The Crystal Moon Curse: Book 2: TAMED

16. Gamma Dinner

EVA

"Welcome Luna, thank you for coming, Nancy is in the kitchen. Leroy, show the Luna in please."

Bryan says as Leroy guides me into the house with a beaming smile.

"Please Bryan, at least in your own home call me Eva, these formalities are too exhausting to keep fighting." I plead.

"Thank you for the honor, Eva." He replies with a deep gracious bow.

I hold back rolling my eyes and follow Leroy's large form and the delicious scents wafting how the hall.

The Gamma house is lovely, a fairly large ranch-style home, warm and inviting. Like so many of the buildings I've seen here, this pack favors traditional styles of building, I admit I do prefer the quaintness of it compared to the modern architecture Crystal Moon has adopted with its newer buildings.

"Eva, gosh I'm so behind on dinner, come give me a hand with this pie please, Carrie is destroying my pastry," I laugh as Nancy pulls me into an applesauce-scented hug while a lovely girl of about nine stares at me wide-eyed, her hands covered in flour deep in a mixing bowl.

"Mom, you're supposed to call her Luna." The little girl stages whisper, her large, warm brown eyes the spitting image of Leroy's.

"You're mom and I are friends, I asked her to use my name, you can call me Eva too while we are in your home since I know your dad probably won't let you use it out of it."

Bryan grunts as he joins us in the large open kitchen to grab drinks from the fridge.

"That's right, if the Luna gives you permission to use her name it's only for use in a private setting, outside this home you give her the respect she deserves," he says sternly to his daughter then gives her an affectionate bop on the nose.

"Yes sir," Carrie replies, her eyes full of affection for her father.

The sight makes my heart ache. I miss my father. The hole in my heart is still raw. I miss being daddy's little girl, the way Carrie clearly is hers.

She looks up at me with a wide smile.

"I'm Carrie, do you want to help me with this, I hate baking," she frowns at the lump of sticky dough clinging to her fingers.

"I'd love to help, my mom is a fantastic baker, she makes a pie every day for my sister Neo and I love helping too." I chuckle stepping beside Carrie and taking the mixing bowl from her. Her look of relief is adorable.

"Can I get you a drink, Eva?" Bryan offers, Leroy pulls up a stool opposite me, and Carrie and I can't help but enjoy the relaxed, family atmosphere in this home. It's a wonderful relief from the tension threatening to tear me apart in Dante's suite.

"I'd love a wine if you have any."

"Open the Tempranillo Alpha Dante brought in, it will go well with the shanks," Nancy says and my mouth drools at the very mention.

"I love lamb shanks, where do you trade from?" I ask as I kneed out the ball of dough into a smooth round ball. I haven't seen any farms here and to be honest I don't know much about how they make their money.

"Actually this particular batch of lamb and wine we got from Blood Stone, I believe Alpha Sebastian made a generous offer to Alpha Dante for his attendance at Alpha Neo's accession, a full year's supply of lamb, and several cases of wine from their cellars. Blood Stone does have the best wines in the country, it was a hard offer to refuse." Bryan explains as he pops the wine, the rich, bold flavors of the aged Cabernet Sauvignon fill the kitchen and I sigh with pleasure. I do love beautiful wine. Neo is damn lucky, although she only drinks raspberry ciders, goddess knows why.