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I turn to her and place a finger to my lips. She chuckles and walks over to the kitchen bar.

“Don’t get mad at her,” Enzo says without turning around. “I knew you were checking me out.” He turns and grins. “A gladiator. Really?”

He laughs at my horrified face. Now, I know he was in my head with that one. He might have guessed what I was thinking this morning, but this was too specific.

He removes the pan from the stove, bringing it over to the bar. “If you’re thinking something too strongly or have a strong enough emotion, you can push it to me through our link.” He winks as he places strips of perfectly fried bacon onto the three plates laid out.

“Sit and eat,” he says, taking the pan back to the stove.

Marley takes the bowl of freshly sliced fruit off the counter and loads some onto her plate.

“Tonight,” I say to Marley, placing a piece of bacon into my mouth. “We need to feed. The rest I got yesterday helped restore my energy, but I need blood.”

Something drops on the counter in front of me. When I turn to look at it, I’m in shock. Looking away from the bag of blood into the face of the smiling wolf in front of me.

“It’s O positive this time.”

I can’t help but smile. Not only did he go get me blood, but he remembered me telling him my favorite.

“Thank you,” I say, grabbing the bag. I sink my fangs into the side. I wait for him to turn away or grimace like he always does. However, this time he watches me closely.

I drink the entire bag, licking my lips when I’m done. Immediately, I feel ten times better.

“If you need more,” Enzo says, piling his plate up with bacon. “I have a couple more bags in the cooler. Alarick says it’s enough to last you about two weeks if you and Marley space them out.”

“What did you do, rob a blood bank?” I chuckle.

He shrugs. “Actually, yeah.”

“Wow, I’ve never had anyone do that for me. Thank you.” I wasn’t lying. Since I was old enough to walk, I’ve been supplying my blood. First from the blood maids my parents hired, and when I turned six, I started going out hunting. I’ve always fed myself.

“I’m your mate,” he says, dropping onto the barstool beside me. “My job is to take care of you.” He places about three pieces of bacon in his mouth at once.

I smile, even though I know he’s lying. Love doesn’t work like that. You don’t go from hating me to wanting to protect me. This marriage won’t be much different from my first, I see. The wolf wants something. I could call him out on his bullshit and let him know I’m not an idiot. Or I can play along and figure out what he’s after. I like the idea of playing along.

“Then what’s my job?” I tease.

He cuts his eyes over to me before turning back to his plate. “You might want to send Marley out before I tell you about your role.”

Marley groans beside me. “We’re going to need soundproof rooms if you two are going to be doing that.”

Enzo tosses his head back and laughs. “I’ll see what I can do, kid.”

Hold on, he didn’t actually think there would be a repeat of that night, right?

“Hopefully she will drug me again, so I won’t know what’s happening.”

His words that day made it very clear he was not interested in sex. Now I know he’s playing a game. This is not the start of an active sexual relationship. I’ll have to explain that to him.

“When you finish eating,” he says. “We need to head to Chayton’s office. He wants to talk to us.”

The rest of breakfast was uneventful. Marley talked the most. Asking if Enzo could ask some wolves to come back and paint her room for her. He seemed surprised that she asked. However, he told her he’d see what he could do.

Now, he and I walked side by side, silently toward Chayton’s office.

“I would ask if I had something growing out of my face, but by the way they keep staring at us, I’m guessing the looks have nothing to do with how I look and more of who I’m with.”

He looks down at me, his brows furrowed. He then looks around us, glancing at all the disappointed and disgusted female wolves' faces and the curious and disgusted male’s faces.