My Elf Soulmate
Chapter 9

"She's gorgeous." I heard a feminine voice as I was waking up from my sleep.

"Mom..." I heard the persisting voice of Paxton from somewhere near me.

"Honey, let's leave the poor girl to sleep. I don't think that she would appreciate waking up to a stranger's face hovering over her again." I heard the masculine voice of a man.

"But I've been waiting for a long time to meet her already." The feminine voice whined making me want to laugh a bit, whoever this lady was had a really sweet and almost childlike voice. It was soothing.

"I'm sure that you can survive another hour or two," The man said sounding amused at the woman's behaviour, from the way he spoke I could guess that they were a couple. "Let's go before you scare away your son's soulmate." The father said I listened to the woman as she sighed before I heard retreating footsteps.

After a couple of seconds of silence, I felt the gentle brushing of a small hand on my cheek, making my insides melt at the loving gesture but I also felt my body tense up a bit because of how unexpected it was.

"You'll join us when you're ready," I heard Paxton say making my heart jump at being caught. I guess that the jing was up, it was time to face my reality. I opened my eyes and looked at Paxton wanting to know how he knew. "I don't know how but I just knew that you had woken up. It's an elf soulmate thing," He said throwing me a sad smile. "I'll be in the kitchen, breakfast will be ready in ten minutes." He said before he walked out of the room and gently closed the door behind him.

Knowing that I didn't want to be stuck in this room for the whole day, I got out of bed, quickly fixed it, and then went to the bathroom to do my morning rituals. After dressing up and spraying on my body spray I took a deep breath and made my way out of the room. The closer I got to the kitchen the more evident the chatter that emitted from the became.

When I got to the entrance everyone's eyes turned to me. My eyes locked into Paxton's eyes, who looked at me with gentle eyes that seemed to trap me in them for a bit. The squealing of a woman snapped us out of our stare as Paxton hissed at the volume of his mother's voice.

"Hello Sweetheart, I'm Penelope, Paxton's mother," She said zipping her way over to me. "You are so gorgeous and you will do well for my little Toni." The woman or should I say Penelope said.

"Thank you, ma'am." I politely said not being able to say more. To be honest all of this was getting a little overwhelming.

"Please call me Penelope," She said reaching out for a handshake. "You have a gentle heart." She stated out of nowhere. I looked over at Paxton for clarification to replace him already looking at me.

"It's one of my mother's abilities. When she holds someone's hand she can learn certain things about a person." Paxton explained to which I nodded in acknowledgment of the answer.

"Give the poor girl some time to breathe, honey." The man said as he also approached me. "Hello, Dear, my name is Derek, I'm Paxton's father, and most of all, I'm a human like you," Derek said with a smile full of understanding, I couldn't help but to feel happy, Paxton is a good person but when it comes to relation, Derek could relate to my situation even more. I think that he would be able to help me understand a couple of things better as a fellow human. "I know that you probably have questions and I don't mind answering them, but first let's eat, you must be hungry." Derek gently said, with eyes full of understanding and so with a nod, that's what we did.

During the meal, the most talkative person was Penelope who kept voicing out her joys about her son replaceing his mate. I would just laugh and just reply to some of the things she said feeling unable to reply to some of the things. I could feel that Paxton's eyes were on me throughout most of breakfast but I couldn't bring myself to face him yet. When we finished eating I followed Paxton's father to a sitting area in the house.

"Shoot away." Derek said as he placed what looked like a cup of tea on the table in front of us.

"How is it living here, so far away from home?" I asked him.

"Well at first it was a little awkward but then I got used to it and even started liking some things and places about this place. How are you adjusting to all of this, what would you like to know?" Derek asked, taking a sip from his cup of tea.

"To be honest, I don't know where to start. " I comfessed, feeling a swarm of questions swirling around in my head.

"What's the biggest thing that is bothering you, what's constantly on your mind?" He asked as he took another sip of his drink. His eyes fixed on me, silently encouraging me to talk.

"Well Paxton told me about the elves' history," I said and watched Derek nod as a silent form of telling me to carry on. "How do I know that I'm currently not under a spell, I just can't let myself accept the fact that I'm so comfortable around a stranger, it's not my form of normality." I said looking down at my hands, I just couldn't bring myself to look Derek in the eyes when I was basically accusing his son of possibly bewitching me.

"I had similar concerns as you when Penelope told me about their history, but I was already in love with her so I brushed it off pretty soon after," Derek said releasing a bombastic laugh before his face settled on a more serious one again, "I can guarantee you that you are not under a spell. Paxton wouldn't want you to love him because of a spell or potion and he is just not the type of elves who are good at making potions. He has always been more focused on creating things, technical things. Plus, Paxton is already on the road to falling in love with you," Derek said making my breath hitch, it just couldn't be. "And because he is falling for you, he would want you to fall in love with him in the natural way. He is more than willing to wait for you to love him back, after waiting so many years for you I'm sure that he doesn't mind waiting for you for a little bit longer." Derek explained making me wonder how many years it had been because to me Paxton looked young.

"For how long has he been waiting and where is his first soulmate, what happened to her after she rejected Paxton?" I asked the words first soulmate leaving a bitter taste in my mouth, but I refused to entertain it, simply because I refused to entertain what such a feeling entailed.

"Are you sure that this is not something that you would like to talk to Paxton about?" Derek asked to which I hesitantly nodded. "Very well, Paxton's first soulmate's name was Emily, she was a werewolf though. Emily played with Paxton's heart, she slept around knowing that Paxton would know, and then eventually she marked another man and rejected Paxton after all of the emotional pain that Paxton went through. Paxton is the type of person to give out huge chucks of his heart if not all of it and this has caused him pain. Paxton has waited for you for 20 years or so, Dear, and I remember how excited he was when he called to tell us that he had found you." Derek said with a lingering smile as he looked at his son who was outside in the garden with Penelope.

"That is a long time, makes me wonder how old he is. How did you adjust to all of this, to have someone who seems to be ready to smother you with love, love that you didn't have at the time." I asked as I watched Paxton laugh with his mother as they nursed a broken flower.

"One thing that I've learned is that in this world the people fall in love very quickly and they are really open and affectionate about it. I think what helped me is that I met Penelope while I was still in the human world. To me she was a beautiful human woman whom I just seemed very attracted to, you, however, however were just thrust into this world, which I'm sure is quite overwhelming." Derek said with a sympathetic smile.

"Derek, how do I know that I'm not some sort of rebound for him. Like you said, he has been waiting for a long time maybe it's just loneliness that's making him attracted to me, maybe he will get tired of me after some time or even worse, what if I fall in love with him and Emily comes back, then what, won't he want her, his original and true soulmate?" I voiced out my worries.

"He wouldn't do that to you, plus his bond with Emily is practically severed now, you are the only person that he sees and wants, I can guarantee you that much." Derek explained with a somber look that reflected how sincere he was being. For some reason as much as Derek had really helped me, I wanted to hear these words from Paxton himself. I wanted him to tell me that liking him or falling in love with him would not be a mistake. I wanted him to tell me that I wasn't just a rebound. I needed some reassurance before my mind came up with many more bad scenarios.

"Roseanne." I heard the voice of the man that seemed to have more of an effect on me than I had ever thought that he would have after only about 2 days of knowing me.