Vantablack

A week or two has passed and we made a routine of sorts.

Onyx wakes me up before the sun to tell me that she's going to train Sonja.

I rub my eyes, "Okay just make sure you eat something before you go."

She nods and nibbles on her food before leaving thus starting the rest of the day.

I would stay up since I can't fall back to sleep and listen to the rest on the camp snore and slow raise from the dead of sleep, they're all in.

Once they do, I wait for a specific yawn from a man that just loves to pop his bones this early in the morning.

Once he's up, I wake the boys and give the sleepyheads some food before getting my own while still listening to the camp.

Exactly two hundred and forty seconds later, Knox gets out of his tent and shakes his head at the man popping his bones.

No one in the camp is moving to the training field just yet so we take our time eating.

"Hey dad"

"Hmm"

Alex twists his fingers nervously, "Can we watch Onyx train tomorrow?"

I raise an eyebrow when I see Micky biting his lip and crossing his fingers. I know that they're curious on how Onyx trains and worries about her, so I agree. "If it is allowed and if she agrees then I don't see why not."

They give me big toothy smiles and I tell them we have to go. We stay in the shadows as we leave the tent and go to the training field.

Once we're there I follow the boys to a spot they pick and wait with them until training begins. But as usual as we wait the other men start to whisper about us more specifically me.

I roll my eyes at them and listen to the boys' chatter.

Knox and the red-haired man names James walk into the field. James starts training and Knox walks directly to me.

"Good morning Demon"

I nod my head in return.

He claps his hands together, "Okay straight to business. I want you and Onyx to go on y'alls date either tonight or tomorrow. Its overdo"

I raise a eyebrow.

"Oh don't look at me like that you know you know im right. I bet the two of you barley know anything about each other."

I was going to deny it but then it hit me. I don't know anything about her and she doesn't know anything about me.

Maybe it is time for us to go on this date.

But first ...

"We have to meet Ana first before we go on a date, Knox"

He smiles a huge one for me, "Of course, I'll tell Roger to so you can meet them both."

I shake my head, "Onyx is going to be there as well and she gets......"

His smile goes away, "I know what you mean and that's completely fine. I'll tell Ana to met all of you after the training session. Roger isn't going to like her being alone in y'all tent."

I paused thinking of a way to put him and Roger at ease while thinking about onyx's unease around other men, "How about we have a campfire a few feet away from the tent where Roger can see everything we're doing?"

Mikey pulls on my pants, "Does that mean we can have marshmallows?"

I smile at the both of them and pretend to think, "Hmmm...I don't know..."

"Please Daddy?!!"

I chuckle softly, "oh alright my little nuggets but you have to share with Onyx."

The boys nodded their heads and start jumping around screaming, "Yeah we going have marshmallows!!!"

Knox tries not to smile while we're on the field but fails, "That's a good idea, Demon. I'll go tell Roger and Ana after training. But for now go do laps and get warmed up until I tell you to stop."

The boys automatically calmed themselves and sat down beside Knox as usual before starting the laps.

***

I can feel myself getting nervous, waiting for Onyx and Ana to be done talking.

I rub my sweaty hands on my pants and take a breath.

Shadow starts laughing at me, "Why are you so nervous?"

"You know why now shut up."

"You do realize that this is her first date too, right?"

"Okay and...? What exactly am I supposed to say or do? What if I mess this up?"

Shadow rolls his eyes, "All you two are going to do is walk and talk until someone feels like coming back. If you mess this up, then there's no hope for you at all."

I ignore the last part, "But what do we talk about?"

Shadow says slowly as if trying to get me to understand, "Anything that pops into either one of your heads. Now answer our mate before she thinks we're ignoring her."

I turn around quickly only to see Onyx look at me worriedly with her pretty blue eyes, "Are you okay Demon?"

"Um, yeah. Shadow keeps going on about how nervous he is."

Shadow glares at me, "you ass-"

"I don't blame him I'm a little nervous too."

Shadow smirks at me before sitting in his corner.

"um why are you nervous?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "I just am"

I rocked on my heels, "So is everything okay with Ana and the boys?"

"Yeah they just fell asleep."

I nod a little too quickly, "Then we should get going before they wake up."

Onyx bits her lip, "Yeah let's go"

We start walking towards the middle of camp, but Onyx stops when she heard a bunch of men laughing and starts breathing a little harder.

"Onyx how about we walk somewhere else instead of going that way?"

She nodded and we turn around.

We go towards a trail in the woods and stayed quiet for a little while until she took a deep breath.

"What's wrong?"

She gentle shook her head, "How's your training?"

I knew that's that wasn't what she wanted to ask me, but I go along with it, "Its tough but if it helps protect the boys and you then I can deal will it."

She snaps her head to me and looks back to the trail, "Protect me?"

I hesitate, "Yes"

"why?"

"Because"

She says gently, "Because of Shadow"

"Yes and No"

Onyx nods her head and stays quiet.

I quickly say before the wrong idea goes through her head, "Yes I want to protect you because we're mates but not for the reason you think."

She raises an eyebrow.

I duck under a low tree limb, "I don't know much about mates except for the male is supposed to be the dominate one and if he fails or dies then so does their mate. I was taught that true mates are a weakness that could go away if you rejected and mated another but that's not what I want."

She looks at me, "Then what is it that you want?"

Before I can answer she trips, and I grabbed her waist bringing her to me.

I stare into those light blue eyes and answer with nothing but honesty, "I don't know"

Onyx steps away from me sadly, "Oh"

"Yeah"

We keep walking as the moon guided us through the forest.

"What will you do if your wolf gets out of control and-?"

I cut her off before she could upset Shadow, "He's not going to lose control and mark you Onyx."

"How do I know that?"

I shrug my shoulders, "You don't but I can tell you that he knows you're his mate and can feel the bond and wants to protect you from everything. But he doesn't feel a need to mate you or even mark you."

She looks at me surprised, "That's weird because Mika feels the same way. No rush to mate or urges to try to mate."

I sigh, "Then let's not overthink it"

Onyx nods slowly, "so what's the other reason you wanted to protect me?"

I didn't even think about how it would sound when I said, "Because you're just as broken as I am."

Onyx shakes her head, "what makes you think I'm broken?"

She made it sound like she was testing me, so I named off everything, "you don't like being around men unless it me and the boys. Sometimes you can't even handle being around me for long periods of time. There are some days that you look at the boys or even the other children and start to cry softly."

We stopped again and she just stared at me, so I keep going, "On those same days you'd keep the boys close to you and only you. So, whenever it happens the boys mind link me to stay away for a little while. I do but only at a distance that way no one can get any funny ideas about going near you. And last but the most important one is the nightmares you have every night."

She rips her eyes from me and stares into the distance.

"I know you're broken just as you know I am."

She takes a shaky breath and looks back at me nodding, "there are other people that are broken too."

"But not as broken as you."

"or you." She whispers

I nod my head and start walking again, Onyx follows.

Its quiet for a while the two us listening to the forest night life when Onyx finally says the question that she wanted to say.

"What are we if we aren't going to act like mates? And is it permanent?"

"I don't know. To be honest I don't know a lot of things. I'm just going with the flow."

Onyx nods that she understands

I lock eyes with Onyx, "I don't know what we'll be in the future, but I do know that I want us to be friends."

Her blue eyes get bigger, "I never had friends."

I smile gently, "Then I'll be your first, if you like"

She smiles a small smile back, "I think I'll like that a lot."

With no destination we keep endlessly walking a path made just for us.