Chapter 7 Manuel

• We are all lazed around the lounge, eating pizza, Kai and Finn now fast asleep, curled up together on one of the recliners, bless them. There may be 10 month between them but they are already pretty close, though Finn is a little devil in disguise, so I can see him teaching Kai how to get up to stuff he shouldn’t as he gets older, goddess help us! But hard to believe the chances are that in front of us, curled up on the recliner is Midnight Forest Packs future Gamma and Alpha bless them. Makes me smile to think of them like that.
• I see Lilah watching them, smiling, I wonder if she is thinking the same as me. She looks tired, though I assume Kai was up early again, She swears her son is a vampire as well as a werewolf pup, he sure seems to prefer the night hours! I will definitely be trying to get rid of our friends early so she can have a bath and get to bed early, she deserves a rest. I hope Knox can see to Kai tonight so she can sleep too. So much for the promises of him starting to sleep better as he gets older, I seriously don’t know where that lie came from as that has yet to happen according to what she tells me! She is one of my closest friends now, and I love seeing the way she has changed being a Mama.
• “Hey, don’t eat all the pizza Gabe!” I smack his hand out of the way from the last slice of pepperoni. “You already ate loads at Abuela’s earlier.”
• I swear he has a nerve, always trying to take all the food. Yet to look at him you would not be able to tell.
• “Ah family BBQ again?” Jake asks. “You guys have fun?”
• “Oh yeah, the best, just love being pestered if I found my mate, oh and this time I got told to get a hair cut and look harder then I might find her!” Gabe rolls his eyes.
• Indie laughs, tossing her head back as she does. Clearly finding our Abuela highly amusing. “Wow, brutal, was that your Grandma?”
• “Yes, Abuela, as always.” Gabe agrees with her.
• “I love her” Indie grins. I imagine she does, most people do. She has a wicked sense of humour our grandmother that most people like, unless it is aimed at them, then they find it less amusing I have to say!
• “Oh do you? She doesn’t love me! She even told me my mate has probably seen me, gone neh, and run for the hills. Then you have every female family member asking if we found our mates yet. It’s like, you think you would not know if I had found her? You not think I would be showing her off, telling the whole world?!” Gabe says shaking his head.
• I know this frustrates him. We have spoken about this so many times before. Though the amount of times we have gone over this conversation with family now it is a repeated topic of conversation so it truly gets boring and it gets beyond frustrating for us both. Though Gabe probably has a less tolerant side to him than me when it comes to this. Which I totally understand.
• “Awww well we think you’re perfect Gabe, even if your Abuela doesn’t” Lilah smiles.
• “Not enough to run away with me though eh Chica?” Gabe grins, joking his usual joke with her.
• “Doesn’t your Grandma say stuff like that to you Manny?” Indie asks.
• “Not really, she pesters me the same, but she is nice to me about it. It is his fault for winding her up. So she does it back to him, all self-inflicted” I can’t help but laugh, because I do think some of it with Gabe is his own fault for winding Abuela up, much like his Dad does.
• “No he is just the favourite” Gabe sticks his tongue out at me.
• “Well don’t believe your Grandma Gabe, why would your mate run away from a handsome, muscly warrior like you? With your Latina charm and great sense of humour I am sure you could win her over” Indie says,
• “Oh should I be worried?” Dan pouts.
• Gabe is grinning at Dan “Ohhh maybe I should run off with Indie instead”
• Dan laughs “She don’t run no where so you would be lucky, and it would cost you a fortune in hair dye and chunky shoes”
• “Sorry Gabe I would miss his grumpy ass too much too” she grins at Dan. These two are adorable. So in love, yet enjoy teasing and winding one another up. You can see just in the way they look at one another how much they love each other. It makes me so desperate to find my own mate when I see how happy my friends are with their mates. Makes me realise what I am missing.
• “ Ah well, can’t blame a guy for trying” he laughs “ Ohhh, anyway, I was thinking, we have a night out at the weekend, what do you say?” Gabe says, as he grabs a slice of pizza.
• It has been a while since we all went out for a night out together and that sounds like fun.
• “Sounds fun, I could ask Mum and Dad to look after Kai” Knox says to Lilah.
• “Likewise but for Finn” Dan grins at Indie, “Before demon number two makes an appearance”
• Jake and I nod in agreement.
• “Nice one, night out it is!” Gabe says with a smile “Definitely needed.”