Clover smiles at Cordelia but shoots me a death glare as she ushers the omega into the hallway.
“It’s venison stew and sourdough bread. I hope you like venison.”
“It’s my favorite.”
I watch them go and make a mental note of Cordelia’s preferences for my next hunting trip.
Chapter
Twenty-One
CORDELIA
Clover’s a lot more powerful and clever than she gives herself credit for. I wonder why she doesn’t see it. I turn on my side and look out the window. It’s still raining. A lot harder than it was before, the drizzle from when we arrived at Bloodstone Keep is back to a downpour. The sky lights up before I hear the boom of thunder. The window panes shake in their frame and I pull the quilt higher. I’m in bed now under two thick quilts and a mess full of fluffy pillows thanks to the wardrobe in the room. Clover spelled that too and it spits out anything you can dream of.
After dinner, she took me in here to give me a lesson on how the cupboard and the wardrobe work. All you have to do is think of what you want, clothes, shoes, soaps, anything inanimate and open the wardrobe and BAM! It’s there. I still can’t believe that it’s real.
“Everything is energy. That’s what witchcraft and spellwork is, just moving energy around. A lot of shifters don’t know that about magic which is silly because it’s the same stuff that helps us shift. I use sigils to do this kind of work though. Be careful what you think of though because one time I filled this place with seashells.”
I don’t quite understand the sigils she was talking about or how she harnessed the power but it was still fun to sit and learn. She brought out a grimoire just like the one Maud uses and went through a few of the spells in there. I think we’re going to try and change my hair color the next full moon.
It was nice to think that I would be here in a month and if I did, I’d have a friend like Clover.
“I have to pass, well I have to get the Alpha to agree to letting me stay though.”
“Ronan will agree. You’ll see. I know it.”
Clover is a good friend.
After dinner and our study session on runes and magic was over I helped her clean the kitchen and pack away the stew she’d made for the week even though she insisted that I didn’t have to. Cleaning the kitchens after a pack meal was never my favorite activity but that was more because of who I was cleaning it with. Working to leave the kitchen spotless with the food packed away for the next few days was fun with Clover. The most fun I’d had in a long while even though I was periodically checking over my shoulder for Thorne. He hadn’t been in the kitchen when we came back from my room, a nice big room at the end of the hall with a queen bed and a writing desk, wardrobe and fireplace, but I had noticed there was a clean bowl and plate sitting nice and neat on the dry rack. An alpha that cleaned up after himself? Color me impressed.
He didn’t show but that didn’t mean I wasn’t feeling his presence. I could still feel his eyes on me, see the way he looked at me when I came back from my shower.
“He fusses,” Clover explained when she saw me looking at the plate and bowl, “you saw him with your dinner.”
“My dinner?”
“Thought he was going to put two bowls of stew on there for you with the way he was fussing about it being enough.”
That surprised me. I’d seen him by the tray but I hadn’t realized he’d been the one to pack the stew in as much as he had. There had been nothing but the best cuts of venison in it. Every spoon had given me another and the bread had been slathered in butter and ready for me. I’d never had so much to eat on my own.
Thorne didn’t make sense. If he was angry at me asking to stay in the pack then why would he feed me so well? Part of me screams that I know why but it’s the dumb part of me that loved Keiran so I try not to listen to it. That doesn’t mean it shuts up. The longer I think on the bowl of stew and the pieces of thick crusty buttered bread the louder it gets. Finally, like a bruise I can’t resist pressing on, I let the thought come.
Alphas feed their Omegas.
It’s common practice. When an alpha chooses a mate or decides to court one, he shows he can provide by personally feeding their intended. Not only does it show their prospective mate that they will be taken care of but it sends a clear message to the rest of the pack.
This one’s mine.
I used to dream of Keiran breaking from his table and bringing me a fat juicy steak at dinner. It never happened but it didn’t stop me from trotting out the tired old daydream when I was eating half a peanut butter sandwich on a heel of bread in between clearing dishes. Keiran never even so much as looked my way when I worked in the kitchens and mess hall at dinner time. He was too wrapped up in his own world. A world that I was never going to be good enough or strong enough to enter.
“Keiran.”
“Don’t you ever say my name again, you slut.”
It sounds pathetic now that I’m not in Frostclaw. That all my hopes and daydreams went into the alpha I was seeing bringing me a steak or a burger to eat at dinner time. Tears prick my eyes.I pull the quilt over my head and try to shut out the replay of Keiran rejecting me but there it is burned into my memory and tormenting me.
“Keiran, please,” I whisper in the dark room. It’s a plea to a ghost. A phantom that I’ve conjured all on my own.
