The Alpha's Pretend-Boyfriend

The Camping Trip

It was like an open secret that everyone knew—well, everyone except for Fig. As Saturday rolled in, it was obvious that Germain, Gadreel, Louie and Dane were not pleased about the entire thing. After Fig and his girlfriend left the building, Louie had volunteered to check in on Callie, who had not gotten out of the staff room for quite some time. He found her there with her eyes red as she wiped at her cheeks, sitting on a bench.

Louie had carefully approached her then and handed her a drink. She sadly smiled and thanked him.

“Dane said to give this to you,” he let her know as he sat next to her.

“Of course, they all know,” Callie bitterly chuckled as she sniffles. “Are they still outside?”

“Gadreel and Germain said they’ll take you home, and Dane’s my ride. Fig… he left a couple of minutes ago.” It was obvious that she had been crying as she wiped her cheeks again with a handkerchief, but Louie felt like he had to ask, “Are you alright?”

Callie sighed but nodded. “I will be, yeah,” she muttered. “Things just didn’t go the way I planned, so the waterworks are on right now.”

“I’m guessing you weren’t able to say what you wanted?”

“No,” she answered. “Apparently he gave his ex girlfriend a second chance. And there I thought I was the reason he got out of the slump. It’s pretty stupid, huh? After all that’s happened, I actually thought it was because he liked me back.”

“It's not stupid, Callie,” Louie said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“I let myself get led on,” she admitted. “I did so many things for him, and when he finally showed an ounce of reciprocity, I got my hopes up. Maybe I’ve been too available for him, you know? I think… I think I need to let this go.” She wiped as another tear slid down the corner of her nose. “I need to get some space so I can think. I’ve been stupid for too long.”

“Is there anything we can help you with?” Louie softly asked, his eyebrows furrowed at the sight of Callie looking so heartbroken.

“Can you just… not mention anything to him?” she asked. “I just want to process this on my own, and if Fig finds out, he'll just try to talk to me about it and I’m sure it’ll be more awkward—even for all of you.”

“We won't tell him. It’s not ours to tell anyway,” Louie promised her, knowing full well that Gadreel could overhear their conversation and was most likely being forced to relay it to Germain and Gadreel.

And that's why when Saturday rolled in, everyone went to work as usual. There were no talks about what happened yesterday, but Fig did receive a look of disapproval from Dane as he came into work after his girlfriend kissed him goodbye at the door.

“What?” Fig asked, seeing his expression.

“Nothing,” Dane murmured under his breath. It was obviously not “nothing.”

“Look, I know you don’t like her, but she’s actually pretty great,” Fig said.

“She cheated on you with a couple of other dudes, kept it from you, and tried to make you feel like it was your fault,” Dane pointed out.

As those were facts that came out of Fig's mouth when he was ranting about the Fae just a few days ago, he couldn’t argue. Instead, he argued, “She said she won’t do it again.”

Dane sighed. In their years of friendship, he had learnt that Fig had a tendency to jump from one relationship to another without really thinking. The demon was smart in his own ways, but he couldn’t tell a bad relationship from a good one even if it was blatantly flashing big red warning signs. He had never really listened to Dane's—or anyone's—advice on relationships either, so Dane knew there was no use trying to talk to him about it. So instead or arguing further, he turned to call everyone's attention.

“Announcement,” he exclaimed, and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him. “Everyone can take Monday off. That’s it. Announcement done.” As everyone went back to work after that short proclamation, Dane approached Louie who was setting up the tables.

“You really sure about this?” he asked the human in a whisper as Fig passed by to go to the staff room.

“Yup,” Louie nodded. “I already packed some clothes and toiletries for the trip. I’m not sure what else is needed for camping, though, since I’ve never experienced one. Should I bring… I don’t know, tools?”

“Just clothes will be fine,” Dane assured him. “I’ll pick you up early tomorrow then?”

“Sounds good,” Louie smiled at him.

Meanwhile, Fig headed straight to the kitchen as soon as he finished changing into his work clothes. Gadreel and Germain only silently exchanged looks as he made a beeline straight to Callie.

“Hey, Callie,” he beamed at her as she was organizing the pantry.

“Hey,” she greeted without looking.

“I was thinking,” Fig leaned his elbow on the shelf. “We have Monday off, so do you want to hang out tomorrow? I can bring drinks.”

“Shouldn’t you be hanging out with your girlfriend on your day off?” she asked.

“Well, she's out on a business trip this weekend, and—”

All of a sudden, Fig felt someone grip at the back of his collar. He turned around to see Gadreel towering over him with an expressionless face.

Unable to read the room, Fig smiled at him and began to say, “Hey, want to hang—hey, what are you—" but Gadreel easily dragged him out of the pantry.

“Get back to work,” was all the angel said amidst his complaints.

“Geez, fine,” Fig glared at him, straightening his shirt. “Why the hell does that guy have a stick up his butt so early in the morning?” he asked Germain as he passed by. The vampire didn’t respond and only kept slicing the vegetables before him.

