Lorena dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank top and sat on her bed, scowling. She strongly disliked Max. All that she had seen so far of this place, being the room, was beautiful. Orion was scarce, and that bothered her. Strangely enough, she wanted to be close to him.
It didn't feel right that she was separated from her mate. If she had to be forced to be here, she felt that she had the right to be near the one person she felt semi-comfortable around.
And the room was boring. There was no TV, she had nothing to do with her hands, and the room felt a little too unlived in. She remembered that at her old house, her family would get together and play games when the television went out, or she would clean or knit or something.
Even if her family had nothing to do, she could at least go for a walk or just head outside and train with the other wolves.
Then her thoughts wandered to Vera. She could only hope she was okay. Was she lucky enough to get a mate like Orion?
She then realized, she was lucky. Orion hadn't raped her, he hadn't touched her inappropriately. He hadn't even mentioned their mating process to her yet. And he cared about her well-being. He hadn't hit her like other male wolves did to their mates to teach her a lesson about being as insufferable as she was, and honestly, that's more than she expected from him.
She jumped when the door opened again and she saw Max. "You ready for your tour?"
Lorena was very close to declining and telling Max to buzz off, but she was terribly bored in this room by herself. Besides, once she knew her surroundings, she could sneak around and possibly even find a way to run away. "I guess." She stood and slipped on some fuzzy slippers left at the foot of the bed.
She followed Max out of the room and she gasped when she saw the hallway. Everything looked so...expensive. There was gold everywhere and everything was shiny.
"Wow."
"Amazing, huh?"
"Orion must come from a very wealthy family."
"You have no idea." Max stopped walking abruptly, and if Lorena hadn't stopped drooling over the gold lining almost every part of the hall, she would've run smack dab into her back. "This is the kitchen. You can come in here at any time and request that a meal be prepared at the push of a button. When you take your place as Luna of our pack, you will be responsible for making sure Orion has at least three meals a day. He forgets to feed himself sometimes..."
Lorena bit her lip to hold back her laugh and when Max looked at her incredulously, laughed so hard, tears came to her eyes. She held her stomach and bent over and she would've fallen if Max hadn't grabbed her arm.
Finally she regained her composure and sighed deeply. "Forgive me, but I won't take it upon myself to feed a grown man three meals a day like a toddler. Alpha or not, that's his responsibility, not mine. I don't cook anyways!"
"Tradition says-"
"Says what? That an alpha nuts in me once and I'm an indebted servant to him my whole life? I have to rear his pups, clean, and make sure baby Owion get three square meals a day? What kind of shit-show are you running here?"
"Lorena."
Lorena froze at Orion's stern voice and turned around to see him with a less than pleased look on his face. She looked down at her fuzzy slipper clad feet, and suddenly they were the most captivating thing in the world at that moment.
Max gasped behind her and bowed quickly. "Your Highness."
Orion waved her off. "Thank you, Max. I'll take it from here."
Lorena was shocked. "Your Highness?"
Max left the room and Orion glared at his annoying mate, walking past her to pull out a stool for her to sit on. He patted the seat of the chair rather forcefully. "Sit down."
"I-"
"Now." Lorena shivered. He wasn't messing around. She quickly walked over to her chair and sat down. Orion pushed her chair in quickly and she swore she felt as if she would fall out of it.
She watched the alpha stalk towards the fridge angrily and start pulling out ingredients. She felt kind of awkward just staring at his back, but after a few minutes, she was captivated by him. He moved so fluidly and it was obvious he knew his way around the kitchen.
After about thirty minutes, she had a steaming hot plate of bacon, eggs, hash browns, and a pancake sitting in front of her. She eyed Orion carefully as he grabbed his own plate and sat down next to her, pouring syrup over his food and then digging in.
Lorena stared at her plate for a while and then watched Orion finish his food.
He wiped his mouth with a napkin and then scoffed. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to stare? It's rude."
Lorena felt irritation boil up within her as he used her own words back on her. She ignored him and went back to staring at her plate.
"Oh, just so you know, you aren't leaving this kitchen until you've eaten at least half the food on that plate."
"And what if I'm not hungry?"
"Then, like I said, I guess we aren't leaving. And you can sit here all day for all I care. I'll have Max watch you and I'll get back to work. It's up to you."
Lorena knew her wolf was pissed. She never really was good with taking orders.
"What is it with you and trying to control every little thing that I do? What do you gain?"
She studied her alpha's face as he furrowed his almost too bushy brows and stood up. "I gain your obedience. You struggle with it, so I'm going to grind down your will until obeying your alpha becomes second nature to you. Now. Eat."
Lorena stared him dead in the eyes and slowly took a bite from her fork. Once she had finished half of her plate, Orion spoke again.
"Let me explain something to you, Lorena. You're being a childish brat just because you think I'm not around and that I'm not going to deal with you. If you want to keep throwing temper tantrums and refusing to do simple things that you need to do like eating, I will treat you like the child you're pretending to be, and I completely mean that. I tried to be nice, but I've yet to see that kindness reciprocated. So you're going to try your best to get it together or so help me I will deal with you the way I should've when you first showed me disrespect do you fucking understand me?"
Lorena, almost close to tears from the berating she just received from her alpha, decided to play dumb one last time. "What do you mean by dealing with me?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Would you like me to give you a demonstration?"
In truth, she knew exactly what he was speaking of, and it wasn't uncommon between female wolves and their mates. In her pack she'd only ever heard rumors about it happening, but clearly it was just a wolf thing, she guessed...
"Let me elaborate. Do you want me to spank you like a child, Lorena?"
She cringed. She hated hearing the actual word out loud, but it also did something to her. And not that she would ever let him do that to her, not really.
"No," she grumbled.
"Then clean your fucking act up, because I don't like the thought of hurting you either, but your behavior and attitude is getting out of hand. You can either grow into the Luna I need and the Luna you are capable of being on your own, or I'll help you along as needed, and trust me, neither of us want that."
He stood up and placed his plate in the sink. He cleared his throat. "Now, I'm going to head back into my study. Max will come by to get you in a minute. If she tells me that you're becoming too much to handle, I will take the remainder of the day off and I promise you're going to regret it."
She watched in tears as her mate left the room. When she was sure he was long gone, she held her head in her hands and started sobbing. She hated it here. She wanted her dad. She wanted to sleep in her own bed and she wanted to just go home.
She felt bad for the way she was treating everyone around her, but she couldn't stop she was just so angry and...sad.
She was so sad her chest ached when she thought of home. But maybe that's why her own mother despised her. Maybe she was too much to handle and it took a toll on her. She could understand that.
"I'm sorry," she whispered through her heavy sobs. "I'm sorry."