36. Kallis
Kallis
We have a rare four-day break between games, and to celebrate the team’s improvement and progress, the owner has booked an entire Mexican restaurant for lunch. It’s the amazing place Aspen used to convince me to move to Aurum.
The atmosphere is relaxed, and there’s no need to worry about the people around me anymore. After working with them for over two months, it feels like we have finally grown used to each other and our personality quirks.
Thankfully, the medics who had to endure me when Artie was hurt accepted my apologies.
I don’t feel uncomfortable wearing a dress in front of the team. Though it’s still formal, black, and cut at the knee, it has a delicate flower pattern that Aspen chose for me, along with matching earrings.
I sit beside Aspen’s daughter, Ameila, who perches next to her mother. Other members of the medical team and staff sit on the right side of the restaurant, and the players dominate the left. Though there are only three I’m particularly interested in.
Even from ten feet away, I can tell there’s anger festering in their pack.
If I’m able to pick up on their mood, then it has to be bad.
Considering it’s only been two days since Mathan, Artie, and I had been intimate, and we have had no games in between, I arrogantly assume it’s about me.
I shouldn’t have been so forward and thought that they would have all been in agreement about taking things further physically. Or I could have at least explained my intentions.
There isn’t exactly space to apologize, and asking them if we can talk alone will draw too much attention. So I currently settle for sneaking glances at them when I can. But the harshest thing is that I occasionally make eye contact with Artie, and he hurriedly looks away.
Out of the three of them, I’ve always believed that Artie is the most open to me. He’s vocal about his feelings, no matter how unnerving I find them. But he’s spent the majority of the dinner staring relentlessly at Orso, who appears to grow angrier by the minute.
I don’t know what’s more stressful: that Artie is sitting facing me directly, or I can only see Mathan and Orso’s backs. I catch their expressions when they turn to talk to each other, but that’s all.
I’m already disturbed because of those pulses of my preheat I felt before. My heat is definitely coming, and I don’t want to spend it alone, but the anxiety of discussing it with them, paired with being unable to sleep due to the oat bars losing their scent, has put me further on edge.
“Is that them?” Ameila whispers so loudly that the rest of the table notices. She clearly saw me looking, though I can’t say I’m being subtle.
Bringing a red paper napkin to my mouth, I pretend to wipe my lips to hide my face so I can think of a proper reaction. But she’s still staring expectantly.
“How do you know about that?” I ask quietly, tension making my voice cold as I glare at Aspen. But she just grins away, an exact copy of her daughter.
“I heard Mommy talking about it with Daddy the other night.”
My eyes widen, but the Coach is busy planning with a manager and doesn’t pay us any mind.
If he knows about our relationship already, it could cause serious problems. I’m sure Aspen stressed to him my feelings about the entire situation, and I trust that she trusts him.
But the more people who know about my scent match, the higher the risk becomes that my career might suffer.
I’m tempted to ask Ameila how much she knows, being only five, but the little terror might run off to talk with the three of them. She’s as bad as her mother.
I lower the napkin, lifting a finger to my lips, shushing her, and her smile brightens. “You wouldn’t want to get your Mommy in trouble with Auntie Kallis, would you?” I ask.
She bursts into giggles, and I half-smile back. Aspen ruffles her hair, and they give each other cheeky looks. Ameila is going to be a menace when she’s older.
Even with all the chatter and the usual rowdiness of the Bears that previously overwhelmed me, I’m still comfortable. I’ve grown used to their ways, and I feel like they have become more receptive to me, at least enough not to look too miserable when I treat them.
But that’s the entire issue. I let my guard down; I’ve begun to relax outside the competitive nature of the hospital, because our fight doesn’t cost lives.
I never knew the true risks I’ve been taking until danger comes knocking.
My blood freezes as the restaurant doors open and two familiar forms enter. The napkin drops from my hand as my heart falls through my seat, and my panic instantly flares.
“What the fuck are they doing here?” Aspen hisses.
“Mommy! Daddy said you’re not allowed to swear,” Ameila gasps, and Aspen instantly turns to her.
“Sorry, sweetie. I’m just surprised.” Aspen leans in to kiss her daughter’s forehead. “Bee, don’t move. I’ll deal with them.”
