Page 111 of The Omega's Bloodline: Part One

“Mistress,” I ground out. “Haru.”

The wolf inclined their head to acknowledge me.

Yelena held out her hand. “Come with me. Can’t have you getting lost, so be sure to hold on tight.”

I closed my fingers around hers, ignoring the warmth of her skin and the bite of her nails as she pulled me along. Harutrotted along next to us, weaving through the throng in the dining hall.

“What are we doing?”

“It will benefit you to integrate. I’d like you to help with at least one meal per week and get to know the staff.”

“But you sai?—”

“I acknowledge what I said, panther, but you need allies and information. The residents are the lifeblood of the nest and the kitchens are the beating heart. If you want to build connections, this is the place to do it.”

Haru nosed the back of my knee and I realized I’d pulled us to a stop.A few hours away from Logan won’t hurt you. This will be good.

“I feel like we have different definitions of good.”

“Learn to expand your definitions, then.” Yelena tugged me through the kitchen doors and everyone paused, bowing their heads briefly to her. “Hello, darlings. One of my new pets has some skill in the kitchen and I’d like you to find a place for him to assist as needed.”

A petite woman in a chef’s hat set down her knife and approached us.

“Caden, this is our head chef, Estrella Garcia Perez. She’s an Iberian lynx. Estrella, darling, this is Caden Ashford.”

Estrella thrust out her hand for mine and shook it with a strength I didn’t expect from her size. Her eyes flashed a golden green. “Welcome to my kitchen.”

“Wonderful.” Yelena beamed. “I’ll leave you in Estrella’s capable hands. Please page Haru or me to retrieve Caden when you’re finished with him for the day.”

I stood uncomfortably with everyone’s eyes on me as Yelena and Haru departed.

“Florencia!” Estrella called.

“Yes, chef?”

“Take care of Yelena’s pet and see what he’s capable of. I have work to do.”

“Yes, chef!” Florencia bounded over with a mile-wide smile, her dark skin luminous with a sheen of sweat from where she’d been working over the stove. “Nice to meet you! I’m Florencia.”

“Caden.” I shook her hand and she grinned back at me.

“Everyone’s been talking about you,” she told me, ushering me to the pantry. “You’re a panther, right? And the other one that came in was too?”

“Yeah, that was my brother.”

“So cool! I’m an antelope.”

That certainly made sense with how bouncy she was.

“Do you have commercial cooking experience?”

“Not in the past few decades. The closest I’ve come anytime recently is a barbecue.”

“That’s okay.” Florencia nodded and started passing me bags of potatoes. “The nice thing about here is the meals are at specific times and chef controls the menu. People can put in requests to be considered, but they can’t order whatever they want so it’s way less chaos and way easier to plan.”

Florencia got me set up on washing potatoes and chatted away at me as she coated the dried ones in oil before wrapping them in foil. All manner of gossip was tossed my way—how they were all worried about Protector Calliope, who was on bed rest with her pregnancy; how one of Protector Kendrick’s chosen had moved on the week before and he’d been sharper than usual since; and of course all about Logan, Seth, me, and the monster keeping everyone on lockdown. Florencia was eager for every scrap of information, though I didn’t give her many.

Maybe Yelena had been right. Florencia seemed to know everyone in the nest and was more than happy to talk about them.

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