Chapter Twelve: A Morning of Sunlight.
His coffee cupboard was stuffed with creamers, strange sugars and different flavoured coffees. All had been picked at and as I sipped on my second mug of coffee, I watched as he poured sugar packets into his coffee and hummed under his breath as he topped it with whipped cream.
Lux was similarly perplexed, watching the Alpha Supreme as if he was something to be unravelled.
Muffin didn't care. She had gone to lounge in a sun-spot after she had been fed to her heart's content. She had scored a swab at the Alpha, batting at his large hand when he risked a back-rub.
"Would you like to see your rooms?" He took a breath as he pivoted, sitting back against the counter with a mess of sugar and cream held in mug that looked too fragile for his large hand.
"Sure!" Lux drained her drink. "Now, what's your opinion on plants."
"I love them." The Alpha led us into the hall, his gait slow. He was slow to climb the stairs, avoiding looking at me as I inched up the steps on fragile legs. He kept talking, his voice easy and low. "I planted the garden myself when I came here and try to maintain it the best I can."
"So you paint and garden." I gripped the banister fiercely with a white-knuckled grip.
"I don't think my position in society bars me from that," He peeked back at me briefly, brows furrowing when he glanced over me. I was glad he didn't offer to help – my pride would have snapped. "I tried my hand at growing lavender, you should – uh – go into the garden and see it. Sometime. If you want."
Lux peeked at me. "Meg – sorry, Nova...is actually allergic to lavender."
We reached the top of the stairs and branched off to the side.
"It makes me sick." I didn't know if allergic was the right word, but the smell of it only reminded me of white-walls and the smell made my mind hazy. A passing perfume in the street had been enough to make me nauseous.
"That's fine." He replied quickly. "No worries."
He stopped at the beginning of a hall that ended with an arched window. There were only two doors. "You can take these rooms if you like them. They have their own bathrooms too, so ..."
Lux peeked inside one. "This is literally bigger than my apartment. Who needs this much space? Thank you though," She leaned back out again. "I am grateful for your help, Alpha Supreme."
"Easton," He assured her. "You can call me by my name. Alpha Supreme makes me feel old."
I peeked in the other door. The window had been pulled open and a fresh vast of flowers sat on the nightstand. The sheets smelled of fabric softener and the carpet was soft underfoot.
I bet the bed had cost more than my apartment, but I couldn't bring myself to take another step further. Everything was white. Pristine, perfect white. The walls had been freshly painted. The ceiling was white. The poster bed was covered with a crisp, white duvet. I glanced at the ensuite. White tiles.
With my breath pinching, I exited quickly.
"Do you have any painted rooms?" I didn't look at him, my attention fixed resolutely at the bay window and the expanse of sky beyond.
"I – just one." He glanced at the room, then back at me. "But it isn't as nice as this one."
"I'll take anything." When I closed my eyes, white flashed. White walls. White lightening. Lordie – it was burned into my brain.
He looked like he wanted to ask or say more, but the tension growing in the hall was obvious. "Follow me."
It was another hallway in this twisting house of carpeted floors and empty walls. There were no pictures on the wall. "That's the hall where Darren and Sunny stay. And Blav stays down that hallway there – tucked in the corner because his snoring would wake the dead."
"Earbuds work wonders." I shot back.
"That they do," He stopped in front of a darker corridor, his jaw tense. "There is just one bedroom down here and the bathroom is across the hall. If you like the room, I will have someone come and prepare it for you."
"Thank you," I approached the door. "I'm no good at dressing beds. I tend to shred the sheets."
I didn't miss his shaky breath, glancing back at him in confusion. He looked visibly pained – must love his damn sheets.
I popped open the door. The room wasn't half of the size of the last room – a cosy little thing where the floorboards were exposed, but the square window overlooked a corner of his massive garden. The walls had been painted a soft yellow, and one side was painted with a mural of flowers- reds, oranges and golds all twisted together. On another, one section had been painted with tall pines and then, a dragon of crimson and gold twisted along the yellow wall.
"It's a bit of a mess," He told me, watching as I drew a hand down the dark wood of the poster-bed. "Nothing matches, but I used it as a practice room for the other's bedrooms."
He had painted stars on the ceiling. Lazy stars that held no definition, but sat as blurred brushes, scattering wild and free.
"Who wanted the dragon?" I cleared my throat, drawing my attention away from the night sky.
He propped his shoulder against the door frame, smiling at the painting fondly. "Sunny. She's obsessed with them."
"And the trees?"
"For Blav. He didn't like the pines in the end, so I painted an oak tree on his wall. And snuck a few flowers on it."
I wanted to ask about the stars, but instead said, "You're very talented." What had I ever created that was this beautiful? I had only ever destroyed and brutalised.
His cheeks darkened. "Thank you. You can take this room if you like until I get the other one painted over."
"No – I like it here." I turned to face him fully, "Nothing matches and everything is just colour and light. That's right down my alley."
