Vale:
I sat on the kitchen island, eating a bowl of Moose Track ice cream drenched in fudge. My sweet tooth had kicked into exceptionally high gear today, and I knew why.
I hadn’t eaten a meal-a real meal for almost a day and a half. Trying to be a good girl was definitely not agreeing with me. With a small sigh, I dug into my bowl and took a large bite of my fudgy ice cream. Eyes closed, I savored the rich fudge when a I started to get a splitting headache.
“You alright in here?” I heard the resoundingly deep voice of my father ask me as I sat on the island counter trying to enjoy my sweet treat.
“Brain freeze,” I murmured as I squeezed my eyes shut tightly as if that would help alleviate the pain that I was feeling. I took a deep breath after the pain subsided and just looked at my father, suffering him a small smile before I returned to my steadily melting treat.
“Those can suck.”
“Yeah,” I replied to him. “They certainly can. In fact, I am almost certain that they always do.” There was only a hint of sarcasm in my voice when I said this. Just a hint.
When silence ensued, where once my eyes were closed and I was leaning back as I sat there, I opened one eye to take a glance at him, curious of his reaction. I couldn’t help the small smile that escaped when I saw amusement on his face.
“Be as sarcastic as you want but there are some who actually enjoy that kind of pain.” He came further into the kitchen.
“Well, I am certainly not one of them,” I reassured him. “Though it does take one’s mind off of the little things if the brain freeze is painful enough.”
“Ah, that it true,” My father walked even further into the kitchen, suddenly only inches away from me as he then asked. “Is there something…little, that you are trying to get your mind off of?”
“Yes, actually. There is.”
He leaned against the island, his eyes staring intently. “And what is that?” my father asked me.
With a sigh, I lifted the spoon that suddenly was dripping with my now melted ice cream. “I am…trying to figure out a way to turn this ice cream…into blood. It’s really starting to bother me that I’m getting not even the inkling of an idea on how to do so.”
“Is that right?” he asked.
“Yup!” I countered without hesitation.
Of course, there was something else on my mind. Something, I dare say, weighed heavier on me than the fact that I hadn’t had any blood in well over thirty-six hours. Well, it almost weighed heavier on me, at least. That dumb Lycan alpha. Of course, I wouldn’t tell Alastair Wade this, though.
“You sure?” he asked. He had a feeling, I could tell, that desiring to feed was not the only thing on my mind. He was right. But again, I wouldn’t tell him that.
“I. Am. Positive.” With every word I said, the white and brown liquid that was once my sundae began to drip from the spoon and back into the bowl.
I could see from my peripheral that my father was staring at me. When I realized that he would not relent until I gave him the same courtesy, I finally obliged and faced the great wolf alpha with yet another unreaching smile.
“Fine,” he finally said after he realized that beyond extending him the courtesy of facing him, I would not admit to anything else. “Well, then when was the last time that you fed?” he asked me.
With a slightly hungry frustration, I groaned and placed my bowl next to me on the counter. I rubbed my eyes, and tiredly answered. “Don’t worry, dad, I’ve been a good girl for almost two days now.”
“You haven’t fed in two days?” he said incredulously.
“I…well, I said that it was almost two days. Key word, almost.”
He cursed under his breath and hissed my name in frustration. “You can’t just cut yourself off like that, Val,” he hissed and walked over to a large deep fridge. It was a specially made one that he used specifically for the blood bags that he kept.
The blood that my father usually kept stored in that fridge was almost always fresh from the source so I didn’t have to worry ab out it being any good. Still, there was something…unsavory about not getting it from the source.
“Dad, I prefer my batch warm, if you know what I mean.”
“I know bloody well what you mean,” he hissed under his breath. He was clearly unhappy with my joking about feeding on innocent humans. I didn’t like to upset my father, but I also wasn’t going to lie about my blood preferences either.
“Listen, I can-” before I finish talking he turned around shoved the blood bag toward me. It was one of his larger bags. “Drink.” he said in one bloody demanding tone.
I didn’t want to frustrate him anymore than I had. “Can you at least warm it up first?” I asked him.
His eyes narrowed slightly and then he turned toward the sink, grabbed a bowl and filled it up with water at a temperature so hot, the steam could be seen rising above his head as his back was turned to me. Then in one fluid motion, he dumped the bag into the bowl.
“Thank you. I guess.” Of course I muttered that last part under my breath. It still wasn’t the same though.
The great wolf turned to me, leaned against the sink. There was something on his mind, but he was reluctant to ask.
Since he was going to say anything or ask the question that I knew that he wanted to ask, I smiled. “How has your day been?”
With his arms crossed, I could tell that he was fighting the small smile teasing the corner of his lips. It was nice to see something other than concern on his face since returning to Shadow Veil.
