Trespassing Into The Alpha's Heart

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Oh, my God!" Isabelle all but exclaimed as she shrugged the boy's arm off her and hurried towards me. "You're alive!"

          My eyebrows shot up at her words, and the few customers that were scattered around on various tables clearly heard as well because they glanced between the brunette and I curiously. The boy draped around Isabelle even looked taken back but stayed close to her side as they approached.

          It was just my luck that Eri was in the back preparing dessert for a young group of boys seated in the middle of the coffee shop. There was nowhere for me to run this time and my feet seemed to be frozen to the floor so I couldn't even if I wanted to.

          The marble counter was our only barrier when Isabelle and the boy were stood in front of me, his arm around her waist this time, but it didn't feel like enough. Logically, I knew Isabelle wasn't going to throw me over her shoulder or anything barbaric of the sort, and our first encounter may have been when I was forced to watch her have a showdown with Talon, but he was still her brother. Nothing was stopping her from giving him a call, telling him she'd found me, and watching as he dragged me back to Hell.

          "You really do like making grand entrances, don't you?" I commented, not unkindly as I offered Isabelle an awkward smile.

          Isabelle seemed suddenly aware that we were standing in a public place with actual people in earshot, and her expression morphed into one of embarrassment. "Sorry," she apologised, her voice substantially lower. "I just can't believe you're standing here. Like, in Pine Hill. Alive."

          "Yeah, well, the Witness Protection Program hasn't returned any of my calls so in the meantime I'm disguising myself as a cashier slash waitress," I responded. "How am I doing so far?"

          "A lot better than Talon, that's for sure," Isabelle said, and I felt my chest tighten. "Your disappearance helped my brother finally lose the plot."

          The boy beside Isabelle, who we had unintentionally been ignoring, raised both eyebrows as he stared at me. "Wait, you're Avalon?"

          I nodded my head, getting used to everyone and their mother in this town knowing of my existence even though I only actually knew the name of several people. "The one and only," I answered.

          "It's nice to meet you. I'm Jared," he introduced himself, stretching his free arm over the counter to shake my hand, which I hesitantly accepted with my uninjured one. "Isabelle's, uh. . . boyfriend."

          I arched a brow. "Really? You don't sound too sure."

          Isabelle glanced at Jared before returning her gaze to me. "It's complicated. I'm sure you remember that argument Talon and I had. Well, his disapproval of this whole, going to coffee shops together and draping our arms around each other, thing, was the cause of that. Albeit the theatrics were a little unnecessary," the sixteen-year-old admitted. "I'm sorry you had to see that, by the way. Definitely not my finest hour."

          "And I'm sure I was very difficult to live with seeing as that ordeal wasn't my finest anything, so apology accepted," I said.

          And then something flashed in Isabelle's vibrant irises as they bore into mine. "What are you doing here, Avalon?" she asked me, and she may as well have been whispering. I noticed that no-one was actually looking over any more so it didn't really matter, but I appreciated the discretion.

          "Before you answer that, I think I'm going to go and take a seat in the back," Jared announced. He placed a kiss against Isabelle's caramel head of hair and then did as he said.