"Then it's yours." His tone was warm and I was reminded of mornings that I had spent wandering, lost but delighted to bask into the sun that freckled my cheeks. I stared at him for a beat too long, disconnected. Suspicious. This male didn't fit in with my idea of the Alpha Supreme, or even of my ideal of the male who had torn into my throat all those years ago.
It was like, we had switched positions somehow. I was brutality and vicious wildness and he was just a man who painted and drank too sweet coffee.
But, I didn't know him.
And he didn't know me.
We could have been bigger monsters than either of us realised.
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I was glad for my private corridor when my dreams brought me to a white-walled room with leather around my wrists and a bit shoved into my mouth.
Doc-Mai lingered in the corner as lightening consumed me and I screamed into the bit, back arching. I woke in a dark room, blinking rapidly. My night-clothes stuck to me but I was careful with my leg as I reached for the light-switch.
My breathing began to slow as I gazed at the bloom of flowers, examining the colours merging into another. The strokes of the brush. I didn't go back to sleep, but I stared at the wall as my mind calmed and waited until the dawn rose up over the horizon. I went downstairs in the silent house, dressed in a heavy cardigan dotted with cherries, my rainbow skirt and craving coffee.
I basked in the silence as I made my cup, picking at the fruit bowl ruthlessly. I took a coaster with me and wandered into the music room, drawn to it despite my attempts to be careful. Outside, a fine mist had settled in the garden and curling my fingers around my mug, I swayed on my feet and watched the stillness in contentment.
Then, I said good-morning to the sun and set my coffee mug down on the coaster, opening up the piano bench. There were notes there, neatly arranged.
My notes.
A lump hardened in my throat. I drew out an old page, scanning the hand-written notes. It had been my school project for the end of year performance. I had called it 'Summer'.
I slid the first page onto the stand and sat. Slowly and softly, I began to try out the piece. I had to take a minute to remember the notes, but the scales had been drilled into my brain's memory. No experiments had scrubbed that from my brain.
I played slow and sloppy. Once, I would have been aghast at my slow fingers and doddering tempo, but now I was just delighted to be able to even have this chance. I hummed as I played, tapping my feet and basking in the brightening sunlight.
When I heard footsteps on the stairs, I kept playing. That heavy tread slowed near the mouth of the corridor and lingered for a minute before setting off again towards the kitchen. Too heavy for Lux.
I played until my coffee went cold, but the heaviness of my nightmare had been shaken. Heaven. He may be a monster. He may not be – but he had built a slice of heaven.
The front door opened when I eventually left the music room, following the smell of cooking rashers.
"E?" A low male voice called out. "You makin' that food for me?"
"No." A deep snarl swelled from the kitchen. "It's not for you, you bottomless pit. I know you already went to the Trough for breakfast."
"Stalkin' me now?" The strange male replied. I heard him move into the kitchen, so I stepped out into the front hall. I was wary now, hovering in silence as I waited for more.
"I told you to stay away for a few days," The Alpha's voice lowered. "To give her time to settle in!"
"She's here?" The male replied. "I thought she was in the hospital?"
"I wouldn't be here if she was."
They didn't hear my approach, as soft and cautious as it was. I surveyed the two males in the kitchen, standing with their backs to me. Three plates had been set out and there were rashers on a frying pan with sausage and egg.
The second male was tall and broad, nearly as much as the Alpha. As he reached for the growing plate of bacon, Easton slapped his hand severely. "Stop."
"Yes, Alpha." The stranger said sarcastically.
"Don't use that tone with me," There was no venom in the Alpha's voice, just a building sigh.
My stomach snarled and the Alpha's head whipped towards me. His brutal face warmed. "Good-morning Nova."
The stranger turned towards me.
I knew him.
He had been in the Tube. The soldier who had held a gun to my face and asked me my name. The one who had helped free me.
"You!" He breathed. "Nameless girl."
The Alpha looked between us with a frown. "You two know each other?"
"Darren and Sunny mentioned her, remember?" The Lycan regarded me with dark eyes, his smile easy. "So you're Nova Linden. I've figured out the mystery of the nameless girl and finally saw Easton's mate all in the one day."
He held out a hand to me. A scarred hand. "My name is Blav Cheril."
I shook it. "I'm Nova Linden."
"An honour," His grip was gentle – as if my bones were made of glass and flower-stalks. "I never thought I would get to meet the girl who inspired a revolution."
"I didn't inspire anything," Uncomfortable, I drew my hand back and settled myself across the marble island. "I was ... away."
He fell silent for a moment, before switching his attention to the Alpha. "So Easton, are you going to be decent and actually let me eat something?"
He looked uncertain, hedging a glance towards me. And that glance lingered for a beat too long like it always did. "Is that alright with you, Nova?"
"Yes? This is his home." I wondered if I had it in me to fight two grown Lycans. I kept the doorway and the both of them in my sights.
