Crown of Blood

14 | conversations

It felt as if someone was ripping my heart out and stomping all over it as I took in the scene in front of me.

Suddenly, the pain from earlier made sense. Werewolves could feel it if their mate did something unfaithful, but judging from how quickly the pain had left, I suspected it hadn't been more than a kiss.

But even something as simple as a kiss felt like a slap in the face.

"What?" she snapped, clearly not happy.

"Sorry to interrupt," I didn't even know how I found my voice. My mate's head snapped up, his gaze meeting mine. "I have the Alpha's dinner."

There was an indecipherable emotion behind his eyes that I didn't even want to bother figuring out.

He's probably pissed at you for cock-blocking.

I stared back blankly, refusing to display just how affected I was by the two of them.

"Whatever," she huffed. "I'm out of here anyways. Have fun with the help," her last statement was directed at my mate, along with her anger it seemed, which only sent me into a state of confusion.

The door slammed as she stomped out of the room, leaving me alone with the Alpha feeling more uncomfortable and confused than ever.

"Where's Ma?" he asked as if nothing had happened.

I could feel myself breaking out into a slightly nervous sweat as the uncomfortableness settled in. "Uh, I told her to take the rest of the evening off."

Only now, I wished I hadn't.

"My meal, Ms. Willows?"

My brain was so busy reviewing the past few minutes that I hardly realized I was standing there as if Medusa had just turned me to stone.

"Oh!" I snapped out of my daze. "Yes, sorry Alpha, I should have informed you of the switch earlier - I just saw how hard Amara was working and it seemed like she deserved to have a bit of a break, and I was supposed to be here earlier but I noticed the Paprika was mislabeled as Oregano and that could've had catastrophic effects on our future meals if someone were to mix that up -"

I awkwardly rambled on as my hands flew around, absentmindedly placing his tray down and arranging the plates and cutlery. The words coming out of my mouth barely registered with my brain, so my verbal diarrhea just kept on gushing out.

".. since I can't mindlink, perhaps we should have a signal for next time? That way things can go much smoother and we won't have another run in -"

"I believe those are my potatoes, Ms. Willows."

My body froze in position as I finally looked at my mate who was writing on some paper in front of him.

"What are you ta..." I trailed off as I realized there was indeed a fork of potatoes raised up to my lips.

Worse, I could taste bits of potato in my mouth.

Curse you, Uncle Eddie!

He was to blame for my habit of eating when stressed.

And my mate stressed me out. A lot.

I was absolutely mortified - my mate had just watched me chow down on his food like a mad woman.

"Poison!" I blurted out.

"Poison?" he repeated in confusion, his hand paused mid-air. "Where?"

"Yes. I was checking your food for poison," I shrugged nonchalantly. "You never know who's out to get you and uh, well, the potatoes are clear."

He arched a perfect eyebrow, regarding me with a cool gaze.