The vampire and the wife

Chapter 18

Hunter picked the food, as I'd told him I wasn't bothered. He eventually settled on Chinese and ordered a few different things for us. While we waited for the food, he told me about Kara, and I had to admit, I really had wished I'd met her, as she sounded like my long-lost sister. Hunter told me about how she'd sometimes sneak out of pack meetings just to wind Jen up and he also told me other stories about her, including about the night she lost her life. I'd begun to cry as he'd told me and Shadow had come over and tried to climb into my lap, which was funny seeing a Husky dog that thought it was a lap dog sitting on my knee but then got down.

Hunter put on the TV, and we found something to watch, but neither of us was really paying attention when the food arrived, as we were both too busy trying to keep Shadow away as he'd tried to steal some of the food.

Once we'd eaten, Hunter banished Shadow to the mat, and I'd decided to go and sit next to Hunter. We were still sitting and talking as I yawned a little and rubbed my eyes.

"If you want, go to bed in my bed. I'll sleep on the sofa. I really don't mind."

"I should head home. It's not fair that you're sleeping on the sofa." I muttered as I took my phone out. I'd planned on getting Zack to drive to Xander's house so that I could go and have a word with Xander.

"I honestly don't mind. It would be nice to have some company." Hunter laughed quietly. At his words, they seemed to pull on me a little as I understood that. I wanted a friend and company that understood me just a little and wasn't going to judge me in any way.

"If your sure." I decided as I put my phone away. You survived the argument tonight, Xander Akako. My head screamed. Hunter shifted a pillow, put it on his lap and patted it for me.

"I'm sure and wouldn't have offered if I wasn't sure." Hunter grinned.

I shifted and laid with my head on the pillow, watching the TV. "Thank you." I muttered as his hand came out in front of my face.

"Phone? I'll put it on the table for you." I gave Hunter my phone and then curled back up, trying to focus on the TV, but I couldn't. "What's wrong?"

"Would Kara be mad at you?" I asked him quietly.

"If she was alive, hell yeah, she would, but she would understand as well as she knew what I was like and knew I just wanted to help people." He laughed a little at himself. "She was the same though; she just wanted to help people. That was why she decided to join Jen and Eric's pack. Her pack was controlling." He sighed.

"How did you two meet?"

"You'll laugh if I tell you." Hunter confessed as he stroked my hair lighty. "I went with Eric to sort out a treaty with a pack. A very violent pack that is very controlling, like I said." He stopped for a moment and laughed quietly to himself. "She was one of the lower wolves of the pack. She was barely worth looking at in most people's eyes, but she was a maid to the main house and she brought drinks in for Eric and I. The pack wasn't originally going to do business with us, but when Eric dropped who he works with, they decided to work with us. Eric noticed the way I was watching Kara and tried to get her to come with us, but they weren't having any of it."

"That must have been hard to leave her."

Hunter laughed again. "I didn't leave her. She left the room and I excused myself and went and found her. She knew what was between us and I asked her what she wanted to do. Kara told me that she wanted to leave that pack. I asked her to give me some time to get it sorted, but she just marched back into the room with me and announced to her Alpha that she was leaving with Eric and I. He wanted to react badly to her and we saw the anger beginning to flare up, but he was more worried about Eric and I and what we'd do, so he had no choice but to back down and let her go. He did try over the years to get her back to the pack. Kara said, no one leaves that pack."

"Except Kara."

"Except Kara." He agreed. "I still say it wasn't a rogue who killed her, but I have no proof that they were from that pack." He sighed. "At the beginning, when she died, I was angry and bitter and twisted and pushed everyone away. Because of my rank, the other women in the pack fluttered their eyes at me in hopes of them being what's called a second chance mate, but I got fed up with it. I lashed out and shouted at them all. They didn't seem to care that I was grieving."

"Sometimes people don't understand how much it hurts to lose someone. I know we're different..."

"But we understand." Hunter finished. "I've never really spoken about Kara since she died. Jen and Eric tried to talk to me about it all..."

"But it's not the same as having someone who understands the pain." I finished with a sigh. "I understand that." The conversation went quiet after that, as we both seemed to be wrapped up in our thoughts about our own pain and suffering, but we knew we had each other to help get through the dark times.

My phone rang and I jumped as Hunter picked it up and looked at the screen. "Xander."

I froze for a moment and as Hunter seemed to see my reaction, he answered. "Hello?" I couldn't hear anything on the phone but I could only imagine the shock that he got with Hunter answering my phone rather than me. "Does it matter who I am? If you have a message, I'll pass it on to her."

I moved and sat up to look at Hunter, as I could feel myself trembling. Hunter took my hand, held it, and winked. "Yeah, I'll be sure to tell her." Hunter pulled the phone away and hung up. "What an arse." Hunter muttered, shaking his head a little. "Your friend is ok. Just a broken arm. She says she fell down the stairs."

"What a load of sh..."

"He seems to think someone else was involved in what happened." Hunter finished. "He's going to look into it." Hunter pulled me into a hug and kissed the top of my head. "So tell me about that, arse."

"Nothing to say." I muttered and shrugged but in my chest, a lump rose up again. That was my anger from earlier on. "I should get up to bed." Shadow shifted and put his head on the sofa. and looked at me as if he wasn't impressed with that idea, so I went and stroked his head lightly.

"It is getting late. I'll treat you to breakfast in the morning and then I'll take you home tomorrow, ok?"

"I'd like that." I smiled softly, then lent across and kissed his cheek lightly. "Thank you for tonight and thank you for sharing your stories with me about Kara."

"It was nice to share the memories." Hunter laughed. "Good night, Rosa. Go on, Shadow. Show her up to my room." Shadow got up, ran to the small entrance, and ran up the stairs. I quickly followed after him up the stairs and spotted his tail going into a room, so I went into the bedroom to find that it was a simple bedroom that had the lamp on already. I was getting too tired to really take in the room, so I curled up on the bed in my clothes and ended up falling asleep feeling light. I felt Shadow moving next to me, which meant I hadn't started falling into a deep sleep until he was cuddled up next to me, keeping me warm. I remember smiling and then falling into a deep sleep.