“It’s been…interesting to say the least,” he said.
“How so?” I asked. “I’m hoping I’m not the cause of all the interest,” I added, knowing that he was trying to steer clear of the word stress. Regardless of the awkwardness in our relationship now, I still worried about him when he was stressed.
“If you were Harly, I’d probably lie to you but you’ve always been the one with the tough skin.”
I smirked. “When you’re a servant of the inhuman race-serving to their every whim…you have to have tough skin.”
I didn’t mean it to sound snarky or bitter, but I could tell that my father thought that I might have. He couldn’t even look at me.
“You’re right,” he said. Silence lingered in the air between the two of us then he finally spoke again. “I’m so sorry, Val, about-”
“Dad,” I cut him off. We weren’t going to have this conversation again. I knew how sorry he was. I watched him for hours visit my gravesite for the two years that I was gone. I saw his grief, and I wouldn’t dare question it. “Don’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I already know.”
He clenched his jaw and averted his gaze f rom me for a moment. I knew that while I had forgiven whatever he thought he’d done to me, Alastair Wade would never be so easy on himself.
“Anyway!” I said with far more excitement than either of us felt. “So, what’s been so interesting?” I asked, continuing the subject of what we were talking about before.
He took in a deep breath and obliged me with a small smile. “Well, besides you, a few interesting things have been going on.”
“Well?” I pressed when he stopped there. “Are you going to tell me? Or do I have to wait for the calvary?”
He smirked. “You’re trying to get the information before everyone else does. So, you can leave.”
I shamefully averted my stare as I cursed myself for apparently being so obvious. No, I did not want to be around when everyone arrived.
Facing the Lycan king so soon after finding out that we were mates, was just not something that I was ready for.
There was already a great mound of tension between us already. There would have been whether we were mated to one another or not. Then to add this sudden bond was something that only made the waters even mirkier than before. I just…I just wasn’t ready to face him.
Ares was always an…aggressive and dominant character and I could sense his resentment when we faced one another. I was already dealing with the dysfunction of my family, I wasn’t prepared for anymore than that.
“Who are you trying to avoid?” he asked. When I didn’t answer-not that he gave me enough space to do so, he began to guess. “Your sister?” he asked. “You did upset her.”
“Harlyn has always been sensitive towards me and anything that I say or do contrary to to what she wants.”
I didn’t answer his question and so his brow rose and he waited for me to continue speaking.
“No,” I finally answered him. “I am not trying to avoid her. I’ve been her gopher long enough to know how to deal with her. Even in her being upset with me.”
“Okay,” he said after yet another moment of continuous silence. “And your mother? What about her?”
Immediately a flurry of aggravation surfaced and I shook it away. I cleared my throat in a successful attempt to rid myself of the growl that was threatening to surface.
“No.” I cut my eyes. “I am not trying to ignore the old woman,” though I didn’t want to see her at all.
Maybe I was wrong for feeling the way that I felt, but the fact that she appeared in my life, watching me this whole time, and earning my trust as a completely different person. It was something that I definitely needed to sort my feelings out about.
“Then why are you trying to leave?” he asked.
“I just do not want to be here, dad.”
The old man turned to the sink and took the bag of blood out of the hot bowl, wrapped it in a warm towel that he’d warmed up in the microwave. He walked over to where I was sitting and handed it to me.
“I don’t believe you,” he challenged me.
Instead of answering him, I tore the tip of the bag off and drank. It was actually pretty good…unfortunately.
“You’re avoiding the lycan boy.”
When he referred to Ares as a boy, it, for some reason made me want to laugh a little. I never heard him consider him a boy, unless he was intentionally being condescending to prove a point.
“The lycan boy,” I chortled. “I’m assuming you mean the alpha.”
“You know who I mean, Valene,” he said to me. “There’s obvious tension between the both of you.”
“Well, I did leave without telling him only to be killed. I guess there’s a lot he has to hang over my head.”
“So then you are trying to avoid him then.” I was irritated by the assumption, no matter how true it was and I didn’t want to answer him. “Val,” he pressed. “What is going on between you two?”
“Nothing,” I replied. To be honest, I was caught off guard by his question. I thought he was just going to stick to the idea that Ares was simply upset with me for leaving him. Apparently, my father thought that there was more to it than that. I hated the fact that he was right and I certainly wouldn’t confirm his assumption. “There’s nothing goin on, dad!”
“Then why don’t I believe you?” he asked.
Fortunately, before I could respond, the sound of Harlyn descending the stairs and knocks on the front door began to interrupt the conversation. It was time for the meeting to begin and oh how I was glad to hear it.
I finished off the blood bag and tossed it in the bin and started out of the kitchen. “Like I said, alpha, there’s nothing to tell.”