Blav slid forward, plucking up the mug I had set down. "Wonderful! I always do appreciate a second breakfast."
"You're going to get fat." Easton snapped back.
"Are you projecting your insecurities on me?" Blav slid a fresh cup of coffee over to me, ignoring the Alpha's lifting snarl. "Nova, I hope you're okay with someone who eat the food from your plate if you looked away from it. I mean, he can rip a tree trunk with his bare hands but ... he has a serious sweet tooth if left unchecked."
"If you take my food, I will stab a fork through your hand." I told him frankly. "I wouldn't even dare."
"Noted," The Alpha slid a plate heaped with sausage, rasher and pudding. Toast popped. Once Blav was handed his plate, he dove into with a vicious hunger that belonged in Mad-Maze. Slightly alarmed, I watched the massive Lycan tear into it.
He would have survived the Maze. He might have even given me a challenge in there. Easton fixed himself a plate, murmuring that he had some set aside, ready to go for when Lux woke. The three of us sat there in silence. Blav was seemingly ignorant to the heavy silence.
I wished I was.
I eyed him as I ate. The un-brushed bed-head. The low collar of his pyjamas top, highlighting another score of brutal scars.
"You're looking at my scars," The Alpha stopped eating, closing a hand over his collarbone. That warm tone had grown stiff.
"I am."
"They're ugly, but necessary." He took another bite. "I barely notice them anymore."
Blav's attention shifted from his food, flickering between the both of us.
"How did you get them?" I asked.
Blav eyed his Alpha, lips pressing tight. Easton set down his fork, trying to smile but it was nothing more than a pained grimace. "I had to fix some broken things. The scars are the price I paid."
"Those broken things looked like they tried to kill you." I was aware of the tension - thick like we were swimming in syrup. I didn't care. Lycans were hard to scent beyond their nature, but even without my nose, it was easy to tell that the Lycan was ashamed.
Ashamed of the scars that marked him as a survivor. A fighter.
"You would have survived the Maze," I told him before I dug in. The Alpha watched me for a long moment, a knot between his brows before he began to eat too. Blav demolished his plate, rising to nab food from the Alpha's stock.
I was the first to hear Lux descending the stairs. She flounced into the kitchen with Muffin in her arms, yawning loudly. "Mornin'."
She let down the cat, flouncing into the room with a smile that could shatter any tension. I grinned at her, pulling out a stool beside me.
"You hungry?" The Alpha eyed me for a moment, before turning a warm smile at her.
"Hungry enough to drop dead!" Lux huffed. "Feel like there's a hole ripping through my stomach right now. "
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" He rose swiftly. "I'll get a plate for you."
Blav regarded Lux across the table. From her unbrushed hair, her puffy eyes and easy smile. She turned her attention to him, cheeks darkening. "You're staring at me."
"You're fascinating." Blav grinned at her. "I hear you ordered the Alpha Supreme himself around. It takes a courageous soul to dare order any Lycan around, never mind the big baddie himself."
"I hate it when you call me that," the Alpha grumbled.
"Isn't that what an Alpha is?" I asked him pointedly. "A big 'baddie'. You'd have to be to climb the rankings. To dismantle a monarchy."
The Alpha slid a plate of food across to Lux. He smiled at her thank-you and glimpsed briefly at me. He cleared his throat, glancing down to pick at a sugar packet.
Blav spluttered out a choked laugh.
"Some believe that." He tore the packet. "But this is a heavy conversation for the breakfast table. I prefer to leave that until after I've digested my breakfast."
He peeked up at me then again, a smile rising soft and welcoming. He stared at me long enough that I set down my mug of coffee – but I felt no threat in it. That unsettled me.
"Why don't we go and see the town today. You might as well see your new home."
My first instinct was to deny – to demand that I go alone or with Lux, but I didn't. His eyes, warm and honest, reminded of the days I set under the free skies. Such heavy contentment after years of being restless and violent - of Doc Mai's perfection and torment.
I had forgotten the faces of my loved ones. I had forgotten my own face, but I had never forgotten him. Not the eyes. That the heavy brow or that shy smile he had given me before he tore out my throat. I had hated the way he was seared in my brain, but I wondered now, if in some sick way, that memory had kept me sane; that it had made me remember that I had been someone before the Omega.
"Let me get ready," My voice was hoarse. "Lux will you come?"
"Of course."
I left the kitchen with the weight of his gaze on my back. I would dress in my bright colours and mis-matched clothes. Maybe I should have felt bad about accepting his offer, but I had killed and maimed and brutalized for years. If I felt bad for the little things, then my actions would have torn me apart a long time ago.
I stopped by a window, cracking it open to let the crisp air in. I stared up at the sky to where the sun hung, high and bright. A secret smile rose. "Good morning."
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Welcome back to Nova's world.
What are your thoughts, theories and conspiracies about this chapter?
Nova has a chance to see the Lycan's life - what do you think she'll think of it?
Until next time - Saoimarie.