Here's the next part… enjoy (and review)

{{{ Chapter Three }}}

{The alpha lion's point of view… [AN errr… I mean Seth's POV]}

"DING DONG."

'Doorbell, excellent, the others are probably all here now.' I thought to myself as I took another sip of my morning hot chocolate. The other's might only drink hot chocolate at night, but I like mine in the morning as well. "Doorbell," I decided to state the obvious. Call it a subtle hint. "Either of you girls going to get that?"

"No," grumbled Ehlana. My girlfriend is always this happy in the morning after a late night. "Why don't you get it, you're a big boy."

With a friendly scowl in her direction, I decided we had left the others standing outside for long enough.

"Morning girls," I began with an innocent smile as I opened the front door.

"Gees… what were you guys doing in here. Or did you just want us to freeze outside."

"Well Shayna…"

"You better not answer that Seth. They were rhetorical questions."

"Okay already guys. Lets just go inside already." With a smile in my direction and a "good morning Seth," Neve swept past us and into the house.

Moving aside, I waited as the others followed her in before closing the door again. Walking back into the kitchen I noticed that the new arrivals had all seated themselves and thanks to Ehlana, had a hot drink in hand. Taking my seat, I looked around again and noticed that we were missing one.

"Hey, where's Meia?" Asked Willow.

With a sideward look at Neve and Shayna, Hunter decided to answer her question. "Ummm, she's praying."

"Praying? About what?"

{Brennan's Point of View}

"Praying? About what?" I repeated after no-one answered. "What? Hello people, its not like you haven't seen me an ages. What's wrong?"

"Well," began Ehlana, having recovered somewhat, "I just wasn't expecting you up and about so early. I thought you'd be in bed for a while yet, especially considering how warm it must have been."

"Unless she kicked you out?" Added Seth with a sly grin.

"She didn't kick me out…"

"Wait a minute! She? Bren's got a woman in his bed. Ohhhh… by the Goddess. The world must be ending." Claimed the over dramatic Hunter.

With a scowl in his direction, I decided not to respond to that.

"Yes," said Willow with a small giggle. "Did I forget to mention that when I called?"

"Are you telling me this is the topic of the URGENT meeting?" Asked Shayna, incredulously.

With a sigh and a shake of my head, I decided to sort things out. After all, my angel would be ready to come down soon. "Okay guys, that's enough." Amazing, silence, they actually listen to me, I'm always surprised when they do that. "Firstly, Meia. She's praying, about what."

Looking down at the suddenly interesting patterns on the table, it didn't seem like Neve was inclined to answer. Even more surprising was when Shayna decided that her nails were very interesting. Looking at Hunter with a serious expression, I asked, "Hunter?"

"Well… you see Bren, she's praying about you."

"Me?"

"Ahh, yeah. Don't ask me what, or why. I don't know, she just said that something important had happened and she needed to find out what it was." He said in a rush.

"Relax Hunter, I'm not angry at you. Meia maybe. I mean, she could have just come over here and asked. I would have told her. It's not like I keep anything from her." Getting angry, I added, "I mean, I tell her everything, and suddenly she doesn't trust me."

"Everything? You tell her – everything?"

Angel. Turning around, I lost my breath, and all thought at once. Wow. I thought she was gorgeous last night. Obviously wearing the same clothes as she was last night, it was now light. And I could see how good she looked in said clothing. Tight black pants, a black mid drift top and a black leather jacket. Wow. She was dressed to kill. And yet, she still looked like my angel. A dark angel. Smiling at her, I remembered her earlier question and just shrugged.

Grinning she walked the rest of he way into the room. Stepping up beside me, she placed one arm around my waist, enabling her to rest her head on my shoulder.

Instinctively putting my arm around her shoulders, I then chanced a look at the rest of the room's occupants. Six pairs of stunned eyes looked back at us. Giggling slightly, Cacia turned her head into my chest. As some of my 'guests' slowly began to comprehend what was said, I noticed two things. The girls were looking at me amazed, thinking I had perhaps lost my mind. The guys were grinning at my slyly.

Shaking my head, I extracted Cacia from my hold, and carefully stepped away from her. "Now look. People, its not what you think."

