"Rehan."
After not hearing that name for years, it still has the power to make their expressions grow grim as both Erick and Roel felt troubled.
Erick leaned back against his seat, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Seriously. I had wished for him to die but he's still here," he complained. "Why, after all these years, does he suddenly appear now?"
He then leaned closer to Bastian and asked hurriedly, "What else did the vampire mention? Was there any mention of that bastard, Harding?"
Bastian gave a weak smile, as if he was a bit ashamed of this failure. "No. I'm not even sure whether he's still alive or not," he admitted.
Erick rolled his eyes. "He's definitely still alive," he snorted disdainfully.
Bastian just shrugged.
Roel rubbed his chin with his pointer finger and thumb. "This is quite troublesome," he commented, looking thoughtful.
He looked over at Erick and said, "We'd better inform the Alpha about this." He turned to Bastian. "And if possible, we'd like to invite the Cesaro pack to this meeting."
Bastian nodded. "I'll go back home and inform my Alpha about this," he agreed.
Soon after, Bastian's orders of three sets of onion rings finally arrived. The three of them quickly finished off their meal before going their separate ways.
-----
That late evening, Erick was at the training field where he and his other packmates used to train when they first shifted. Nowadays it was still being used as a training ground and he purposely chose that night to come because he knew that there wouldn't be any training.
He took a deep breath before stretching his muscles and body. He then went to run a few laps before sitting down on the ground, resting. He took off his shirt, showing his well-defined toned abs with sweat dripping down his body.
He used a towel to wipe his sweat from his body, head and face.
He then laid down on his back as he looked up at the night sky. Three times in a week, he would go here where he would run for hours or just do some shadow sparring. He has been doing this for years, hence why his fighting experience has become smoother and thorough. Although Amber was aware that he had been doing this, she wasn't aware of the true reason. Erick did not want her to feel guilty or worried.
The true reason as to why he has done so was to suppress his mating instinct. No one knows how painful it was to put out his mating instinct as there were many times he nearly 'jumped' on Amber to mate with her. Not only does it hurt his 'third leg' but also his mind. He had once asked Paccia on how to control his 'urges' but she said that it was quite difficult as he may receive some backlash from it.
One night, he decided to just tire himself out by going for laps and other strenuous exercises. Surprisingly, that had worked. And he had done so for years. And it was fortunate that there hasn't been a case where shifters would go to a 'heat' since the last time 'heat' had occurred, it was decades ago.
He let out a sigh. Shortly after, he could feel something inside him, particularly 'down there' started to stir up once more. He quickly jumped up and groaned in frustration.
"Still feeling frustrated?"
Erick whirled around and saw Hamish approaching him.
Erick frowned. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
Hamish shrugged. "I went to your house, wanting to talk about your meet up with Bastian. But Amber told me that you're here and here I am," he said simply.
Erick ran a hand through his wet hair, sighing again.
"Still got a lot of pent-up energy?" Hamish asked.
Erick just growled in warning at Hamish.
Hamish let out a light chuckle. "Let's go," he said. He then took off his clothes and began to shift.
Erick's eyes widened. And before he could say a word, Kaius had already appeared in front of him. Kaius' claws clamped around Erick's neck, pushing the latter off the ground. And Kaius then sent a kick towards Erick's abdomen, sending him flying across the field.
Erick gritted his teeth from the throbbing impact. He quickly changed his position in the air, pushing his hands down onto the ground to slow down his speed. He continued to grit his teeth from the pain hurting from his hands. He knew that it would be bleeding soon.
Once he had stopped, he swiftly stood up and looked down at his bleeding hands. Soon after, the bleeding had stopped and his hands miraculously turned back to normal as if it wasn't hurting before. He quickly stripped off the rest of his clothes and shifted.
"You have some guts, Kaius," Dane chuckled in his raspy voice.
Kaius just kept quiet. Seconds later, it seems like the ground was trembling and shaking, as if there was a small quake. Tremors and vibrations swept through the field as the two shifters started to exchange blows after blows. Due to them not avoiding each other's punches, there were more tremors spread out to their surroundings as dust flew around them.
Hours later, the two of them finally stopped as they crouched in front of each other, both panting hard. Seeing that they were done sparring against each other, the two of them slowly shifted back to their human selves.
The two shifters collapsed on the ground, side by side.
Erick weakly lifted his fist towards Hamish and said, "Thanks, bro."
Hamish returned a feeble fist bump and said, "Anytime, bro."
-----
Daycare was over and all the children had gone home. Amber was currently rearranging the books in the bookshelves and cleaning the room when her colleague, Ms. Lizzie walked over and grabbed her arm, looking excited. Amber was startled at the sudden hold that she whirled around in confusion.
"What's wrong, Ms. Lizzie?" she asked in concern.
"The new owner is here!" she announced excitedly. "And oh… my gosh! He's so good looking!"
Amber cocked an eyebrow. "Good looking?" she repeated. "Is this the adopted son of the previous owner?"
Ms. Lizzie nodded, grinning. "Yes, yes! And the principal is calling everyone over to meet the new owner so let's go!" she said, pulling on Amber's hand.
Amber giggled. "Give me a few minutes to finish this up and I'll join you."
Ms. Lizzie nodded before heading off to the teacher's lounge room.
Shortly after, Amber walked in the teacher's lounge to find the room was already filled with the other teachers. There weren't a lot of teachers being employed at the daycare since it was a small business. At most, there were at least thirteen of them being employed there, including the labourers.
She looked around and then her eyes landed at the three people standing at one side of the room. Mrs. Paccito, the previous owner of the daycare, was talking and smiling with the principal and the young man beside her. Mrs. Paccito was a kind woman who was not married, still in her seventies. She used to be engaged when she was young but her fiance was killed during a car accident years back. And she has not been the same until she adopted a son years later.
She herself was an orphan and had decided to adopt a son, rather than looking for a husband. The boy she had adopted was only two years old when they first met each other at the local orphanage. Mrs. Paccito fell in love with the young boy and decided to adopt him.
It has been twenty-eight years since Mrs. Paccito had adopted the young boy named Ronan Paccito, who had also taken his adopted mother's last name as his.
As Amber studied the young man in front of her, she had to admit that he was quite good looking with dark brown wavy hair with clear chocolate brown eyes. Deep dimples appeared on both of his cheeks when he grinned, making him look more handsome as the corner of his eyes crinkled with lines of laughter. His body was toned, indicating that he was someone who looked after his body quite well.
Yet, her Erick was more handsome than him.
As if he noticed someone was looking at him, he looked up and his eyes met Amber's. The principal, who was talking, noticed Ronan looking somewhere else and looked over as well. Mrs. Paccito, too.
The principal then said something to both Paccitos. And soon after, Amber was surprised to see the three of them walking towards her.
Before she could discreetly leave, they had already appeared in front of her.
"Mrs. Paccito, Mr. Paccito, this is Amber Keene, one of our teachers here at the daycare," the principal introduced.
Amber held out her hand, nodded hello to the Paccitos. After shaking hands with the previous owner, it was his turn to shake hands with her.
When they shook hands, the both of them were a bit startled to feel sparks in their hands. They then pretended to be oblivious, as if they did not notice what had happened.
"So, we've finally met, Ms. Keene," Ronan commented, smiling, showing his deep dimples. "I've heard many great stories about you."
Amber smiled. "I bet it wasn't much, Mr. Paccito," she replied modestly. "Thank you very much, though."
"Well, I hope that we will be able to work together just well," he said, still smiling.