Chapter 6
“Maybe we should take our food back to the room instead of eating here. We could also see if Kodiak could return the food from your cabin,” Lily offered two hours later as they entered the dining hall with Sailor looking like a storm cloud ready to burst and hail all over everyone and everything.
After making the bed, Sailor had withdrawn, speaking only in grunts and shrugs. A few minutes before, he’d told her it was time to go to the dining hall for dinner.
Entering the dining hall, Lily was not surprised to find it empty except for two nervous-looking young women sitting at a table closest to open doors that exposed a busy kitchen. As she followed him to the serving line, someone in the kitchen roared, “Where are my kitchen Littles?”
The two women jumped up and ran into the kitchen. As soon as they disappeared from view, that same voice yelled, “No running in my kitchen! No running in this building! In fact, you shouldn’t be running anywhere in Bratburg. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Chef,” dual voices answered in fear-filled harmony.
Lily shivered in reaction to the harsh voice and sympathized with the two women facing such an angry man. She was also very thankful that she was not in there with them
With a sigh, she turned her attention to the buffet. When she reached for a tray, Sailor slapped her hand and took it instead.
As he pushed the tray down the line, he filled it with food for both of them.
He seemed to read her mind and selected foods she loved without asking.
Chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and a salad of chopped up apples, grapes and nuts to round out her meal.
He stacked three hamburgers on one plate and then piled another with enough fries that she hoped he would be willing to share a few with her.
By the time they reached the condiment and drink stations, she was bouncing on her toes, her Little side delighted with the meal to come.
He allowed her to fill a small bowl with ranch dressing for her nuggets which had her grinning like a loon. She licked her lips when he lifted his plate of fries to the ketchup dispenser and all but covered them with the red sauce.
Sailor handed her two cups of milk then led the way across the dining room to a small table by the front door. Once she was seated, he placed her dinner in front of her before adding a few ketchup covered fries to her plate.
“Thank you,” she said softly as she picked one up and shoved it in her mouth.
Lunch might have been only a few hours before, but for some reason she was starving.
Though she wanted to ask questions, Sailor’s silence and his intense focus on eating kept her from saying a word.
There was something about the way he ate that made her wonder about his background.
Had he been in prison? Or the military? Or some other type of institution that made food a priority over polite conversation?
As soon as they both finished eating in silence, Sailor stacked their dishes onto the tray.
“Wait here,” he ordered before standing and returning the tray to the kitchen.
Lily remained seated, mostly because she did not know where she would go if she tried to leave.
If what Sailor said was true, and they were mates, he would be able to track her down in minutes.
Besides, now that she’d made it into Bratburg, she was more than halfway through the assignment.
Getting in had always been the biggest issue.
Finding something the governor could use to shut the place down should be easy.
At least, it would be if she could get away from Sailor to do some exploring and talk to the women who lived here full time.
“Come on,” Sailor said as he passed the table on the way to the door. Lily scrambled to join him, though she wondered what would happen if she didn’t move fast enough for the big man.
She was astounded there was no one in sight as they returned to the dormitory. Where were all the people?
It felt like the grounds had been abandoned by everyone except the kitchen crew and them. She shivered at the thought that everyone else had left the area because of her.
Would that happen? Certainly not. After all, she’d seen a handful of Littles playing as they walked in from the cabin. Surely they were still around somewhere.
Still afraid to ask questions, Lily followed Sailor back to their apartment. She would have to be patient and look for a chance to do some investigating away from Sailor.
“It’s obvious you don’t want me around. Why don’t you hand me over to Kodiak, and then you can go back to your cabin?” Lily asked two days later when the grunts and tense silence had become too much.
Sailor wouldn’t let her out of his sight.
He wouldn’t let her leave the apartment except to go to the dining hall at odd times so there was never anyone else around.
Afterward they returned straight back to what she’d come to think of as their two-room prison.
He wouldn’t even walk around the grounds, just to the dining hall and back again.
The apartment did have a television, but he refused to let her turn it on.
She was bored, bored, bored. Her Little wanted to break out and brat for attention, but the situation demanded she stay in her adult headspace.
“No,” Sailor grunted as he turned a page in the thick book he’d been reading for the past two days.
That one word was his answer to anything she asked, and apparently in his mind, that meant the discussion was over.
Popping up from the couch, Lily began to pace the room from the window to the door that led to freedom. Each step became more of a stomp. After three passes, she turned to scowl at Sailor, planting her feet wide and slapping her hands on her hips. It was time for a showdown.
Sailor did not even look up from his book.
“ARRGH!” She screamed as loud as she could.
She was stunned when he marked his page, closed the book, and set it aside, then looked at her with one eyebrow raised in silent query. He did not speak, did not chastise her, did not say anything. He just stared at her with an unreadable expression on his face.
She met his dark-eyed gaze and, after taking a deep breath, screamed as loud as she could for as long as her breath held out.
She was breathing heavy when she finished, and silence descended over the room.
Her frustration quickly turned to anger at the man who did not seem to care that she was slowly going out of her mind.
“Are you finished?”
His question cut through the icy silence like a flaming knife. Her frown deepened as she took another breath as if instinctively trying to calm herself in the face of a creature that was bigger, meaner, and apparently more controlled than she was.
“I am if I can go outside, breathe fresh air, play on the playground, walk the grounds, and do something other than sit on the couch watching you read that stupid book. Otherwise I’ll be happy to start again.”
Sailor took a deep breath and sighed, still not giving her a facial emotion to read.
Should she run?
Should she sit down and shut up?
Should she continue fighting for some kind of freedom?
She just didn’t know until he stood up and ambled across the room toward her. She froze as he approached, her fight-or-flight instincts shifting into freeze mode.
He stopped about six inches away from her for a few seconds before extending his arms, wrapping them around her, and then closing the last distance between them. His arms tightened around her, gently holding her to him.
He was hugging her.
After ignoring her for two days, the man was hugging her.
What the fuck was going on?
Sailor closed his eyes and hoped he’d been doing the right thing.
With no other gorilla shifters he could contact for advice, he was running blind.
While he’d watched a few of the shifters during their mating periods, they were of no help when he felt so damn out of control because of this Little girl who had wandered onto Institute property then asked for asylum of sorts.
It had taken everything in him to back away after they’d worked together to settle into the apartment.
For the last two days, it had taken all his control to keep from ripping off her clothes, throwing her across the bed, and fucking her until they were both boneless piles of goo.
But something was holding him back. He continued to question why she was here, and until he heard back from Lonergan about what he’d found out about her, he did not want to finish building their mating bond.
For two days he’d fought to maintain a wall between them, barely keeping his beast under control as he kept them locked in the apartment, well away from everyone else.
Her temper tantrum proved to him that she was feeling the pull every bit as strongly as he was.
Feeling her heart thump against his chest when he first hugged her, he waited as it slowed to beat at the same pace as his own.
That proved, more than anything else, that it was time to take the next steps in the mating process.
He just hoped she did not reject him when he asked for her agreement to the mating.
Pulling his head back, Sailor looked down at his mate and said the only thing that came to mind. “I’m sorry.”