Page 28 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
“Up,” I told Ryan. “In the kitchen. You’re on dinner duty tonight.”
“Nah, I was on dinner duty last Friday.”
“Tough,” I said. “Go on.” Then I paused. “The beers are on me. Send Dec to get some cans.”
“On it.” He walked out of the living room, into the kitchen. Dakota’s shoulders pulled right in as she tapped her fingers on the cup. I sniffed the air.
“Coffee?”
“Cappuccino,” she answered. “Ryan made it.”
“I’m sure he did. With his fancy fucking machine and everything.”
She half cracked a smile, and I knew it wasn’t for me but the residual smile of the conversation she’d had with Ryan. Or maybe the smile was for him extending kindness.
“I hope you meant it,” she said. “About me joining in for dinner tonight.”
“I did.”
“What do I have to give in return?”
I raised a brow.
Dakota shrugged. “Well, I’m not stupid. You’ve taught me the rules. I get treated more like a human being rather than acaptive with no rights the more I talk. So, what questions do you have today?”
A million shot through my head, but none of them were the right ones. In the end, I picked one, my voice lowering. “Why did you kiss me back?”
Her eyes were wide, as if she’d hoped I wouldn’t question anything that had happened in the woods. “I don’t know. In the moment I wanted to.”
“And out of the moment?”
Again, she shrugged. “Maybe give me food, and I’ll have more answers for you.”
It was a decent trade, and I respected that, even if it wasn’t how I wanted things to work. “The house is locked and watched. You run, we’ll catch you.Iwill catch you.” My eyes were on her, a silent warning. Even then, I half hoped she would try again for the third time just to recapture another moment like we had in the woods. The chase and fight seemed to bring that attraction out in us.
“You’re remaining unbound for now. Cautionary and temporarily. Put one foot outta line, Dakota, and I mean it, you’re getting restricted again.”
She only blew me a kiss that she extended into a middle finger. I rolled my eyes and headed out to shower. I didn’t know why but something about our kiss made me think she might not be so hasty to try to escape again.
At the very least, the shower’s heat scalded me enough that I didn’t think about her, the kiss, her pouting lips, or how she looked in my white oversized t-shirt, without a bra on. I remembered how her chest felt pressed to mine and resistedpalming myself in the shower to the memory of her moaning my name. Getting off to her in there once was enough.
Chapter 16 - Dakota
Dinner that night was a strange thing. Beer cans were cracked open, a tray of lasagne was passed around, and everyone complimented Ryan on his cooking. Whether it was store-bought and dinner assignment was simply down to whoever would prepare it, or if it was homemade, I didn’t know, but I was ravenous to the point where I could keep up even with the amount the men ate.
Ryan made three trays. I felt like I’d demolished one on my own. Throughout the dinner, Aidan’s eyes sought me out. The rest of the pack talked around me or over me like normal. I sat on the end of the table, next to Aidan at the head on my right, with Ryan on my left.
I all but moaned around the mouthfuls of pasta I ate, my stomach growling. I knew I should have slowed down, but I was starving. Strength poured back into my body slowly, and I felt like suddenly, I’d have a fighting chance if I escaped again.
And yet…
It wasn’t at the forefront of my mind to do that.
I looked around the table, at the men who talked and laughed and joked and threw pieces of bread at each other before Aidan snatched them out of thin air and scarfed them down as a lesson. Fenrys’s pack did this but it felt different. It felt like we’d always been on command, on our best behavior. Sometimes some of the pack hung out at the pool at Fenrys’s house, or barbequed and laughed together, drank together, but other times, it was me and another low ranker preparing the food and not always joining in.
I loved Fenrys’s pack, so I hated to admit it, but there was something comfortable about Aidan’s pack. Something thatmade me feel like I had a place here, at that dinner table. I was reluctant to accept that, because I wasn’t a person who belonged. I was a captive, and I kept forgetting that.
But as Ryan chatted away, and Aidan’s eyes burned a hole into the back of my head when I turned to Ryan, I didn’t entirely feel out of place. The anger subsided, and I could only think about how good my next mouthful of food would be.