Callie turned to give a smile to Gadreel in thanks as Fig exited the kitchen. The angel nodded at her before going back to his own station.

***

To say that Louie was anxious was an understatement. He was barely able to get a wink of sleep that Saturday night, and before he knew it, it was already Sunday morning and he had to get ready for the camping trip. He had been so sure when he told Dane that he was willing to go, but all that confidence seemed to have faded away as the minutes effortlessly ticked by.

There were a couple of reasons he was nervous about. For one, he had never been in a camping trip. He had heard of those, sure, but he had never actually had the opportunity to be in one. For all his human brain knew, camping involved the woods, which involved a variety of animals—including dangerous once that could snap a human's delicate neck. Aside from very simple self-defense techniques, Louie knew he was no match for the wildlife that resided there.

The second was the fact that he was about to spend an entire day with Dane's parents and older sister. Dane and his mother were kind and welcoming, but it was his father that Louie was scared of. There was something about the way his judging eyes made him seem unapproachable and difficult to please. “Much like Gadreel,” Louie had thought. Although, he had gotten used to the angel's demeanor and he now seemed way more harmless than Dane's father. It also didn’t help that Dane came from a family with old money, which meant they had certain standards.

The third, and definitely not the least thing he was nervous about, was that he had to maintain his cover not just as Dane's boyfriend, but also as a werewolf. It was ridiculous, to say the least, that he was even trying to pass off as a werewolf. One look at how clumsy he was, and one prolonged touch of his skin, and it would be obvious that he was merely a human being.

All of these contributed to the decline of Louie's confidence. It reached to a point that he changed his clothes four times just because he didn’t know which attire would be appropriate for camping, and at the same time, make him look good in front of Dane's affluent family. By the time he got into Dane's car, his hands were trembling and cold as he struggled to put on his seat belt.

“You okay?” Dane glanced at him as he started the car.

“Yeah, just a bit…” Louie nervously chuckled as the belt finally clicked. He sat back and started opening and closing his fists to make the blood come back to his fingers.

“Are your hands okay? Did you hurt them?” Dane asked, looking concerned as he started driving.

Louie, noticing what he had been doing with his hands, stopped and placed them on his knees. “I’m fine, just a bit nervous,” he admitted. To his surprise, Dane took his right hand off the wheel and put it palm-up towards him.

“Let me see,” Dane said.

Louie hesitantly placed his left hand on Dane's offered hand. “Oh wow, your hands are cold!” Dane exclaimed as he closed his fingers around Louie's. “Give me the other one as well,” he said, and Louie obliged.

The warmth from Dane's skin admittedly made him feel a lot better, like having his personal heater. Dane held both his hands and rested them on Louie's leg. “You look nice, by the way,” he smiled at him.

Louie looked down at the outfit he ended up with, which was made up of a long-sleeved button-up shirt and a v-neck sweater. “I’m overdressed,” he said, comparing it to Dane's plain shirt.

“You’re not overdressed, I just like to dress lightly. If anything, my parents would like your clothes more than mine,” Dane said, giving his hands a little squeeze. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. You already know our story, and you’re a genuinely nice person. I’m sure they’ll like you.”

A strained smile appeared on Louie’s lips as he tried to believe Dane's words. He wasn’t even completely sure why it all mattered so much; why he was so nervous to make a good impression, as if it was important to him for the werewolf's family to like him. He and Dane weren’t even in a real relationship to begin with.

As they continued with their hour-long trip, they discussed more about what usually happened during camping trips, and then they began to talk about their coworkers in the restaurant. Dane shared a couple of stories from way before Louie joined the crew. A few about Fig's tumultuous relationships, and that one time his hair was shaved of as part of a dare. How Germain used to be a snobby rich vampire who could barely control his blood-lust, and his unusual transition into a gossipy, talkative cook who could finally eat a variety of food other than blood. A couple about Callie suddenly running away or hiding whenever Fig would come close, back when she was new. That one time Gadreel had to serve in Heaven and returned with some kind of liquid, which led to the story of how the angel actually got drunk in front of other people for the first and last time.

Louie enjoyed hearing about them so much that he didn’t even realize his anxieties had slowly faded away, even as the buildings slowly turned into thick, tall trees. That was until Dane had to let go of Louie's hands to park the car, turned to him and said, “We're here.”

Louie took one look around and his heart suddenly went a hundred miles per minute. It also didn’t help that his hands suddenly felt bare now that he wasn’t holding onto Dane's. “You… said you have a small cottage in the woods,” he muttered as his eyes looked up at the not-so-modest-looking villa in front of him. There were already two cars parked out front.

“I did,” Dane said, following Louie's gaze with confusion in his eyes. “Oh, I guess everyone's here. Are you ready?”

Louie took a deep breath. He was already there, so there was no more backing out. “Let's go,” he nodded.