Chapter 9
Dante
Iwasn’t stupid. I did a lot of dumb things, but I knew Banner was frustrated.
Reinhold and I discussed a lot of things on our last assignment, and he had a lot of good advice.
He’d been through very similar things with his own mate, and he’d given me several pointers on how to move forward.
And I knew that was at least part of the source of Banner’s frustration.
I still hadn’t claimed him, and we’d been “dating” for several weeks now.
What I had discovered on this last assignment was that I missed my little omega, and my beast had been irritated with me. It was time to move things along with Banner. How far would be up to him.
“Are you certain you’d like to go out to eat?” I asked. “I’ve been gone a week. I’ll gladly take you out if you desire. But we could just as easily have something here. It’s just more—”
“Yes. That. Can you do that thing and get us something? I don’t care what. Anything. But when we’re here, it’s just more private, and we can talk about things without having to worry who is listening.”
I chuckled. “Absolutely.” I stood and held out my hand for Banner, and when he took it, I smiled down at him.
I knew my smile was a bit lopsided, and the reason was because my beard hid secrets.
I had several scars, and one ran down my face from my cheek to my chin.
My beard hid most of it, but if you looked closely enough, you could see where the hair was missing.
I also had a nasty scar across my torso from the tiger shifter that had attacked in the jungle.
I was told that now that I had my magic back, I shouldn’t scar going forward when injured, but I hadn’t tried to heal the marks on my skin.
Now that I had Banner in my life, maybe I should consider it.
“Are you okay?”
I blinked down at my mate and realized I was still holding his hand.
I nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. I was thinking about something completely unrelated. Are you ready for pasta? I got your favorite,” I said, pointing over my shoulder toward Banner’s table, where I had Italian food from his favorite place down in Timber Valley.
“Really?” His eyes widened.
“Yeah. Loaded spaghetti, extra parmesan, and a dozen breadsticks just for you.”
Banner moaned as he started toward the dining room. “You really didn’t have to.”
I shrugged. “I could have gotten it for you while I was on assignment too. You didn’t ask though, and I didn’t think to offer.”
Banner stopped. “Wait. You can do that?”
“Yes. I know where you are and where your dining room is. I can set up food for you if you wish. I apologize for not offering. I didn’t think to.”
Banner tilted his head to the side. “There’s no need to apologize.
You don’t have to feed me. I’m perfectly capable of cooking for myself.
” Banner’s eyes suddenly widened. “Did you hear that they’re expanding the kitchen in the cafeteria?
They’re going to have a takeout window outside that is open from eleven in the morning until nine at night.
That’s going to be a huge hit, I think.”
“I hadn’t heard that, no. I do know they tried a diner-type place up here, but it didn’t really seem to work well.
” From what I’d heard, it had been early days for the council, and all of the enforcers were eating in the cafeteria, and everyone who was mated was eating at home.
It didn’t get much traffic, and they decided to turn the building into the omega clinic instead.
I pulled out the chair for Banner, and he offered me a smile before he sat. “That was before my time here, I think. Maybe. I know when I first arrived, I didn’t do much. I stayed in the medical ward for a bit, and then I was in a house with a few other omegas.”
I nodded. “Yes, it was before we came to the council.” I sat next to Banner and waited. He gave me another smile before he picked up his fork.
“I feel bad. I should be cooking for you.” He took a bite of loaded spaghetti and moaned. “So good.”
I chuckled. “Why is it that you should be cooking? There is nothing that says you have to cook. Even if one of us didn’t have magic, there is nothing that says either of us has to cook. Some people just get takeout all of the time.”
Half of a breadstick disappeared into Banner’s mouth, and I had to look away to keep my mind from wandering to places it shouldn’t. Yes, I was taking things slowly with my mate, but that didn’t mean I didn’t desire for all of the things that I knew a couple could experience together.
“Uh…I don’t know what’s better. The spaghetti or the breadsticks.”
I nodded slowly. “I think both,” I said. I stared down at my own plate of food and picked up my fork. “I would ask how your week was, but I think we covered that while I was gone.”
“Yeah,” Banner said after a moment. “Was your assignment successful?”
