mean, look at you."
Isabella can't even manage to try to conceal a smile. Immediately, her lips start to spread, from one burning cheek to the other. Butterflies spread their wings in her stomach, and she looks down before Xander can see her eyes light up.
"Um so," Isabella thinks trying to change the topic to literally anything but herself. Right on cue, a waitress steps in to take their drink orders. She looks at Isabella to order first.
"I see you have iced tea, and lemonade. Is there any way you could mix the two together?"
The waitress smiles, entertained by the request. "Yeah we can do that for you."
Isabella smiles instantly, "Great! Thank you. Why pick if you don't have to, right?" She laughs, her own joke amusing her.
The waitress smiles and looks at Xander, implying she's ready to take his order. Xander doesn't notice at first, as he's too fixated on how cute Isabella's joyful demeanor is. After realizing both Isabella and the waitress are looking at him, he snaps out of it.
"Oh. I'll just take a water, please." He request.
When the waitress comes back with their drinks and to take their order, the pair blushes as they didn't even open their menus. Too busy chatting about little things. She gives them a few more minutes, and luckily they're ready to order when she comes back.
"So," Isabella starts after the waitress leaves their table, "how long have you and Melissa been friends with everyone from school? You guys seem so close."
"Yeah," Xander smiles, "We are. All of our parents grew up here so we've known each other basically since birth. That's the case with a lot of people who live around here."
"Do you think that's what you're going to do? Stay here?" She ask.
Xander shrugs, "I'm supposed to. I mean," he ponders how to put the situation, "it's just expected. So we can all just stay close. But sometimes I do wonder what it'd be like to live somewhere different. Get out, you know? But that's why my parents are constantly traveling. They can experience new things, but still have the comfort of coming back here."
"That's good," Isabella smiles, "I can't wait to travel."
"Where would you want to go?"
"Everywhere," she laughs, "Just experience a lifestyle and culture different than my own. The suburbs gets so...dry."
Xander laughs in his head because that is one thing this town is not: dry. If only she knew of all the things that went on here. But none the less, he agrees with her for the sake of conversation.
"Oh, but you know what's not so dry?" Excitement bubbles in Isabella, ready to tell her story.
"What?" Xander asked intrigued.
"Last night I saw wolves from my window. At least I'm pretty sure they were wolves. I just did not know wolves could grow that big, but it's not like I know much about wildlife anyway."
Xander's throat gets dry at the mention of the wolves. He remembers him and Octavius were fighting on the mainline, he just didn't realize at the time that they were that close to Isabella. He decides not to lie about what she saw, as it's likely to happen again. He would rather her be ok with it, than scared.
"Oh yeah. We have wolves around here. But they're harmless."
"Oh really? That's good. They didn't seem harmless with the way they were attacking each other. One bit the other right in it's side and it looked really bad. Hopefully it's ok," she looks away from her food and up at Xander confused, "I'm not sure why I care, though. I was horrified last night."
Xander has to hide a smirk. It's the mate bond. Even when Isabella knows of no correlation between Xander and the wolf, she still feels a sense of caring.
"I'm sure he's fine, wolves fight all the time. But the ones around here would never hurt a human. You're ok." He reassures her.
She nods. "You think they were males?" Noticing the given pronoun.
"Oh well," he thinks, "I just assumed because you said they were big. Male wolves tend to be bigger than females."
"Oh ok. Makes sense," Isabella nods, "I'll be sure to tell my dad they're harmless. When I told him what I saw, he looked like he was staring at his biggest fear. I thought he'd be surprised, not scared. He almost didn't let me come out. He's always been protective like that, though." She shrugs.
Isabella's statement confuses Xander. He thinks if someone were to hear about wolves being around, not even witnessed, just heard verbally, they would most likely just be shocked or confused. Not the extent of fear Isabella described her father to be. But what would cause him to be that scared? He shakes his head, settling with that it was just her dad's first reaction, and it didn't mean anything. Even if it did mean otherwise, there is nothing he can do about it.
After Xander denies Isabella's request to pay half the bill, the pair heads out of the restaurant...after Isabella secretly adds more change to the tip. It didn't need more as Xander already left a good percentage, she just wanted to contribute, and the waitress was really nice.
Xander offers to show Isabella around town, since everything is in close proximity. The pair walks around places, then drive to the next location when needed. She thinks she'll remember how to get to most of the places, as she's pretty good with directions. When there's not much left to see, the pair ends up in the back seat of Xander's car, in a vacant park parking lot. Xander is sitting normally, while Isabella's back is up against the car door, her legs are across his lap.
"It doesn't look like there's much to do here, but it's all about what you make of it. I've lived here all my life, and my friends still keep it interesting." Xander says.
"That's good," she smiles."I'm thankful all of you are so nice. I was not expecting to make friends this quickly." She laughs.
"Really? I feel like you'd make friends quickly wherever you'd go. You're genuine, sweet, pretty-"
"Thank you." She blushes, cutting him off. She's not one for compliments. In moderation is nice, but whenever Xander does it she hates how bashful she gets.
"I really like spending time with you, Iz." Xander says.
Isabella nods smiling, "Me too. Well spending time with you, not myself." She jokes, but then rolls her eyes. "That was stupid." She laughs.
Xander smiles and just looks at her.
"What?" She questions.
"Nothing." He shakes his head. His eyes lock on hers, and Isabella immediately gets nervous. His face is getting closer to hers, and she takes a leap of courage and connects their lips. Almost instantly, all the nerves slip away. Xander pulls her body in with one hand, and rest his other on her cheek. Her hands find their way to his shirt collar, pulling him even closer. Kissing him is like nothing she's ever felt before. Her mind wanders to what doing more than just kissing could make her body feel. Isabella blushes simply at the thought, and pulls away from the kiss, afraid to allow her body to put her thoughts into action.
"You ok?" Xander ask, a little out of breath.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she smiles, "Thank you for today."
"Is that your way of saying you want to go home?" He teases.
"No, no," she laughs, "I don't want to go home, but my dad wants me home before dark and the sun is setting."
Isabella turns her head, looking out the window at the sunset. The orange lighting touches her face, and it does wonders for her dark skin. Xander can't help but stare, for the millionth time today. She looks back at Xander and when he smiles at her, she returns one.
Isabella can't help but smile again as she pulls away from her and Xander's final kiss of the night. She unwillingly gets out of his car, and walks into her house.
Xander drives home, not even bothering to put music on. His thoughts consumed by the girl he drove home. He sits on his living room couch and when he unlocks his phone, the picture of Isabella he took at lunch appears. He smiles at the picture, admiring her.
"Oh my goodness, is that her?"
Xander jumps and turns around to see his mom hovering over him, behind the couch.
"Goodness mom, don't do that."
His mom shrugs. "At first I couldn't believe you couldn't hear me coming considering the werewolf hearing. But then I saw what you were looking at, and I understand why you didn't notice. She's gorgeous, Xander." She smiles.
He smiles, "I know."
She gives him a pointed look. "I would like to meet her, you know."
"You will...after I tell her about everything. I promise."
"Ok. A promise is a promise." She nods and makes her way upstairs.
Xander looks back at the picture. How is he going to tell Isabella without scaring her off?