Predator | 21

To be honest, April never expected Nikolaj to hop into her car after she'd asked him if he was busy. She rather expected a simple shrug of his shoulders before leaving her alone at the diner, where she would sit alone and embarrassed that she got rejected by him.

But here there were now, together in a car and she was glad how things turned out after she blurted out the question.

Nikolaj was telling her the right directions to god knows where. She didn't question where there were heading to, her mind was still delighted with his presence next to her that she was momentarily unable to think straight.

So April just decided to wait and see where they would drive to. She was okay with being surprised.

"Did you drive to the diner?" April asked suddenly.

There where only a few cars parked near the diner and she wondered if one of them belonged to him. She would have drop him off at the diner again if one indeed belonged to him.

"No," he answered and casted her a sidelong glance. "I ran," he spoke and drifted his eyes away.

"You ran?" April snorted and lifted her eyebrows. Clearly he was joking, she thought.

Though he clearly was a fit man, she doubted than he really run to the diner. He wasn't sweating nor reeking of sweat. He smelled rather good.

"I shifted," Nikolaj clarified when he noticed that April didn't quite understand what he meant by that.

April nodded silently. That sounded believable. Strange, but believable. She remembered the day Shawn shifted behind the trees and how his clothes ripped apart.

She briefly glanced at Nikolaj. He surely stripped off his clothes before shifting. Otherwise, he would be sitting naked from head to toe next to her.

April tried to keep the image of Nikolaj undressing himself before shifting away from her mind. Nonetheless, she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. With the thought swirling through her head, Nikolaj's presence became even more prominent.

"Turn to the right," Nikolaj muttered suddenly and distracted her from her thoughts about him.

April did as he said and drove into a muddy corner until they arrived at a small cottage. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. What were they doing here?

As soon as she parked the car in front of the cottage, both of them got off of the car. April wrapped her arms around herself and followed him into the cottage.

Once inside the cottage, April drifted her gaze through the whole place. It was very small and dark, despite a lamp lightening up the place, but it still gave her a sense of comfort.

It was a two story cottage. The first floor was a living room and kitchen combined. April could see what she supposed was his bedroom, which was on the second floor.

A wooden ladder rested against the wall which Nikolaj surely used to climb up to his bedroom.

Quite frankly, she doubted if it even could be considered as a bedroom as it was barely space enough for a bed and a small closet to fit in. And instead of a door, there were wooden bars.

Then, on the opposite of the so called bedroom was another room, but with a door which she believed was the bathroom.

She noticed him watching her with an unreadable expression. April gave him a smile and followed further into the room.

"You live here?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Hmm," she hummed. Nikolaj made a good job decorating his home despite the small space, April thought. "I thought you were living with Viktor." His mansion was huge and probably had enough rooms for half of Rosewoods population.

Nikolaj responded with a firm shook of his head. "Viktor lives alone, if you exclude a few staff members who reside in the staff rooms just for emergency," he explained.

April snorted and received an odd look form him. What kind of emergency situations, she wondered. That man was a Lycan for crying out loud. The only 'emergency' situation she could think of was a dry throat in the middle of the night.

Nikolaj grabbed a few stacks of firewood which were laying on the ground next to the fireplace. Until now, April didn't notice that he even had a fireplace. He threw the stacks of wood into it and lit the fire.

She strolled towards him and the fireplace and stretched her arms out to warm her hands. It wasn't too cold inside Nikolaj's cottage, but feeling the heat of the fire against her skin felt wonderful and utterly relaxing.

It must have been quite a while since the last time he used the fireplace, April thought. Otherwise, the cottage would be smelling of fire.

April crouched down and sat on the ground, her hands still seeking the warmth of the fireplace. Nikolaj placed a blanket over her shoulders from behind.

She titled her head to the site and smiled. "Thank you," she whispered and wrapped the blanket around herself. It smelled just like him.

Nikolaj sat down next to her and stared into the fire. Despite of not knowing him for too long, she felt quite comfortable in his presence. There was just something about him, that made her want to get to know him better.

