I woke up lying against Felix’s chest with Alex on my left and Calix on my right. I careful slid out from under Felix’s heavy arm. He stirred a little but did not wake up. They were all sleeping peacefully. I breathed a sigh of relief. I showered quickly and put on a yellow sundress over my gold bathing suit.
The world-renowned chef was still on board and we were still traversing the open seas. I ate at a bar on deck. It was covered so I was in the shade but the sea breeze had easy access to whip my curls about. It was refreshing. The chef was named Chat Chevalier and was from Chatres, a town in Loire Valley, France. He was tall, lean werewolf with powerful looking biceps. He had a sleeve of tattoos on his left arm but only one tattoo in the shape of a band around his right wrist. Upon closer inspections, the band were two girls’ name in cursive drawn all the way around. Josephine et Genevieve. He had dark ash blond hair, tanned skin and deep brown eyes. His sous chef was a muscular werewolf just a bit shorter than him with dark eyes, dark glossy wavy hair and deep olive skin. He was named Sachin Singh and was from Jaipur, India. He told me he lived near to somewhere called the Pink City. They both had heart-stopping handsome looks but were humble and kind. Of course, I only had eyes for the triplets.
“Chat?” I asked the head chef, Chat Chevalier, “doesn’t that mean cat in French?”
“Oui, exactement!” He said (Yes, exactly).
“Vous parlez français, Madame Thorn?” (Do you speak French, Mrs Thorn?)
“Je fais. Je parle un peu de français.” (I do. I speak a little French.)
“Genevieve et Josephine sont ta filles?” (Genevieve and Josephine are your daughters?”
I pointed to the right band tattoo on his wrist. He smiled.
“Josephine is my mate and wife and Genevieve is our little daughter, yes,” He said in a thick French accent. “They’re back home in France. I’m training my protege, Sachin, to take over for me when I want family time. He’s young. Now is grind time for him!”
I laughed along with the two chefs.
Sachin spoke English with a British accent because he had left India to go to boarding school in the UK.
“He acts as if he is eighty!” Exclaimed Sachin. I laughed. Sachin looked to be about twenty-five and Chat looked about thirty-five.
“Why did they name you cat?” I asked.
“Because he is grumpy and sneaky!” Sachin said, clearly very good friends with his boss.
Hiss boss nudged him playfully. “It’s because I am regal, cunning and proud like a cat and my mother loves cats. My siblings are Catherine and Cheshire.”
Wow, dedication to a theme. I could not help but giggle. I loved cats too. I had never been allowed a pet growing up in the pack house as a second class citizen. I suddenly realised I could get one now.
“You don’t like cats, Sachin?” I asked.
“I like cats, yeah. My mate has a black Persian cat named Sphinx. He hates me,” Sachin said as he sautéed some mushrooms.
“He’s bright!” Chat joked.
“He doesn’t know what he’s missing! I feed him extra meat to get in his good graces so he won’t maul me when I go to her place,” Sachin said tapping his temple to indicate what a brilliant idea that was.
I giggled. They made me a mushroom and onion omelette that was so delicious. I also requested truffle fries as a side because I had heard the triplets talking about them. Sachin made them and they were amazing. I was still taking to the chef at the covered bar and kitchenette area on deck when the triplets appeared looking a bit grumpy.
“We woke up and you weren’t there,” whined Calix.
I gave him a big hug and stood on tip-toe to ruffle his hair.
“We always wait for you when we wake up first,” he pouted.
That was true. I felt a little guilty. I kissed his cheeks and he pulled me onto his lap and started eating some of my omelette and feeding me bits of it every other spoonful.
“Calix needs a lot of love,” Felix said kissing my forehead. “Sachin, how about some cognac.”
“It’s ten in the morning,” protested Alex.
“It’s five o’ clock somewhere,” said Sachin, pouring the drink, while Felix grinned.
Calix wanted me to come swimming with him in the indoor pool. He scarfed down the basket of truffle fries, took a swig of his cappuccino and hopped off the high stool pulling me with him.