Their conversation is enough to pull me from my initial shock, and I leap up from the table, my chair clattering. I can’t let the team meet my parents.
“I’ll do it,” I rasp.
Those at our table look up with confused expressions, but I rush off so they can’t ask. I have to get my parents out of the building before they have the chance to start judging, but the minute my mother’s gaze pans the room, it’s over.
My chest is already tight as I reach them, both glaring down at the beta ma?tre d’ who blocks their way. Because how dare she wear anything other than the finest suit when she serves them?
“I’m sorry,” the ma?tre d’ says. “This is a private event.”
My father’s nostrils flare, but exclusivity hasn’t discouraged him before. If he wants something, no one can stop him. But if I’m the one that they want, I have to throw myself in front of them before they can move.
“Kallis, be a dear and tell this lovely young lady that we belong here,” Mother says as I approach. She stills as she sees what I’m wearing, and shame floods me. I thought the dress would be fun, another step from the controlled box Aspen usually fails to coax me out of, but it was another mistake.
Anyone else who has spotted them is probably asking why my parents are dressed like they are attending a gala at 2 p.m. in Aurum as they visit a Mexican restaurant.
My father wears a slate-gray custom-tailored suit that matches the silver fur shawl draped around my mother’s neck, along with the deep red mermaid dress, high heels, and pearls adorning her throat, ears, and every finger.
I was born with my mother’s appearance and adopted my father’s personality, and it’s clear from looking at us that we are family.
As soon as I presented, I knew I wouldn’t be as tall as them, but those extra inches from my alpha parents make all the difference when they look at me like that.
“What are you doing here is the first question,” I say as the ma?tre d’ steps away with a grateful look.
My mother’s smile is genuine, but I can’t let it fool me. The familiar ache of being near them is already rising. But it’s the unexpected situation that is the issue.
When I know I’m going to see them, I can prepare beforehand.
On the journey to their home in Manhattan, I can mentally fortify myself by organizing my expectations and the reactions that will cause the least harm.
But this is too sudden. I don’t have anything as a guard, and I never once imagined that I would have to handle my parents meeting the Golden Bears.
“How could you ask us that when we’ve come to see what mess our daughter has gotten herself into this time?” she replies.
The second she says ‘mess’, my anxiety fires. Any hints of the smile I had earlier with Ameila vanish beneath my stone-cold veneer. I can’t show them a single response, or they might react. It wouldn’t be the first time they had dragged me from a room for my poor behavior.
“Kallis, you forgot that we had scheduled a lunch with the director of Philadelphia General,” Father says, raising a brow.
“So imagine our surprise when we arrived, only for you not to appear, and him to tell us that you’re taking a sabbatical with a hockey team, in Aurum, no less.
I’ve never even heard of this place. So, of course, we had to find out why you were here. ”
And that’s when Father chooses to look over my shoulder, scanning the room, his look of displeasure morphing into a sneer.
“What is this?” Father asks, punctuating each word. It takes everything in me not to recoil as he steps into my space. “Kallis Ranger, answer me right now. What are you doing in this place?”
I’m sure the director would have already told him exactly what my sabbatical entailed. They want me to make excuses so they can judge me further.
But my main goal is to ensure they stay quiet so they don’t hurt the Bear’s feelings. No matter how hardy they are, they don’t take insults lightly.
“It’s research,” I reply with all I can muster. I don’t know how much longer I can stand there. Especially when his hand goes to my waist, and I force myself not to flinch as he pinches my left side through my dress.
“Explain. Now. How does fraternizing with people like this equate to research?”
My head dips as the pain curls out from my side.
The longer it takes me to answer, the harder he will pinch.
Areas like my waist don’t matter as they stay hidden.
At least that’s what he believes. Because the only people who should see that part of my body are alphas they have chosen for me to mate with.
My parents don’t know I used to hire ones for my heats.
I have to keep looking at my father as shame and disappointment with myself choke me so they don’t see any weakness. I do so much to prove that I’m better than this, that I won’t be like them, and what is the result?
“Kallis,” Mother snaps. “Answer your father.”
He changes location, pinching below my ribs. He’s done this since I was a child, and he knows where it hurts the most. Though they usually do it when I’m facing away from them, so they can pinch my back and shoulders without anyone looking.