Chapter 29

DOE

The room that Liam brought me to was not at all what I was expecting.

After witnessing the grandiose architecture of the palace, I expected the room they put me in to match the vibe—a large canopy bed with an ornate ceiling, a big fireplace, and vintage furniture.

Instead, my room was modern. Ordinary. There was a bed, a TV, a small desk, a dresser, and a kitchenette off to the side. It was like I had walked into a Hilton Hotel.

Liam explained to me that this section of the castle had been recently renovated for guests who needed a place to sleep overnight. “It even comes with turndown and room service.”

Before he left me, Liam insisted that I let him order me dinner, but I dismissed the idea. I had no appetite despite having eaten basically nothing all day.

As with most things, I put it down to yet another symptom that comes with being away from your mate for too long.

Liam didn’t seem too pleased about me not eating. He left me anyway, somewhat begrudgingly, but not before making me promise to order something for breakfast before Belle came.

I agreed, hoping to feel hungry by then.

As soon as he was gone, I crawled into bed and grabbed the TV remote, hoping Zaweth had cable.

I didn’t bother changing into my pajamas or brushing my teeth. I didn’t even care that it was still early, according to my internal clock—it wasn’t even late afternoon in Colorado.

My stomach growled, but I ignored it. I didn’t plan on moving from my spot for the rest of the night.

Unfortunately, that dream was short-lived. I was alone for all of fifteen minutes when there was a knock on the door.

I froze. I willed whoever was behind it to go away. Why would anyone be coming to my room anyway?

A second later, there was another knock. “Dorothy? It’s me, Belle!”

~Belle? What is she doing here?~

I dragged myself out of my warm bed and stumbled over to the door. Sure enough, Belle stood on the other side.

“Come on. We’re getting dinner together,” she told me. “Liam told me you planned to go to bed without eating.”

My jaw slackened. ~Well, that little snitch…~

“But I thought you said you had to eat with Grayson tonight? And what about the pack meeting?”

She shrugged. “Grayson can fill me in. Besides, all we were going to talk about was building a pack house for the Minnesota members who followed us to Zaweth. I don’t have to be there for that.”

“But hasn’t Grayson been mind-linking you all day about how much he misses you? Won’t he be upset if you don’t show up?”

She waved me off. “He’ll be fine. He’s not happy that he hasn’t seen me all day, but I told him my friend, Minnie, was having an emergency.”

She leaned in and fake-whispered, “Minnie is very dramatic, so it’s totally believable.”

Belle straightened again. “And then I cut off our mind-link so he couldn’t argue about it.” She grinned. “Now, come on, let’s go. I’m hungry. There’s always extra food in the kitchen downstairs.”

I shifted uneasily. My stomach rolled at the thought of food. There was no way I would be able to force anything down tonight.

And I didn’t want Belle watching me or pitying me when I got sick after only a few bites.

“I’m a little tired—and”—my head dropped—“I’ve been a little nauseous lately—”

“Hey, you don’t have to explain anything to me,” Belle said. “I’ve been in your shoes, remember?

“I know what it’s like to be so consumed by a starving mate bond and how you can’t eat, can’t sleep, and can barely even stay upright because you’re in so much pain.

“But I also know that if it hadn’t been for Liam and his sister forcing food down my gullet every time I refused, I probably would have starved. I’m not going to let that happen to you.”

She offered me her hand.

I looked at her outstretched palm and then at her. “You’re not going to force food down my gullet, are you?”

Belle laughed. “Not unless you make me. Mate bond nausea makes you think you’ll throw up if you eat, but food usually helps, believe it or not.”

I hesitated for a moment longer before finally relenting with a sigh. “All right.” I took her hand in mine. “Let’s go.”

***

Belle was right about food helping with my nausea. She suggested I eat some fruit and other lighter foods until I was finally able to get some heavier food down.

The first few bites nearly had me running for the bathroom, but my stomach settled after a little while.

