Taken by my mate

Spencer

I followed the Luna around the library until lunch. She would gather arm fulls of books and then give them to others intermittently. Like with the librarian, people would come up to her excitedly spying one in her hand they needed, and she always handed it over without hesitation.

“Didn’t you want to read that?” I would ask and she would just smile.

“It had a purpose, if I need it I’ll come back.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I would tell her but her smile never wavered.

“I know.”

By the end of her wander through she had two books still in her hand and entered the Alpha’s office with them without hesitation. He wasn’t inside and she found her chair and sat down before handing me a book.

“What’s this?” I flipped the book over in my hand and saw it was that same book that had been on his desk during our meeting the day before.

“I helped everyone else find books, I thought you might like one.” She smiled, picking up her ‘1,000 years of wolven history’ and flipping to the middle.

We had been there about an hour when her stomach started to growl and I convinced her to go to the kitchen for some food. It was completely empty, as I would have expected, but I didn’t expect all of the cooks to be out as well.

“It’s okay, I can cook,” she said happily.

She began checking the cupboards and fridge, gauging ingredients and spices for ideas. After a minute she began collecting things and laying them out over the counter. Filling a pressure cooker with water she added bones and Bullion from the fridge and the washed peelings from all the vegetables she had gathered.

I watched with awe as she opened cupboards and added spices and herbs, measured only by her fingers and hands and then placed the lid and returned to the counter. She was wearing a pair of shorts, and a T-shirt, and tucked a tea towel into the band for her hands. She had started humming, but after a minute pulled her phone out and placed it on the counter to play music.

The doors opened a few minutes later and Daley walked in with Ellion. “I thought I heard club music,” she giggled.

The Luna rinsed off her hands and pat them dry on the towel before returning to chopping, smacking my hands away when I tried to help. “Give it a minute, and it’ll be something else.”

True to her word the song ended and some ethereal sounding tune came on to drift through the room. They joined me, banished to sit at the counter, as the Luna started to sway her hips in dance and gather her vegetables into a pile. When they tumbled over she went into a lower cupboard and found a large bowl to keep them in. Ellion’s brows started to push together as he watched her and I had a hard time believing anyone could look so concerned with what she was doing.

After she had filled the bowl with diced vegetables she grabbed a bag of bread and lunch meat along with all the condiments and pushed them towards us.

“Make up your sandwiches and I’ll roast them in the oven,” she instructed, then grabbed a baking sheet and set it down on the counter.

She preset the oven and retrieved the cheese and cheese knife, cutting equal slices onto the cutting board. She had begun to hum along to a song again when Ellion looked back up to watch her retrieve a ladle from a lower drawer and rest it beside the pressure cooker.

“Has Covyn brought you here before?” Ellion asked.

She didn’t look at him as she asked in return. “Here where? Like the pack house before now?”

“No of course not,” he scoffed. “I’d remember him bringing a girl home, I meant the kitchen.”

“Are you worried he isn’t feeding me?” She chuckled. “Yes, remember the first day. He made us sandwiches before taking me to pick up Sequoia.”

The cat’s head perked at her name from the stool beside mine but she laid back down just as quickly.

“But he didn’t show you around. Yet you seem to know where everything is. Spencer did you show her?” He looked over at me, his eyes a little too suspicious but I shook my head and shrugged.

Ellion’s gaze shifted back to her and she leaned on the counter as if expecting something from him. “Evadiene….”

“What smells so good?” The Alpha walked in as if on cue, and Ellion’s suspicions were dropped as quickly as they were formed.

“Soup and baked grilled cheeses, because grilling 9 sandwiches would take me too long.” She lined up our sandwiches on the tray and I hadn’t even noticed her making three herself, one for her and two for the Alpha.

She popped the tray into the oven and he walked up behind her, wrapping his fingers around her hips and smelling her hair. The Luna allowed him this, as evident from her moving away when he tried to kiss her cheek and checked the timer on her pot again.

“Good timing. I need your help,” she said to him and the lot of us groaned.

“I’ve been trying to help the whole time?” I returned first and she laughed.

“I didn’t need help then.”

She instructed the Alpha in pouring the hot liquid through a strainer into another pot and then returned the pot to the stove, adding the diced veggies and some noodles. As they cooked and reduced she eyed Ellion but he avoided her gaze and she seemed almost disappointed. The timer beeped and she pulled the sandwiches to cool before heading into the walk in freezer.

—

Evadiene

When I closed the freezer door behind me I took one of the metal trays off the rack and threw it at the ground as hard as I could. I counted to ten and when no one came rushing in to check on me I figured it was sound proof and I screamed. For as long as I could, I let all of the air sound as it flew out of my lungs into the cold air.

