Chapter 4

“Would you like to have dinner with me?”

Zayla was stunned by the question. For one, she was a stranger to Kayden. Two, she already had this impression of him being shy around new people. His stance around her, although he stood straight, still seemed to waver compared to how he exuded a certain charisma while he talked to his two friends who had gone towards the direction where Jackson ran off.

“Oh, well, I…” She started fiddling with her fingers, quite unsure how to go about the situation. She didn’t know if she should drag this moment out more before agreeing because she didn’t know much about the guy. All he had given so far were curt but straightforward answers. Nothing to build a personality outside of being a stranger. But still, there was this sense of serenity she felt. Like she instantly trusted him with her life, which she found odd being the overly cautious one amongst her friends and colleagues due to having a huge trust issue she had to deal with every time she met someone new.

“It’s alright if you don’t want to, Ms. Zayla. I would say no to me, a total stranger, after an incident like that with Jackson.” Kayden was scratching at the back of his neck as he said this, trying to fight off, showing how disappointed he was at her hesitance. But then he showed a ghost of a smile, even if it was temporary.

“No, it’s not that!” She immediately waved her hands in front of her like she was stopping him from having any other thoughts.

“Then, would you grant me this honor to have dinner with you, Ms. Zayla?” He asked again, the smile growing more pronounced, making him look even more handsome than he already was.

Zayla took a deep breath to compose herself and thought, “Dinner could get me to know him more.”

“Alpha!” Two booming voices approaching stopped her from saying yes, and she let out an exasperated sigh.

The two new people, who Zayla also thought were handsome, had their eyes on her as if trying to read her mind.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude to your friends.” Zayla laughed off the awkward feeling of being intensely stared at, only to stop abruptly as no one found the situation funny enough to join her.

“Zayla, these are Gunner Finley and Ryder Withers. My, uh, friends. As you said.” He momentarily looked over his shoulder to acknowledge the two new presences that he wanted gone for a few more minutes, at least. Or the whole evening.

“Hi, you can just call me Will. Nice to meet you both.” She extended her hands once again, but this time with much more certainty in her movements. As she shook each of their hands, she couldn’t help but notice the stark difference between the two men, although they also had something similar that she couldn’t exactly point out. Maybe it was their muscular build or the way they carried themselves.

Ryder, although big in stature, seemed to have this gentle aura that he carried. Meanwhile, Gunner seemed to be freer, rougher, or just a little more standoffish compared to the two. But all the while, her first impression of them wasn’t so bad. She thought that even if she was only staying in Portland for a few days, it wouldn’t hurt to have a friend or two while she was here. Besides, it was better to have those who were more familiar with the place help her find her way around.

“Will. Alright. Well, I hope you don’t mind me asking something?” Ryder slowly stepped forward, cautious about the distance between Kayden and Zayla, as he felt a certain kind of energy between the two but shrugged it off.

“Sure, ask ahead, please.” Zayla relaxed her body, finally being able to escape the vehemence that was Kayden.

“How do you know him?” Gunner’s voice lowered down a little as if what he was asking was a top secret between their nearly huddled bodies.

“We just met today. Saw me talking to someone and asked if I was okay,” Zayla started to tell Gunner how Kayden approached her after they ran off after Jackson.

“So you do know him?” This time, it was Ryder who spoke up but sounded a little angry at what Zayla stated.

“He means Jackson,” Kayden gently interjected, lightly touching her wrist to assure her everything was fine. “And no. She doesn’t exactly know him. He stalked her while she was exploring the area,” he sternly added to Ryder as if he was scolding a child.

“My apologies, ma’am.” Ryder dipped his head in shame while apologizing to Zayla and stepping further back, not wanting to cause any more misunderstandings.

“Sorry about the sudden interrogation,” Gunner quickly followed, sensing the sudden tension in the air. “We were just patrolling since it’s our duty to guard boundaries.”

“So Jackson is not from here? He seemed quite familiar with the area to me,” she mused lowly, a question also forming inside her head.

“You can ask us questions too, Will. We could at least return the favor by letting us know about Jackson a little,” Gunner continued as he heard her mutter lowly.

“Oh no. I was just curious what you meant by ‘patrolling the boundaries.’ Are you officers here, or…?” Zayla didn’t know how else to finish the sentence because they surely didn’t look like local officers in town. Honestly speaking, they looked more like gangsters who could win any fistfight.

“Hmmm… Or.” Gunner laughed, not knowing how else to explain that what he meant by ‘patrolling’ was in the sense of a wolf pack and not any human-related task.

“Gangster, then,” Zayla thought. But she couldn’t bring herself to really care if they were gangsters. Because one of them had hurt her so far. Well, except for Ryder, who seemed too uptight. She was a stranger, after all, so she didn’t expect everyone to be civil or welcoming like Kayden and Ryder.

As if at a standstill, all three men turned serious as they stared at each other. Zayla wanted to chuckle somehow because they looked like they were communicating through their minds. But she chose not to, instead remembering how Ryder seemed to easily take offense to strangers. She didn’t want to disappoint one of Kayden’s friends after all. So she stood there awkwardly, her eyes darting to her feet and the crumpled leaves on the ground, wondering if Kayden would bring up their topic of having dinner together before his two friends arrived.