Ice cream

I knew I was shaking. Was he going to be mad because of that, too? Aaron was near me but, at that moment, I could only see the flaming green eyes staring back into my lilac ones. I couldn’t read him, I didn’t know what he was thinking.

He was frowning. Deeper and deeper. Oh, no! That 's it. The good news was that my miserable life would come to an end. I could only hope he would do it quickly.

He took one step closer, and one more… Until he was very close to us. Alpha Erik looked down, then back at me.

“You may go to the kitchen, now.” He said. The words were not making sense in my head. Was he just dismissing me? Like… I may just go?

I felt a tug in my arm, but didn’t move. Suddenly, Alpha Erik just turned his head to the side and walked to the table, sitting at the head of it.

“Rae!” Aaron shook me a little and I finally got to look at him. He had a worried face. “Go to the kitchen. Now.” He said. His words actually were telling me ‘go while you can’, or ‘go before he changes his mind’. Yeah, he was right.

I nodded at him and was about to bend to get the thing from the floor, but a strong voice stopped me.

“Kitchen!” he hissed, out loud.

“Go!” Aaron said low , only for me to hear and I did obey this time.

Once I entered the kitchen, Cassandra was already there for me. She opened her arms to me and got me to my room. While we were going to there, I saw Patricia smirking, maliciously, at me. I just looked down.

“My dear, what happened?” Cassandra asked. “Aaron told me there was an accident and I should take care of you.”

She looked at me and I knew she was trying to see if I was hurt, in any way. I just shook my head, negatively. I didn’t want to talk about it. I was still recovering from the death feeling I just went through.

“Ok, ok.” She hugged me and was patting my head. “No need to cry. Everything is fine. Everything will be just fine.”

We stayed like that for a while and she gave me the day off. I went to bed , but didn’t sleep. I just cried until I was feeling better.

With my free time, I decided to practice my reading lectures. I was very excited to learn how to understand those letters.

“You mess things up and instead of a beating, you get the day to relax.” Patricia was on my doorway, looking down at me with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Damn unfair!”

I looked at my book and my eyes fell on my hands, that were holding the pages too tightly. Was Patricia going to punish me because Alpha Erik didn’t?

“Leave!” I heard a familiar voice shout and Patricia bowed and left, fast. Aaron’s face appeared and I couldn't help but smile. “Hey!”

I waved at him. He pointed to the bed and I nodded. He sat beside me. It was the first time he entered my room, but I didn’t feel threatened by him at all. Now, he was more like Cassandra to me. Someone I was comfortable with.

“Ah, Rae, I know that what happened before was not your fault. Alpha Erik does know that too. It was mine.” He said. “I’m sorry for the trouble I caused you.”

I shook my head. It was fine. The moment was terrorizing, but in the end, I was fine.

“No, no! Well, I am here to compensate you.” He said and smiled at me. A very open smile. “Would you like to have ice cream?”

I frowned. Ice cream? I never had that before, although I heard about it. I even saw it. But never got to try it. But it seemed delicious, so, I nodded, excited.

“Great! then, change your clothes and let’s go get that ice cream!” He said and got up.

I frowned. Why would I need to change my clothes? I heard Cassandra said that had ice cream in the freezer, because Alpha Erik liked to eat that with brownies. So… we just had to go to the kitchen, right?

“Hmm. Well, if you want to go to town like this, no problem.” he said and started to walk to the door. I, out of instinct, grabbed his wrist and pulled him a little, to make him stop. “What is it?” He asked and looked at his wrist.

I immediately let go of him and looked down. He was gentle to me, but to touch him like this? I closed my eyes, ready to be striked.

“Rae, I won’t beat you. Try to keep that in mind. I’ll never do that to you, all right?” He said, and I heard he was hurt by my actions. I looked at him, hoping he would understand I was apologizing.

I ran to my wardrobe - yes, I did have one! Even if it had two pairs of clothes inside - and opened it, taking my other dress from there. Aaron smiled and nodded.

“I’ll wait for you outside.” He said and left, closing the door behind him .

I was so excited! I was going to leave the packhouse! Like, town! But… what if…? No! Stop with this, Rae! Aaron will be with you. He is the Beta. No one will dare to touch you, to harm you and he won’t let anything bad happen.

I nodded to myself, decided, and went to the shower. Ten minutes later, I was ready. My hair didn’t need to be washed that time, because I washed it by early morning. I took a deep breath and left my room.

“Look at this beauty!” Aaron said and I looked around. There was no one there, except for him and me. I looked at him, questioning. He rolled his eyes and gave one step closer. “You are the beauty, Rae.” He said and turned around. I followed him, of course.

‘Beauty’. I never knew that Aaron had bad eyesight. Didn’t Betas have great eyesight? Maybe he was just too tired and couldn’t think straight. Yeah… probably that. I was just a little she-wolf, skinny as hell, with weird eyes and dull hair. Maybe he was just being polite…

We went to the kitchen door and I looked at him, stop walking. When he noticed I was not following, he came back.

“Come on!” He said and I shook my head no. “Rae, it is okay. You can come.” He offered his hand to me and I took it.

I was unsure. What if I couldn’t? I was doing it again. I frowned at myself. I had to trust Aaron. If he said it was fine, then, it was fine!

I gave him my hand and we were almost at the entrance door, when the scentl hit my nostrils. I inhaled. It was like heaven. At least for the first moments, until my reason finally kicked in and I understood that the scent had an owner and that owner was not someone I should be glad to have around. He was…

“Erik.” Aaron said, looking back and turning around.

“Where are you going?” Alpha Erik asked and looked from me to Aaron and, then, to our hands. I tried to retrieve mine, but Aaron held it tighter.

“Ice cream.” he said, as if it was no big deal. Alpha Erik frowned. “You could make use of it, too. Wanna come?” Aaron asked.

I looked at the Beta. What was he doing?