ERIK

After a few days, Raven’s heat came to an end. In that time, I gathered the courage to confess my feelings. Nick had been all talk and weird about his plan, but in reality, it was simple and normal. A date with a confession at the end, and I quote, ‘End it with a big kiss in his bed’. The last part I was unsure about, but the rest was just perfect. There were a ton of places—romantic places—I could take him to, but I decided on a book shop. We both had a love for them, and we could talk about it as an ice breaker. Then a drink at Deja Brew and top it with a dinner reservation at Raven’s favorite restaurant: The Sushi Twist. I had to thank Lilah for giving me that option. 

The first step was to extend my invitation to Raven. Luckily for me, the omega didn’t skip breakfast today, and I thought the sooner the better. After finishing my meal, I stood and followed Raven, not allowing him to even leave the room, making me gain curious glances from the remaining family present. 

“Hey, Raven. Feeling better?” I asked him with a soft smile.

“Yes. Thank you for your clothes.” Raven said with a soft smile and then blushed. “I mean, thank you for your help. I will give them back to you after a good wash.”

“You can keep them.” I said, smiling.

“No, they are yours.” He said with furrowed brows, confused.

“I want you to keep them, please.” I insisted.

“Okay, I will.” Raven said, still unsure.

“So, do you have any plans for today?” I asked. No time to waste.

“Not really. Why?” He asked me with curious eyes. I took a deep breath.

“Would you like to go out with me?” I asked with a smile.

“Sure, where?” He said, smiling at me. His blush long gone.

“A book shop. I’ve been meaning to get a new book that came out.” I said, lying about the last part.

“Sounds fun. What time?” He said.

“Is 3 pm good for you?” I asked, and in my mind I kept chanting ‘say yes, say yes’.

“Yes. Sounds good.” He nodded with a smile.

“It’s a date then.” I said with a wink, and there was an ‘oop’ from someone at the dining table.

“A date?” Raven’s blush made an appearance again.

“Yes, a date.” I said with a smile and walked away, leaving a blushing Raven behind. Step one: done. 

After inviting Raven on the date, I decided to head for Soren’s office. I had something to discuss with the alpha. I walked to his office and knocked on the door. Hoping that he was still there and hadn’t gone to do his beta duties. I heard a slight ‘come inside’ and opened the door. Soren was sitting on his chair while a blushing Esme stood next to him. I held back from laughing. Most likely, they were having an intimate moment. 

“Sorry to interrupt. May I have a word with you, sir?” I said politely.

“Sure.” Soren said and then looked at his mate, leaving a soft kiss on his hand. “See you later, darling.”

“Have a good day, my love.” Esme said with a smile and then walked past me and out the door, leaving us alone. Soren motioned for me to sit.

“Did I interrupt you?” I asked with a grin.

“A little yes.” He chuckled.

“Sorry, I just wanted to hurry before you left for work.” I said with an apologetic smile.

“It’s okay. What’s the matter?” He asked.

“Sir, I would like to thank you.” I said.

“For?” He asked, confused.

“For opening my eyes, for not letting me leave. For telling me to give it a try. I have feelings for your son, and I plan on confessing to him today. I also plan on making him my omega, but I wanted to have your permission first. Will you let me take your son as my omega?” I waited for his answer. He looked at me, firm and serious, but then started to laugh. I was confused.

“Oh, Erik. You truly are such a polite man. So old-fashioned too.” He said after laughing and then kept his composure, looking again at me. “Of course, I give you my permission to mate with my son.”

“Thank you, sir. If you hadn’t given me that talk the other day about how you mated with Esme. I wouldn’t be here today.” I mentioned, and he nodded.

“Talking about Esme, he is going to be very happy about this. After what happened, he has been feeling sad, but this will help his mood increase.” Soren said with a deep sigh.

“I’m glad the news will help his mood.” I said nodding and then stood up. He followed. I offered my hand for a shake, and he corresponded. “Thank you again.”

“No need to thank me.” He said, shaking my hand with a big smile. “Welcome to the family, Erik.”

“Thank you, sir.” I said, letting go of his hand, and then jokingly said. “Or should I call you Dad now?”

“Whatever you want to call me, son.” He said with a chuckle, and I laughed with him. Step two: Done.

Now it’s all about the date. 

RAVEN

The nerves were eating me up, but I was also excited about my date with Erik. I had gone to my room and made a mess of it trying to pick what to wear. I wanted to look good for him. Impress him. ‘Look sexy, too.’ Rion said, and I nodded until I finally settled for some tight leather pants and a purple crop top with a black blazer on top. Now I had to think about the hair part. Down, up, tied, or semi-tied. God/dess it was so hard to pick.

‘Why are you so nervous anyway? It’s not our first date with Erik.’ Rion mentioned.

‘It IS our first date. Our first official one. It’s the first time the word ‘date’ was said.’ I explained.

‘Okay, fine. By name is the first one, but everything will be alright. You are going to have a great time.’ Rion said, encouraging me.

‘With Erik, it’s always a great time.’ I said with a smile.

‘You think he will confess his feelings?’ Rion asked curiously.

‘I sure hope so. Or I will have to get it out of him.’ I said, decided. Even if Erik didn’t tell me today. I would make him do it. I knew he felt something. The almost kiss the other day was proof of that.

‘Well said, Raven.’ Rion roared proudly.

‘Now up or down?’ I said, asking my animal self as I looked at my reflection in the mirror, moving around my hair.

