Page 54 of The Alpha's Silent Mate

It’s crazy to think this morning we napped, laughed in bed, and made love.

Now a man is dead, the bed is stained with blood, and neither of us can finish a half-serving of stew because our thoughts lie miles away from here.

“What kind of story?” I ask.

“About how Daniel made me fall into a pot of soup.” He says it so straight-faced that the full impact of his words doesn’t hit me until a couple of seconds later.

“What?”

Smiling at me, he returns his spoon to the bowl. “You heard right. I nearly wound up as an ingredient in dinner one night.”

“You knew him in the kitchen?”

He nods. “Back in that life when I wasn’t alpha and had no desire to be, we were friends.”

After putting my spoon down, I rise. Shay gazes at me questioningly, until I move to sit side-ways in his lap and curve my arm around his shoulders.

“So, he saved you from becoming dinner. But how did that happen?”

Shay draws me even closer with his arm around my waist. “Daniel had a similar upbringing to me. A strict father who liked to push, and a neglected mom. She was still alive, so she must’ve seen that I needed a friend. I’m guessing here, but Daniel was the one who invited me into the kitchen when I was trying to get out of being my father’s shadow.”

“Your father’s shadow?”

He nods. “He liked for me to follow him around so I could see how I should lead. You can probably imagine how a ten-year-old boy felt about that.” His voice is dry.

I smile. “Yeah, I think I can.”

“So, I started going to the kitchen, which you knew already. In the kitchen, Daniel worked any place the chef needed him.”

“Why?”

“The chef was harder on him than anyone else.”

I tilt my head up. “But why?”

His eyes smile into mine. “Because the chef was his mom.”

My eyes widen. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Which is why I thought his mom was the one to push Daniel into my life.”

“What did you do in there?”

“Any job that wouldn’t mean a ruined dish. I cleaned, and I fetched ingredients for anyone who needed it. I did a lot of stirring so the cooks could focus on preparing other dishes.”

Understanding hits.

“And I’m guessing the last is how you nearly ended up as dinner?”

“Got it in one. I dropped something. Or… Daniel did.”

A smile lurks in the corner of my mind. “And you went diving in after it?”

He barks out a laugh. “Hey! There’s that sense of humor making another appearance.”

“So I’m right?”

“Daniel threw something at me. I didn’t know what it was, but I ducked out of the way and it landed in the soup with the biggest plop I’ve ever heard. Thinking I would get into trouble if I ended up poisoning the pack, I tried to move the ingredients around with my spoon so I could figure out what it could be. What didn’t help was that the pot was as big as I was.”

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