Predator | 20

The next day April was sitting in her car and driving to a nearby diner her brother had recommended to her. Since they had nothing more than emptiness in the fridge and both were too lazy to go shopping, Eric had told her you eat at Rosewood's top and most probably one and only diner.

According to her brother, they served great food and their burgers were drool worthy. Her stomach kept growling during the whole drive and April hoped her brothers words held true what it said.

Eric and her talked until late hours about almost everything, but mostly about their parents. She was still a bit sleepy as she didn't get enough sleep last night.

April was actually pretty glad that she'd some time to spent alone. The last days were quite hectic with the visit to Viktor's mansion and learning about Rosewood's secret cage fights. Not to forget, that her brothers wasn't human anymore.

But this day, she wanted to spend her time as normal as possible. Without much stress and problems, the normal human life, in other words.

The drive was quite short and she soon arrived at the parking space of the diner. The place looked larger than she had expected.

Once entering the diner, she was welcomed by a cozy and very comfortable atmosphere. There were a few people at the diner, softly chatting with each other while enjoying their food.

What surprised her, however, was that Nikolaj was among the people. He was sitting the corner of the diner, secluded from the rest of the people. Nikolaj was looking down at his plate, eating silently.

She restrained herself from grinning. Nikolaj looked so normal in his pair of jeans and sweater, it was almost funny. No one would suspect him to be a Lycan, or a cage fighter. He looked like a normal human.

April struggled to decide whether she should go to him or not, but she decided for the latter. He looked like he would enjoy someones company, or so she hoped.

Nikolaj met her gaze when he drank from his glass and noticed her approaching him. His eyes never wavered away from her as she neared his table in slow paced steps.

"Hey," April softly greeted him as she took a seat in front of him. "How are you wounds? Better?" She asked, her tone laced with worry.

Nikolaj's body was in a very bad shape after the fight and the mere image of his back caused her stomach to twist painfully. Lorena truly was powerful.

A slight smile tugged at the corners of his lips, barely visible. "Better," he responded and April smiled back at him.

She remained silent after that. It was so hard to have a proper conversation with Nikolaj. He always seemed to be a secluded man who preferred silence over everything, though it didn't go unnoticed that Nikolaj seemed to be more open right now.

Seconds later the waitress took April's order. There was a comfortable silence between them and she watched him slowly eating his meal. He wasn't long here, April figured, when she saw how full his plate was.

He truly looked better than yesterday. Unlike yesterday, he didn't look exhausted anymore. He looked more lively.

Once the waitress arrived with her burger and her coke, she noticed her nervously glancing at Nikolaj. She recognized fear in the waitress' eyes. April frowned. Was she really scared of him?

April quickly thanked her and received a smile from the young waitress, but didn't dismiss the woman's fear.

She eyed Nikolaj, but didn't seem to notice the woman's fear, or he decided to simply ignore it. Either way, he didn't look bothered by it at all.

"Are they human?" April asked then. She didn't meet many humans since her arrival in Rosewood, she noticed then. What shocked her more, though, was that the thoughts of being around Lycan's didn't bother her that much anymore. If anything, she even felt comfortable around a few of them."Or Lycans?" She went on.

"Humans," he murmured and shot the waitress a quick glance before looking back at April.

April nodded then and took a small bite of her burger. "Do they.. know?" She couldn't help but ask. April wondered if there were more humans like her, who knew that there were inhuman creatures amongst them.

"No," he smiled at her curiosity. "They wouldn't want to live here anymore if they did," Nikolaj explained in a low tone.

April nodded in understanding. Fact is, that once you see Rosewood's true colors, it can be frightening. She wondered how she could cope with all of his, but she was glad that she was able to keep a sane mind.

"Will there be other cage fights?" She couldn't help but ask. April bit her lips nervously when she blurted the question out. Avoiding eye contact, she hoped she wasn't too straight forward with her question.

"Yes," he answered curtly and a look of amusement crossed Nikolaj's face. "Why?" He asked her in a low voice, his stare intense. "Did you enjoy watching it?" He wondered and leaned closer to her.

The delightful smell of him caught April off guard. She lightly shook her head and tried to answer his questions, though it seemed to be an impossible thing to do in that moment. "Just curious, I guess," she breathed heavily.

"I see," he muttered and leaned back. "You handle the whole situation better than I expected you to do," he then spoke.

She laughed silently. It was just what she thought a few moments ago. "I'm still trying to figure out why I didn't freak out yet," she murmured into her glass as she drank several sips from her coke.

Nikolaj, however, heard her words and responded with a light chuckle. He truly seemed different now. Less tense and more lively and definitely more talkative than usual. This made her wonder, once again, why he was like that.

April's eyes drifted from his face down to his plate. Nikolaj's was almost done with eating his food and she realized that he would leave the diner once he takes the last bite of it.

She didn't want him to go. Not when it was the first time she really had a proper conversation with him. For the first time, he was less reserved unlike the last times she saw him and she did like that. She liked it that he was willing to talk to her so freely.

Nikolaj took the last bite of his food before pushing his plate away from him. He eyes her for a few seconds and she knew that he would excuse himself and leave the diner.

She cleared her throat and tried not to be nervous. The nervousness was annoying her to no ends

"Are you busy today?" She asked before changing her mind.

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Sorry for the long wait and the short and stupid chapter, but this was so damn hard to write! I would like to know what you all think of Nikolaj.

Thanks for reading! Please vote and comment if you liked this chapter. :)