She brought me to one of the smaller dining rooms with a kitchen off to the side. There was a long table of food against one of the walls that Belle told me was always filled with food.

I guessed it was hard to keep a palace full of ravenous werewolves fed. Food needed to be available at all times.

She also told me that everyone was eating dinner in the dining hall, so no one should bother us, and that we had the room to ourselves.

“How long were you away from your mate?” I asked Belle as I took a tentative bite of pasta.

The food was amazing. I wondered who made it all—or if it was made by magic. Either way, my stomach was just happy to get some calories in it.

She thought about it. “Three months, I think?” She stabbed a piece of steamed broccoli with her fork and brought it to her mouth. “Worst three months of my life.”

Three months? About the same time I had gone without seeing Ace, and I wasn’t sure if I could survive another day.

~God, I’m pathetic.~

“Were you relieved when he showed up?” We both knew why I was asking this.

“Not at first. I was kind of terrified. I thought he was there to hurt me.

“But that was before I knew that every terrible thing he had done to me was really done by the vampire who’d taken over his body. As soon as he explained, I was just relieved to have him back.”

Without warning, the door to the dining room swung open, and the largest, most intimidating man I had ever seen appeared.

He must have been around seven feet tall, with muscles growing on top of his muscles. He had short, curly chestnut hair and fanged teeth sticking out over his bottom lip.

What scared me most about the man, though, wasn’t that his huge frame was as large as two human men or that he was clearly some sort of supernatural monster.

It was his scar.

Long, white, and jagged, it started underneath his hairline and traveled along his forehead and over his right eye, rendering his pupil and iris an eerie white color.

I had no doubt that he was blind in that eye.

The thick scar continued down his cheek and lips, over his neck and collarbone, until it disappeared under his shirt. I wondered how far the scar traveled, and if it went along his entire body.

How did someone even obtain a scar like that? It was almost as if he had been cut in half.

“Kyle!” Belle exclaimed, sounding just as panicked as I felt.

The giant man, Kyle, barely glanced at us, his eyes zeroing in on the long table of food across the room.

“Luna!” he exclaimed. “I thought you were with Minnie!”

In a blur of movement that my eyes couldn’t follow, he appeared on the other side of the room. I blinked. ~A vampire, perhaps? What else can move that fast?~

“Fuck, I’m hungry.”

He didn’t bother with a plate or silverware. He grabbed a huge chunk of ham with his bare hands and shoved it into his mouth. I wasn’t even sure he chewed it before swallowing and taking another bite.

I was instantly reminded of Ace.

My mate shoveled food into his mouth in the same way when he was hungry. Sometimes, Ace and I got home from school just to spend the next hour or two in the kitchen as he ate like a man starved.

I remembered being amazed—and maybe a little disturbed—by how ravenous and animalistic he seemed. At least now I knew that he ~was~ an animal. Part animal, that is. He was feeding his wolf side.

Maybe I was wrong to think he was a vampire. The omega in me was screaming that this man was a wolf. A powerful one.

My instincts were urging me to run and find my mate, to get away from the dangerous, scarred, terrifying man.

“What are you doing here, Kyle?” Belle asked him.

Even I could hear the slight elevation in her voice.

“Eating,” he responded around a mouthful of food.

Belle glanced at me nervously. “I thought you were going to be at the pack meeting tonight.”

“That was the plan, but then your mate started acting like an ass and lost his shit.” He peered at Belle. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

His eyes landed on me, and I think he noticed me staring at him with wide, terrified eyes.

After a moment, he pointed at his scar and smirked. “Oh, I know, pretty gnarly, right? My mate says it makes me look badass, though.”

Kyle, seemingly unconcerned, shrugged and grabbed a carrot from the food table. He took a large bite, reminiscent of Bugs Bunny, and then waved it at me while addressing his next question to Belle.

“Your little friend here doesn’t have a scent. You think that’s something we should be concerned about?”