Infernal

20.

Alaric put the nachos in the grill, to melt the cheese and then placed a flat pack of sweetened popcorn in the microwave.

"What did you do today?" He asked me, retrieving a huge bowl from a cupboard.

"Apart from nap, nothing," I shrugged. "Dean kept himself busy with a load of paperwork, so I didn't want to bother him."

Alaric hummed in response, as he turned his attention to the nachos.

"You do know that you're not confined to this house?" It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "You don't have to stay indoors all day."

I sighed heavily, pushing my long hair away from my face. "I know."

I hadn't left the house in what seemed like forever. The last time was when I was in the pack infirmary, after injuring myself during heat. That was almost four or five days ago. I wasn't scared to leave the house, I was worried what people thought about me. Everyone in Regnum knew what had happened, their Luna had shifted and went through heat.

To me, it was embarrassing and I didn't want to be the gossip of the whole entire land... Although, I probably already was.

"Valerie?"

"Yeah?" I asked blinking away my thoughts.

Alaric held a jar out towards me. "Do you want jalapeños on the nachos?"

I grimaced slightly. My stomach could only handle small amounts of spicy food at a time.

"Just a few," I answered, trying not to wrinkle my nose as he opened the jar of jalapeños.

He finished off making the snacks and soon enough we were sat in the lounge together, watching a movie.

This had been our routine for most evenings. Alaric would come home, we would talk about our day and cook dinner together. I mainly just watched him cook or chopped up something that wasn't complicated. After dinner, Alaric would put on a movie and prepare popcorn. However, today was slightly different as Alaric had decided to watch a movie before dinner instead.

Alaric's taste in movies was slightly different to what I was used to. He liked to watch the older films that possibly were released before I was born. I didn't comment on it, I didn't feel the need to point out the obvious age gap between us. Although it didn't bother me, and it didn't seem to bother Alaric, I couldn't help but think about if we would have limited time together due to his immortality.

I settled into the sofa, leaning into Alaric as the movie started to play. Alaric placed the plate of nachos on his lap, and I helped myself to the savoury snack.

Despite what had happened almost five days ago, sitting with my Alpha mate, watching a movie, felt more than right. I could never see myself doing the same thing with Alpha Richards, the thought of that made me cringe hard.

Alaric seemed to be heavily into the film we were watching, which just happened to be Die Hard. Usually, I wasn't into action movies but I quickly learned that it was a genre that Alaric liked.

Halfway through the film, Alaric shifted his position and grabbed the tv remote.

"I was thinking," he started to say before he paused the movie and turned his body to face me. "I haven't done so well with courting you, have I?"

I swallowed the mouthful of popcorn with a dry gulp. I wasn't aware that Alaric still wanted to do that. I had thought that the whole courting business was unnecessary, because I could now feel the mate bond between us.

"You don't need to do that anymore-"

"Yes, but I told you that I would court you, and I would rather not go against my words," Alaric said.