The Checklist Part 1

The Checklist
Rhys’s P.O.V:
The battle had finally ended, with the minimum amount of fatalities that I never thought was possible and tonight Mikalya’s and my pack would be celebrating our victory.
A huge feast has been arranged in honour of the wolves that had fought so hard and led us to victory and everyone was super pumped about the event. Belle was preparing a huge meal for the feast and most of submissives along with a few dominants had readily volunteered for helping her out in the kitchen. I had been surprised to find out that even Zyane had readily volunteered for decorating duty and I think I briefly saw Jakia, one of my female soldiers, carrying a stack of potatoes on her back and walking towards the kitchen.
Although I wouldn’t be that surprised about Zyane’s decision considering the fact that Aya was in charge of the decoration duty, but I was pleasantly surprised to find some of my male warriors lending a hand in the festivities. In fact, I had surprised myself by volunteering to help out with some of the works. I even had a checklist in my hand on which I had scribbled out all the possible things I could help out with.
“Hey! Alpha!”
I turned to face Ruksaar who was carrying an armful of bags in each hand. “Hey!” I waved at her awkwardly as she came in my direction with the bags all flapping around her.
“Are you helping out with anything during the feast tonight?” She said as flipped her long black hair back over her shoulders with a quick flip of her head and adjusted the bags in her hand. “Or do you plan to just sit back and enjoy?”
“No, actually, I have a few things that I can do to help, but I don’t know which one to choose.” I told her as I showed her my checklist. “I was thinking photography would be a good idea. I mean, you guys will all be busy having fun, so I can volunteer to take pictures. I think I’m a decent cameraman.”
“Ah! Photography!” Ruksaar said excitedly. “I’d love to see that! Did you know Abhay was a great photographer? I mean, he was a professional, but he was just superb! He took some gorgeous photos of Mink and me back in the days.”
Ruksaar sighed and shook her head ruefully. “Those sure were some awesome days. But anyways, good luck with taking pictures. I think we even have some of Abhay’s old camera’s lying around somewhere, Mink’s really fond of them, but you can always get a new higher resolution camera from Kushal. I think she has taken after her father in collecting cameras, but she doesn’t have his talent.” And then she leaned closer to me to whisper, “don’t let her know I said that, okay?”
“No problem,” I forced a smile onto my face as I waved Ruksaar goodbye.
“Alright then,” she turned and headed back into the pack house. “Catch you later!”
As soon as she was out of sight, I took out my pen and scribbled ‘Photography’ out of my checklist and wrote down a new point at the bottom of the list:
Do not do anything that reminds people of Abhay.
I checked the next thing on my checklist.
Grab breakfast and check on the injured warriors.
And with that, I headed to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat and to complete my next task. Since everyone was busy preparing for the feast, most people have gone to the nearest town to gather ingredients and accessories, which mean that most people will be having breakfast outside. But for those of us who will be staying here to help, we’ll probably have to make our own or endure the wrath of Belle the head chef. Shrugging, I headed off to the kitchen.

