Wolf’s Bane

“We do love omelettes! Even Katya likes them and she’s really picky! What do you add to them?” Erica gushed while smiling widely and slightly maliciously. “Let me help you find your ingredients. Just tell me what you wanna put in them.”

“Oh wow! Well, I appreciate it. The way I learned them was with some Italian sauce and cold-cut meats, but I think I would like to try colored bell peppers, mushrooms, and melting cheese. I will also use some strips of bacon if you can spare some from Diwana’s cooking.”

Eron looked towards his landlady, who was still moving around, acting busier than she should have.

She took the pastries that she was baking out of the oven and put the tray at the far end of her preparation table for them to cool down. The busty widow then tossed her almost ready chicken and beef, while throwing in her freshly cut peppers, onion and some more mushrooms to that mix, doing it all with her face still unrelentingly blushing.

The Charmer focused his eyes on her, right when she tried to take the very hot pot with the boiling water inside it to strain the pasta. Meanwhile, Erica went to the fridge to look for the well-built lumberyard worker’s ingredients for his planned special breakfast.

Diwana could feel his eyes on her back, burning, distracting, igniting more memories of the previous night. And at the worst time, too!

She suddenly slipped. And, instead of letting go of the pot, she held it tighter.

This is gonna hurt, Di thought within the split second that she realized she was falling. The wavy-haired cook closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the burning sensation of the hot water on her skin.

But it never came…

Instead, she felt a breeze, and then two strong and slightly hairy arms surrounding her slender waist and slim shoulders at the same time. Meanwhile, two teenage feminine palms guided both the young widow’s hands to place the pot safely back on the stove.

Erica emptied her arms full of ingredients near the cutting board on the kitchen table, then swiftly walked towards her mom. The slightly chubby teen relieved the almost-hurt lady of the heated steel pot filled with boiling water.

“Mama… are you okay?” she asked, helping Diwana to let go of the handles so she could place the metallic cooking container back on one of the burners.

The eldest daughter quickly checked her surrogate mother’s body to make sure that nothing untoward had happened to her. But Erica soon noticed that Eron wasn’t letting go of her surrogate mom. Similarly, Diwana, as soon as her hands were free, grabbed his massive arm and she wasn’t letting go of the broad-chested male either.

And as expected, Erica’s malicious smile appeared instantly, once again…

“Mama, your meat for the pasta will burn. And Eron, I got your vegetables and other stuff by the chopping block over there. I’ll uh… will just go take a quick shower and then come back to help you with breakfast, OK?”

Diwana and Eron looked at the oldest of the kids, who turned around with a naughty smile on her face and then left.

Erica left us. Alone. TOGETHER! Both of them thought in unison and in near panic.

As if on cue, Diwa let go of Eron and tried to take the burning hot pot again.

“Wait, please let me do it,” the auburn-haired lumberjack said in a soft voice, unwrapping his arm from her body and walking around to take the infamous pot of still-scalding water.

“Uh… Thank…you…” Diwana finally replied as she gazed into his hazel eyes, making him finally smile.

The Charmer then expertly rinsed and strained the pasta, while the female cook went back to her preparations, then turning all the fires of the stove off. And this time, Diwa carefully moved the finished cooked dish to the other side where the containers were ready and waiting.

“I’m… sorry about last night…” Eron sweetly told her. “It was a terrible nightmare. To be honest, I don’t remember them being so frequent, but… it was bad. I guess you noticed.”

“Oh, but no… you don’t have to apologize for that. I was the one who entered your room without your permission,” Diwana replied, still not daring to look back at him.

“You went to help me, thinking something dreadful was happening to me… Actually, it was kinda awful… And I’m very thankful for what you did,” the former assassin softly but sadly confessed, as he walked closer and placed the cooked and cooled pasta near her.

I wish I knew if what we did that night was real too, Di…

“Pardon me?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing, I actually didn’t talk…” he blurted out, but immediately blushed, remembering what he was thinking…

“I could have sworn that I heard you… Oh, thank you!” She took the cooking utensil from his hands and separated it into a few portions that were then covered with the meat and vegetable along with the cooled creamy and buttery sauce.

Wondering if Diwana could really hear him, he smiled and tried something else.

I didn’t want our first time to be like that… It was unexpected. I’m sorry, he thought, this time with the intention of her hearing him.

Halfway through what he was thinking, she looked back at him. Eron was just smiling while walking towards the vegetables that Erica had left for him.

“I must be going crazy,” she whispered to herself, but he heard her with his augmented wolf senses.

This is interesting. I’ll have to be careful and block her the same way I used to block Virgil when I didn’t want him to hear me. Had I known that in helping V I’d get myself ready for my own mate, I would have given myself more chances of practising and other opportunities for getting ready for her… he thought, but now in the way he learned when he was just eight years old. Also, I have to stop saying things like that to her and in that way. Be a MAN, Eron! If you want to tell her, do it to her face!

That self-criticizing voice in his mind had been louder lately, especially since he got near Diwana. Before, not even when he killed people had he scolded himself as much, but now…

Meanwhile, Diwana fought with her own demons…ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

They were being called forward by the one who was preparing his ingredients barely a few steps from in front of her.