Page 21 of Married to the Beast

Aleena felt herself blushing. She’d slipped up and almost called him “my Lord Husband” again but had changed to his name at the last minute. But itdidsound rather nice, she thought.

“I would love to make dinner for you, my Bear,” she said softly. “If that would please you?”

“If it would please you, it would please me,” he said firmly. “Have some fun in the fancy food prep area and I’ll be up here studying. Unless you want me to come help do the chopping or act as yoursouschef?” he added, lifting his brows.

“Do the chopping? A male helping in the kitchen?” Aleena shook her head, trying not to laugh at the ridiculous idea. Everyone knew that males couldn’t cook!

“Sure,” he said mildly. “I don’t mind. I used to…” But he trailed off, a frown on his face.

Aleena wondered if he was going to admit that he used to cook the same way she had admitted to writing stories in a journal, but he didn’t say anything else.

“I can manage. You just study and do your manly work,” she told him. “I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”

“All right, thank you,” he said nodding. “And I’m sure whatever you make will be delicious.”

“It will be perfect!” Aleena promised him.

She just hoped she could make something good to eat out of all the fancy ingredients in the refrigeration unit—most of which she’d never used before.

11

ALEENA

The first thing she had to do before cooking was to change her clothing, Aleena told herself. As much as she’d enjoyed wearing the pretty Joining Day outfit, she couldn’t risk cooking in it. Reluctantly, she went back to the bed chamber and dug in her shabby leather bag for the nicest outfit she had.

It wasn’t very nice at all, unfortunately. Though she and her mother had done their best to patch the ragged parts, it was clear to see where the sleeves and split skirt had been mended. And the breast net was the only one she had—the one made of a cheap alloy with the too-large links that showed her nipples.

Aleena hated to wear the cheap, worn-out clothing in the gorgeous mansion where she was going to be living with her new husband. It made her feel like a scullery maid living in a castle—like the old fairy stories her mother used to tell her. But there was no help for it—these were the nicest clothes she owned and she couldn’t exactly go around naked!

But once she got down to the kitchen, she was able to put her worries about her clothing behind her. It was time to concentrate on making the most amazing dinner anyone had ever seen, she told herself!

Recklessly, she began pulling ingredients out of the cupboards and the fridge. She wasn’t sure what she was going to make until, far in the back of the unit, she found a haunch ofdweezle.The tender, delectable meat came from an exotic animal that only the richest people could afford to buy.

Aleena had only tasted it once herself, at a fancy party when she was much younger, but she remembered the way the meat had melted in her mouth. If she could make a roast like that one, her new Kindred husband would surely be impressed!

Carefully she unwrapped the haunch of dark green meat and found a roasting platter big enough to hold it. It still had the bone in it—sticking out of one end like a white stick with a knob on the end.

Aleena slathered the richly marbled meat with a mixture of spices, using thelimpacream she found in the door of the fridge as a binding agent. When she was finished, she popped it into the oven and then wondered what temperature to cook it on.

Back home in her mother’s small oven, they’d cooked everything on the highest setting because they only had two heat jets. This oven hadeightjets, Aleena reminded herself. So perhaps she ought to set it on low? But then, how long would the haunch—which was a large cut of meat—take to get done?

She decided to compromise and set the oven around the medium-high mark. That should roast thedweezlehaunch nicely without taking too long, she thought.

Once she had the dark green haunch in the oven, she started on the vegetables. There were long blue leafystrumbastalks that she needed to clean and steam and also somegoofrooroot that would taste good mashed, though she’d have to peel and boil it first. The other gourmet ingredients could serve as garnishes, she decided.

Aleena got to work on the vegetables. There was a lot of peeling and chopping to be done and of course, she had to gothrough the kitchen and find the correct pots and pans and utensils to use. Anyone who has ever tried to make a fancy dinner in an unfamiliar kitchen knows how difficult it can be to find everything you need, but somehow she managed.

Eventually, everything was cooking nicely—thestrumbastalks were steaming and thegoofrooroot was chopped into big purple chunks and boiling away on the state-of-the-art cooktop. Aleena was beginning to feel quite proud of herself. It was true that she hadn’t used a lot of these ingredients before, but she knew what she was doing in the kitchen. Why, she bet this would be the best meal her new husband had ever tasted! He would like it so much he wouldneverwant to disavow her. He…

Her nose wrinkled and she frowned. What was that smell? It was faint but acrid and the scent stung her nostrils.

“Something’s not right,” she whispered to herself, looking around for the source of the odor. “What is it?What is it?”

She followed her nose and—to her horror—it led her right to the oven. Feeling terrible apprehension coiling in her belly, Aleena pulled open the cook drawer to reveal…a mass of flames!

“Oh, no!” she gasped, staring into the oven. The eight heat jets weremuchstronger than the two in her oven back home and all of them were blasting thedweezlehaunch with flame!

Quickly, Aleena turned off all the knobs, shutting off the flaming jets. Without thinking, she reached into the oven with her right hand to try and snatch the scorched roast out of the cooking tray.

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