Chapter 16
I must have walked around the cabin six times before going into the kitchen, where Asher was looking through the cupboards, and sitting on one of the barstools with a sigh.
"What's up?" Asher asked, poking his head out from the cupboard to look at me.
I rested my head on the palms of my hands, humming lightly as I tried to figure out what I was going to say. I didn’t want to come across as ungrateful, but oh my word .
"I’m bored. I don't know how you guys handle it, honestly. I've been here two days, and I feel like I'm going out of my mind." I should have been more grateful for the peace, the ability to rest, to sleep as much as I wanted, to recover… only, my body was wired, I needed more. I needed to move, to roam.
Asher threw his head back with a laugh. "We all have hobbies to keep us entertained here, sweet girl. Are you not very good at sitting still?"
I pouted. "I’ve been sitting still for literal years, Asher. I want to move. I want to do things. I just want to be out and about," I said grumpily, crossing my arms, wincing at the bruising that still lingered there. I was lucky I only bruised it. Being snarky with these alphas came so easily to me.
"Once the winter is over, you can explore all you want," Asher said. "You’ll be going home or to a haven. You can go to different Havens, you can explore plenty of new places."
"But I want that now ," I whined pathetically.
Asher shook his head with a laugh. "Do you know how to bake?"
I cocked my head to the side. "I make a mean boxed cake mix, but nothing more than that, really," I admitted.
"In that case, do you want to help me bake some fresh bread?" Asher asked, pointing at the ball of dough in his hands. "I’m just about to start making the sandwich loaves for the week."
My head popped up at that. That was something I could do with my hands. It was something to break the boring monotony of the time I’d spent here so far. Sure, the guys were entertaining in their own weird way, but I missed having something to do . After years and years of isolation, I’d become used to it, but ever since my little jaunt of freedom, I was desperate for enrichment in my life.
Asher jerked his head. "Come here, let’s get started. I’ll show you what to do, and we can start measuring out the ingredients."
I nodded, scrambling out of my chair and rounding the counter until I was standing next to him. "Wait," I said. "Do you happen to have a hair tie? I probably shouldn’t be baking if I have my hair down. It’s going to get everywhere."
Asher nodded thoughtfully, pursing his lips. "There may be some in one of the bathrooms, but there is a lack of need for hair ties in this house," he said, gesturing to his own short hair. He thought for a second before his face lit up with realisation. "Actually, I think there’s one of those claw clips in the bathroom that one of my sisters left. Would that do?"
I nodded. "That’d be perfect."
"Okay," he said. "You wash your hands, and I’ll go get it." He smiled before bounding out of the room with a smile.
I took my time washing my hands in the large farmhouse-style sink. It was placed in front of a window, and the sunlight was streaming in. Feeling the sun on my skin after living underground for so long was incredible.
By the time I was drying my hands on a dish towel, Asher wandered back in with a clip in hand, handing it over to me with a smile. I quickly twisted my hair into an easy updo, getting it all out of my face so I could work.
"Do you bake bread often?" I asked as Asher knelt in front of the cupboard, pulling out several large bags of what appeared to be flour and other dry ingredients.
"I do," he said. "Living here, we need to be able to make our own fresh bread. It makes things so much easier. Usually, we can still make it to the city and the village to get some fresh produce, but we occasionally get stranded, as you know," he said, gesturing to the general area of the cabin. "So, it’s helpful to know how to make these things from scratch. It’s really not that difficult. I looked up a recipe online, and after a little trial and error, I was golden." He smiled. "Give me a day or two, and I’ll have you a professional bread baker."
He handed me a large mixing bowl. "Can you measure four cups of flour into that?" he asked, gesturing to one of the tubs of dry ingredients.
I nodded and quickly got to work measuring out the flour.
"How are the cuts on your feet doing? And your ankle? You’ve hardly been limping." he said as he grabbed another bowl and quickly started filling it with flour.
"They're almost healed," I said.
Asher turned to me with a disbelieving expression. "I think I’m gonna have to call bullshit on that," he said.
I shrugged. "Okay, so they’re not all better, but they’re feeling a lot better, and they’re healing really well. You don’t need to worry about me," I said with a smile.
Asher scoffed playfully. "Juniper, I come from a family full of omegas. If there’s one thing I know how to do in life, it’s how to worry over an omega. You said you had brothers. What were they like?"
I laughed. "If my brothers were here, they would not let me stand up if I had a single cut on my feet. They were smothering. I swear, there were times when I wanted to choke my brother Kane for being so overprotective and overbearing. I know he means well and everything, but gosh, a girl needs to breathe at times. You come from a big family?”
Asher nodded. “Six sisters. Four betas and two omegas. Our mother is an omega, and we have five dads.”
“That sounds chaotic!” I giggled.
“It certainly was!” Asher nodded. “I wouldn't change it for the world, though.”
“Do you miss them when you come up here?”
“I’m usually happy for the peace! I jest, of course. Most of them have their own lives, their own packs.” Asher chuckled. "Alphas tend to get overprotective over omegas, especially when they’re nearing heats." He handed me a bottle of oil and a tablespoon measure. "Just pop two of those in to start with."