“It was more frustrating than anything. We’re still trying to get to the bottom of things where the New Mexico pride is concerned.”
“What about the noise?” Banner asked. “You know, the one that sent you to that weird place that seems to be a complete time suck.”
I chuckled. “No sound from the Nexus this time around. Titus and Azar still don’t know how exactly they got sucked in from this realm. They shouldn’t have, since they didn’t have their magical powers.”
“Have those been returned yet?”
I snorted. “No.” I couldn’t help but chuckle.
They were pouting that they still didn’t have their magical powers returned to them.
I didn’t understand why though. They’d been with us for three months now; they should have them, to be honest. “I don’t know if it’s because the goddess just hasn’t gotten around to giving them or if Master Edison hasn’t felt as if they should have them.
Either way, they are both irritable about it. ”
“I have never had them, but you are generous with your magic. I can certainly see how they would be upset with not having theirs back yet. Magic makes things so easy.” Banner shrugged. “Beau and Lewis use magic at the bakery. It really makes our job easy.”
“I can sympathize with them. It took a few weeks after we were rescued for my magic to return to me.”
“Weeks?” I nodded. “Dante, it’s been months since they were brought here. Should I be worried about them? Are they not to be trusted?”
“I don’t think so. If Master Edison was worried about them being around, they wouldn’t be here on Treasure Ridge. Same for the demons.”
“I still haven’t seen them.”
I chuckled. “They are officially the new trio that are working at the front desk. If you ever come into the council building, one of them will check you in or out.” For the longest time, that had been Spencer’s job.
Then it became Spencer and Slater’s job.
But with a sudden addition of three demons at the council, it had been decided that they were best in the position of front desk.
It was easy enough to have them monitored at all times, and it put all of the enforcers back in field rotation.
“I don’t think I’ll ever need to go to the council building again. I mean, there is an omega clinic that we all go to that’s not in the building.”
I nodded slowly. I would wait until after we had claimed each other to ask him to come join me for lunch sometime.
Chase came at least once a week. Sometimes he brought their twins, but most of the time, he left them in the childcare center or with Egon or Konrad.
I could certainly understand wanting a bit of time to just have a relaxing lunch with your mate.
I would love to have Banner come to the council building and join me.
But if he wasn’t ready for that, I could understand.
It seemed as if time flew, and when I looked down at my plate, it was empty, and Banner only had a bite or two left on his.
“Did you want dessert?”
Banner shook his head. “I’m waiting. There are amazing cupcakes that Lewis made. I know they are amazing because I already had one. They’re so perfectly yummy. I want to get a few of them with some hot cocoa tonight.”
I smiled. “Are you ready to head out, then? It’s half past five already.”
“Is it?” Banner turned around, then looked back at me with wide eyes. “How?”
“We were busy eating and talking. Time seems to go fast when you are doing something else.”
“Let me just…” Banner stopped halfway standing and gave me a look. “Fine, I won’t put the dishes in the dishwasher.”
I shrugged. “If you insist, I’ll let you do dishes next time,” I told him.
I actually wouldn’t, but that wasn’t the point.
He should know by now that I was going to do the cleanup as well as the cooking.
Unless he specifically wanted to cook something.
But even then, I was going to take care of the dirty dishes.
“Fine. I won’t say that I live for doing dishes, because I don’t think anyone does.”
I just grinned as I helped Banner up the rest of the way from his chair.
We walked the short distance to the door, where he grabbed a different coat than what he was wearing earlier.
He set it on the bench before he sat and pulled off his shoes.
On went some warmer-looking hiking boots, and then he slid his arms into his coat and zipped it up.
He pulled out a hat with a big ball on the top of it, and if I had thought he was adorable before, when he smiled up at me, I knew I was a goner.
I was kicking myself for having wasted what time I already had with him. But no more.
“Ready?” Banner asked. I nodded because there was no way I’d be able to speak just yet. “Are you going to be warm enough?”
I glanced down at my shirt and added a thick wool sweater to it. “Is that better? You have to remember, although you are a bear shifter, I’m a hellhound, and I run much hotter than you do.”
“Yes, but it’s really cold out.”