Page 67 of Destined Mate

My heart clenched. It was of an older man and woman and two small children; one appeared to be a baby. Could that be the king, the queen, and the daughter who’d died?

Zeke’s heavy footsteps hurried from the kitchen toward me.

Dammit, with the way he was rushing, I suspected this encounter wouldn’t go well.

He appeared in the hallway, his expression set in a deep scowl. “What thefuckare you doing?”

CHAPTERNINETEEN

I had justenough time to get my head on straight, and I pushed the door all the way open. “The box on the bed caught my attention. I just wanted to see what I had left to clean up this morning.” Even though he wanted me to rest, I was certain “resting” would include cleaning his house.

Zeke moved into the doorway, blocking my view. “You don’t need to worry. You’re injured, and we already told you to rest,” he said and grabbed my left wrist, tugging me toward the living room.

The stitches on my shoulder threatened to rip open. A whimper escaped me before I could force it down.

“Oh, sorry,” he deadpanned as he released my arm. There was no trace of remorse on his face. In fact, I could’ve sworn one corner of his mouth tilted upward.

Yup. He seemedextremelyregretful.

“What are you doing up?” he asked as he took my other wrist and continued guiding me toward the living room.

As soon as we entered the room, he released my hand and took a few steps away toward the kitchen, which was connected.

“I needed to freshen up, and I’m hungry. Am I confined to the bedroom?” I arched a brow, scanning the creepy space. I shouldn’t be challenging him, but this was my least favorite room in their entire house, which was saying something. The furniture and decor were all pompous and for show. A white couch was placed in the same position as the one in my house, but it had a plastic cover over it. Instead of a television across from it, there was a huge picture of Zeke in a suit. He sat facing the back edge of a wooden chair, staring into the camera. It was over the top and so cringeworthy that it creeped me out every time I came here.

“Of course not.” He laughed a little too loudly.

My gaze flicked to the front door. I was so tempted to run for it, but the attempt would be thwarted, and that would make things worse.

He cleared his throat. “Tina was about to bring you breakfast, but if you need to get out of bed for a moment, you can eat with us.”

He didn’t trust me to return to my room. Lovely. I didn’t want to eat in the kitchen with them; being in their house was bad enough.

Besides Zeke’s pompous portrait, there were several more normal pictures in the room: Theo and Zeke fishing at the Snake River, a few of Theo playing football on his high school team, and a family picture with Theo between Tina and Zeke.

My skin crawled, and I looked at Zeke to see him standing there, waiting for me to follow.

He lifted his chin. “I thought you said you were hungry.”

I shook my head, trying to play it all off. “Yeah. Sorry. I’m out of sorts still.”

“Must be lingering effects from the blood loss.” He leaned back on his heels. “Do you want food or not?”

He was getting suspicious, so I had to go to the kitchen and bear their company. Luckily, my stomach gurgled. “I think it answered for me.”

Ending the standoff, I strolled past him into the kitchen. Tina stood at the sink, looking out the back window, washing a stainless steel frying pan. Greasy water had splashed onto the white granite countertops, turning them several shades darker than the light-gray cabinets around them.

I stood in front of the round glass dining table on the right side of the room. The wood floors were warmer in here, making my feet toasty.

“Good morning,” Tina said coldly. She glanced at me and gestured to the end of the counter closest to me, where a plate with a biscuit sat. “I figured that was safest until your stomach settles more.”

The smell of bacon still hung in the kitchen, mocking me. Maybe eating grease wasn’t smart, but it would have been delicious.

“Thank you.” I was half expecting Zeke to grab the biscuit and eat it in front of me. Their kindness didn’t make sense. Something was off. There had to be more to the story than Zeke having his eyes opened, but every time I tried to think of an alternative, it came back to the four other alpha advisers.

I took the plate and pinched off some of the flaky biscuit. It wasn’t dry, but rather buttery, and I sniffled, hiding the fact I was actually smelling the biscuit before taking a bite to see if they’d poisoned it or something.

Zeke scowled. “Sit down and eat. You’re making me nervous, hovering like that.”

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