~oOoOo~

Erik had been waiting for me outside. He looked more handsome than usual. He wore fancier clothes, and he even styled his hair with some gel. So glad I wasn’t the only one putting effort into my outfit. Luckily for me, my clothes took Erik’s breath away. On the way to my car, I noticed a few glances he gave to my pants. I chose well. After that, we arrived at The Literary Nest and went inside, checking out all the sections. Looking at all the genders and asking each other curious questions about what we liked reading and in books. Somehow, we ended up in the romance section, the smut section specifically.

“You ever read smut?” Erik asked curiously.

“Me? Sometimes I guess.” I answered with a shrug.

“Really? What kind?” He asked.

“What kind of what?” I asked as I was looking at some shelves with romance books. I swear, some had the weirdest names.

“I know there are genres inside smut, you know, like monster porn.” Erik mentioned, and I let out a gasp.

“How do you know about that?” I turned to him in shock and then squinted my eyes at him. “Wait, have you read monster porn?”

“Me? No. No. But one of my sister-in-laws does. I found one of her books one time.” Erik shook his head. “I was traumatized.”

“I can’t imagine you reading that. You must have been dying.” I giggled just thinking about the face he made back then.

“I was. Now, do you read that or not?” He asked again. Should I come clean or not? Maybe not yet.

“No comments.” I said.

“So you do?” Erik asked with a smirk, walking a step closer to me, cornering me against a bookshelf.

“No comments I said.” I said, pushing him away softly with my hand on his chest. Escaping him and walking down the romance section. “Let’s go to the horror section.”

Our conversation turned more passionate in the horror section, and we both ended up buying some books. I fought with Erik because he didn’t allow me to pay for mine. He said it was a gift, and I ended up taking it. It was a fight I was going to lose. When we left the book shop, Erik suggested going to Deja Brew for a drink. Hopefully, we managed to get a table inside, and Erik stood up to get us drinks. Once again, not letting me pay. 

“I invited you. I pay, okay?” Erik insisted, and I sighed.

“Fine. Get me a caramel macchiato with an espresso shot.” I said, sitting back on the chair.

“Will do, kitty.” He said with a wink and walked to the counter. Leaving me shocked. Had I heard that right?

‘Did he just pet name us?’ I asked Rion in shock. 

‘He sure did. Raven, don’t mess this up.’ Rion warned me, and I wasn’t.

Erik returned with the drinks, sitting back down in his seat in front of me. We talked for a while, surprisingly, Erik asked about my job, and I told him the project I was working on. He paid attention to everything I said, asking questions about design and about past works. It was nice. Not everyone liked talking about jobs, but I loved mine, and Erik asked for more details about it, which made me happy. I asked about his job too, and he explained what he did at his parents' company. We chatted for a while until we finished our drinks.

With our cups empty, it was already getting dark outside. We walked around town for a bit until we stopped in front of a familiar restaurant, my favorite, The Sushi Twist. I turned to look at the alpha, and he was smiling at me.

“Dinner time, kitty.” Erik said, using the pet name once again. I loved how he called me that.

“OMG! How did you know? I love this restaurant.” I said excitedly. I hadn’t been to the restaurant in ages.

“I know more about you than you think, Rae.” He said with a smirk, and I almost fell for it, but the way he said my name was familiar. 

“Lilah told you, didn’t she?” I asked him with a raised brow. 

“Busted. She told me.” He said with a chuckle, holding his hands up at me, admitting defeat.

“Knew it.” I giggled. 

The waiter took us to our reserved table, and after we looked at the menu, we ordered a bunch of sushi. Erik was also a fish lover like me, so we ordered a plate of sashimi as well. The waiter looked at us with concern.

“Are you sure you want to order all of that? It’s a lot of food.” Ryan, the waiter, asked. Unsure about our order.

“Yes, that’s it, Ryan. Thank you.” Erik said to him with a gentle smile.

“Okay. I will get you your drinks.” Ryan said and then left us alone.

“I have never seen someone order as much food as me.” I mentioned.

“I guess you needed someone to, as people say nowadays: match your freak,” Erik said with a wink at the end. 

“Oh god! Don’t say that.” I said, unable to hold back from laughing. I never expected a gentleman like Erik to use internet slang.

“I made you laugh, my mission is complete.” He said, puffing his chest proudly.

“You are such a dummy, Erik.” I said once I finally stopped laughing. 

“Only for you.” He said with a wink.

‘Holy shit! He is flirting with us. Hurry, flirt back.’ Rion said in my mind.

“So you are my dummy?” I asked flirty.

“If you want me to.” Erik said with a flirty smile.

Our waiter brought the drinks before I could say something else, and then Erik changed the topic. We talked about his family, he told me about his brothers, and when our food arrived, we talked in between bites. When our plates were empty, we ended up buying some mochi for dessert. I waited patiently for Erik to tell me his feelings, but once we were inside my car and on the way back to the manor, I started losing hope. 

‘There’s still time.’ Rion encouraged me.

Once we arrived back at the manor, I noticed an unfamiliar car parked outside. I didn’t know we had guests. As soon as we walked inside the manor, Robin was there. She gave us an awkward look.

“What is it, Robin?” I asked, confused and curious.

“We have some guests.” My older sister said, and then turned to Erik. “Well, guests for you, Erik.”

“What?” Erik said with shock.

“In the living room.” She mentioned.

Erik was confused, but walked the way to the living room. I followed him with curiosity. The alpha came to a sudden stop at the door, making me bump into his back. I felt him tense up as he looked at the guests. Curious, I peeked from his side. There in the room with my parents sat a couple with the same genes as Erik. A couple that I assumed were Erik’s parents.