Ariadne: Almost an Alpha | ✓

Chapter 28 - Haunted

Chapter 28 - Haunted

    On the morning of my third day without proper sleep, I get out of bed sore, like every muscle in my body was screaming at me to put it outs of its misery.

    "I'm sorry," I say aloud, apologizing to them. They deserve a better brain, that's for sure.

    My complexion looks sickly and pale in the mirror. There's a gray tint under my skin along with unhealed bruises. Even with superior healing abilities, my body doesn't have enough energy to heal with the way I've been treating it.

    "I'm sorry," I repeat, pinching my cheeks to give them color.

    After a heavy application of makeup, I go downstairs to eat breakfast. While making eggs for breakfast, I close my eyelids to let my burning eyes rest, and open them again sometime later when I hear someone say, "Wow Ari, you never told me you were such a wonderful cook."

    I look down at the pan to see the eggs blackened. Before turning around to face James, I turn the burner off, remove the pan, and put it to the side.

"I wasn't paying attention," I defend.

"You were standing right in front of it."

"I was lost in thought."

"Ooh, now we're onto something. What is my dear Ari thinking about this morning? Ahh, could it be a tall dark-haired, blue-eyed Greek man that's name just so happens to begin with Mat and end with eus?"

"James," I warn, turning back around to grab the pan to throw the burnt egg in the trash.

    "Is that something burning? James, are you trying to cook again?"

    Helena's voice catches me by surprise, showing just how off even my sense are.

    "That was one time!" James defends while I scrub the burnt pieces off the poor pan. "And besides, this was Ari."

    "Ari, dear, let me handle this. I have enough help this morning. You go sit." Helena says, gently grabbing the pan out of my hands.

I don't even try to argue, knowing that at this rate, I'd do more harm than help. Wordlessly, I walk to the dining table and sit at my usual spot. James follows, continuing to make fun of me, but I'm too tired to come up with any witty responses today. He sits in his usual spot next to me as I stare at the yellow wall.

"Oh Ari, you know I'm joking, don't look so sad," James says, nudging my shoulder.

"Huh?"

"I didn't mean it. I know you're a good cook. You've been helping with all the meals here."

"Oh no, James, I wasn't offended. It's fine," I finally respond. I make an effort to concentrate on the conversation until everyone else comes in for breakfast, distracting his focus from me.

I silently eat my food, gnawing slowly on a biscuit while the men around me talk. I didn't even notice Mateus had left the table to go speak to some guys at the end until a hand touches my shoulder. I look up with heavy lids, half a biscuit still between my fingers.

"Ready?" Mateus asks.

Putting the biscuit down, I nod before gathering my dirty dishes to bring to the kitchen.

Although my adrenaline wakes me up during training, and I regain some agility, my reaction time was still slower against James. James, an alpha, is a really good fighter, so it would have been hard to beat him normally. Today, however, he beat me in every match.