Ellion was so close. Five more minutes and I’m sure he would have asked the right questions. All day with Spencer was exactly the same where he would start to ask me questions but feel like he was overstepping and stop.

I screamed again in the freezer before wiping the tears from my eyes on the towel tucked into my shorts. It felt a little better to be able to let my frustrations out, but I still needed to go back out and face everyone. I knocked my elbow on a shelf, and dropped a can of juice on my foot. Then, fanning my face for a moment, I calmed down and brought two cans of frozen juice out with me. Covyn turned towards me, brows pinched together and I turned quickly away.

Did they hear me? No, Spencer and Daley looked normally towards me. He must have sensed my emotions.

“Are you alright love?” He asked coming to take the juice from my hand.

I chuckled. “Oh you felt that, hey? I just banged my elbow and then dropped the juice on my foot. Needed a bit of a rage minute.”

“You? A rage minute?” Spencer scoffed. “That’s something I’d like to see. You’re the friendliest person I’ve ever seen. Everyone you interacted with all day today left smiling.”

“Who were you interacting with?” Covyn nearly growled and I growled back, catching him off guard.

“I was in the library all day and I found a lot of good books. Don’t get your panties in a twist,” I muttered checking on my soup.

I pulled a couple cozies from the drawer and flicked them on the bar for the sandwich tray. Whether they were talking or not I didn’t notice, putting the oven on broil, returning the tray to the oven for that nice crisp, and counting in my head. I retrieved another oven tray and put six bowls on it, then balanced it on my hand to ladle the soup into. I place the tray on the counter, then turned off the oven and pulled out the sandwiches to place them alongside the soups.

When no one had moved I passed out the soups and hot-potato-tossed the sandwiches on plates to place beside them. I went to dumped the now frozen juice into a jug, filling it while I got a spoon, mixing it as I pulled out the glasses and then poured everyone a drink and placed the jug in the middle. The last thing I did was place several ice cubes in the sixth bowl, and tapped my nails on the counter for Sequoia.

I sat on bar stool and took a nice long drink from my cup. Perfect. I could feel my smile growing just looking at the food that would soon meet my belly.

I dipped my sandwich in the soup and took a big bite before looking up and noticing everyone staring at me. “What?” I mumbled with a mouth full of food, surely getting crumbs all over my face.

“That was crisp,” Spencer replied with a chef’s kiss.

“What does that mean?” I questioned, wishing they would eat and tell me how it turned out.

“You made cooking look like a dance. Not a move was wasted. Your hand was always touching or getting something like a perfect machine,” Daley cooed, picking up her sandwich before the others.

When I glanced at Covyn he looked turned on and I wondered if it was because he saw it as a dance as Daley did, or if it was more like an animal instinct.

Girl bring food, girl good mate. I thought and giggled at him.

That seemed to snap him out of it and he picked up his drink. “How did you learn the kitchen so fast? I still forget where most of the utensils and pots are.”

Wrong question.

I sighed, taking another drink. “I just find what I need. I don’t need to know where everything is.”

“That is quite the talent,” he returned, smiling at me.

“Thank you.” I looked up at Ellion but he said nothing and turned his attention to food.

They apparently enjoyed the food, not speaking again until it was done and I had moved to the sink to begin the dishes.

“Don’t do that,” Spencer interrupted, rounding the counter. “You cooked, I’ll clean.”

“I’ll help,” Ellion offered, following behind him, picking up a towel.

“You made it all?” Covyn questioned.

“It would have been better if I had started the soup this morning. I will next time.” I muttered.

I stood up and moved to pick up Sequoia and bring her to my lap. She purred against my hand in the way that she knew always calmed me down. My precious baby girl, the most consistent thing in my life and always there for me.

“It was fantastic,” Covyn cooed, kissing my temple and my heart betrayed me in the beat it skipped, but I knew he felt it.

“Ellion?” I asked, “What did you think?”

He hesitated before answering, eyeing me carefully first. “Yes Luna, it was wonderful.”

“Don’t trust my opinion anymore?” Spencer teased. “I thought you trusted me to be honest”

I laughed. “Maybe I want to be lied to about my mediocre cooking.”

I was walking towards the back door with Sequoia when I heard Covyn again. “Where are you going?”

“Outside for some air, I figured someone would follow me if that was an issue.”

I could feel my frustration at Ellion returning.

Just ask the fucking question you idiot!

I was so damn close, no one ever paid that much attention to my ability to find things, and the longer I was here the more natural it would seem. I wanted to go back into the freezer and scream, but I was sure this time someone would follow me there as well.

I would have loved to be a passing thought in Spencer’s head as to what he thought was happening when I found all those books today. He had also gotten pretty close to asking the right questions but people had to seek answers to get there.