Val waved the comment away, cream sauce dripping onto the napkin covering her blouse. “She doesn’t like the taste. Prefers red meat.” The old alpha’s mouth tipped into a wicked smile.
Pember snickered, but swiftly looked down at the table when Blake shot him a disgruntled look. They’d managed to construct the meal in awkward silence, Pember doing his absolute best not to look at Blake, and Blake unable to do anythingbutsteal small glances at Pember.
It had almost been a relief to see him cry, as much as he hated to admit it. Seeing his emotions laid bare and not just bottled up behind his glassy, moss-coloured eyes.
The incident with the other alpha had spooked him, it was obvious in the way he moved, in every line of his body. Even as he padded to the bottom of the garden to collect the wild elderflower, his back was tense and his arms were tucked in—making himself small. Not to mention the way his scent had spiked into something sharp and metallic, a smell that had Blake tipping into a run before he and the dogs had even arrived back at Bell Lane.
“I told you, no!” Val shouted, cutting through his thoughts. She was half standing and reaching across the table towards Pember.
There was a stack of unopened letters in his hands, the same ones that’d been scattered around the old alpha’s house since the day Blake met her. Pember hurriedly tapped them into a neat pile in the middle of the table.
“Val, there must be at least a hundred envelopes here. Some of them even have red writing on, which is never a good sign!” As if to prove his point, he held up an envelope that hadDO NOT IGNOREprinted across it.
Val waved a disfigured hand towards him, valiantly making a grab for the letter. “I don’t care, lad. They can write what they want!”
“Well, I do!” Pember yelped, jumping back as Val made a swipe for him. “What if it’s the bailiffs? Or about your pension? O-or the council telling you they’re going to cut off your electric? What’ll you do then?”
Val’s lips peeled back over her blunt fangs. “I’ll just sit in the dark. I told you, I’ll be dead soon.”
Pember huffed and crossed his arms. “Don’t say that.” His concerned expression slipped to Blake.
“Don’t look at him, boy!” Val snapped. “I’m not listening to himoryou!” She showed even more of her teeth as she growled at Blake. Blake gave a rumble back, which did nothing to appease her.
With a stamp of his foot, Pember edged around the table. “Then I’ll just throw them in the fire, shall I?”
Blake was beginning to regret lighting the damned thing, as Pember moved towards it with the letters in his hand. He held them out, waving the envelopes towards the flames.
“I’ll do it, Val. I’ll bloody do it.”
Blake didn’t think the omega wouldactuallythrow the post in the fire, but he was interested to see where he was going with it.
“You’ll do no such thing, you troublesome little upstart!” Val lunged for them again, and that time Pember let her grab him. He steadied her shoulder as she overbalanced, but she only yanked the letters away with a snarl.
Pember narrowed his eyes, nodding to himself as though he’d just figured out her greatest secret. Val huffed, throwing the letters into a side table and slamming the drawer shut. Staying silent, Pember waited for her to settle back at the table while Blake refilled her drink and changed the napkin around her neck. She gave Blake a hard look, as though it was entirelyhisfault that Pember had taken to meddling in her affairs.
With an elbow on the table, Blake propped his chin on the back of his hand. He looked at Val, then at Pember, who was busy worrying the welt on his lip from the corner of the room. Eventually, Val jerked her head, gesturing for him to rejoin them.
He did, but kept his steps quiet and his eyes low as he sat next to Blake. “What if there’s letters from your children?” Pember continued, the words quiet. Val glanced at his lips, her brows pulling into a deep frown. “Or your grandson? Surely you?—”
“There won’t be,” she said, her voice growing distant.
“But there might. You never?—”
“No!” she yelled, banging the table with the heel of her palm. It made Cherry squawk, her grey wings leaving behind feathers as she flew up to sit on top of the fridge.
“But you don’t?—”
Blake clapped a hand around Pember’s knee, urging him to drop it. Which he did, but only after shoving a potato in his mouth and chewing aggressively.
Leaning close to Pember’s ear, he said, “I’ve tried. I think she’s more scared of therenotbeing a letter from her family than anything the local authority might throw her way.”
Pember nodded, turning his head so his cheek touched the tip of Blake’s nose. “I think so too. Like Schrödinger’s long-lost family. What if we helped her write a letter? She’s got their addresses, ri?—”
“Will you two stop it!” Val said, making Pember jump. “I might be deaf but I’m not sodding blind. I can see you whispering to each other.”
Blake sighed, straightened and removed his hand from Pember’s knee. However, as he went to take a sip of water, he felt it pressing into the line of his thigh. Without another word, he hooked his fingers back around his leg and pulled Pember’s thigh over his own. The chair scraped across the floor, the wooden legs clacking together as the space closed.
Gooseflesh pebbled Pember’s arm as he looked straight ahead, and Blake considered just scooping him up and taking him home. Instead, he stroked a thumb over the soft fabric of Pember’s leggings, satisfied with the way it made the omega unable to hold his fork straight.