I nodded, quickly getting to work. "I wouldn’t know about that. You know about how alphas act around heats. I’ve never actually had one," I said. "I’m kind of curious but also glad I haven’t had one yet," I admitted.
Asher made a sound of disbelief. "How old are you again?"
"Twenty-three."
"How in the world haven’t you had a heat yet?" he asked, cocking his head to the side, putting his bowl down for a moment as he took me in.
I shrugged as I started mixing the ingredients lightly with my hands. "I was too young when I was taken to have had my first heat, and I’m assuming while I was being traumatised in that place, my body wasn’t comfortable enough to go into heat."
Asher nodded. "That’s good to know. When you first came here, I was concerned that you were going to be due for a heat soon, and we have no access to heat medication or anything you would need to get through one here. It’s not like we can nip down to a pharmacy, is it?" he said. "But I was far too distracted by the fact that you were injured to ever voice that."
I smiled lightly. His concern was touching. "Well," I said, "you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve never had a heat, and I doubt I’m going to have one anytime soon." Even though I’m pretty sure they do have something I could use to get through my heat. Three somethings, in fact. Three naughty somethings.
I shook my head, like I was trying to shake the very thought out of my brain, before I turned back to the bread. While I had been distracted, Asher had added a bit of water into my bowl, and it was now starting to form into a dough. It was sticking to my fingers, and it was wonderfully messy. I couldn’t help but giggle as I mixed the dough around with my bare hands.
"There’s something satisfying about getting messy, isn’t there?" Asher said with a grin.
"There is," I agreed eagerly. "I haven’t been able to get messy in years. Alec liked me to stay pristine." I shuddered, not wanting to dwell on my past at the moment, so I quickly moved on. "But this is a lot of fun."
Asher reached into the cupboard next to me, grabbing a small bottle of herbs. The simple movement made him loom over me, a gesture that usually would have terrified me, but instead, it just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. His scent was that much more prominent near me.
"Well," he said without meeting my eye, "if you ever want to get dirty, all you have to do is ask. I’m sure Dylan wouldn’t mind taking you out on the ATVs."
"ATVs?" I questioned, though I now remembered that Carter had likely brought me back to the cabin on one after finding me. I’d been too, well, unconscious to remember it.
He nodded. "Oh yeah, we’ve got several of them for going around the property. We can’t get off the mountain, of course, but they’re a good bit of fun. Albeit very messy," he said. He cocked his head to the side, thinking. "Then again, it’s probably better to ask Carter or me if you want to go out. If you ask Dylan, he’ll give you a lecture on quad bike safety."
I grimaced playfully. "Oh, I don’t want that," I said with a laugh. "I’ll go with the non-lecturing alphas."
For a few moments, we passed ingredients back and forth to each other, chatting about different things. One loaf was going to be plain; the loaf I was making was going to have rosemary and garlic in it. My mouth was watering as I put in the herbs, just from the smell of the uncooked dough and herbs.
"Okay," Asher said. "Now it’s time to get even messier. What’s your upper-arm strength like?" he asked with a laugh.
"Oh, I am built like a tank," I said, flexing my arms—which looked pitiful and weak, given the current state of my body.
Asher bit his lip to stop from laughing. "Well, you do look mighty strong, Miss Juniper," he said in an overly obnoxious southern accent that made me smile. "Now," he continued, "it’s time for us to knead the bread. You ready?"
I nodded. We poured the loaves out onto the counter, and both of us started working on our various projects.
"How long do I need to knead it for?" I asked.
"Usually ten or so minutes," he said. "There’s a way to test if it’s developed enough properly. You stretch it a little bit, and you can see how stretchy it is. I’ll show you when it’s close, but for now, we just gotta beat the crap out of it." He smiled.
I nodded eagerly and started to knead the dough. I started slowly, taking my time, easing into the movements. Despite the fact that my body was sore and tired, I greatly enjoyed the repetition of the movement, the physical exertion of it. We worked in silence, Asher stepping away for a moment to turn the oven on before returning to his dough. It was a nice, companionable silence. It didn’t feel forced or pressured. It just felt nice , standing next to this alpha, who was over a head taller than me and should have been terrifying, kneading bread.
I didn’t know how much time had passed when Asher grabbed my hand, gently turning me towards the oven. "Can you grab the two trays on top of the oven?" he asked. "I think it’s time to stop kneading."
I pouted. "I was enjoying that."
He nodded. "Unfortunately, if you knead it much more, you’re going to ruin the bread. Don’t worry, if you enjoy kneading the bread that much, I will call you every single time I’m making bread," he promised
"I’m going to take you up on that," I said with a grin as we placed our lumps of dough into their loaf tins and popped them in the oven. “I used to go to this little bagel shop with my family every weekend… the smell was amazing. I miss it,” I sighed.
By the time we’d finished washing our hands, the entire cabin was starting to smell like freshly baked bread. My nose had been in heaven ever since I’d escaped, and this just added a new delicious layer to the mix. Delicious alphas and delicious bread. What more could an omega want?