Midnight Blue

2 / The Sauce

Rose was beginning to feel faint. Kitchen work had never treated her well, the stuffy inside room her least favourite to work in. 

While the kitchens of the Assumption Building were larger than those at her pack's house, she couldn't help but feel as though all kitchens were exactly the same. There was too much steam and smoke and heat. Too many bodies filling the room. Too may people trying to move in different directions all at once. 

The noise she found to bee overwhelming, also and she often found herself wishing she could put her hands to her ears to block it all out. She hated noise. 

The last few days were beginning to take their toll on her. She had been brought to the Assumption Building with her Alpha and some other members of her pack to help prepare for the Alpha King's arrival and since the first day, she had been worked to the bone. 

Food there was scarce, considering it wasn't usually lived in and most of the supplies were being brought in from the nearby port for the chefs to prepare for the Grand Dinner. The ingredients were expensive, only the best of the best and Rose couldn't help but wish that she might get to try some. She knew, however, that her Alpha would have her head if she did. And so, she managed to refrain.

"Are you alright?" Ella's voice hissed in her ear as she passed on her way to the nearby sink. Rose nodded, turning her concentration away from the pot on the stove for just a minute, attempting to assuage her friend's worries. Ella eyed her suspiciously but soon the friends were separated by the moving bodies of multiple workers. When Ella could no longer see her, Rose gripped the edge of the counter, pressing her weight against it for support. Her head was spinning.

"Sauce!" She recognised the voice as belonging to the head chef. "You, girl! I need the sauce." Rose realised he was speaking to her.

She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that she might manage to steady her spinning head. Releasing her hands from the counter, she tilted for a moment but managed to pull herself back upright.

"Now! This meat will burn." The chef's voice had a way of ringing over the chaos.

"Coming." Rose tried to call back but she knew her efforts were useless. Her voice was small, barely carrying as far as the person to her right.

She pulled the pot from its place on the stove but just as it lifted, she felt herself buckle under its weight. Rose's breath caught in her throat and it felt as if someone had shaken her head so that her mind wouldn't work. She felt like her entire brain was filled with air.

Before she knew it, she was on the floor. Her vision went blurry. Around her, muffled voices could be heard through fading hearing. She could feel the burning of the boiling sauce on her arm as it spilled onto the floor.

She was pulled up, suddenly set back on her feet. She wobbled again before feeling the cool granite of the countertop against her back.

A slap landed across her face. She could hear an angry voice but what it was saying was lost to her.

Rose's heart dropped when a hand grabbed her arm, it's grip tight as it pulled her from the kitchen.

"...your Alpha..." The only words that Rose could make out made her sick to her stomach. She'd ruined the sauce for the King's dinner. She couldn't bare to think what the Alpha would think of that.