Beastly novel Chapter 55

"Good evening Alpha Xander. Good evening Luna Ava." the waiter near the table bowed, his sudden appearance attracting my attention "Shall I bring in your appetizers?"

"Yes please." I said with a smile, seeing as how Xander wasn't giving him a speck of recognition "And could you please have this put in water? I'll have it back before we leave."

"Yes ma'am."

"Thank you."

Was it weird that I had gotten used to being treated this way? I had given up on pushing everyone to call me by my name. It didn't really matter to me, as long as those close to me respected my wishes. During the week that Xander had been gone, it had gotten much worse for some reason. There were still rumours about me, but they did nothing to stifle the choking sense of respect the pack members had.

"What's your favourite colour?" Xander's odd question made my face squeeze up into a frown

"What?" I asked in confusion, "That's random."

"Can I be honest with you?"

"I doubt I'd be able to stop you, Alexander." Although I was half-serious and half-joking, his facial expression showed that he was focused and wasn't playing around "What is it?"

He leaned back again, his eyes looking sharper than before as they regarded me "I'm nervous."

"What?"

"I want to talk to you, but this is the first time I've ever been on a date and although I'm interested in knowing more and making sure you enjoy this night, I'm afraid that I'll do nothing but make things worse."

Leave to Xander to say this kind of thing with such an expression. It was not a new thing for Xander to be honest to a fault about how he felt. It seemed that the years he had spent unable to truly express himself were fading away and he was vocal about just what he was feeling, especially when it came to me. It was overwhelming because if he didn't open up on his own, it was difficult to know what was going on with him. His eyes were the only way, even though sometimes they were so blank. Yet, when he opened, I would be unable to handle the amount of emotion he was giving me.

He hadn't given up any indication of being nervous. Cool, composed and collected and only making me the jittery one tonight. It must have been something he had mastered at a young age. Knowing just how his father had raised him, it was probably not by choice he had turned out this way. There was absolutely nothing wrong. Maybe it just annoyed me how much I couldn't read him when I desperately wanted to.

The door opened and the waiter walked in, pushing a cart. Once he got to the table, he placed different plates on the table, with two glasses.

"To start you off; sweet bread with salted butter, pickled shrimp with creamy spinach dip, oven-baked chicken bites with caramelized onion dip and our finest white wine." he said, his tone elated. He was obviously happy to be here and the smile didn't wipe off his face as he poured us our wine. It was almost comical.

"Thank you." I said to him, staring at all the meals. Everything looked delicious and honestly I was excited to taste it all.

Xander nodded at him and he bowed again before leaving the room. I started to pick different pieces of everything onto my plate, sneaking some into my mouth and doing a little happy dance in my head as the flavours danced across my tongue. Xander let me pick till I was content and then when he noticed I was finished, began to fill his plate as well. I picked up a pickled shrimp and slathered it with dip.

"White." I said, as I brought it up to my lips and looked at him "White has always been my favourite colour somehow to me, it's the purest colour. What's yours?"

My insides were a jumble of nerves as I ate the shrimp and watched his eyebrows rise. I took it as a sign that he was somewhat glad.

"Green."