"Are you warm enough?"

April smiled at his concern. "I'm fine, thank you."

She bit her lip. Her brother always called noisy for being too curious for her own good. But she just couldn't help it. Once something caught her attention it was hard to let it vanish off her mind.

And right now was just one of these moments where she just couldn't help but be curious about things that were absolutely not her business and her concern.

Deep down she knew she should keep her mouth shut, but once again her curious nature forbid her from doing so.

"You said that you don't live with Viktor," she said almost hesitantly, afraid she asked something she wasn't supposed to ask. If Nikolaj didn't want to speak about it or to be questioned about it, she would stop asking. But it seemed that he didn't mind when he nodded for her to continue. "Why is that? Did you choose to live here alone by yourself or is it something he did force onto you?"

It wasn't hard to imagine that Viktor had something to do with it, forcing him to live in an area secluded from the rest of Rosewoods population. It didn't look like it was his choice to live in a small cottage.

"Viktor likes to have his privacy," was his answer. "And so do I," he finished.

She nodded, though not quite understanding his answer. "I see. So you do prefer to be alone."

"Sometimes. Not alway," he murmured.

"I think I understand that. Sort of. Back at home, I also wanted to be left alone. It was the main reason why I decided to leave my parents and start my own life," she explained to him. "And I guess being independent was another reason why I moved out," she added with a slight smile across her lips.

"You weren't contented with your parents?" He asked.

She sighed heavily. This remembered her of the recent conversation she had with her brother.

"No.. I wasn't. Not really." April leaned her chin against her knees and stared into the fire. Her parents weren't her favorite topic, they never were.

But with the time it bothered her less and less to talk about them. It got easier with the time flying by and growing older. She came to realize that she couldn't forever hold a grudge against something- or someone- that wasn't going to change.

"Your parents weren't good to you?"

"They tried to be good parents. They loved me- me and Eric, but you need to know that my parents were fairly young when my mother got pregnant with Eric. They were around my age, I think. My brother wasn't exactly wanted when he was born, but they still loved him. The only problem was that both of my parents didn't know how to be parents. They were overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being a parent. It was the same when I was born."

"I understand your pain," Nikolaj spoke so softly. "But do not forget that you are being loved by your parents."

April smiled. Despite his rough appearance, his words were nothing but gentle. "Enough about me. What about you? Are your parents living here in Rosewood?"

"No," he spoke quietly. There was a somber glint in his eyes and April was afraid that she asked a question she should have had kept to herself. "I was an orphan. Before Viktor, I was no one. I had nothing, I was nothing."

She flinched at the way he described himself. The tone of his voice was so empty and yet she could hear the pain.

"How old were you when he took you in?"

"I had just turned six at that time. He took me from Russia and brought me here to Rosewood. I didn't leave this town since then."

"You didn't?" She asked skeptically and arched her eyebrows.

He shook his head. "No."

"Did you ever think about leaving Rosewood?"

"Never," he answered and frowned. "Where would I leave to?"

April shrugged, not knowing how to answer his question. She couldn't understand why he never considered leaving this small town.

She always escaped the area when she became too suffocated. She always escaped from her problems, even though it only showed her how weak she actually was, despite keeping up her strong facade.

"What about you?" Nikolaj asked. "Do you think about leaving Rosewood?"

She would lie if she said that his question didn't surprise her. April was momentarily at a loss of words.

His was asking her something she was avoiding to ask herself the past few days. So, the actual question was, would she be able to live a normal life after everything that had happened here in Rosewood? Probably not.

April drew in a breath and casted him a sidelong glance. Nikolaj was staring at her, still waiting for an answer.

She didn't know how to answer his questions, since she didn't even think about it. April didn't want to lie to him, so she gave him the only answer she could think of.

"I don't know."

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Thanks for reading! Please vote, comment and share! Also, I would really appreciate it if you would check out my story 'The Forgotten Wolves'. It also includes romance.