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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 andsobbing. 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.