My Elf Soulmate
Chapter 10

I turned around to face Paxton who was looking at me with such sad eyes that I quickly pried my eyes away from his and looked at my fidgety hands. I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder for comfort and encouragement before I heard the heavy retreating footsteps of Derek.

"How much of everything did you hear?" I asked him feeling unable to look at Paxton in the eyes, which I acknowledge was pretty cowardly of me.

"Most of everything, I felt some of your emotions pouring through to me so I came in here to check up on you," He said as he plopped himself on the space near me. "Rosie, I've waited for you for quite some time and the is no way that I would just leave you just because of Emily. My heart already belongs to you, it has since I first laid my eyes on you. I know that this is not your normal but trust me when I tell you that I have my eyes set on you and no one else. I want to be with you from the bottom of my heart, you are not my way of getting over Emily." He said with so much emotion in his voice that I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with emotions.

"I never thought that having a soulmate could bring so much doubt into my life." I said wondering how I had even gotten here, everything just seemed like a blur.

"I know that you feel overwhelmed and I'm sorry that I have not been able to help," Paxton said reaching out his hand and stroking mine with it, causing jolts of electricity to flow through my body. "Do you feel that?" He asked looking at me with a small smile as I nodded in response. "That's the mate bond." He said as he looked directly into my eyes, letting me see all the longing and...love that he had for me.

"It's electric." I quietly said looking at our joint hands.

"It is, and it keeps getting stronger. I'm at a point where if we're close enough to each other I can feel your emotions...or some of them anyway. In fact, the more time that we spend together the stronger it gets," He said as his eyes seemed to light up. "Please don't doubt my feelings or my intentions, I want you just the way you are, you complete me and I need you in my life." He continued with sincerity reflecting in his eyes and lacing his every word.

"Paxton what is it that you do exactly, your father said that you invent things." I asked him wanting to know a bit more about Paxton Woods, the man that might steal my heart if I let it happen.

"I kind of am, I monitor systems most of the time." He explained.

"I also wanted to ask how the teleportation thing that you were working on fixing is going, are you succeeding?" I asked him.

"It's coming along okay, I was thinking of taking you to meet my team at work tomorrow, but only if you're willing." Paxton explained with the tip of his ears turning a bright red.

"I would love to, but for now let's go join your parents, they are our guests after all." I said standing up and waiting for Paxton to also stand. We both made our way to the garden where his parents were standing. Derek turned around to look at me and gave me a smile of encouragement and support and I smiled back in a thankful manner.

"I was thinking of making some apple pie, what do you think?" Penelope asked me.

"That sounds yummy, I would love to join you in the kitchen if you don't mind." I said and watched as Penelope sent me a beaming smile before she nodded and began tugging me towards the kitchen.

Once we reached the kitchen, I watched or more like tried to keep up with Penelope as she zipped around the kitchen at elf speed and took out the ingredients that she would need for her pie. She then called me over to the table where she gave me a knife for me to use to cut the apples, but not without giving me clear instructions on how she wanted them to be

"You make him so happy, you know." She said out of nowhere. She didn't have to even say who she was talking about for me to know that it was Paxton.

"So far you seem like the complete opposite of Emily and I'm happy to see that. I want my son to be happy and this is the happiest that I've seen him in a while, he even told me that he rode a unicorn with you which is something that I tried for so long to help him to do again but unlike you, I miserably failed." Penelope said with a little laugh as she kneaded the dough for the crust of the pie.

"He surprised me, he is really good at riding." I said recalling how in his element he seemed as he rode his horse.

"You are the motivation that he needed," Penelope said as she looked at me with a motherly smile. "Rose, I just want to ask you to give him a chance, I know that this is all complicated and different, but I just want to ask this of you. You are good for him and you make him happy. I don't think that he would be able to survive another rejection." Penelope said with a pained expression.

"Do you mean...?" I trailed off not able to complete my sentence. I watched as Penelope nodded with a sad smile.

"Us supernatural beings form intense connections with our soulmates, so much so that emotional pain caused by our soulmates grows until it's physical and mental. He survived the first time, but that's probably because of you, his soul found yours, even if you were probably a baby," Penelope explained making my eyes bulge out in shock. I was 20 and if I were to go according to this then I can presume that Paxton is over 20 years old himself that's for sure. "Paxton still hasn't told you how old he is?" Penelope asked with amusement dancing in her eyes as I shook my head.

"Is he that old?" I asked wondering whether Paxton was under or above 50.

"To me and the elf world he is young, but to you humans he is old," Penelope said as she stirred the apples which had been chopped up and thrown in the pot in order for her to cook them before she baked and seasoned the apples. "Please try to not run when you learn about his age." Penelope said with pleading eyes.

"I'll try." I said and watched as Penelope chuckled in amusement but she nodded with a lingering smile nonetheless. Her eyes silently telling me that this was all that she was hoping and asking for, for son.

"So tell me about yourself, how old you are, what you like, and anything else that you can spare to talk about." Penelope said as she looked at me with pure curiousity.

"I'm 20 years old, I live with my mom..." I started and told her everything that I could recall about myself. She would nod and laugh at certain details, which made me feel even more at ease as I shared some details of my life with her. I do have to admit that I could feel some sadness creeping into my being whenever I mentioned my mom. I missed her so much.

"I'm guessing that you miss your mother?" Penelope softly asked as she looked at me with pure understanding.

I nodded before I answered, "I do. It's sort of like an unsaid goodbye, and one that I had not been willing to say, but Paxton told me that he wouldn't keep me here against my own will." I said as I became nostalgic at the thought of my mom, I just hoped that she was fine and that she had a duplicate of me with her so that she wouldn't have to worry about my whereabouts.

"I understand. From what Paxton has told me, the transporter should be ready in the next 2-4 days if everything goes well." Penelope said as she pulled out the pie.

"That would be great." I said as I felt a smile light up my face at the thought of being reunited with my mom. I know that it's only been about a day or two but the whole way that everything suddenly happened is what is making me miss my mother so much. It's not like days or times when you say goodbye and leave, I was not mentally prepared for this trip. My goodness I didn't even know that I would be taking it.

"Alright, and then we are done. This will be dessert for later on then, for now, let's just go and relax outside or something." Penelope said as she placed the pie in what I assumed was a food warmer or something of sorts and then we went outside to join the men, who seemed to be talking about fishing...I think.

"The pie is ready, all that's left to be done is the ordering of the food, but for now how about we play a nice family game of chess." Penelope and I watched as the boys seemed to sag into their chairs with bored expressions while Penelope beamed in joy.

"And the game begins." The men simultaneously said with bored expressions that didn't fail to make Penelope and me laugh.