Post-Apocalyptic Kitchens

Kiarra

I woke up in a haze, feeling like I had been drinking for a fucking week and was finally hit with the hangover.

My head was heavy, and I didn’t want to open my eyes and get up, so instead, I groaned and turned over in the bed.

I kind of expected to find Aidan there, but my hands just landed on the soft and cold sheets.

~Had he already woken up? How long had I slept?~

I slowly opened my eyes, squinting them slightly as my head was still feeling like it was underwater, and looked around our room.

The curtains were blocking out the light, but I could still see a slight stream of sunlight shining through a small crack. Well, I had slept longer than I thought I would.

A loud clang suddenly rang through the house, and I guessed by the sound of it that Aidan was in the kitchen cooking. Almost as if triggered by the thought, my stomach let out a little rumble and I sighed.

~Guess I’d better get up and face the world.~

I got out of bed and walked gingerly to the closet to look for something to wear while I once again went through everything that had happened last night.

My head felt like it was about to fucking explode as I recalled the encounter with my parents, and I could feel my frustration at the whole situation building up once more.

I had to talk to Aidan and continue our conversation from last night.

I really had no clue how much I still didn’t know about the werewolf world, but it had become clear last night that Aidan had tried to shield me from a lot over the past few months.

We needed to finish our conversation, and I needed to know everything that had been withheld from me so far.

We also needed to see what could be done about the current situation, because I did not trust my parents one bit.

Every bone in my body was screaming at me to get them the hell away from the people I loved before something happened.

I threw on a pair of jeans and a plain T-shirt and headed downstairs.

I was expecting to find my mate in the kitchen as I had done on so many mornings before, but I was met with quite a surprising sight.

Angela was standing in what I believed used to be our kitchen, but it looked as if a tsunami had just stopped by and everything was chaos.

Flour, eggshells, batter, and something I couldn’t even recognize were thrown around everywhere. Pure fucking chaos.

It looked like she was trying to make pancakes in a post-apocalyptic world, and I was incapable of doing anything besides staring at the mess, with my mouth slightly open, stunned.

She had her back turned to me and it looked like she was struggling with getting a burned pancake off the pan with one hand while she held a cell phone in the other.

“What do you mean, Chelly? I don’t get it. Fuck!”

She clearly burned her finger on the hot pan as she was speaking to the person on the other end of the call, but I doubted the added profanity was aimed at them. It was probably the pan that had deserved the cussing.

I bit my lip, trying to keep myself from bursting out laughing as I continued to stare at the struggling efforts of my best friend.

Some people might have interrupted at this point, but not me. I couldn’t fathom why the hell she was destroying my kitchen, but I was totally here for it.

I watched her curse the pan to hell before throwing it into the sink where it joined multiple other pans that looked in equally bad shape, all with burned bits of pancake batter spread across them.

You had to give it to the girl, though. Angela didn’t give up. She grabbed her, by my count, fourth pan and poured another batch of batter onto the cold surface while still struggling with her cell phone in the other hand.

“Well, if that’s the case, then come home! Stop for a second and take a break and come home.”

Despite having just poured the batter into a cold-ass pan, Angela was already trying to lift the gooey sides with a spatula. I was starting to get a clue as to where everything was going horribly wrong.

I finally gave up and broke down laughing at the sight in front of me.

“What have you done to our kitchen, girl?” Angela spun around, clearly taken by surprise as she dropped both phone and spatula to the floor.

That wasn’t the best part of it though. No, the best part was when she hit the handle of the pan and somehow made it fly off the stove and flop to the ground with the uncooked batter splattering all over.

If I thought I was laughing hard before, it was nothing compared to after that scene, and Angela’s scream.

~“Kiarra!”~

I laughed so hard my stomach started to hurt and I bent over slightly, trying to catch my breath as I looked at the utter chaos my best friend had created.

“What have you done, Angie?” I managed to get out through the giggles.

