Predator | 38

April tried to gulp down the lump in her throat. Somehow, the Natalya's presence made her feel uncomfortable. She was pretty nervous to step inside when Nikolaj held the door open for her. It was quite obvious that she didn't exactly like April, for whatever reason.

They sat together in the living room in a strained silence. They could hear each others breathing. April could feel Natalya's eyes on her the whole time.

When April gathered all her courage to stare back at her, she noticed that her eyes weren't filled with hostility, like she thought they would.

Instead, Natalya only had a blank expression on her face. Even when April stared back at her, Natalya didn't think to look away and continued to watch her so boldly.

If April could only tell what she was thinking right now. But her blank expression made it impossible. She mastered the blank face as perfectly as Nikolaj, she noticed much to her dismay.

April and Natalya were alone in Nikolaj's cottage for the past five minutes. Nik had left earlier, excusing himself to gather some wood to light up the fireplace.

He was doing it for April, of course, since Nikolaj and Natalya were immune to cold temperatures. April tried to convince him to stay, saying that it wasn't that cold, but he only shook his head and told her he would be back in a few minutes.

These few minutes, however, seemed like long, painful hours to April. Time didn't seem to pass. It never did in uncomfortable moments.

He had told Natalya something in their mother language, before leaving. Most probably telling her to behave in front of April.

April cursed herself for feeling this nervous.

Since Nikolaj left, both of them hadn't even bothered to talk. April didn't even expect a conversation. Maybe a few insults being thrown her way, but not even that happened.

April threw her a strained smile and hoped it didn't look like a grimace. But judging at the look on Natalya's face, she was convinced that her smile did look like a grimace.

Natalya's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"He really takes his time," April muttered to herself, unaware of the fact that Natalya could her hear loud and clear.

Her eyes darted towards the window, hoping she would catch a glimpse of Nikolaj. April had always been bad at handling uncomfortable situations.

"What are you doing here?"

The accented voice startled April and she flinched, even though barely visible. Natalya watched April, the blank expression still all over her features.

April didn't expect to hear her speaking, much less asking her what she was doing here. The question caught her off guard.

Blue eyes stared at her, waiting for an answer. She wasn't glaring at her, but April still found herself squirming in her seat. There was something in Natalya's eyes that could make one feel nervous.

"I- I'm just here to see if Nik is fine," she answered after short moments of thinking what to say without making a fool out of herself. "I don't know if you heard what happened, but he-"

"Nik?" She cut her off with arched eyebrows. It surprised her that April was calling him by a nickname. That was probably the last thing she thought April would say. "I know what happened," she added shortly after.

"Oh, I see," April answered. She didn't know what else to say. Biting the inside of her cheek, she hoped the conversation ended here. Natalya wasn't her favorite conversation partner, she decided.

But she was wrong, of course.

"You bad for each other," she spoke after short moments of silence. Natalya's blank expression vanished and she scrunched her nose.

"E-excuse me?" She didn't know what exactly Natalya meant. But she couldn't mean anything positive, that much she was sure of.

"You a human," she stated as a matter of fact. "Humans should not involve with us."

Oh no, April thought to herself.

She know understood what all of this was about. Why Natalya seemed to dislike her. Nik had already warned her that some people might not like it when Lycans get involved with humans.

And Natalya seemed to be one of these people.

This was the moment she was afraid of. April didn't know what to say, how to answer. Somehow she knew that sooner or later someone would say something like this to her, but she thought it would happen later, rather than sooner.

"Well," she began with a nervous laugh. "I don't see why I can't be friends with him."

Natalya furrowed her eyebrows. "But you are not a friend," she replied. Her Russian accent grew thicker with each word.

She liked Nikolaj's accent, it always sounded alluring combined with his deep voice. But with Natalya it was a different story. Her accent made her even scarier than before.

"We are.." was April's answer.

Natalya didn't believe her words and April didn't even expect her to. She made a terrible attempt to convince her and she knew it.

Natalya shook her head. "You are not," she denied. "You are lying. I see how he looks you."

It was then that she noticed that she spoke in broken english. She didn't notice it before. Either she was good at hiding it, or April was simply too scared to notice it.

"How does he look at me?" April wondered aloud.

She was curious to hear what Natalya was going to answer, but she didn't get the opportunity to. She hear the door being shut softly.

Nikolaj returned with several piles of wood in his arms. He threw Natalya a curious stare and drifted his eyes than to April, a smile playing on his lips.

He threw a few into the fireplace. Even though it was April's least of worries, she silently thanked him for that. It was freezing cold in there!

Natalya and Nikolaj exchanged a few words in Russian, talking softly to each other. Shortly after the conversation, Natalya left the cottage without wasting another glance at April.

The couch dipped slightly when Nikolaj sat down next to her. She turned her head, staring up at him.

"You two talked?" He asked, appearing curious but April had the feeling that he knew the answer to that already.

"Yeah," she answered quietly. "I think she knows."

"It's okay," he calmed her down.

"Really?" April asked dubiously. "She won't cause any problems?"

Nik smiled. "No...," he tried to convince her. Nikolaj stared to play with a strand of her hair, twirling it around his finger. "I don't want you to worry, even when I like the look on your face."

"Look? What look?"

"The look on your face when you worry," he replied. "When you pout."

April threw her head back and laughed. "Ha-ha. I don't pout," she spoke, still smiling like a fool. "I'm not the type of person to pout. But my brother is."

"Eric's pout is not cute."

April smiled broadly. "You have a funny way to indirectly call me cute."

He grinned down at her. Nik dipped his head down to her face, catching her lips with his mouth. April responded to him, moving her lips along with his.

"Nik," she muttered in between the kisses. "Nik.. we need to stop."

Nik quickly stopped. She was glad that he listened to her and didn't take things further even after saying no to him.

"Why?" He asked in a raspy voice. He watched her with hooded eyes. It was clear to see that he didn't want to stop. A flash of hurt crossed his features and April wondered if he felt insecure.

"Your wound," she explained whispered.

He let out a noise, something that sounded like a quiet, but painful groan. "April.. I'm fine. The wound has healed."

She slowly pushed her head away from him. "Really?" She asked dubiously, with both eyebrows arched up high. "Show me."

"I wanted to. But you stopped me."

April's eyes almost bulged out. She didn't miss the joke here. "You know what I meant."

"I do," he replied with a smile and stroked her face with his thumb. April's eyes fluttered shut. "But I am fine."

She giggled at that. "Sure you are," she answered sarcastically.

Her eyes dropped down to her watch. She couldn't believe how fast the time flew by. She then rose up to her feet and receiving a look of confusion from Nikolaj. "It's late," she explained with a sad smile. "I think I will head back for the night."

She grabbed her jacket and shrugged it over her shoulders, adjusting the collar. Nikolaj followed her and opened the door for her.

"See you tomorrow?" He asked with hopeful eyes.

April smiled. A warm feeling washed through her. "See you tomorrow."

__________

The last few chapters were uneventful and mostly about Nikolaj and April. Do you all like the chapters about them, or do you prefer if the story moves forward? Hope you liked the chapter. Thanks for reading!