3. Chapter 3
three
Several hours in bed didn’t do Cyrus as much good as he was hoping it would. It was around three that afternoon when he rolled out of bed with a rumbling stomach and an aching head. He’d showered before climbing into bed, so he was bare ass naked.
He pulled on boxers, jeans, and a dark long sleeve Henley before heading out of his room.
He went barefoot down the stairs to the kitchen, taking in the peace and quiet.
Everyone was either sleeping or outside preparing for the ritual.
Despite the calm, his head still pulsed.
He had hoped that he would feel less rung out when he got something to eat.
When he stepped into the kitchen, he saw a lovey-dovey couple giggling and talking. Michelle and Ryan.
“How you’re in a good mood is beyond me,” he mumbled then sighed.
“Come on,” Michelle said, waving a wooden spoon. “Liam’s gone. We have a new Alpha. Not how we thought it would happen but we have to give him a chance right?”
“He ain’t so bad. Young guy, but we all started somewhere. He’ll be easier to bend to our whims too,” Ryan teased.
“I question your sanity sometimes,” he replied. He looked over at Ryan who was chopping an onion. His stomach growled more angrily at the smell of savory food.
“Need some food grumpypants?” Michelle asked.
“What you making?” he took a step closer. The hunger started to overwhelm his thoughts.
“Spaghetti,” Ryan replied. “Making enough for everyone, as always. Not done yet though.” The giant pots on the stove told that story.
He nodded. “Where is Gabe?” he asked. He was hoping to be able to avoid him until the last minute.
“Somewhere around here. He’s been awake for about an hour,” Michelle said. “We invited him to play some cards later, maybe head out for pool.”
He glared at them. “Everyone’s already getting chummy with him. The ritual hasn’t even happened. Don’t any of you think what happened last night was sketchy?” he asked with a frown.
“Sure,” Ryan replied and Michelle finished for him. “He’s what we got, we gotta go with it.”
Cyrus sighed. “Whatever. I need something to eat now.” His body was tight with tension that could only be resolved by inhaling some kind of food. His stomach felt like it was going to turn into dust.
“Here’s some bread.” Michelle offered him a three-inch-thick hunk of Italian bread. It was unbuttered but it’d do. “We’ll let you know when dinners ready.”
He headed out of the kitchen while gobbling down the bread.
He wished he’d grabbed something to drink, but at least he felt better.
Perhaps less likely to regret his actions when he came face to face with Gabe again.
Which was a lot sooner than he wished, as Gabe was pacing up and down the entryway to the house near the stairs.
“You’re gonna drive me crazy,” he said. He grabbed Gabe’s shoulder to stop him.
Gabe tugged away from him. “I can’t leave, you said it. Not until the ritual, but I want to get my things.” He huffed at Cyrus.
He eyed him. “What are you needing so badly?” he asked.
Gabe didn’t reply, simply stood there fidgeting and bouncing side to side.
“It’s a rule that the Alpha doesn’t leave the pack house until after the ritual at sunset,” Cyrus told him.
“Why?” Gabe asked. “I’m not going anywhere. You could come with me to get my shit if you don’t trust me.”
He shook his head and Gabe cursed under his breath.
“Perhaps I’d be more willin’ to if you told me why you’re so fucking antsy huh?” He tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowed.
Gabe licked his lips. Cyrus couldn’t help but follow the tip of his tongue as it trailed along so elegantly.
“Just forget about it,” Gabe insisted.
Cyrus let him push past him and didn’t turn to look. Whatever was going on with him wasn’t his problem. Yet.
Cyrus’s stomach growled again and distracted him further.
“Dammit,” he mumbled. He couldn’t go back to the kitchen and insist Ryan and Michelle cook faster, that’d get him a wooden spoon to the face if not a knife.
They were pretty serious when it came to cooking for the house.
They didn’t live there but came by a few times a week to make dinner for those who did and those who just needed a free hot meal.
He wasn’t going to bite them on the hand.
Instead, he headed to the backyard and tugged a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one up.
He took a drag and watched a few people toss a football back and forth.
It perplexed him how people were simply going about the day.
As if they didn’t all of a sudden have a new baby Alpha who had come in and staked a claim over them.
He exhaled a puff of smoke that clouded his vision of the group playing. At this same moment he heard footsteps on the deck behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Gabe being closely tailed by Tatiana. Tati was holding a red plastic cup gently against her round stomach.
He put the cig out on the nearby railing and shoved it back into the pack as he met her eyes. She smiled softly at him and nodded once.
No kids lived in the pack house as of the last couple of years. It wasn’t the best place for them. At least not with Liam as Alpha. Tati’s baby would be the first in a long while to live there.
“What are you doing with him?” Cyrus asked as Gabe walked away from both of them, not even looking in his direction. His shoulders continued to harden.
“Just saying hello,” Tati insisted, paused, and continued, “I get that you’re worried; but most of us are welcoming a change.”
“It’s the change being for the worst that I’m worried about,” he told her.