She had a hand placed above her heart as if she was still trying to process what just happened to give her a heart attack, but a second later she was back in action again.

She quickly got down to the floor and picked up her phone.

“Chelly, I’ll call you back later, okay? Just come back home, and we’ll take it from there!”

She hung up. In the meantime, my laughter had turned into giggles, and I knelt down next to Angela, helping her clean up the mess.

Angela looked flustered as she picked up the pan and threw it into the sink to join the others and turned to look at me.

“Okay, so I thought I would have everything cleaned up before you woke up. It wasn’t exactly supposed to turn into this.”

She giggled slightly as she looked around the destroyed remains of the kitchen.

“What were you even doing, Angie? Do you even know how to cook?”

I shook my head slightly with a smile on my face. I had absolutely no hard feelings about the kitchen mess, I wasn’t exactly a pro at it either, so I was just beyond entertained instead.

Aidan might have other thoughts on the matter, though.

“Well, I wanted to make you breakfast!” Angela said sheepishly and looked around the mess once more. “It just didn’t go according to plan, as you may see.”

“It’s greatly appreciated, Angie, but honestly, do you even know how to make pancakes? Because I do believe this is just about the worst first try I have ever seen.”

I gestured to the pans in the sink and giggled again.

“Well, no. But I looked it up, and it seemed so simple. I kind of wanted to try it out on you first before I tried making them for Allison.”

Angela’s cheeks were covered in a slight pink color as she explained, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“All right, then. I don’t really cook much, but I do make a mean pancake. One of the chefs I worked with at a diner once taught me, and they are pretty delicious, if I say so myself.

“Want to make them together?” I offered.

Angela lit up with a big smile and nodded enthusiastically.

“Who were you talking to on the phone? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you use one of those before,” I asked while we started mixing up a new batch of batter.

“Oh, that was Michelle.”

I frowned for about two seconds until the memory of my first night in Lunar Valley came back to me. “Michelle? That’s your twin sister, right?”

Angela nodded with a smile. “Yep, that’s the one.”

“Why were you on the phone with her? Can’t you just mind-link her?”

“No, she’s not in the pack at the moment. So have to use the phone.”

Something in my memory started to light up, and I remembered a conversation we had had on one of our drunk nights at Sam’s.

“Right, I think I remember you telling me something about her traveling? Too much tequila is blocking the rest of that conversation, though.”

I smiled and Angela laughed as she focused on the hot pan in front of her, clearly trying to make sure she didn’t burn it again.

“Well, she left a few days after your first night in town, so it’s no surprise you don’t remember her very well.”

I explained the process of making the pancake as we went along, and Angela filled me in on her sister’s story in the gaps in between.

I was grateful for the conversation with her. I needed some space in my head to figure out what the fuck had happened last night, so the small talk and change of topic were like coming up for fresh air, even if just for a moment.

***

“So she’s visiting different packs to find her mate?”

We had finished up the batch of pancakes and taken them into the living room to eat. It may or may not have been because the kitchen was too disgusting to eat in.

“Yeah. She never found her mate here, so she finally figured it was time to venture out. It’s not uncommon to take a year to travel around the world to find your mate if you go too long without finding them yourself.”

I nodded as I listened.

“Did Aidan do that too? Go looking for his mate?” I asked as we sat down on the couch with our plates in hand.

Angela gave me a small smile and nodded.

“Yeah, he went when he turned twenty-five. It took a huge toll on him when he didn’t find you. He thought his mate had died and he would be without a mate for the rest of his life. He lost hope a bit after that.”

I couldn’t help but feel sad at her statement. It must have been tough on him, thinking his mate had died and he never even had a chance to meet her. At least it turned out okay.

“So, based on what little I heard, I’m guessing Michelle hasn’t found her mate yet?” I cut out a piece of a fluffy pancake dripping in syrup and ate while I listened.

Angela looked a little grim as she shook her head.

