Caspian was overwhelmed by her rapid-fire questions but he answered regardless.
He didn’t particularly like apple pies, he preferred cream pie, and he did prefer desserts with frosting.
Lucy left this time without waiting to see him start to eat, a satisfied look on her face.
He didn’t expect her to return a couple hours later with a handheld tray of muffins covered in buttercream frosting.
She brought a jug of sweet iced tea as well, dropping it on the table. "Something to snack on while you play games."
So she said but if she kept feeding him at this rate, he would soon be as big as a house.
He just had lunch too but it was hard to not munch on the delicious muffins.
The iced tea reminded him of his mother, and although it should be sweet, it tasted of salty tears.
Caspian had to request for someone to take the tray away, unable to take another bite without breaking down.
His mom would make iced tea too, on a warm summer day just ...
A lump grew in his throat at the memories, making him lose interest in the video game he was playing.
He felt silly after a few minutes - he was curled up in bed, his lashes wet.
Those muffins had been really good, and he had sent them back because he was having a moment.
He laughed softly to himself, getting out of bed again. Next time, he would cry first and then eat dessert after.
Caspian ate dinner alone again, and to his surprise, Lucy hadn’t been the one to bring it.
She however came to retrieve the tray and for the first time, she wore an almost sad expression.
She quietly cleaned up and started pushing the tray out, hesitating at the door.
"Did you not like the muffins?"
Now Caspian felt bad, Lucy was always so confident, he didn’t like her sounding so unsure.
"I did." He answered honestly. "They were hard to eat because they reminded me of my mom."
Lucy went quiet for a few heartbeats, "Then I can make you something else-"
"No, No... I’ll eat them next time."
She quietly went out at that, and only then did the weight of her words sink in.
She had been the one to make the muffins and tea for him.
Caspian felt a little undeserving, she barely knew him.
But mostly he was grateful, he hadn’t been given a lot of kindness since his parents left him.
Caspian didn’t bother waiting up for Asher, if he wasn’t here for dinner, it meant that it was going to be another late night.
He walked over to the windows, pushing open the curtains to look at the sea of blinking lights that was Haines city.
For some reason, it was harder to fall asleep after deciding not to wait up for Asher, even after getting comfortable in bed.
Falling asleep was a blur, his lips tilting down in a frown when he was woken up the next morning.
He looked up at Asher’s face for several long seconds, blinking in confusion.
"Don’t ask me to wake you up and then be upset when I do," Asher said through laughter.
Caspian’s expression soured further, trying to make sense of what the Alpha was saying.
His brain didn’t kick into gear until Asher had kissed him goodbye and was already out the door, sitting upright in a hurry.
So it hadn’t been a dream.
Now that he understood, it was funny, his smile a ghost of Asher’s laughter.
Was this how things would continue?
He would spend his entire day in Asher’s bedroom, and only catch glimpses of Asher in the mornings before he left.
Why did he think a relationship of any sort would work with a Mafia King? They simply led far too different lives.
He went right back to sleep although he was no longer sleepy. It was better to do that than begin to spiral first thing in the morning.
Lucy was there to wake him up mid-morning, her tone less stern as she urged him out of bed to eat breakfast.
Caspian wished he could tell her what was bothering him. There was no one to talk to, and he could hardly ring up Jael for petty gossip.
He had no one but himself for company, and he might have done something drastic already if it weren’t for the games doing such a good job of distracting him from his thoughts.
Jael felt like a nine-to-five worker with the way he constantly checked his mail.
The High Council going dead silent was far more disconcerting than a follow-up email would have been.
He still hadn’t gotten another email although he had checked for the umpteenth time already that day, and it was barely noon.
He had been too strung out thinking of all the possible ways things could go wrong to pay attention to the fact that Asher had stayed till late for two days in a row.
Maybe the High Council had sent them an empty threat.
It was highly unlikely that they would do that but it would also be believable because how they had found out about Caspian was still a mystery.
As far as the public knew, Mafia King Asher had bought a female Omega at the auction...
His repetitive thoughts were interrupted by a call, one which he picked up in a heartbeat.
"Jael? There’s someone strange pulling into the parking lot."
Jael straightened up at the information, "Mafia King Nikolai?"
"I... I don’t think so..."
That was enough to send him to his feet, he hot-footed his way to the entrance of the club.
There was no way the High Council would come in person, right?
Jael walked right through the center of the club that doubled as a bar in the daytime, ignoring the curious looks of the patrons.
The suited men stepping out of the unmarked car was enough of an explanation for why the information he had been given was so vague.
It was hard to tell exactly who they were.