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“Does that not mean you’re supposed to be together forever and lead the pack?” Sasha asked.
Luna took a deep breath, inhaling sharply. She had no idea how to reply but wished the words would come to her.
“I have no idea, Sasha,” Luna said. “I don’t know what any of this means. I’m just trying to live my life.”
“Do you love my brother?”
Luna shook her head slowly from side to side. “I don’t know. I barely know your brother.”
Luna lowered her hand slowly, gesturing for Sasha to slow down even as her wolf stirred at the question.
“Just, please, just let me think,” Luna said. “This is all a lot. And I feel like it’s all coming at me at once, not even thinking about what I want.”
Sasha stared around the room as though disappointed and simultaneously lost in a trance. “Then help me finish cleaning up the kitchen,” Sasha suggested, “and I’ll leave you alone.”
Luna wondered when the list of things she was going to be expected to do would end before she could find peace and quiet.
She needed to stop worrying about this family and its sudden needs. She couldn’t remember the last time her mind had wandered to Victor, who she should be focusing on.
She wondered what he was up to and if anybody in this pack knew he lingered so close to them.
Regardless, she picked up a rag and started cleaning, helping Sasha. As far as Luna was concerned, the kitchen was immaculate, but Sasha was thorough, finding sauce stains on the oven handle and crumbs near the sink.
At the same time that Luna was overwhelmed with the overbearing concern for cleanliness, she was glad to know somebody who was so good at cleaning.
For thirty minutes, they scrubbed frantically together, Sasha asking innocuous and non-prying questions about her life. They were questions like what her favorite color was, if she’d been to the art museum a town over, or whether she had a favorite video game.
Luna again felt briefly like she was talking to a child, who had perhaps spoken to a fortune-telling machine and mysteriously grown into an adult overnight.
But she eased off of the hard questions, not asking Luna what the mating bond meant or how many children she wanted to have with her brother …
Luna felt herself getting nauseous at the thought of all the questions Sasha didn’t ask.
“Well, that’s that,” Sasha said. “Kitchen’s clean. I suppose I’ll be out of your hair.”
Luna could almost see the sparkles emitting from the kitchen counters.
Only, she wasn’t sure she wanted Sasha to leave, because Sasha was the first person Luna felt like she could talk to, free of judgment.
As Sasha was almost out the door, Luna felt remorse at the thought of seeing her leave. “Could you stay a little longer?” Luna asked.
Sasha stood in the doorframe, and Luna was almost certain she had misread the situation and that Sasha would suddenly punish her for her clinginess.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Sasha said, a huge grin on her face.
Darting back into the cabin, Sasha returned to the kitchen and stood on tiptoes, reaching over the oven for the highest cabinet. She opened it, and Luna saw a series of multicolored wine bottles.
Pulling down a burgundy bottle, Sasha snatched two glasses.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sasha said as she filled the second, stopping halfway. “Awfully presumptuous of me. Do you drink?”
Luna grinned shyly. “I feel like I could drink a whole vineyard tonight,” Luna said honestly.
Holding the bottle midair, Sasha paused. “Good. That’s good. I drink too.”
“Well, yeah,” Luna replied. “I’d gathered as much.”
Sasha finished pouring into the glass. “I suppose that was really obvious, wasn’t it?”