"Not what…"

"You've only met her last night right?"

"I thought you were tired."

"Wow, nice catch Bren!"

And it was the last comment that caught my attention. Looking at the appreciative once over that Hunter was giving MY angel I put my arm back around her shoulders as I drew her in close again. Glaring at Hunter I began again. "All we did is sleep. And Hunter, wipe that look off your face."

Leaning over, Neve decided to assist me by slapping Hunter hard on the arm. "Behave yourself," she hissed at him, before smiling up at me. "Of course Bren," she began, "we weren't thinking that. It's just that ummm… you surprised us."

"So, if you don't mind me asking. Who is the beauty?"

Of course for that comment, Hunter received a glare from both Neve and I. Meanwhile, my angel just blushed more. Turning to look down on her, I smiled slightly as I whispered, "You look cute when you blush."

"Ohhhhhh."

"Isn't that sweet."

"Anyway," I began again, trying to get everyone's attention back on topic. "Why the hell is Meia suddenly deciding that she needs to pray again?" My temper was rising again, and the poor people it was being directed at probably had nothing to do with it. But I had to glare at someone.

"Bren." Why does that one soft word clear my head of my previous thoughts? "Why don't we just sit down for a minute?"

"Sit down? Why?"

"Because Darling, you're glaring at your friends, and getting angry at them. And I might be wrong, but I don't think it's their fault." Laughing lightly at me, she pulled me over to the table, to the spare seat at the end. Sitting me down, she smiled, "That's much better." Turning to face Ehlana she said, "Thanks." As Ehlana passed her a cup of hot chocolate for me. Placing the cup on the table in front of my hand she smiled again. "See, all better now."

Standing there so innocently, smiling at me, I decided that I didn't feel like being quite so innocent. Snaking my arm around her waist. I pulled her into my lap. "Yup," I whispered into her ear, my breath wafting over her neck, "all better now."

"Ummm… yeah." Blushing lightly, she looked around the room again, before adding, "Bren, do you realise that I don't know a soul here. You're not being a very good host." She reprimanded.

"Oops, sorry. Everybody, Angel. Angel, everybody."

"Isn't that cute, he has a nickname for her."

"He didn't come up with that last night. He's been calling me angel since I was about 5 years old." Cacia replied to Neve. Elbowing me in the gut, she commented, "Brennan, that wasn't very polite."

"Sorry," I coughed. "Remind me not to get on your bad side." I mumbled, trying to breath properly. "Okay so, from the left here, we have, Willow, Shayna, Ehlana, Seth, Hunter and finally Neve. Guys, meet my best friend, Alicacia."

"Hello."

"Nice to meet you."

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch your name, Ali…"

"Hey."

"I thought it was Angel?"

"Hey ya."

Smiling around at everyone, I knew immediately, that these guys would all get along. "Hello, it's a pleasure to meet Brennan's friends. Ahh, most people just call me Ali, or Alicia."

"Alicia… I like that name, its pretty." Replied Neve.

"So is Alicacia." Added Willow, "It's a bit impractical though isn't it?"

"Yeah, tell me about it," answered my angel with a giggle.

With all the introductions done, I was able to tune out slightly as my friends all got to know my angel a little better. Topic of conversation then moved onto last night's fight, in which Willow, Ehlana and Seth replayed the night's activities, with Cacia and the others listening in avidly. Occasionally Cacia added something in. Relaxing back into my own little mind world, I started to get angry again.

Half way through a sentence, Cacia stopped what she was saying. Turning around to face me, she lifted my chin up and looked into my eyes. "Relax. There is no point in getting angry. Even righteous anger is not always good, especially when used from a self-perspective." Turning back to the others, she continued what she had been saying, leaving me to think about her comment.

At the same time, leaving the others wondering how she had known I was getting angry again.

"That's amazing," uttered Shayna.

"What is?" Asked Cacia.

"You. How you managed to stop him from being angry, three times this morning. No-one else can do that, certainly not more than once."

"And, how did you even know he was getting angry again?" Added Seth.