****

“Rhys! Come join us,” Kushal called out as soon as I entered the kitchen. “We’re deciding the menu for tonight’s feast. Do you want anything special for your pack? We can add that to the menu.”
I walked over to the kitchen counter where all the wolf chef’s were sitting on high stools, all huddled around in a circle with a few recipe books and a notebook while Belle scribbled something on a different notebook.
“Thanks, but I was just here to grab a bite.” I told them, not wanting to get involved in menu planning. The last thing I needed was for my pack to get stupid ideas about me in the kitchen.
“There’s some poha in the pot back at the stove,” Belle said, naming a popular breakfast dish. “Go grab yourself a plate and then come grab a chair.”
Surprisingly, Belle seemed to be in a good mood. But maybe I shouldn’t be surprised after all. She was a marvellous chef and as far as I know, chefs always love it when they can feed a bunch of people. At least that’s what Tamila, the head chef of my pack house back in Jever had always told me. She would get really excited too whenever there was a party or a national holiday celebration and she would always cook up a storm.
Obeying Belle’s orders, I went over to the stove and took the lid off of the pot containing the poha. Instantly, a delicious wave of buttery, spicy scent hit my nose and my stomach grumbled in protest. I scooped out a heaping laded of the savoury goodness onto my plate and then topped it with another laded. What can I say? I was damn hungry.
Belle even had some chopped herbs next to the pot, ready to be sprinkled on top as a garnish and I took a handful of the herbs and sprinkled it generously on top of my plate. Grabbing a spoon, I took my plate with me to the table and pulling a chair closer, took a seat within the circle that had formed around Belle.
“So, any preferences?” Belle asked with her eyebrows raised and her pencil hovering over her notepad.
“No, it’s alright, really.” I told her. “You guys are already preparing such a lovely feast, I’m sure I’ll love every single dish that you make tonight. Besides, I don’t want to intrude on your menu planning.”
“Oh, that’s nonsense!” She waved her pencil in the air in a motion of dismissal. “There’s no question of intruding when I’m readily asking you for a dish idea, is it? Now tell me, what’s your favourite dish? I’ll make sure to include it on the menu. And stop being coy.”
“Oh! Okay then. I guess I really like Chicken Kabsa,” I told Belle. “It’s this chicken and rice dish from Saudi Arabia that is cooked in one pot. I think it has vegetables sometimes but it can be cooked without vegetables as well.”
“Can you give me some specifics?” Belle asked. “There are a lot of chicken and rice dishes out there and most of them can be cooked in that particular way.”
“Wait, let me check on the internet!” One of the boys sitting around the table exclaimed while taking his phone out of his pocket.
We all gathered around his phone to browse through the recipes and came up with a suitable one that Belle would be able to make without any hustle.
“Oh! I get it!” Kushal exclaimed from beside me. “It’s almost like a Biryani! I’ve read the recipe online already and they are pretty similar. I think we can make Biryani instead, right grandma?”
“Ah! Biryani!” Belle scribbled it down on her notebook. “I was thinking we needed to add another rice dish. It used to be Abhay’s favourite dish, Mink’s too if I remember correctly, but the poor boy couldn’t quite deal with the heat. I had to always tone down the spices for the poor boy.”
“What about Mikalya?” I asked through a forced smile. “Does she like spicy food?”
“Oh, yes!” Belle nodded her head, making some strands of hair come loose from her bun. “Mink loves spicy food. I think the girl can eat whole ghost peppers without blinking. Once I made this really spicy gravy one cold winter night, to warm up everyone who’d be going on patrol duty. I remember that everyone in the pack started sweating almost instantly and whining like babies. But then Mink comes in, eats her whole dish in silence, without even breaking a sweat and then walks off like it was nothing. I think Abhay would have cried if he’d had it.”
“Really?” Kushal looked at his grandmother in wonder. “I didn’t know that!”
“Of course, you wouldn’t!” Belle patted her grandson’s hair affectionately. “You were just a babe back then.”
The chair made a shrill scraping noise against the polished wooden floor as I got up hastily. “Thanks for the food, Belle, but I really should be getting back now. I’ll need to go check up on the injured members of my pack once. So, I guess I’ll see you at the celebration.”
“Sure, sure.” Belle waved at me before turning to her grandson. “Biryani it is then!”
Gritting my teeth, I placed my bowl inside the sink and went out of the kitchen and towards the infirmary. What the fuck is happening today? No matter what I try to do, people are always trying to compare me with Abhay! I mean, I get it that he was Mikalya’s first mate and he had been a great guy, but that does not mean I like being compared to him every step of the way.
Normally, I would’ve preferred just staying with Mikalya and having a conversation with her but since she had declared the celebration tonight, she has been swarmed with people who want to get her advice on anything and everything they could possible think about. Even now as I passed by her room to get a peak at her, I could hear voices from behind the closed door and one of those voices had belonged to Ruksaar. God knows what they were discussing and I didn’t have any particular interest in learning about their gossip topics, other than the fact that Ruksaar knew I’d volunteered to take pictures.
It was fine as long as everyone else was comparing me with Abhay but if Mikalya started to do the same, I swear I’m going to lose it! This gets me so frustrated, this comparison. I’m not comparing Mikalya to any of my ex-girlfriends, am I?
I sighed when I realized the stupidity of what I’d just said. Mikalya wasn't just a girlfriend, she was my mate. The past relationships that I had with my girlfriends doesn’t even compare to the mating bond that I have with Mikalya and none of those women can even hold a candle to Mikalya’s strength and beauty.
Why was I so bothered with being compared with Abhay? I knew what I was getting into when Mikalya had told me that she had had a mate before who was also the father of her child. Aya and I have come to a short understanding that we were bound to each other by one person that we both cared about. But for some reason, I haven’t come to terms with dealing with Abhay’s memories yet.