Alpha Charming | Rheon

FIVE

It's been one hour and forty-seven minutes, I'm still locked in the pantry and the chances of survival were dwindling. There wasn't much to snack on while I was being kept hostage, but after taking inventory of the shelves, I came upon a box of chocolate cereal. Usually, I would ask before I'd help myself to other people's food, but these Scots locked me up without anything to eat or drink. I'm way past formalities by now.

I popped a few pops into my mouth, listening to them crunch while checking my phone - still no signal. It wouldn't surprise me if this pantry was built to serve as a safety bunker during a war or an apocalypse. It would've made my time as a hostage so much more endurable if I could at least watch some YouTube.

At that moment, I picked up the soft hums of voices approaching. After listening closely, I recognized one of them as Reyna's and another as Craig's. There were three I couldn't place, and one I couldn't hear that well.

The latter, however, raised a pitch when the person spoke, "What do you mean she's here?"

That voice. My heart dropped when I immediately recognized it as Rheon's.

An inaudible reply followed.

"You locked her in the pantry?"

"I panicked, okay?" Reyna whisper-shouted. "Would you have had a better idea?"

"Maybe not lock her up like we're a bunch of deranged lunatics!"

An unfamiliar voice snorted. "Have you seen yourself during the last full moon?"

I heard a sigh before Reyna said, "At least she missed her flight. I think we can let her out now."

"I'll do it. Hopefully, she won't try to kill me since I'm not the one who locked her up."

I straightened up when I heard the key turn in the lock. The door handle wiggled before it opened on a crack.

Rheon cautiously peered in, blinking in what could only be surprise when he spotted me sitting on a sack of potatoes while munching on chocolate cereal. His mouth corner twitched up, "I've come to free you from my sister-in-law's crazy schemes - and at the same time to apologize for last night."

I remained silent and he took that as a safe sign to enter the pantry.

"I know we haven't officially met, and I assume that's what sent you running off last night. Completely my fault; I'm often told I'm a bit straightforward. But let's talk outside where it smells less of cheese. Here, let me help you up -"

Just as he took another step towards me, I chucked the cereal box at him and hit him square in the face. In a flash, I had a can of soup in my grasp and tossed that at him as well. Rheon raised his hands as one object after the other lunged at him, trying to block my assaults as best he could.

"Hold on... now wait... let me explain..." he tried getting me to stop but proved to be futile since I had unlimited ammo.

"You..." I chucked a box of pasta at him, "...locked me..." a bag of chips followed, "...in a pantry! With no damn reception!"

"And I'm sorry!" He dodged another can of soup by inches before it could hit his face, "You have to understand this isn't my fault. I had no idea you were here until..." his eyes grow twice their size when I aimed a bag of flour at him, "No! No."

I squinted at him.

"No."

"You locked me in a pantry," I seethed before launching the flour at him.

Rheon screwed his eyes shut and scrunched his face when a cloud of white exploded at his feet, covering him in flour from head to toe. He exhaled sharply from his nose, sending wafts of white puffs swirling.