Love, Honor, and Blood

Christmas Day

Christmas Day, 12-24-2020, 8pm,

As the dining room doors opened up Orion felt eyes staring at him.

*Ok Evi help me out here, who are all these people?* he asked.

*This is my family* she replied, *that's my uncle Karl, my aunt Donna, Angie, and Alci and the girls are, well I think they are my nieces and oh I almost forgot my sister Laika* she said excitedly.

*Your sister! Who?* he asked.

*Laika the one sitting in between aunt donna and mother, you meet them early silly* she said.

*Oh* he exclaimed.

*oh So that's your mother*

He was brought out of the mindscape by a nudge from Dani, "Huh, what's up?" he asked.

"You spaced out like you saw a ghost, are you ok?" Dani asked, looking a little worried for him.

"Maybe you caught a slow one like Sal, a skyscraper." a man near the end of the table said practically yelling across the table.

"Shut up metal head!" Alcina yelled back at the man.

"Enough children! let our guest introduce himself" she said, turning her gaze to him.

Orion paused for a second collecting himself and then spoke.

"Hello, my name is Orion Groza, it's nice to meet you all finally," he said, giving a bow of his head.

"Mother may he sit and then you may continue your interrogation," Alcina said jokingly.

"Of course, please sit Orion," the woman said with an eerie grin creeping across her face.

Orion, Alcina, and Daniela took their seats and she spoke again.

"So Mr.Groza, my daughter Alcina tells me she hired you after you saved my granddaughter Daniela," she said.

"Yes that's correct ma'am," he said, a bit nervous.

"There's no need to be nervous after all you are smitten with my granddaughter after all," she said in a teasing tone.

"Mother," Alcina said, shocked at the comment.

Daniela shrunk in her chair, Bela wasn't bothered by it and continued to eat her food, Cassandra was trying so hard to hold back her laugh, the others around the table just looked stunned, and then her eyes were back on Orion.

"So you got a thing going with my niece huh?" the man with the greasy-looking hair said to Orion.

"Karl," the woman said sternly, the man just scoffed and went back to eating his food.

"Alcina dear it's written on their faces," she said with a smile on her face.

"But enough of that let me introduce myself, I am Miranda, I'm the head of this family, you know Alcina, and granddaughters, 'Orion nodded,' the one who insulted and weakly threatened you is Karl pay him no mind," with that Kral stuck his nose in the air, "next we have Salvatore, the man with what looked like a Christmas sweater and some tattered but well-kept slacks and waved to Orion and Orion waved back at him, "Next and finally we have Donna and Laika," she said laying her gaze on the woman in black and the other scary blonde.

"We met already although it was brief," Orion said as he gave a bow of his head.

"You are well mannered more than most men we meet for most men are arrogant, disrespectful, and misogynistic but not you," Miranda said with curiosity in her voice as she was taking a bite of her meal.