Chapter 167: Anything you need

Even with the smell of bacon, pancakes and coffee, all I could think about was Elena's sweet scent and the softness of her skin. My Wolf prowled restlessly beneath my skin, recognizing her fragrance before anything else in the room. I finished cooking, watching her make coffee from the corner of my eyes the entire time. My eyes were drawn to her like a magnet. Maybe some part of me worried. Maybe some part of me worried that if l looked away she would vanish away. Or that the world outside would steal her away before I could mark her as mine the way my instincts demanded.

"Do you want to sit at the island or dining table?", I asked her. There was a small smile on her face as she stirred cream into her coffee cup. I hoped that smile was for me. My Wolf rumbled with approval, pleased by even this tiny sign of contentment from her.

"Let's sit in the dining room, The sky is blue today", When she looked at me, my only thought was that her eyes were the only blue I needed to see in my life. The sky had nothing on the way her gaze settled the chaos in my chest.

"Anything you want baby", My tone dipped a tad lower than I meant it to be. A hint of pink tinted her cheeks, causing her to bite her lip and reach for the coffee mugs as a distraction. Her reaction hit me like a scent-trigger, my senses sharpening involuntarily. I cleared my throat and followed her with our plates.

We fell into our usual seats, following our pattern from our nights spent together at this table. It did feel as if we'd been here so long already. As if we have been doing this for years. My instincts agreed—routine, closeness, shared meals. These were pack things. Bonding things. Dangerous things for an Alpha who wasn’t supposed to claim a human.

"Wow, these pancakes turned out great", Elena's eyes rolled into the back of her head as she hummed at the flavor of the pancakes drowning in butter and syrup. Just the way she likes them. Her pleasure warmed something territorial inside me.

"I added a dash of cinnamon, and a tiny splash of vanilla", it wasn't my favorite way to make them, but this is how Elena loved her pancakes. I did witness her making these on her early mornings here after the injury to her ankle. I always left to go to work with a house that smelled like coffee and cinnamon, making me want to stay. Every morning, walking away from her felt like going against instinct—my Wolf hated leaving her unprotected.

She looked up from her pancakes. The falling smile on her face caught me off guard. For a second, I feared I had done something wrong to her. My senses flared, searching for danger or distress like a threat to my territory.

"That's what my grandma did with her pancakes because that's how papa loved them", Her gaze went distant, back to the golden syrup flooding her plate.

I needed to say something to change the subject. Anything to distract her from the memories still following her that she wasn't ready to smile yet. Thoughts of her grandparents were still recent, still raw and i didn't want her to linger on that. Her sadness tugged at my instincts comfort, protect and soothe.

"I have some good news", I blurted out, a little eagerly. It worked on getting her attention though.

"Oh!", The anguished haze that was clouding her eyes faded as she pulled herself from the sad thoughts.

"You told me about your debt to the hospital and how it's the reason you started off contracts", Elena immediately froze up when I said that. Inwardly I wondered if I was digging myself into a hole. Going from one sad topic to a worse one. Her heartbeat quickened, my ears tracked it instantly.

"Yes", Her chest rose and fell while she poked at the slice of bacon swimming in the syrup.

"The debt", i started. "I paid it off. It's gone, and you don't need to worry about it anymore",

"Andrey, no", Her blue eyes grew ten time their size as she gaped at me. "You didn't have to do that for me. I could have handled it", She snapped.

"Elena, I wanted to do this for you",

"I owed them so much money, Andrey", She ran her palms down the sides of her face.

"It's .... I will pay you back",

"What?", My tone was short. Her statement surprised me, and I couldn't think past it. "Why would you need to do that?", I asked in shock.

"It was so much money, Andrey , I can't let you do that for me", Elena's inner turmoil spilled out as her features became increasingly frazzled.

"It wasn't for me, I paid more than what you owed to the hospital just to have you for three months. I had the ability to pay it and I wanted to give you that ease of mind", I tried to assure her.

Elena didn't like to ask for help, and clearly she wasn't used to accepting it. "You paid more than that to have me?", She finally looked up at me again, but her blue eyes were almost looking through me.

"Elena, I paid five million dollars to have you exclusively for three months while living with me", I realized this was the first time we had ever talked about the contract.

"FIVE MILLION", She dropped her fork, and I listened to it clatter on the tile floor. My hearing caught every bounce, every startled inhale she made. The color drained from her face and Elena looked liked a shocked ghost.

"Yes", I responded in a low voice. Her reaction wasn't what I expected at all. My thoughts went back to others involved in the contracts and my first following thought was wondering how much they were taking for their cuts. Viktor and Luke were obviously making a profit from selling ballerinas to rich men in the city.

But just how much were they skimming off the top and keeping for themselves.

"Elena, how much did you get to come live with me", I set my fork down. The feeling of a boulder pressing on my chest suddenly washed over me. My stomach was knotting itself as her bottom lip trembled, and she hesitated to answer my question. She could see the growing darkness in my eyes, and I didn't hide it this time. My Wolf snarled beneath my skin betrayal, exploitation, injustice. Things an Alpha did not tolerate.

"Five hundred thousand",

My fist slammed on the table and Elena yelped. It all happened so fast as my vision blurred and red shades my edges. I felt each heavy beat of my heart and the heated rage that boiled my blood. The Wolf surged forward, demanding violence, demanding retribution for what had been done to her.

"YA ub'yu etikh ublyudkov", Before I realized I was pushing away from the table. My chair fell backwards from the force and clattered on the floor.

Elena shrank into herself at my outburst. Some part of me knew it that I was frightening her but I couldn't control the visceral rage burning through me. My instincts screamed to tear apart anyone who had used her, cheated her, touched her. But the sight of her fear sliced through the haze, reminding me she was human , fragile and I was an Alpha barely holding the Wolf back.