XANDER
Seeing Alec again has made him more determined to do whatever it took to bring the other man down, but he didn't think whatever he had to do would involve spending time with the same woman he was trying to avoid. While he had nothing against her personally, he wanted their relationship to be as professional as two people who were forced to get married due to circumstances and pretending to be in love.
When Hilda had suggested that he needed to help her heal mentally by taking afternoon walks, going on picnic and other rainbow and sunshine stuff, he had felt a moment of panic but it quickly subsided when she had rejected the idea. To his disappointment she later agreed which was logical because one cancelled fake date was all it would take to start making people question their relationship.
He understood that while the council didn't care about who he chose to mate with, their only concern was that he would get married and once that had been accomplished, they could care less about the nature of their relationship. He also knew that his guardian wasn't the only one who had concern about Iris, from another perspective, he saved a mysterious woman who they had no idea where she came from and in a very rushed whirlwind way, he married her.
Their whole relationship already raised questions and people have their ears out, waiting for disaster to occur. They walk side by side to the stable in their riding clothes, he glanced down at her, marvelling at how small she seemed compared to him.
"I'm going to fall off and break my neck!" She declared as they arrived at the stable, she only had to take a look at the horses for her eyes to widen. He watched as she swallowed nervously, glancing up at him. "Can't we do something else? Go fishing?" She suggested, making him frown,
The last thing he would ever spend his time doing was fishing, it was such a boring sport! Although when he was younger, he went with Derek because he saw how much it meant to the older man and he felt obligated to do that much for his happiness. However he didn't feel that obligated toward his fake wife and torture himself for hours, patient wasn't an area where he shine.
He wanted to tell her, she had nothing to be afraid of but since there's no one around to translate, he settled for choosing his horse instead. He motioned for her to do the same, while he didn't particularly have a favourite horse, he preferred riding stallions. They were stubborn and hard to tame, it takes a stubborn person to tame them and Derek had used the word hot headed to describe him growing up.
After they both decided on which one they wanted, they exited the stables and strolled into the field. He could still sense her nervousness so he took the reign of her horse, forcing her to a stop. She looked at him, probably wondering what he was up to. He patted her shoulder in a manner that was supposed to comfort her before offering to help her get on the beast.
She cleared her throat. "I don't know, why don't you show me? I can mickmick whatever you show me and try to do just that." She suggested, which wasn't a bad idea even though he hadn't heard of anyone learning how to ride horses that way.
In one swift move, he climbed the horse and when the animal jerked back, he immediately stroked its mane, getting it to calm down. Giving it a few seconds more before he started the animal forward, galloping into the distance as if on a wild goose chase. He loved the adrenaline rushing through him at how fast the animal was going, this was another reason why he loved riding so much.
He brought the horse back to where Iris stood waiting for him with her mouth wide open. Climbing down from the horse, he smiled at the look on her face, his smile quickly fading into a teasing one as she started to move backward.
"Shoot!, I think I'm late for my nightly check up with Hilda." She tried to make a run for it but he dashed after her, catching up with her in quick steps and accidentally knocking them both to the ground. He felt his inside shake with laughter as they collapsed on the ground side by side, however she was laughing hard.
When the laughter finally died down, they still remained in that position. "There's no way I could do what you just did…unless I have got a death wish of course." He nodded in response, staring up into the sky. "But I'm always open to learning, it might come in handy." She added.
Even as the conversation died down, they still remained there in silence, looking up at the sky without saying a word to each other. He was even starting to doze off at the peace and quietness of the place when he was suddenly woken up by Derek, who hovered over him, blocking the sun from hitting his face.
He frowned at the interruption, glancing beside him, he saw that Iris had fallen asleep. He sat up and signed. "What the hell?"
"Easy there lover boy, you have a visitor waiting for you in court and your bodyguards didn't know where you went. Since you went without them, I know you are around somewhere." It was a lie, not the visitor part but the part about guessing his whereabouts.
He must have seen him leave and couldn't wait to come ruin his sleep and he made that known to him. "You're a nosy old man." He signed, wondering if the older man suspected something going on and was keeping an eye on them.
"Old? You wounded me, I'm very much in my prime!" He sat down next to him, briefly glancing at Iris, probably to see if she was really asleep or not. "Trust me, I'm happy you found someone but I can't help but be worried about you." His voice had taken a serious turn.
"Can we not do this in front of her?" He signed back.
"She's asleep." He pointed out. "Don't get me wrong, I like her, I think she's good for you but the truth still stands that we don't know anything about her. I was in your study earlier going through your stuff, I could only find the fraction of information you have on her, that isn't enough." He stood up after Derek concluded his statement, walking away from where she was.
"She's a private person." He signed, hoping the other man would take his word for it. "I know everything there is to know about her that isn't in that file and I would love to keep it that way between us." Which was true, he knew what was important to know about her regarding their plan and that was all that mattered.
"Well, I trust you." His voice tightened when he spoke next. "Malia's death." He patted his back, knowing what he was going to say. " I'll be going back now, enjoy your naps." His voice turned cheery again as he walked away.
He looked back to see Iris sitting up and looking around, he was standing only a short distance away from her and as she looked around, he thought it seemed like she was crying which didn't make any sense. He approached her, and when he got close enough he couldn't see any trace of tears on her face, he must have been imagining it. He thought, pushing the thoughts out of his mind.
She closed a hand over her mouth as a yawn threatened to escape her. "Did I fall asleep?" Nodding his head, he extended his hand, helping her up. "Whoa! Where did the horses go?"
He suddenly became aware of that fact but didn't think too much of it, he spun her around in the direction of the stable and pointed, telling her without words that they had gone back to the stables. He felt her relax before he let go of her shoulders, recalling his godfather mentioned something about a visitor waiting in the courtroom for him, they started heading back to the pack house.
While Iris went into the house, he went to the courtroom, his face set in a grimace as his visitor turned out to be Alpha Thane of the Valley-moon pack. Plastering a smile on his face, so he doesn't show much he wasn't pleased to see the other man, they shook hands.
"I'm sure you will be very pleased with the business opportunity I've brought forth to you." He doubted that but he liked the fact that he went straight to the point instead of trying to butter him up first like most people do.
He signed and Tint translated. "Proceed."
"I'm thinking, it will work in both our favour if you grant my men permanent passage in and out of your pack. You see, one of our top clients is from Crescent-moon pack and it really a long journey that exposed my men to the dangers of being robbed, so if you grant us a safe passage each time, your pack will have a fix percentage of our profit, you can label it tax or whatever, what do you think?"
Tint translated his words again. "And what kind of business is that?"
"Weapons." He responded without any shame. "Wolfsbane, mountain ash, slivers, daggers…"
He couldn't believe the audacity of the man! Dane had been right after all! This man has been smuggling dangerous and illegal weapons into his pack, without thinking his temper got the better of him and he grabbed the other man by his collar, his face set into a snarl, his fangs flashing dangerously at him!