Beast Behind the Mask

Chapter 21

"Thank you for the ride." I smiled at Jace as I closed the door. He'd picked me up from the diner at the end of my shift.

"No problem, Luna."

"Please don't call me that. It sounds so formal." I said as I pulled up the fabric of my shirt again, it had an annoying habit of falling off, exposing my shoulder and neck to the slightly cold breeze. I had changed out of my uniform, a black T-shirt with Christie's Diner written on the front in bold white letters and into a loose long sleeve purple shirt and black tights.

He chuckled as we started making our way towards the Packhouse, "It is your title, you know. You will have to get used to it."

"I know, but it will take some time. So please, meanwhile, call me Ariana."

He nodded, grinning, "Okay, Ariana."

"Thank you." I smiled.

"By the way, if you don't mind me asking, did you have a fight with Hunter?"

It took me a moment to catch up to the sudden question, "What? Why?"

He shrugged, "Just today he was a bigger pain in the ass than usual. Snarling and growling at everyone. I just wondered if something happened with you guys."

"Well, something did happen. But I don't want to talk about it. Where is he anyway?" I asked as we walked towards the stairs leading up to Hunter's wing. I wanted to ask him if he knew anything about the happenings of the night before, but I didn't know if Hunter had informed him about it or not, I didn't want to cause a conflict, and regardless, I didn't want to talk to anyone about it before talking to Hunter, so I kept mum on the subject.

"Oh, he's still at work." He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned towards me, "Normally I help him with any business if he has to stay late, but today it seemed like he would bite my head off." He snorted, "So I saved myself and took off."

I shook my head, "Well, I have to go now. It's almost time for dinner and I'm starving." I turned to leave but he stopped me.

"Do you mind if I join you for dinner? I'm too tired to cook anything for myself and I know whatever Martha made would be amazing."

I considered it. He was the beta of the Pack, even though I didn't know him all that well he was very close to Hunter. And I didn't have many friends in the Pack. I should probably get to know him better since I was the Luna now, and some company would take my mind off Hunter.

I nodded after a moment, "Sure."

"Great, thanks."

We walked up to Hunter's wing then entered the kitchen. Jace walking around with an ease that told me he had been here countless times before and knew his way around.

I opened the oven door to see a small dish of lasagna, I closed it and turned it on to heat, then turned and opened the fridge. There sitting was a bowl of salad and a pan of apple pie, garnished with caramelized apples. My mouth watered just looking at it.

I turned to Jace who was leaning against the counter, "We have salad, lasagna, and apple pie."

"Really?!" He returned excitedly, "It's like she knew she was cooking for me." He rubbed his stomach, "Man, I'm hungry."

I chuckled softly, "Would you mind setting the table, while I take out the food?"

"Yeah, sure." He moved and started doing as I asked.

In 15 minutes we had everything on the table. We sat down and dug in.

"Oh, God!" Jace groaned, shoveling another big bite of lasagna, dripping with cheese, in his already full mouth, "This is delicious!"