Dinner Party (1)

Artemis' POV

As the sun began to set, Artemis, Jayce and Xander made their way back to the house, all a little tired from all the swimming and messing around in the forest. Artemis had enjoyed the day thoroughly, but with the light breeze blowing as night fell, she wanted to get home quickly and take a nice long, hot shower.

After a few minutes of walking they made their way to the front door when Artemis' phone suddenly started ringing. Grabbing it from inside one of the bags, she looked at the caller ID to see it was Tina.

"Hello Aunt Tina!" Artemis greeted happily as she answered the phone.

"Hi dear." A motherly voice responded. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good and you."

Xander opened the front door, giving Artemis a curious look as she walked inside the house. Artemis shrugged in response, not knowing the reason behind the sudden call.

"That's lovely…I'm doing good too." Tina paused for a second. "So…How is everything?"

Artemis smiled, swiftly figuring out what the call was about. Aunt Tina wanted to know more about her mate bond. Covering the phone, she whispered to the two males, "It's just some girl talk."

Xander nodded in understanding, relief showing in his face as he found out it wasn't something serious.

"It's good…" Artemis replied as she placed the phone back over her ear. "We just got back from spending time in the forest."

"Oh…So the boys are taking Jason's advice and going slow." Tina laughed.

"Pfft…Uncle Jason gave them the idea?" Artemis asked in surprise as she closed her bedroom door behind her.

"Yip. Anyway, this is not the reason I called. Well, it's about your potential mates but some of the pack members are curious about what was his name…ah Jayce. At least those that didn't meet him at the bar." Tine paused for a second, Artemis hearing some background noise. "Anyway, Jason and I are having a dinner with some of the others."

"Is this the pack's way of meeting Jayce?" Artemis laughed as she shook her head at her pack's mischievousness.

"Looks like the cat's out of the bag." Tine muttered drily as shouts were heard on the other end of the phone. "So, will you be coming? Everyone's coming over at eight."

"I'm happy to come over but I need to see with the other two…Just a second Aunt Tina." Artemis said, heading out her room to find the two males.

She quickly headed to the kitchen and sitting room, but not finding them there, she turned to go to Xander's room. Knocking on the door, it swiftly opened and Artemis found herself staring at Xander who was wearing a small towel around his waist.

His dark hair was wet, a few droplets of water covering his body as if he had just come out of the shower. He looked a bit startled upon seeing Artemis.

"Artemis?"

"Um…hey." Artemis said awkwardly, trying to look anyway but Xander's chest. "Aunt Tina is having a dinner party and wanted to know if you and Jayce would like to come. She said to come around eight."

"Oh…um yeah. Tell her I can come." He paused for a second, looking into his room. "Jayce is in the shower right now…Hold on."

Xander left the door ajar, walking over to the bathroom door. Artemis saw that the room was pretty clean except for a pile of clothes in the cover. She smirked, figuring it probably belonged to Jayce.

"Jayce, you up for a dinner party at eight!" Xander called out as he banged on the door.

"Yeah sure!" Jayce called back.

Xander looked at Artemis to see if she had heard the answer. She nodded her head to show she had before closing the door in front of her and heading back to her room.

Putting the phone on her ear, she said, "Aunt Tina, we'll be there at eight."

"Cool beans."

"By the way, should we bring anything?" Artemis asked, looking at the clock on her nightstand.

It was a little after 6pm so there would still be some time to whip something up or at least get something at the bakery.

"No need to worry about that dear. Maddy's brought enough food to feed a whole army here. And I'm sure Jimara is bringing some desserts too."

Artemis smiled at the comment. "Okay then. See you soon."

"Okay, bye." Tina said before hanging up the phone.

Artemis put her phone down on her nightstand, grabbing some clothes before she headed to her bathroom to take a shower.

***

As Xander pulled the truck to stop in front of a medium sized cabin with the forest behind it, Artemis quickly hopped out the truck and ran to the middle-aged woman standing by the front door.

The brown eyed woman held her arms open and Artemis bear hugged the smaller woman, happy to see her after some time.

"Aunt Tina!" Artemis cried out excitedly. "It's so nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you too dear." Tina said in delight, giving Artemis a little squeeze. "Is that him?"

Artemis pulled away from Tina to see where she was nodding at, Xander and Jayce strolling up the driveway.

"Yip. That's Jayce." Artemis answered, turning back to face the older woman.

"Seems like a nice boy…" Tina smiled softly as the two watched Jayce and Xander stepped onto the patio.

"Hello Tina." Xander said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "How are you?"

"Evening Xander. I'm doing fine, thanks." Tina laughed. "And you?"

"I'm doing well too." Xander smiled back at her as he straightened up. "Oh…This is Jayce."

"Nice to meet you ma'am." Jayce said, stretching out a hand.

"You can call me Aunt Tina." Tina smiled, grabbing his hand.

She then pulled him into a hug, making Artemis smirked as Tina's strength caught him off guard. While the other female was small in size, she was quite strong, being a lumberjack as well.

"Now why don't we all go inside. Everyone's dying to see you all." Tina said, patting Jayce on the back as she let him go.

The trio followed her inside, Tina leading them to a sitting room full of people. As they entered, everyone turned to look at them.