"I don't know," she said, thinking. "I guess I've just always been able to read his emotions. He can read mine to. I fact, he's even better at it than me. Once, when he was about 13, which would have made me 10, I got into a fight with some people in the park. He would have been about half way across town, right Bren?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I agreed, remembering the occasion she was thinking about.

"Anyway. These bullies had been picking on some smaller kids, and I ran up to them and stopped them. They were about twice my size, though I didn't think of that at the time. And so I was really angry. Then the bullies just laughed at me, and the biggest one shoved me into the ground. I was so angry and so sad all at the same time. So I just sat on the ground sniffling. And Bren who was on his way to meet me, but was still 10 minutes away, he knew I was upset."

"It was really weird actually. The first time I felt it, from a distance away. I felt really angry all of a sudden, for no reason, then I felt really sad. I couldn't work it out. And then it seemed to hit me, and I realised it was Cacia who was upset not me. I don't think I had ever run so fast in my life." I finished off laughing.

"So you two can sense each other's emotions?" Asked Shayna amazed.

"All emotions? Or just anger?"

"Umm," began Cacia looking at me.

"Yeah, all emotions, but not all the time, only sometimes. When they're really strong, and I don't know, perhaps only when we think we need the other one. You have to realise we used to spend all our time together and we shared everything with each other. So it would make sense that we would want the other if we were sad or whatever."

"I wonder if Bren's better at it than me because I needed him more. I was a girl, and younger, so I was more emotional. And Bren always tried to be strong for me. So I guess he had more practice at getting these emotional callings from me."

"Wow, that's really interesting," said Shayna.

"Did you ever have one of these 'emotional callings' from him?" Asked Hunter.

"Yeah I did. The first time was when…"

"No, that's okay. Yeah she did Hunter, a few times."

"Ha ha, nice try Bren." Turning back to the others with a grin, she continued, "the first time was after he broke up with his first girlfriend."

"His girlfriend?" Asked Seth, "you weren't his girlfriend?"

My angel's tinkling laughter filled the room as I answered, "Ah no. She was only a kid. I was 15 and she was 12. I could never go out with a 12 year old."

"And why would I want to go out with him. I mean, he was a boy… I wouldn't want to go out with a boy. Not even my best friend Brennan."

"And when was the last time you felt one of these 'emotional callings'?" Hunter asked again.

"Me, last night. Though I didn't realise it at the time, it felt different. Or maybe it had just been so long since I had last sensed him, I had forgotten what it was like."

"Last night?" I asked her. "You sensed me last night?"

"Yeah. You were getting your ass kicked. You were all scared."

"We've been in worse positions in the past."

"You have? Why? Anyway, I was reasonably close when I felt it, only a couple of minutes away. In the past I had probably been half the world away."

"Speaking of, when did you get back in town?"

"One week ago."

"Last Friday morning, about 5am?" I asked, already knowing the answer would be in the affirmative.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I felt, something. I was sleeping and I had a weird dream. It woke me up, but I couldn't remember what is was, but I felt better than I had for ages." I finished with a smile, remembering the day.

"Yeah he was smiling all day," muttered Ehlana.

Laughing lightly, Willow added, "That was an interesting day, he was so lighthearted, laughing at everything, just generally happy."

"Why is that so interesting?" Asked Cacia curiously.

"Coz, he's never like that. He's always so boring and dull." Giggled Neve.

Frowning in her direction, and generally at the others as they began laughing, I said. "Now that's a slight exaggeration."

"Slight," agreed Seth.

"Wow." Uttered Cacia, genuinely surprised. Looking back at me closely, she asked, "Nah, really?" Looking around at everyone's nods, she looked back at me. "That's not the Bren I remember. My best friend was always happy, and bubbly."

"You my girl, you were always happy and bubbly. It was infectious." I answered her questioning gaze.

A quiet silence pervaded the room as Cacia looked on at me sadly, "You're not meant to be like that. You're meant to be happy and optimistic. I've never seen you so pessimistic."

"That's because you haven't seen him since you left."

For the third time that morning, the room was silent as everyone looked towards the doorway.

Hope you enjoy this chapter… next chapter is coming soon.

Love Tamashii Hime