Fated

Chapter 31: The Pre-Date

Xander's POV:

I didn't expect her to be so understanding. It wasn't that I wasn't aware she was seemingly flawless in every other sense, I just didn't understand how she could forgive me so quickly. That only meant I had to try harder to deserve someone so special.

We walked hand in hand down the trail that followed the little creek but she would stop occasionally and look at something for a long time before turning on her camera and taking a picture. She'd often move to the side and crouch down then lean side to side until the she actually took a picture. It actually wasn't just one picture. She'd take several and change her angle just barely before moving on.

Admittedly, it was taking much longer to get to the cabin than I thought it would, but I didn't mind. She'd show me the photos afterwards and seeing the world through her eyes was much more beautiful than any way I ever saw it. I leaned against the tree as she paused again, crouched down over the creek with one foot on each side of it slowly moving her camera seemingly centimeters and taking another photo.

"Sorry," she said, standing upright and looking through the photos she took. "You're probably regretting telling me to bring my camera at this point," she said, smiling shyly and looking over at me. "No one likes to go shooting with me. It takes longer than people think."

"I'm not regretting it at all," I said honestly. "I like watching you work. It's interesting. I'm not exactly artistic."

"Right," she said, walking over to me while staring down at her camera. "Science, right?"

"Right," I nodded. "In another life."

"Do you ever regret that you became an Alpha instead of going into science?" She asked, holding her camera out for me.

I took it and glanced down at the picture. I knew she was good but it was a different experience being in the same place as her and appreciating the beauty of our territory without every seeing it like this. The picture was of the creek and the trees but it wasn't just that. The creek curved around and led up to the green trees that stood tall with the light filtering in rays through the leaves, some reflecting off the creek and others lighting up little flowers sporadically surrounding the creek, or at least, it looked sporadic to me before but the angle at which she took the photo made them look like they followed some kind of pattern and curve. Damn, she was good.

"No," I answered. "I was interested in it but... Only to the degree in which it would help my pack. We have to make money somehow and although I hoped to take over later, after I could go to school and be able to bring some money in for us, I think I'm lucky I got the pack even though I was young."

"How does the pack make money?" She asked curiously.

"We have an entire area to the south that's farmlands," I said. "It's managed by most of the Fae in the pack and some wolves. We also have a ranch near to the farmlands where we have cattle, chicken, pigs. It's where we get a lot of income and also feed ourselves. We rarely go outside the pack for food. We also have a medical clinic in Everett that's open to humans and supernaturals alike, though obviously no humans know about the supernatural aspect. Remember how I said we function as one body? Everyone has a job. Some people handle the human side of taxes, some handle our water supply, some handle the ranch or the farmlands. Everyone has a place and we all work together."

"Wow," she said, raising her eyebrows. "I haven't seen any of that."

"That's because the packhouse is closest to our most vulnerable. Our older members, our younger members, our members with disabilities that affect them to the point they can't defend themselves easily, our members with young children. We're at the core of the territory so that if we get attacked, the ones most vulnerable aren't on the outskirts and easily taken down. The packhouse has a safe-house in the lower basements for the ones that can't fight."