Page 65 of The Alpha and the Baker
“Not when you’re a baker,” Felicia answered with a sleepy smile. “It’s actually an hour past my bedtime.”
“What? You’re kidding!”
“Afraid not. But you know, there are pros and cons. I get to be done with work by two p.m., so that’s pretty cool.”
“I suppose there are indeed trade-offs. All right, let me finish this plate for you and send you on your way. Thanks again for coming to dinner.”
“Please extend my deepest thanks to Auntie Siobhan for inviting me. I had so much fun.”
“She’ll be pleased as punch to hear that. Don’t be a stranger now. We don’t have many humans in our inner circle, but it’s safe to say you’re a pretty big hit here.”
That was putting it mildly. Felicia and my family got along like a house on fire. And I wasn’t complaining about it. No, if anything, it made me glow with pride.
Felicia sniffled slightly. Horror racked me as I smelled the telltale scent of tears coming from her. She took the heaping plate that would have overflowed if it weren’t for the foil covering it.
“Thank you so much,” she murmured.
Not for the first time, I was blown away by just how much Felicia was able to feel and express so easily. Sometimes I felt like I was so locked within the confines of my position and myown anxiety that I couldn’t emote outside of my own skin. But Felicia? She was as real as they came.
Maybe that was why she got along so well with us.
I wasn’t leading a pack of warriors, and I was sure some would consider our life boring, but I was so incredibly lucky to be surrounded by kind and welcoming souls. I would much rather worry about preteens shifting a bit too early, and possibly being set up on dates by those preteens than territory disputes or a coup to wipe out our entire pack.
Some alphas longed for the blood and bone of battle, but not me. All I wanted was for my people to be happy. And as for Felicia? Well, she was very rapidly becoming what me and my wolf consideredour people.
“You handled that well,” I murmured as we walked out into the night. If anyone cared to listen they would be able to hear us, but the conversation was still going strong inside.
“It was fun,” Felicia answered. “Your family really knows how to throw down, culinary-wise.”
“We try,” I answered with a chuckle. “It used to be only certain members of our pack were gifted in the kitchen, but the newer generation seems much more hands-on.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you as culinary-inclined as some of your members?”
“It’s safe to say that’s a solid no,” I admitted, more than a little embarrassed about it. Felicia was an incredible baker, so me not having any amazing skills felt like some sort of character flaw.“Don’t get me wrong, I know my basics and I can get by, but no one is lining up in my kitchen for a second serving of anything.”
“Maybe I could give you a cooking lesson sometime,” she said, her tone sliding all the way back to flirtatious. I would belying if I didn’t admit my heartrate ticked up. Could it be, after all the missteps, that she was still interested in me?
“Oh, yeah?” I countered. I swore I had something more clever to say, but then her fingers were intertwining with mine.
So simple. Just palms touching palms. And yet it felt so much more intense than that. Her heartbeat thudded steadily against my hand, reminding me we were both very much alive. And even if she was a human, even if I was a wolf, we both had hearts that pumped blood throughout our bodies, kept us warm, and thundered in our chests—as mine was doing now.
It was hard to believe Felicia could be real. Yet when I looked beside me, she was there, real and beaming at me like I was something—someone—special. She didn’t look at me like I was a new alpha struggling to do right by his people. She looked at me outside my role, outside my wolf.
And I really fuckingliked it.
We walked on in silence, but a question hung heavy in the air between us. She was pushing a query my way. A simple question asked with our interlocked digits.
I could only let my anxiety dictate my life for so long, so I gently squeezed her hand once, twice, thrice. A simple code that needed no translation. Despite all the emotional turmoil since I’d bolted out of her apartment, peace radiated through me.
“So, this means we’re dating now, right?” she asked when we reached my car, and I opened the passenger side door for her. Something about the earnest, hopeful way she said that startled a laugh out of me.
“If you’ll have me.”
“I didn’t drive your car to you like a personal chauffeur to just kick you out on the curb,” she said, grinning up at me. I had no idea what I had done to have her gaze up at me like that, but by God, I was quickly resolving that Iwouldkeep on earning it. Even if it was something I never expected to have to do.
