11. Luna #2
I continue eating the delicious raspberries, doing my best not to make any more embarrassing noises, watching as Madden starts putting things in the freezer.
There are a lot of things that look like frozen meals, like individual bowls of microwavable pasta and other dishes, along with a whole stack of frozen pizzas.
He also adds a few cartons of ice cream and a few different kinds of individually wrapped ice cream bars and cones that he tucks in one of the shelves on the freezer door.
I finish the last raspberry, closing my eyes to savor the flavor, before taking a sip of water and swallowing my medication.
“I’m done,” I say, standing from the barstool.
“Here’s the trash,” Madden says, pulling out one of the shelves by the sink.
I never would have thought the trashcan would have been in a pull-out shelf.
“I always have trouble finding the trashcans in houses like these too,” Madden says, smiling down at me softly. “They always put them in the weirdest places.”
I’m glad I’m not alone in my confusion.
“I’m ready to help now,” I say.
“Awesome. So you’ve basically seen all the frozen stuff I got. I got a lot of these individual meals so whenever you get hungry, you can just feel free to grab one and pop it in the microwave. These were my favorite things in college,” he says.
I’m surprised when Madden opens the fridge to start showing me where things usually go.
“Do you usually get this much food?” I ask softly .
The fridge is a lot emptier than I thought it would be, considering four alphas are living here.
Madden glances at me and shakes his head with a small grin. “Not really, if I’m being really honest. We eat out a lot more than we should. We’re usually busy, so we don’t always have time to cook.”
I glance at the sea of grocery bags.
He catches my glance and turns to face me fully. “Remember how I mentioned I was from the Southside?”
I nod my head.
“Well, when I was growing up, we never had enough food. I think we probably had similar experiences with that sort of thing,” he says.
I bite the inside of my cheek. He’s right.
“I just want to make sure that you know we have enough food. More than enough food. I want you to know that you don’t have to be afraid of going hungry.”
I feel the burn of tears behind my eyes.
“I also know,” he continues. “That when I first got here, I felt like I was being a burden to the rest of the pack, like I wasn’t doing nearly enough for them to want to keep me around.”
I can’t keep the tears from pooling in my eyes any longer. How is it that this huge, tattooed alpha can understand how I’m feeling right now so well?
I never thought anyone in the entire world would understand how I feel. No one ever really has.
But here Madden is, with his soft-spoken words and his sea full of food.
“I—well, I thought maybe there’re certain things you can try doing around the house that could help you feel useful. If you want to that is—” He takes a step forward. “Please, angel, don’t cry. I just thought 'cause some omegas like cooking it maybe would’ve been something you wanted to try.”
I practically jump into him, burying my face into his chest and sobbing.
His warm, dark chocolate scent immediately surrounds me along with his strong arms. He pulls me closer to his chest, making me feel the safest I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
No one could hurt me while in the arms of this massive, kind, powerful alpha.
“Thank you,” I sniffle. “I—I promise I’ll do my best. I don’t think I’m the best at cooking, but I’ll definitely learn.”
“No need to thank me, angel,” Madden says, his fingers combing gently through the ends of my hair. “I just want you to feel comfortable.”
When I finally collect myself enough to pull away from his embrace, I’m greeted by his soft smile, his eyes pools of molten chocolate, just like his scent.
“If you don’t want to cook, by the way, you definitely don’t have to. You could just cook for yourself or not even cook at all, that’s cool too. I promise. If there’s anything else you’d rather learn or do, just let any one of us know, okay?”
I nod, even though I’m not sure I’ll ever have the courage to ask them something like that.
Maybe one day.
But for today, I can start with food.
Madden shows me where the pantry is and we both put away the rest of the groceries. I even find that I’m able to make suggestions for how to best organize things.
“See?” Madden chuckles as he moves some things on a shelf I can’t reach. “You’re already helping.”
“I—I don’t mean to overstep, so—so please let me know if you don’t want to change something?—”
“Hey,” Madden says, interrupting me. “I get how you’re feeling, I really do, but your help is welcome, Luna. You have nothing to worry about, I promise.”
