RANKS

Chapter Thirty Six

My stomach and feet collaborate together as I'm subconsciously taken to the kitchen. My mouth waters for dinosaur chicken nuggets topped with spray cheese. So I start rummaging through the pantry for the processed goodness in a can. I push away boxes of pasta, crackers and soups, desperately looking for the bottle. In the very corner of the pantry I see a discarded bottle, unopened, with an expiration date of the beginning of the month.  

Screw it, I'm just going to throw it up anyway. I tell myself as I debate whether or not to consume the cheese. 

My next goal is to find the dinosaur nuggets. The pack has two full sized freezers in the main kitchen alone. I know they're bound to have at least one bag to feed the pups. My eyes pass over peas, frozen fruit, and even potstickers. As I start to pull out food from the freezer my stomach growls louder. The massive freezer doesn't have one bag of chicken nuggets, but it does have a ten pound bag of pizza rolls. The sight of the cheese wrapped in thin dough makes me angry. 

"Why do they have pizza rolls but not dinosaur chicken nuggets?" I mutter to myself as I throw containers of food back into the freezer. 

As I work my way through the second freezer on my hunt for prehistoric goodness, the sun starts to rise over the snow covered tree tops. I know that Mateo and the other wolves training are coming in soon for breakfast, all the more reason I need to find these nuggets fast! My eyes scan the shelves one last time in hopes of finding what my body so dearly craves. Then I see a familiar label of 100% Whole White Meat Chicken, as the wolves come up the hill. 

The bag of goodness is in the corner of the freezer, almost entirely covered up in other bags. I start to remove the things in my way, but I find it increasingly harder taking things off the top shelf. Giving my toes a break, I drag a chair from a table and set it in front of the open freezer. Perfect! I'm now in the perfect position to make one final grab for the thing to satisfy my cravings. 

"Stormy, what are you doing?" A confused and sweaty Mateo asks me heading my way. 

"I really need dinosaur chicken nuggets  and spray cheese," I gesture to the things on the counter. 

"Another craving?" He inspects the bottle of cheese. 

"Yeah," I shrug. 

Only then do my eyes really focus on what I took out of the freezer. They are not, in fact, dinosaur chicken nuggets. They're only regular chicken nuggets. My eyes well up at the realization I can't feast on the only thing my mind can focus on. Soon I'm shedding ten tears a second sobs come out of my mouth.

"What's wrong baby?" Mateo rushes over and helps me off the chair.

"The-The-The nuggets!" I wail pointing at the bag of disappointment. 

"What's wrong with them, are they the wrong brand? Did you want fish nuggets?" He looks me in my eyes trying to figure out what's wrong.

"I want," I sniffle. "I want dinosaur nuggets!" 

"They taste the same," he rubs his hand along my back. 

"No they don't!" I scream. "The dinosaur shapes makes them taste better!" 

I hear some shuffling from behind us and realize that a large portion of the training males are trying not to obviously watch the ordeal. This fact only makes me cry harder into Mateo's sweaty shirt, staining it a darker color. 

"Hey now, don't cry. I have an idea." He then quickly takes some nuggets out of the bag and puts them on a plate and into the microwave. 

I watch, sniffling, as he pulls out a cutting board and a small knife. When the appliance beeps he pulls out the plate and starts to chop at the nuggets. 

"There we go," he presents to plate to me after a few minutes. "Everything  is okay now."

I smile widely when I realize what he's done. With the small knife he cut away at the chicken until they resembled crude dinosaurs. 

"Let's put these in the oven," he then puts my soon to be meal on a pan and pops them into a preheated over. 

"I'm sorry for overreacting," I frown looking to the floor. 

"It's not your fault baby, your hormones are just making you a little more sensitive. Now why don't we go bring some cereal to the guys?" 

Together we pull out boxes of cereal, bowls, spoons, and milk and place them on the table where the guys are sitting. I can't look any of them in the eye, embarrassed of the tantrum I threw not even ten minutes ago. 

"Don't feel bad," one speaks up. "My mate acts the same way everyday during the first few months." 

Knowing that I'm not alone on unreasonable outbursts makes me happier. My mood improving greatly. I try to remember how the females in my pack acted when they were pregnant, but my mind keeps drifting back to the cravings I'm having. 

"Are they done yet?" I whine walking over to Mateo. 

"Thirty seconds left," he points to the timer. 

I shift from foot to foot doing some type of weird dance  as Mateo pulls out my nuggets from the oven. I try to reach for one but he swats my hand away.

"You're going to burn yourself, wait a little bit." 

I pout and stomp across the kitchen to retrieve the can of fake cheese I need as a topping. By the time I return from my slow lap around the kitchen, Mateo has arranged my food on a plate.

"Awww, thank you babe!" I tiptoe and kiss him quickly. 

I then turn to my little monsters and drown them in spray cheese. I pick one up and bite into it, almost moaning at the taste.

"Is it good?" Mateo asks curiously. 

"Is ah-masin! Wanna try it?" 

He picks the one with the least amount of cheese on it and takes a tentative bite. Mateo recoils and almost spits it out.

"Never try the pregnancy craving food!" One of the wolves pipes up from the table. 

"Why didn't you warn me?" 

"It's a hard lesson every man has to learn for himself," he simply explains. 

The men finish off their cereal as I finish off my delicious recipe. 

"I'm going back to bed!" I yawn, looking over at the kitchen clock which reads ten past six.

"I'll take you." Mateo offers his arms. 

"Mmmkay," my eyes drooping by the second. 

My eyes close on the walk back to our room. I'm already asleep by the time my head hits the pillow. 

I wrote like eighty percent of this before I realized that I needed to write a Christmas chapter because this takes place in February. 

School is already stressful, but I have two off periods so I'll try to write as often as I can during those. 

What is your opinion on the snack Stormy ate? Personally it doesn't sound awful...but I'd never willingly eat it either.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO COMMENT AND VOTE!!!