86

MELINA

Overslept again and I would be late for work again. I stood frantically in front of the bathroom mirror and tried to get my long curls under control. Stressed out, I left them alone, they should just fall down wildly. Running out of time, I grabbed my mascara to do some memorized waves and gave a satisfied wink at my pretty reflection.

Walking through the kitchen, I grabbed my black purse that went great with the white dress and opened the front door, but immediately took a step back. A tall guy stood in front of me and looked at me just as scared as I was at him. He had a distinctive face, a three-day stubble, brown eyes if I saw correctly and was wearing a gray hoodie. He was actually my type, but since I knew for sure that he wasn't from the area, I wanted to quickly close the door again, but the idiot stuck his shoe in between.

"What's that?!", I hissed at him in shock and searched his eyes.

"I'm Damiano. A friend of Alicia's. She needs your help," he explained and smiled invitingly, but I couldn't be fooled.

"And my grandmother is the alpha here. I know the tricks of you scammers."

I tried in vain to push the door shut, but his shoe was still firmly between them.

"Listen to me for a minute. The senior alpha found out she's a half-breed, I can't tell more, but she really needs you."

I widened my eyes in shock. Only someone she trusted completely could know about this. I slowly pulled the door open again and looked him up and down again.

"And now I'm supposed to get in his car with a stranger to go to her? Come on then." I walked past him grinning while he just watched me confused and shook his head. When my girlfriend needed my help, I didn't care about my work or anything else. At least I had such a good excuse and the guy wasn't bad looking, could be funny, I thought, giggling to myself.

As soon as the car doors clicked, I happily swung myself into the passenger seat and made myself comfortable. Sure I was worried about Alicia, but she was strong, it couldn't be that bad. Besides, it didn't matter if the Lord Alpha knew she was a half-breed. Because of the connection with the Alpha, she did have a rank.

As we drove off, my eyes widened and I used both hands to find something to hold on to.

Startled, I snapped at the big one.

"If you keep going like this, I won't be around to help Alicia anymore!"

But not a word came from him, not even for the next few hours. I stared out the window in boredom and felt sorry for Alicia. If the alpha was as taciturn as this guy, then cheers. A tree stump is more entertaining.

At some point I must have fallen asleep because it was already dark when I opened my eyes and stared at a small house surrounded by roses. Stretching, I turned to the big one and looked at him questioningly. As always, he got out without a word and politely opened the door for me. A much too intense smell hit me, which made me sneeze several times and then, all of a sudden, I felt pleasantly warm. The feeling was beautiful.

When I turned my eyes back to the front door after the sneeze, there was a small guy standing there, yes, really small in contrast to Damiano, who was now standing behind me and also looking at the guy. The little one with the curly hair beamed towards me, but I turned abruptly to the big one.

"You have to drive me away from here immediately. Please." I tugged frantically on his sweater, but the idiot just looked back and forth between me and the other one in confusion until his eyes widened and he started laughing out loud.

Then I heard the voice of the other close behind me and without me wanting it, his voice sent goosebumps down my arms while my heart started racing. I didn't want to turn around though because he wasn't my type at all and I just wanted to block out his attraction to me.

"Hey, Melina. I'm Resul! What's up?" I heard him ask and turned to him annoyed. I thought briefly about whether he had really canceled what is going on with me, but then our eyes met and he magically attracted me. His black curls matched his childish looking face perfectly and the dimples looked really cute.

"Wow!"

Nothing else came out of his mouth. He just stood there gaping at me until an elderly woman waved me over from the front door. Excited, I left them both and walked towards the woman who was leaning against the dark front door and smiling friendly.

"Welcome Melina. I'm Linda and this is Noah." She pointed to an older man standing behind her with a worried look.

"Alicia is in her room. I'll take you there. If you need anything, just come to me."

Her delicate hand wrapped around my back and she pushed me down the narrow hallway and then ran up a narrow flight of stairs.

For a moment I noticed Noah's eyes, who shook his head and looked outside. The little curly head was probably going crazy with joy, but then I was already standing in front of a locked door and Linda left me alone. I took a deep nervous breath and then knocked softly, but there was no reaction. I knocked louder again and still nothing came, but that didn't bother me. Determined, I just pushed the door open and got an instant shock when I saw my best friend lying in the small bed.

Only her head was covered with a pillow. Her legs and arms were much thinner than I remembered. The room smelled unpleasantly, as if she had been lying here for years. For a moment I thought about what I should do and then I just started chattering away, because that's what I was best at.

Like every day, there was a knock on the door and it was starting to piss me off that they wouldn't just leave me alone. My hands pulled the pillow out from under my head and I draped it over my face in annoyance. When the door opened I smelled something funny, but I didn't feel like checking what was to eat again, I wasn't going to try it anyway.

A familiar voice made me wince in surprise.

"Girl! What are you doing? I can't seem to leave you alone for a few weeks."

Shocked, I sat up, looked towards the door and couldn't realize at all that Melina was really standing there, perfectly styled as always.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her in a trembling voice while squinting my eyes open and closed several times. I wanted to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

"What am I doing here? The question is, what are you doing here?!"

Shaking her head, she went to the window and opened both sides wide before coming to my bed to give me a comforting hug.