We finish putting everything away and Madden has a chance to show me around the kitchen. I do my best to memorize exactly where all the things I’d need are so that I don’t have to ask twice .
“Where is everyone else?” I ask him, once he’s done showing me everything he thinks I need to know about.
“They’re all at work,” Madden says. “There’re some important business deals going on with the company right now, so they had to leave pretty early in the morning to take care of that.”
“Am I keeping you from anything important?” I ask, unsure.
“Not at all. I wanted to be here for you. Plus, I don’t usually add too much to those meetings,” he shrugs. “They should be back in time for lunch though.”
Lunch. Cooking.
I glance around the kitchen, starting to get overwhelmed by the idea of cooking for four alphas.
What if they don’t like what I cook? I always cooked back at home, when I wasn’t on my heat.
My father thought cooking was beneath him and my mom was too tired or in too much pain to cook most of the time, but still, I’ve never cooked with ingredients this fresh or expensive before.
“Here, I have something for you, give me a second,” Madden says, before heading towards the stairs.
Before I have a chance to start worrying too hard, he’s back, holding a tablet in his hand. “This can be yours, it has access to a digital library, so you can check out cookbooks. You’ve also got access to the internet so you can just look up recipes online if you want something specific.”
My eyes go wide. Access to a digital library. Access to the internet. On what looks to be a really expensive tablet that he says can be mine.
“I—I don’t know if I can accept this.” There’s no way I can cook well enough to repay something like this.
“Well, then how about you borrow it while you’re with us? Does that sound better to you?”
Borrowing does sound better. I give him a nod, before taking the tablet from his extended hand. It looks so much bigger when I’m holding it.
“For today, since you’re still hurt, can we cook lunch together? I was thinking the guys would like brunch: pancakes, bacon, eggs, that sort of thing.”
“O-okay,” I say.
I can do that. Those are pretty simple foods. Plus, I’ll have Madden’s help. I really like the idea of spending more time together with him.
“How about you take care of the pancakes,” he says, handing me a box. “I’m not the best at cooking so eggs and bacon are pretty much where my skills end.”
I nod, already starting to read the instructions on the back of the box.
Before I know it, Madden is filling a few large serving bowls with eggs and bacon and I’m sitting on one of the barstools in front of the stove flipping pancakes.
Madden brought over the chair so I wouldn’t have to be on my feet, which still hurt a bit when I move.
After the first batch comes out too undercooked and the second comes out super burnt on one side, tears start forming in my eyes again, but this time, these tears are tears of frustration instead of happiness. I can’t even flip pancakes correctly.
“Hey,” Madden says softly, reaching over to rub his hand up and down my back. “It’s okay, it can take a bit to get used to this kinda stove, don’t sweat it. We’ve got a ton more batter.”
“I—I’m sorry,” I sniffle.
“No need to apologize. How about you try again? A trick I read online was you have to wait for the bubbles on the edges to set while the middle is still gooey and then you flip it.”
I do as he says, pouring more batter and anxiously waiting for the bubbles around the edges to set. When I flip my first pancake, it’s a bit lighter than I would’ve liked, but it’s still a lot closer to golden brown than my first batch of ghostly monstrosities were.
“Look at that! You did it!” Madden says, practically bouncing on his feet. He’s actually excited for me.
My heart melts at the pride and affection I can see in his eyes as he looks down at me.
Before I get too distracted, I flip the other pancakes and actually manage to make a successful batch.
“Hell yeah! Those look awesome! I’m so proud of you!” he says.
“Thank you,” I say, a blush creeping across my cheeks at his praise.
“Are you proud of yourself?”
I freeze at his question. No one’s ever asked me something like that before. I’ve never even really thought about being proud of myself. I’ve always been so focused on what everyone else around me thinks.
“I—I think I am,” I say, flashing him a small smile.
We’re cooking next to each other as he tells me hilarious stories about the crazy things he’s seen while working security for different places when I hear the garage door open.
The others are back.