DAMN FUCKING HARD

Hazel had never been so stressed in her life like how she felt right now. At the very least, she could curse all she wanted and imagine the things that probably would never happen in her life, or indulge in some other embarrassing fantasies and she would always be safe in her mind.

But, right now, she would never be able to do that, since there were these creatures, who could read her mind anywhere.

Hazel pinched the bridge of her nose because she felt dizzy. It was hard to keep her mind straight as you will have these dirty thoughts flashing across your mind sometimes. The kind you didn't want anyone else to know about.

"Do all your people have no privacy at all? You read each other's minds all the time?" How could they be so comfortable?

"You can close your mind," Gillian said lightly, as he looked at Hazel through the rearview mirror to find out how distressed the alpha's mate was.

"What do you mean close my mind?" Hazel lifted her head and looked at him sullenly.

"Well, you need practice for that, Luna," he explained briefly, because this was a little bit complicated. "Has no one told you about this?"

Hazel shook her head. "I think you know my name."

"I know your name," Gillian replied.

"Then, why do you keep calling me Luna?" Hazel let it slide when he did so earlier, but he kept calling her with a name that did not belong to her.

"Because you are the Luna." Gillian looked confused too, now he wondered, how much knowledge that this human had about their kind. "You are mates with the Alpha, that's your title."

From Hazel's expression, he knew that she didn't get it. However, there was no time to explain about it further when they had already reached the restaurant. Moreover, it seemed like the alpha had his own plans regarding his clueless mate.

"We are here." Gillian stopped the car in front of Golden Plate restaurant, this was the most expensive and luxurious place to dine around here.

Meanwhile, Hazel still wondered why he knew where her family would go, even when she herself didn't know about it.

Gillian had said that his alpha told him where to go and as for how he knew, he told her to ask him herself.

Hazel was not sure that her curiosity was bigger than her fear toward that man. He seemed to know everything about her. What kind of stalker was he?

The phone in Hazel's pocket vibrated, indicating there was someone calling her. And when she saw the number, it was not a number that she had saved, but she recognized it nonetheless. A message she got from this number almost gave her a heart attack earlier

"I am not a stalker." That was the first thing that Micah told her when she picked up the phone and almost made her scream.

"Stop reading my mind!" Hazel said and looked around her before locking herself inside the car again, which left Gillian confused. He was a shifter too and could read her mind, why didn't she feel afraid of him?

"Come to my place after you are done having your lunch and I will explain everything," Micah said simply.

"No." What if she was kidnapped and couldn't return? She didn't want to go to a stranger's place. A stranger, a stalker, a shifter… What else was he?

"Don't worry, I guarantee nothing will happen to you."

"I don't want to."

"You don't have anywhere to go."

"I will go home."

"That's not even your home."

Oh, right. Her mother had told her that 'her father' had found out about her living in that house and asked her to leave. Practically, she was homeless after this lunch.

"Have a nice lunch. No need to care about them, just enjoy your meal." After saying that, Micah cut off the line before Hazel could say anything.

"Why are you smiling, Alpha? Something good happened?" Archer came into his study room to inform him about something that he was assigned to look after.

"She is cute."

"Cute?" Archer's jaw almost dropped when he heard that. 'Cute' was not a word that Micah would use. No, he never described anything using 'cute'.

Archer was right, but Hazel used to use that word often and eventually, it rubbed on Micah. They lived for seven years after all and their daughter used to call him 'cute' when he was in his beast form.

=====================

Hazel was still surprised whenever she thought about her conversation with Micah. There were a lot of questions in her mind right now and she couldn't pay any attention to her surroundings, which was a good thing, since they only threw snarky remarks at her here and there, centering on the person who picked her up.

"He is a friend."

That was the only answer that Hazel gave to them and they didn't look satisfied at all.

"You mean a rich friend?" one of the cousins said in a mocking tone. "I wonder what they will get from being friends with you."

Hazel was sitting at the end of the table, far away from Grandmother Elma and her parents. This position showed her importance in this family. She ignored most of the comments, though. Because there would be no end to it if she started arguing with them.

Fortunately, right at that time the servers entered the room to serve their food, so this conversation could stop.

But, Hazel scrunched her nose when she saw the food that was placed before her. "I didn't order grilled fish steak." She had a seafood allergy.

"Oh, I ordered that for you, because I remember you love seafood," Gaia said from across the table, which made Stefan frown, since he knew that Hazel had an allergy to this kind of food.

"I love seafood?" Hazel leaned her back against the backrest of her chair, as she looked at Gaia sharply. "I really do try to see the best in you, but you are making it so damn fucking hard."