Alphas *TO BE RE-WRITTEN*

Chapter 10: Surprise

"Good morning, Ren," Michael greeted as I came downstairs. I gave him an odd look, seeing that the stress in his eyes was almost copletely gone. He was smiling as he cooked scrambled eggs and bacon and pancakes. I could see the only tenseness in his muscles was when they were working to cook all three foods at once. Other than that, they were relaxed.

The dark circles under his eyes were gone and his jaw wasn't set. "Morning," I said cautiously. "Are you feeling okay?"

He only smiled more. "I am feeling better. I thought I'd make breakfast this morning," he replied.

I hesitated. Had he gone crazy? "Want some help?" I asked, already moving to work on the pancakes.

He shook his head. "No, I've got it. You can go ahead and sit down at the table."

I gave him a long look, and then went to the pantry for the syrup and then to the fridge for the butter. I gathered the plates, even when he told me he would get those, and poured two glasses of orange juice. As soon as I had finished setting the table and sat down, Michael started piling food onto my plate. This was all very strange to me. Yesterday, Michael had been so angry he was shaking and then had stayed in his room for the rest of the day without saying a single thing to me, and now he was smilig and cooking breakfast.

He piled food onto his own plate and then sat down and started to eat. I started to eat too, and then the question just flew out of my mouth before I could stop it: "Who'd you have sex with last night?"

He stopped chewing and then gave me a weird look, then just shook his head and smiled. "Nobody. I was just thinking last night," he replied.

"Thinking can do that to you? One night of thinking can make you all happy and relaxed after weeks of being stressed?" I asked, crunching on a piece of delicious bacon.

He shrugged. "I just thought the stress away. I looked at everything from an optimisitic point of view, and suddenly everything seemed better," he said.

He was lying. I didn't know how I was able to tell, but I just knew. There was something else that had happened, something he wasn't willing to tell me, that had made him better all of a sudden. It put me on a edge a little, but seeing him happy made me feel a little better.

We ate our breakfast with a little small talk, and then he told me he would do the dishes when we finished. The day went on with him still acting oddly happy, but I didn't ask any questions. That night, he threw a spontaneous pack party, and let me wear a little makeup.

When everyone had showed up, I headed downstairs on my way to the hangout where Daniel and Silver were. I walked past Michael as he spoke with a few of the pack members about the ceremony that would take place in September. He gave me a quick smile as I passed, I smiled back, and then headed down into the hangout. Surprisingly, Sarah wasn't there. Daniel was though, and he greeted me with a huge bear-hug. "What's up, cripple?" he asked.

I laughed as he set me back down on the ground. Silver came up to me next and hugged me, handing me a cup filled with banana-smoothie. I eyed it, and then looked up at her. "Please tell me this isn't that weird smoothie stuff Michael made me drink. I don't even hurt anymore," I said.

She laughed. "Nope. Regular smoothie, I promise," she replied.

I nodded. "Great," I said, and then took a huge drink of it. Oh my God was it delicious. I licked my lips and then set it down on the counter. "Okay, Michael has been acting really weird today."

Daniel leaned against the counter, grabbing a handful of Fritos. "How so?" he asked, and thenn shoved them into his mouth.

"This morning, he made breakfast, then joked around all day, and then he threw this party randomly becasue 'he felt like it.' How strange is that? Especially after how stressed he's been," I explained.