Alex and Felix chuckled. I noticed Alex had some alcohol now too despite his earlier disapproval.
The indoor pool was huge and there was a sun roof at one end so there was a sunlit end and a shady end. The sunlit end was warm and shallow and the shady end was cool and a bit deeper. I could not swim so Calix made me practice my breathing and blowing bubbles under the water. Then he showed me how to doggie-paddle but he put floatation wings on me because he was worried. I took them off and wrapped my arms and legs around his bare muscled torso. He grinned and rocked me against him.
“Chasity, I’m sorry,” he said suddenly.
“For what?” I asked, leaning against his wet chest.
“For not standing up to my brothers when they went overboard with you when I was younger,” he mumbled.
I smiled. I kissed him.
“I would never let them have their way now! Ever! But it doesn’t matter now because they’re different. Everything is different,” he whispered, his forehead against mine as he walked carrying me across the pool, the water lapping at us.
“I forgive you, Calix, you especially,” I said softly, feeling a little embarrassed recalling when I tried to separate him from the others.
“Thank you, Chasity,” murmured Calix against my lips. He kissed me with so much emotion I became a little teary-eyed.
I broke apart from him.
“Calix,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” he said quietly.
“You’re your mom’s favourite right?” I asked.
It was commonly believed in the pack that Calix was the Luna’s favourite, her little angel, her youngest. The former alpha favoured his elder tougher boys.
Calix smirked. “Yeah, but both our parents love all of us.”
I knew that for sure. The parents adored the triplets and were so proud to have produced three alphas in one go. Our pack was famous because of the identical triplet alphas. They had actually been interviewed on werewolf late night talk shows before because everyone in werewolf country was fascinated by them.
“So, you know her really well? Like you guys talk?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, she tells me more than the others. She even comes to me sometimes to talk when her and Dad fight but they hardly fight so that’s only every couple of months,” Calix admitted.
Bingo. He should know what I wanted to find out then.
“Tell me honestly, why does the Luna dislike me so much?” I asked.
Calix was hesitant. He thought about it for a few moments seemingly picking out the right words to convey what he wanted to say to me. He was always the most careful with my feelings and the most gentle physically.
“She had a problem with your Mom,” Calix admitted.
An old feud, perhaps.
“Yeah?” I prompted him.
“Maybe, I should have told you this sooner, don’t be mad, ok?” Calix said giving me his famous puppy-dog eyes.
Calix had a huge fan club of girls in the pack because of these puppy dog eyes. He was widely considered a sweetheart. Alex was a classic heartthrob and Felix was a bad boy.
My pulse quickened. I could tell Calix was listening to my heartbeat as he quickly tried to placate me by telling me the supposed secret.
“The reason why my parents took you in…was not just to repay the debts…that was a cover…Felix doesn’t know this, by the way. Alex knows as the eldest, father handed over a lot of alpha responsibilities to him,” said Calix.
Poor Felix was in the dark just like me. A cover? Calix began his tale.
“My mother always hated her step-brother’s mate. She felt the girl was a bad influence and she thought his mate was the one who introduced him to drugs. You see, my mother’s father married twice so my mother gained a little brother she wasn’t biologically related to but loved all the same. He grew up and married this girl my mother hated. My mother and her step-brother became estranged so she never knew what was going on with him. He had a daughter with the girl Mom hated and when she was a child, the couple got into some trouble with some dangerous people. Mom begged Dad to pay off their debts because she loved her little step-brother so much even though they’d been estranged since his marriage. My parents paid off the debts but the couple still skipped town because they had made some enemies. They thought a life on the road wasn’t good for their little daughter so they dropped her off at the pack house without so much as a phone call or note. They just left the little girl. My mom thought the little girl looked just like her mother and behaved just as wilful. She was not a fan from the get go. Chasity, that little girl was…is…you! My mom and your dad were estranged step-siblings.”