"First of all, you tell me everything in detail and then we'll eat something. I won't tolerate no," she whispered sternly in my ear and then pulled away to sit on the edge of the bed without taking my eyes off me.

For a while she sat with me in the gloomy room and listened intently as I talked about Caleb, Linda, Brando and Liam. On the subject of my mate now being out in the woods, leaving me alone, with constant fear for him, I had to start crying terribly again.

Melina looked at my crying face in shock and then moved closer to me to rub my back and encourage me.

"Honey. You're going to take a shower first. I'll pick out a few things for you and then take them to the bathroom. You absolutely have to eat something. It won't help him or you to starve here."

She gently pulled me to my feet and pushed me towards the door. I felt really dizzy for a moment, but then I staggered and found my way to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror in horror, hadn't seen myself for days and was shocked by the blatant change.

My skin was paler than usual and dark circles under my eyes made me look like I hadn't slept in weeks when all I did was sleep.

With limp arms, I undressed, just let the clothes fall off, and stood in the cramped shower stall. The ice-cold water pelted me at first, giving me a brief fright, but then it got pleasantly warm and I felt every muscle in my weak body relax as I surveyed the green tiles. Noah really had a penchant for old-fashioned decor.

I turned away from the tiles and looked down at my feet.

Inside, it was really good for me to have Melina here because finally I could pour my heart out to someone. Of course I could do that with the others too, but that was something different. Just as I was turning off the faucet and wrapping a towel around my petite body, Melina walked through the door wearing black leggings, underwear and a black t-shirt.

"You still don't like to be noticed, do you?" She raised an eyebrow at the all-black clothing, which she then carefully handed to me.

"Can I wait in here until you're done?" she then asked me nervously, looking at herself in the mirror. She probably didn't want to be alone with so many new people, but that really didn't suit her at all, because she actually loved attention. Without asking why, I just nodded to her and then quickly got dressed behind her. She took another comb and combed my brown hair, which had somehow lost its shine, and then smiled and held my shoulders to look intently into my eyes.

"And now you're finally going to eat something! No arguments."

She took my hand decisively, pulled me out of the small green bathroom and ran with me into the living room, where Noah and Resul were sitting on the couch and smiling happily at us.

"You're beautiful," Resul said unexpectedly, then grinned and stood up to stare at us with his deep dimples. I looked at him confused, I wasn't sure anymore if everything here was still real, why should he say something like that to me...

"I know! Now go get the girl here something to eat," Melina interrupted my thoughts. I looked back and forth between her and him in confusion, examined their facial expressions, their behavior and suddenly I had to laugh so loud that Melina let go of my hand and just looked at me in shock. Holding my stomach, I couldn't stop thinking about them as soul mates. It was really good for me. My hearty laughter was then joined by Noah, who slapped his thighs while tears came from laughing. Only the two of them couldn't join in the laughter, just looked at us confused and didn't know what to say in reply.

When I finally caught myself, I sat down in the armchair and looked into the eyes of Noah, who gave me a satisfied nod. His thoughtful gaze softened, as if a great weight had been lifted from him.

Beaming, Resul walked past Melina in the direction of the kitchen, but before that he gave her a cheeky wink. Rolling her eyes, she sat down next to Noah, but I noticed that she was secretly watching Resul's every move because, like me back then, she couldn't do anything about the connection, no matter how different they were.

The curly head came back with a tray with a bowl of soup and a cup of tea on it and I gratefully took it onto my lap and slowly began to eat. He took a seat next to Melina, coolly put his arm around her shoulders and they then started a quiet conversation.

"Does it taste good?"

Linda put her hand on my shoulder and looked down at me questioningly.

"Yes. Thank you. Where is Damiano anyway?" I turned my gaze to Linda.

"He's outside in front of the house." Noah said, who had got up in the meantime and walked over to the small fireplace.

Halfway through the plate I had to stop. My stomach hurt a little, one more spoon and I might have thrown up. I carefully placed the tray on the table and told the others that I would be going outside for a moment.

Pulling the front door shut behind me, a horrible smell hit me as I approached Damiano.

"I didn't know you smoked," I said, pointing to the cigarette in his hand.

"Neither do I, actually. Only when I'm stressed."

He leaned against his car and flicked the cigarette onto the street.

"I see you're feeling better," he said, giving me a half-hearted smile.

"Well, I wouldn't say better."

"At least you're not in bed anymore."

At the sentence, he stretched and had to yawn loudly.

"How's your friend and her new lapdog?" he asked, laughing, and I grinned again at the thought.

"I'm sure they're fine right now, but what I really wanted to ask you is, how is he and where is he?"

He stopped laughing and stopped looking at me. He looked down and got quite nervous.

"He's not feeling well. He blames himself for not being there for you."

"Then let him come back."

"He won't until he finds him."

I sadly stood next to him. You could see that the whole thing weighed heavily on him. He was such a quiet person, probably always thinking a lot about everything and making things up to himself. I sympathetically laid my head on his strong shoulder and stood still with him for a while. Two people who missed their alpha and dealt with it in very different ways.

After a while, Resul and Melina also came out and stood in front of us. They looked at us sympathetically and somehow none of us knew what to say or do.