36- Bitter Sweetness
POV Lunara Grimwald:
I stirred the chocolate batter, checking the texture on the spoon.
“Hmm… this looks so good,” commented Lyris, sprawled in one of the dining table chairs, watching me.
“You could grease the molds, that way you’d be more useful,” I retorted, shooting her a look.
She laughed.
“My mission is to observe and comment.”
I pressed my lips together.
“I’ll tell Celindra you didn’t do anything,” I teased, satisfied with the texture of my batter.
She placed a hand dramatically over her chest.
“How not? I’m here, giving moral support.”
“And I confirm Miss Lunara’s story,” Nicoleta shouted from the pantry.
Celindra was offering a picnic for her pack’s schoolchildren. Lyris, seeing me bored, wandering back and forth, lost, had invited me to join them. I gladly accepted, so I decided to bake some little cakes to serve them.
To me, cooking was a way to express love, care, and gratitude. I liked the pack, I wanted them to accept me, to trust me. This was a good opportunity.
“Hey, Nicoleta, you’re supposed to be on my side,” Lyris replied, curling her lips in a grimace.
Nicoleta poked her head through the door, staring at us.
“Miss Lunara is making the cakes to please your girlfriend’s students. You should be helping her, since you’re interested in pleasing Miss Celindra.”
Lyris rolled her eyes and huffed.
“I don’t need that. Pleasing is part of the art of conquest, and I’ve already conquered Celindra.” She winked.
“Very arrogant of you, to think she won’t trade you for someone else, little sister,” said Andrei, stepping into the house through the open door.
The sunlight stretched through the entrance, sliding inside. It was scorching hot, a stifling day. With the oven on to bake the cakes, Edric’s house had become nearly unbearable. That’s why we opened every window and door, hoping it would cool down a little.
I wiped the sweat glistening on my skin with the back of my arm.
Lyris rolled her eyes at her brother.
“This is a conspiracy, forcing me to work?”
Andrei stopped in front of me and leaned over the counter. He stretched out his arm and dipped his index finger into the batter, bringing it to his lips.
“Hey,” I snapped, pulling the bowl away. He arched his brows, surprised.
“Hmm… this is really good. Let’s hope the pups aren’t too hungry, so there’ll be some left for me.”
I laughed and set the bowl down on another counter, away from him.
“I hope they like it. It was my favorite when I was a pup, my mother always made it for… my…” I murmured, lost in memories. “Uh… for my cousin and me,” I added quickly.
“You have a cousin? So you have more living relatives?” asked Lyris.
I bit the inside of my cheeks, cursing myself for saying too much. I liked them, but I couldn’t trust them. Not yet.
“I don’t know if they’re alive,” I lied. “Alessio killed my parents on the wedding day, I imagine he did the same with the rest of my pack.”
The heat in my chest stirred. I didn’t need to lift my gaze to know who it was. I was already getting used to my body’s involuntary reactions to him.
At first, I thought it was just my heat responding to his closeness, but later I understood it was my body reacting to him because of the damned mating bond.
“Your fiancé is an idiot,” Lyris spat.
“Ex-fiancé,” Edric cut in.
The hair on my arms rose at the sound of his voice. I had been avoiding him since everything happened. I barely looked at him, we exchanged no more than two words, and I hardly cared to be near him. It was obvious. Lyris, Andrei, and Anton, who were always around, had noticed.
The omega had even asked me at some point what had happened, and I played dumb. If they knew about Edric and Thalira, they disguised it well.
I lifted my face, meeting his gaze for the first time in a long while. But then the damned wolf appeared behind him, walking past his side.
I turned back to the counter immediately, ignoring them.
I needed the pack’s approval, I needed them to like me, to accept me, so I could bring my sister. Only then would I have peace, only then could I live happily.
The pack would keep us safe. We could find some work, build a house for the two of us. I would keep ignoring Edric, as I had been doing, and go on with my life.
Elowen, so far, was safe and, most importantly, free. Edric and the others would only know about her once I was sure that place could serve us both.
I wouldn’t allow them to use her against me, like Alessio was doing, hunting her down as a traitor.
She was my weakness. And weaknesses were meant to be secret.
“I didn’t know you had a fiancé,” murmured Thalira, stopping beside Andrei.
I didn’t answer. We weren’t friends; she had no right to talk to me as if we shared any kind of intimacy.
“One who will be dead soon,” Edric retorted, breaking the silence that had stretched.
Andrei and Lyris seemed to feel the tension in the air, palpable, since they had approached.
I turned to the oven, checking the temperature.
I needed to grease the molds and pour the batter into them, so I could start baking the cakes.
“What are you doing?” Thalira asked in a melodious tone.
With my back to all of them, I closed my eyes, squeezing them shut. I hated her. I hated Edric. I hated both of them. And I hated the situation I was in, having to put up with her as if everything was fine, when it clearly wasn’t.
I tried to hide it, to be as unpredictable as possible, but the wolf’s constant presence was making things very difficult.
“She’s making cakes to take to the pups at school,” Nicoleta answered, coming out of the pantry with a broom in hand.
I turned on my heels, going back to the counter. Edric stepped closer, leaning beside me. I looked at him, swallowing hard.
The silver in his eyes was intense, blending with the blue.
“That’s… nice of you,” he said, though he didn’t seem very convinced, moved, or anything regarding my attitude.
“Didn’t I say so?” Lyris cut in, getting up from the chair. “I thought it was really nice. Celindra will love it, and especially the pups. It’s not every day they get to eat chocolate cakes at school.”
I smiled at her, ignoring Edric.
“It’s nothing special, I already told you. I like cooking and I do it with great pleasure.”
Thalira made a sound of disdain in her throat.