The Housemates

Just Another Tragedy

Chapter Twenty-Five

Just Another Tragedy

Elli was up pretty early, so she headed downstairs and decided to make breakfast for the house for what could possibly be the last time. She and Noah would have to talk about what they were going to do, now that they had Richard back.

She wanted to die when she walked into the kitchen and found Jasper there. He had taken everything really well, but she hadn’t even tried speaking to him after Richard’s return. She had gone straight to her room and spent a few hours just lying on her bed. They had finished cleaning out the study so Jasper no longer shared her room with her. It was both nice and sad. On the plus side, it had given her time to think. Part of her didn’t want to talk to Jasper ever again. She wanted to run, at least for a little while, until she could get used to the idea of him knowing she was a werewolf. The idea of having a mate terrified her, especially after seeing what had happened to Richard.

“Morning,” he greeted, smiling over at her. He was scrambling enough eggs for an army and she realized he had beat her to her plans, so she got the pancake mix out and decided to help.

“Morning,” she responded, somewhat stiffly.

“Oh, relax. I’m not going to suddenly flip out now that I know you’re a werewolf,” he teased.

She gave him a small smile. “Good to know.”

“So is that why you’ve been to so many different places?” he questioned. She nodded and he began to ask her about what it was like to grow up as a werewolf. She gave him truthful answers; that it had been fun, wonderful, amazing, horrifying, heartbreaking, and immensely frustrating. He seemed genuinely interested in her life and she relaxed more and more as the conversation went on.

…

Noah stood and stretched. During the night, he had moved onto the floor, assuming that Richard didn’t really want him to stay in the bed. He had just been tired and scared. It didn’t mean anything, right? Right. And the fact that Noah had needed to disentangle his hand from Richard’s was just the fear. It didn’t mean a single thing.

He sighed as he got up. He was extremely hungry and could smell the food being prepared, but he was reluctant to leave Richard alone.

He gently shook his mate awake.

“Five more minutes,” he mumbled.

“Richard, I’m going downstairs, okay?”

Blue eyes opened and blinked up at him. “Oh. Okay. What time is it?”

“Six forty-three.”

“Why are you awake?” he groaned in complaint.

He shrugged. “I smelled food.”

Richard sighed. “I really need to eat something. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

Noah nodded and headed down.

…

The household slowly gathered as the food was finished. There was lots of warranted suspicion towards Elli, who swore that it was not a trap for her to deliver more bad news. She wasn’t sure that they believed her, but it was the truth so she wasn’t too concerned about it.

Desmond was looking much better and she hoped Richard was, too. Noah wouldn’t talk about his mate, so she was left to wonder.

Elli piled some pancakes on a plate for herself before giving the rest to Jasper to put in the dining room. She had to go to the bathroom and headed towards the stairs, leaving her plate on the counter. Richard was coming down them as she started heading up. He stumbled at the second to last step and she caught his arm in an attempt to steady him.