“No, not yet. She hasn’t been everywhere yet though, but it’s starting to get to her. She doesn’t think she’ll find him, so I told her to come home for a bit. Just to rest up and get away from the disappointments.”

I nodded along as I ate.

“I’m trying to be encouraging and helpful, but I don’t think she wants to listen to me.

“I kind of think she hates me a little bit. I found Jack the moment I turned eighteen, so I’ve never had to go without my mate and I think she resents me for it.”

Angela sighed and shook her head. “I don’t blame her, though.”

“It’s not your fault that she didn’t find her mate yet. How can she resent you for that?”

“I think it’s more like general hate for everyone who has a mate. I don’t take it personally. I know she loves me, but she hates me just a little bit too.”

Angela gave me a small smile. “I just want her to come home for a bit so she can rest up and try again.”

I finished up my plate of pancakes and smiled back at her.

“Well, I’m sure she will come home if she needs it. You once told me that the whole mate situation makes people irrational, so maybe just let her do what she feels like she needs to do. I’m sure it’ll be fine!”

Angela nodded slightly and gave me a smile.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just tough. She’s my twin sister. We’ve been close since before we were born, so I just kind of wish I could fix the situation for her.”

I nodded and was about to speak again when we heard the front door open.

“I’m home!” Aidan’s voice came from the hallway as the door closed behind him. Both Angela and I turned around to watch my mate make his way into the living room.

“Welcome home,” I said as he walked over to me, bent down, and gave me a small kiss on the lips.

I couldn’t help but smile at the gesture. It was kind of cute and gave an incredibly reassuring feeling of love despite our current situation.

Aidan returned my smile slightly, but I couldn’t help but notice the exhausted look on his face. His hair was more disheveled than usual, and you could see the dark lines under his eyes.

The man always looked incredibly handsome, and today was no exception. But it was clear that he had had little to no sleep.

Had he not slept at all last night? I knew I woke up long after he had gone, but did he not even sleep a little?

“Why does our house smell burned?” Aidan raised an eyebrow and looked from me to Angela.

Angela and I exchanged looks for a second before both bursting out laughing.

“I might have tried to make pancakes.” Angela’s face pulled into a grimace as she looked toward the kitchen. “It did not go over too well. The kitchen might need a bit of cleaning, though I would probably just move.”

“Should I even dare to look in there?”

Aidan looked at me, and I shook my head. “No, I think it’s best you don’t see that chaos.”

He sighed slightly and shook his head. “I’ll tell Isaac to send over some of the newbies. I think he’s running out of shitty jobs for them, anyway.”

Angela laughed and nodded. “Sounds like a good punishment!”

“Newbies?” I asked and looked at both of them.

“All wolves in the pack go through combat training and are taught how to fight, but we do have some that apply for warrior status and take the training further.

“The first half-year of their training includes all the suckiest jobs Isaac can come up with.

“As he puts it, ‘If they can’t follow orders when they are easy but annoying, they can’t follow orders when it’s life or death.’” Angela tried to imitate Isaac’s deep voice, and I shook my head with a smile.

“Well, it doesn’t seem totally fair to just let them take care of our mess. I can clean it. I don’t mind.”

“Let the newbies do their job, Kitten. We have some things to do anyway, so go get ready. We’re heading to the pack house in ten.”

Aidan turned around and walked away. I heard him going up the stairs and looked at Angela.

“Did he even sleep?” I asked with a small frown on my face.

He definitely seemed to be in a mood. The whole situation was totally screwed up, and it had to be difficult for him.

If he hadn’t slept on top of everything else, I could only imagine what his current mental state was like.

Angela shook her head slightly and got up from the couch.

“No, he mind-linked me after you fell asleep and told me to come over and watch out for you while he worked. But now that he’s back, I’ll head home and take a shower. I’ll see you later, K. Good luck.”

She nodded toward the stairs where my mate had disappeared and gave me a reassuring smile.

“All right. Thanks for breakfast, Angie. I’ll see you later!” I gave her a wave before I followed Aidan upstairs.