Tati shook her head. “Hell, I get it. I’ve got a baby on the way and I have no idea how the future is gonna go, but, Liam sure as all heaven wasn’t good for this pack. Neither were a few of the past. Gabe might just surprise you.” She poked the top of his chest and wiggled her head of purple hair.
Cyrus exhaled and looked away from her.
“Alright, be stubborn.” Tati changed the subject much to his delight. “Do you work after the ritual?”
He nodded.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” she asked.
“I’m dying to get away from here,” he replied simply, voice low.
Tati rolled her eyes and rubbed his shoulder before heading back inside.
He pulled his cigs back out and continued smoking as he had been before. It eased some of his tension, but not nearly enough. It was over too quickly, and his nerves tangled back up as his gaze met Gabe’s from several yards away. His jaw tightened and he turned to head back inside.
“Cyrus, wait a sec,” Gabe called.
Cyrus’s hand was on the sliding door when he heard him. He didn’t turn around, but he did stop.
He felt his hand on the back of his shoulder unexpectedly, and flinched. He jerked around and grabbed his arm for a split second before letting it go.
“Don’t touch me,” Cyrus growled.
Gabe put his hand up for a moment.
“What do you want?” he asked. He watched Gabe shrink back at the aggression in his tone.
“I heard you talking,” he told him. His voice was shaky.
“Yeah? Then you know you have a lot to do,” Cyrus replied.
He blinked. “I don’t know if I’d say that’s what I took from it.” He cleared his throat. “Can we talk somewhere else?”
He looked around them. There wasn’t anyone here who probably wouldn’t hear anyway regardless of where they were. Wolves have good hearing. If someone wanted to hear they did, if they didn’t, they could block it out.
“Whatever you need to say, you can say here,” he insisted.
Gabe frowned, and the sight made his stomach tight.
“I know you don’t understand what I did, why I did it,” Gabe told him, words slow. There was a pause so long Cyrus almost walked away, but didn’t. “It was my only choice.”
He raised a brow. “How exactly?”
“If I’m not Alpha, what am I? All on my own. That’s…how I felt.”
“Got it. Good to know we were an easy fix to your problem,” he mumbled.
Gabe’s eyes widened. “No that’s not it,” he tried to say, but Cyrus was not having it.
“I’m not gonna give you pity,” he told him as he took several steps back.
Gabe looked as though he wanted to say something but his mouth fixed in a straight line instead.
Cyrus sighed. “Just make sure you’re prepared for the ritual, talk to Tatiana about it,” he told him.
Gabe’s gaze moved to the floor. “We do it together, right?”
“Good lord boy,” he said exasperated. “Yes, only your second can do it with you, and that just so happened to fall to me.”
Gabe looked back up at him. “You hold no pride in your place?”
He scoffed. “Under you?” He shook his head. “But I know I earned it.” Cyrus started to turn around.
“I earned my place too,” Gabe said. “I killed Liam and took the place as Alpha rightfully. Does that not count?”
Cyrus stood still for a moment, his eyes moving to the glass door and Gabe’s tall lanky reflection. “Do a better job than who you preceded, and then we’ll talk worthy.”
He disappeared back inside and made himself as invisible as possible after that. As hungry as he was, he didn’t go back into the kitchen. He went to his room and laid back down, ignoring his phone that buzzed every now and again. Cyrus knew if it was important they’d call him.
Finally, there was a soft knock at his halfway open door.
“Dinner’s ready,” Lily said from the doorway.
He got up, pulled a shirt on and headed out with her. “I didn’t expect you to be here,” he said.
She looked at him questioningly.
“I know the initiation ritual is a lot for you.”
Lily shrugged. “It’s not as intense as the bonding ritual,” she replied. He watched her light brown face grow darker around her cheeks and nose.
“Well, that depends whether you’re watching or participating,” he said.
She frowned and walked ahead of him on the stairs. “It’s your responsibility, and your privilege,” Lily reminded him.
His jaw tightened. “I know. Though privilege feels wrong in this case.” They got to the first floor.
“With your bond to him, our bond to him as a pack becomes stronger and only his second can do that. In some ways you’re more important than Alpha.”
He smirked crookedly. “Careful Lilybug, you might be speaking against the Alpha.”
She shook her head. “You’ve maintained your place with two Alpha’s, now a third. You’re a constant for us. A comfort. Even if you are a stubborn ass.”
Cyrus chuckled, but his chest felt heavy.
“You know, you might be the more important one,” he told her.
Lily blushed again. “Says the man who saved my life when I was eight.”
His eyes warmed as he looked down at her. She was perhaps younger than he was assuming Gabe was, and had been glued to his side since they met.
He looked over her head toward the kitchen as they had stopped. He didn’t want to think of how battered and broken Lily had been when he had found her. He saw her as a sister, and hated to think of her in pain.
“Soup's on,” Ryan declared, announcing that the spaghetti was ready. Michelle began handing out bowls and plates to anyone who came into the kitchen. As he walked in, Lily behind him, he saw Gabe filling his bowl from the two pots on the stove. One with pasta, one with sauce.
“Here you go,” Michelle handed a bowl to him. “You can’t do the ritual on an empty stomach. Now can ya?”