Page 85 of Alpha Dragon's Mating Contract
Why wasn’t the tea in the kitchen? Confused, Walren grabbed the pepper and checked that Zebbie was secure in his chest carrier, before trailing after the alpha.
In the office, Raptor shut the door and made a beeline for a large wooden chest in the corner. Walren had seen it several times, but it hadn’t occurred to him to peek inside until now.
The moment Raptor lifted its lid, the scent of tea filled the office. All kinds of tea had been crammed into the chest: paper-wrapped blocks, fancy vacuum-sealed bags, and even some in plain brown packaging tied with twine. All of it looked expensive, or rare.
Walren’s jaw dropped. “You’re letting me try that?”
“Of course. Is there something specific you’d like to sample?”
Walren’s eyes glazed over. There were too many varieties, and he knew very little about them. “Uh. Something green? Something that tastes like grass.”
Raptor hummed thoughtfully. “Tell you what. You’ve enjoyed the Japanese green tea we serve at Nood’s Good, so we’ll go with a variation of that. Have you hadGyokuro?”
Walren shook his head. “What’s that?”
Raptor picked up a vacuum-sealed bag. “It’s the most expensive kind of green tea, shaded for three weeks before harvest to boost its umami flavor. This bag in particular is competition grade.”
“Sounds really expensive,” Walren said. Umami was a good flavor to have in food, right? It was found in things like mushrooms and parmesan cheese. So the tea had to be really good, if it was full of umami.
Right?
Raptor scooped some deep green leaves into a teacup, before pouring a long, thin stream of hot water into another cup. When that hot water had cooled further, Raptor poured it into the cup with the Gyokuro leaves.
“Gyokuro shouldn’t be steeped in very hot water,” Raptor explained. “This helps to draw out its umami flavor, while keeping away the bitterness.”
He set it aside to steep, and grabbed a different bag of tea from the chest.
“Dragonwell from China,” Raptor said. “Another famous green tea.”
He got some Dragonwell steeping, then filled a third cup with plain water. “Here. This is for cleansing your palate.”
Walren drank the water, before sipping the Dragonwell tea. It was sweet and nutty, and it tasted like heaven. “This is amazing.”
Raptor grinned. “Have some water, then try theGyokuro.”
Walren hesitated when he picked up the cup ofGyokuro.It smelled... different. Then he took a tiny sip, and recoiled.
“This tastes like seaweed,” he said, aghast. “Like you just dumped me into the ocean, and I’m splashing around stuck in a seaweed forest. Oh, gods.”
He set down the cup and drank the rest of his plain water, before drinking the Dragonwell tea to get that seaweed flavor out of his mouth.
Raptor bit down his smile. “You were fine with the seaweed in your ramen.”
“Yeah, but not in mytea,” Walren wailed. “How is thatcompetition grade?”
“With competition gradeGyokuro,the farmers try to pack as much umami as they can into the leaves. Unfortunately, this ends up with the tea tasting like seaweed.” Raptor laughed and stole Walren’s cup ofGyokuro,sipping it slowly.
He seemed to enjoy it. Walren could only watch with a mixture of horror and awe.
“Nope,” Walren said. “Just no.”
“Now I know what to avoid, if I want a chance at kissing you.”
Walren froze, his breath snagging in his throat. Raptor had just said that.
He looked up to find the alpha watching him, Raptor’s lips twitching up at the corners.
For a long time, neither of them said a word. The air between them felt thick, full of promise.
