Monster in My Bed

Chapter Fourteen | I Don't Do Dust

"Is mayonnaise an instrument?"

"No, Patrick. Mayonnaise is not an instrument. Horseradish is not an instrument, either."

I could feel my internal clock telling me that it was way too early to be up just yet. I also had a pretty good feeling that I wasn't dead due to the pain in my back—wasn't quite sure if I was happy or sad about that yet.

I grunted in the most unladylike manner as I rolled my body around on whatever cushioned surface I had been placed on. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, but it was definitely a step up from the ground that I'd been sleeping on the past week and a half. One day, I even slept in a tree—until I fell out.

The realization that I was obviously not in a place where I should be sleeping had my eyes popping open in a matter of milliseconds. They were met immediately by the images of a Spongebob Squarepants episode on a large television placed upon a wooden stand.

"What?" I whispered to myself in total confusion as I began pushing my upper body up from the couch that I had been laying on in an extremely unfamiliar room. I didn't get very far before a sharp pain stung my side causing a hiss to pass through my gritted teeth. As if on cue, a familiar head of dirty-blonde hair made an appearance.

"Jack," I snarled at him as he walked into the room with a disapproving look aimed toward me. His thick arms were crossed over his brawny chest making it very hard for me to focus on anything other than his well built torso being covered by a moderately loose fitting t-shirt. It took a lot of mental strength to tear my attention from his body to his foresty-green eyes which seemed to be a tad darker than normal. I was assuming it was due to the anger I could feel radiating off of him.

"What the actual hell, Kaia?" He snapped at me. I'd never had the opportunity to see this side of Jack before. Normally, he was laid back and tried to avoid any type of legitimate argument, but that all seemed to fly out the window at this point. The Jack standing in front of me was not the Jack that I had left back at Caedes Territory.

"I could be asking you the same thing," I fired back with the same amount of hostility he had been giving me. At this, his already clenched jaw clenched even harder if it were even possible.

"Kaia, now is not the time!" He shouted, his eyes flashing to an even darker shade of green, making me jump in surprise. It wasn't his sudden outburst that startled me, though. It was the fact that I didn't even know Jack was capable of getting this furious.

I think Jack realized just how much his extreme contrast in behavior was freaking the heck out of me. He closed his eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath before speaking again. "We're stressed," he stated quietly with his eyes still closed. I wasn't sure if he was referring to he and the pack, he and Matteo, or he and his wolf, but I was just going to assume the ladder based on the previous events.

"I'm not a therapist. You didn't have to kidnap me just to vent about your problems. I'm sure there's a shit-whack of people who would be more than happy to aid you with your stress," I replied. As the words came out, I was internally kicking myself in the shin. I'd never had a problem being rude before, but as Jack's eyes popped open to stare into mine with betrayal looming within them, I couldn't help but hate myself a little bit. I wanted to throw up in my mouth.

Honestly, I thought I was going to.

"You can't tell me that you're actually happy living like this," Jack said, disregarding my verbal jab at him which I was grateful for. It made me feel less bad that he didn't seem very affected by it.