Page 40 of Same Thing
Delta shook her head. “We have lots of ingredients, but I have no clue what to do with any of it. I’m kind of new to all of this.”
“To being a werewolf?” Nory asked as she studied the groceries in the fridge. There was an enormous tub of chicken breast that was nearly defrosted.
“No, to being in this Pack. I just moved here a few weeks ago, right after Liam Challenged for the Pack.”
“Girl, you might have to explain all of that. I understood none of it.”
“I came here from an established, steady Pack, to absolute mayhem. Liam fought the last Alpha for the Pack.”
Nory stood up straight and twisted around. “Wait. That would make Liam…”
“He’s the Alpha of the Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack.”
Well, Delta could’ve knocked her over with a feather right now. “So, he like…runs this ship?”
“Yep.”
“He’s the leader?”
“Mmm hmm. My mate is his Second.”
Oooh. That made sense.
“Well, he is Second for now,” Delta conceded. “Nate has been moody with Liam lately. He will get moved to the bottom of the Pack if he doesn’t stop.”
“What’s up with them?” Nory asked, pulling ingredients from the pantry. They had a few bags of potatoes, and the chicken, and an entire unopened box of saltine crackers, and she knew exactly what kind of comfort food everyone needed tonight.
Delta watched her like a hawk, and Nory got this instinct that she might be taking notes, so she grabbed the notepad and pen that she found on the counter and started writing out the ingredients for cracker crumb chicken and homestyle mashed potatoes, just in case Delta wanted to cook it later.
“I’ve been trying to figure out what’s wrong here, but it’s chaos when the boys are together. You know when you go to a bar, and you see a group of men, and you think to yourself ‘I would not want to mess with them’ because you assume they would all have each other’s backs?”
Nory was trimming up the chicken breasts on a cutting board and nodded.
“Well, they’re not like that. If someone messed with one of them, the others would turn on the Packmate getting pickedat and join in. They all live separate lives, but they have this long history together. They should’ve leaned on each other and bonded, but I can feel it.”
“Feel what?”
“There is no bond.” She shrugged. “Closest we get is Liam and Nathan. They don’t talk about anything but Pack matters though. I asked Nate about Liam, and he honestly didn’t know much about him. That’s crazy to me. The Pack I was in talked about everything. If you mess with one of them, the entire Pack will burn you alive. Oh my gosh,” she said, her eyes going wide. “I am talking so much. I’m sorry. It’s quiet here, and I have all of these thoughts, but you are a woman and it’s so nice to have someone to bounce thoughts off of.”
“Keep talking then. I don’t mind at all.” Nory had an idea. “Here,” she said, pushing the box of saltine crackers toward her with her elbow, so she didn’t get chicken on it. “Can you unpackage all of those and crunch them up into that bowl?”
“Oh. Just, with my hands?”
Nory smiled and nodded.
Delta went to the sink and washed her hands and started talking again. “What’s up with the stalking stuff?”
Nory explained some and described how it all made her feel. She told her about Jackson pretending to be Liam on the phone. While she did, she instructed Delta on what seasonings to pull from the cabinet, and to melt a stick of butter in the microwave as she started washing potatoes.
There were huge pot and pan sets still with the tags on them, and Delta explained that Nate had bought them when she moved here, and that they hadn’t known each other very well when she’d agreed to the pairing. She admitted she still didn’t know him well, but that they were trying. That part was so interesting to Nory. It sounded kind of like the Arrangement stuff Liam had mentioned.
“Did he think you were going to cook a lot?” she asked as she peeled the stickers off the biggest pot so she could wash it for the potatoes.
“Oh, I don’t think he expected me to cook for him, but more like he was preparing to bring a female here and wanted me to have everything that felt familiar. He stocked the kitchen, but he’s never asked me for anything. I’ve made him macaroni a few times, and he seems incredibly grateful, but I don’t know. I thought about ordering a couple of cookbooks and experimenting on his long workdays. I’m still looking for a job. It’s hard for werewolves to get a company to take a chance on them. I get bored here.”
“I would too, especially if I didn’t know anyone.”
“And the guys aren’t really in a rush to get to know me either. Unless there are Pack meetings, everyone stays separate and scattered all over the territory. It’s so strange to me.”