[ Chapter Twenty-Five—beef chow mein ]

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It was not a surprise that Caius's shower was just about the best thing I had ever experienced. So much so that despite my hunger, I stayed in it for like an hour before even washing my hair.

There was a bench to sit down on and multiple jet streams that would hit me from every angle.

The shampoo and conditioner were very fancy and entirely French: it was obviously a feminine brand and I had a hard time believing it was Caius's seeing as there were another two bottles of masculine shampoo and conditioner. Except they were Japanese-branded.

This gave me a reason to believe that it had already been stocked in Caius's room for me.

Or it could have been his ex-wife's, but I sure hoped the fuck not.

The hair product smelled of strawberries and sweetness.

Upon getting out of the shower, I used perhaps the fluffiest towel ever and noticed that a rather expensive electric toothbrush and toothpaste were left on the counter. New and not even out of the box yet.

No way it was for Caius... do vampires even brush their teeth?

They had to, there is no way that they would drain a person and then all the blood and gore just magically disappeared from their teeth.

Right?

Maybe that should be my next question to the Volturi HR department, AKA, Caius.

But just the thought of asking him had me cringing—he would no doubt taunt me for such a question for the rest of eternity.

Perhaps I should ask Felix or Demetri... definitely Felix.

Felix was always the easiest person to ask questions.

It was only after I brushed my teeth that I wandered back into the room. I was cautious as I only had a towel on and there was always the chance that Caius returned. Thankfully, the blond vampire was nowhere to be seen and my suitcase and other bags had been left on the floor near the fireplace.

I was quick to rip through my suitcase desperately looking for clean clothing. I had done no laundry since being in Volterra and was officially down to one last pair of clothing.

I sighed realizing the last outfit just so happened to be an incredibly tight pair of flare pants (there was also triangle cutouts on the hips, but we don't need to talk about that). Upon putting them on, I quickly clipped my bra into place before throwing a random white tank top over my head.

Caius had a blow dryer (I knew his hair didn't naturally look like that) which I helped myself to using. I dried my hair until it fell down my shoulders in warm fluffy waves.

My body ached as I walked back into the room, shoving my feet into a pair of comfortable sneakers. The transformation had not been kind to me, and everything hurt. The feeling almost reminded me of when I was human—no more than a weak young woman.

Thankfully, even now, I was still far stronger than any human. Never again would I be weak.

I found myself flopping onto Caius's couch moments later while mindlessly scrolling through Instagram.

A DM from a familiar person suddenly shot through. My brows furrowed as I clicked the icon of the message, greeted with a short but firm statement.

drake:
1:57
I know you're on here bitch...

My lips tilted up upward against my will. Another message popped up seconds later.

drake:
1:57
Seeing as you're active on here, I now know you aren't dead... bitch why the fuck is your snap location in Italy?? Are you going through a Taken scenario or is your bitch-ass ghosting me?? For your sake, I hope it's the Taken situation.

I let out a short and quiet laugh. But I was also baffled as to how he was so accurate—then again, Drake had always been scarily accurate about things growing up.

I responded quickly, lying on the spot.

me:
2:02
sorry friend, it's been busy, the cullens took me on a surprise trip around Italy! told you they rich as fuck... also they pretty old school so they weird about me having my phone out and stuff... sorry :((

I sent it with a sigh, clicking my phone off afterward and staring at the ceiling sadly. It hurt to lie to my best friend—but seeing as he was also in the know about werewolves and vampires, I can only hope that Aro either skipped over him in my mind or was giving me a pass and would not send the guard out to murder him.

I still had a month and a half to think of a good enough lie to tell everyone back home as to why I would not be returning. Something that will be difficult because why the fuck would I not be able to go home at all?

But I had to come up with something otherwise Caius would probably take it upon himself to fake my death or have me filed as a missing cold case.

It was something that I had no desire to think about. Instead, my stomach rumbled loudly reminding me of a hunger that was becoming ravenous.

The werewolf hunger was something that I would never get used to. Although, it did make meals more enjoyable seeing as my tastebuds were enhanced. It was why I was able to hunt animals and eat them raw if I so wanted—not that I would ever do that apart from the night of the full moon.

I was in the mood for something in between.

My fingers searched for 'Chinese takeout near me' before I could stop myself.

There was a whole kitchen and even if I wanted, I had no doubt someone could order me 5-star Italiano food. AKA—Aro, because that guy (even if it was fake) was a hell of a lot nicer than Caius.

But I craved the feeling of sitting in bed with some greasy American Chinese takeout watching some shit romance movie.

Unfortunately, I was in Italy, so I would need to deal with the less greasy (and probably healthier) Chinese takeout along with a nice seat in the kitchen, as there was no way Caius would let me eat anything in his bed.

There was a Chinese place a few miles from the tomb, according to Google, at least. And the menu appeared appetizing, not to mention, I recognized most of the stuff on it. The only thing that had me raising an eyebrow was the fact that it somehow also served pasta and meatballs? But I guess that's Italy.

It was hard to think that my first trip out of the country, to Europe at that—and I was stuck in a tomb, barely experiencing the Italian culture. The Volturi might call Italy home, but very few were actually from this country.

The leaders called many other places home before they settled here—I knew that for a fact.

Carlisle had told me that Aro was born in Greece like over three thousand years ago or something. No one knew where Caius or Marcus had originated from, and I did not bother asking either. There was no reason for me to care seeing as they were so old that it probably did not matter where they originated from as they studied and understood almost all languages and cultures on the planet.

Not to mention, the way that Carlisle described it, it sounds like these old vamps can barely even remember their human lives.

My lips tilted up on their own accord at the thought of Caius as a human. I wondered what he was like, was he still as bitter?

Or, as Earth, Wind & Fire so graciously put it, had Caius once been filled with the spice of life?

That led me to think many thoughts—what was it even like to be a vampire? Was it anything similar to being a werewolf? The only one who may have an idea would be Aro seeing as he could experience someone's entire life with just a touch.

Then again, he had his abilities for so long that he was probably so disassociated from truly feeling.

It was an insane thought, to think about where I was at this point last year in comparison to now.

A wide-eyed little ball of addiction who had no clue about the wonders and horror of what truly lay out there.

I had always wanted to know the secrets of the Earth—and I suppose that I did end up learning them. But even I knew that there was still much more to this world than meets the eye.

I groaned loudly as another wave of desire hit me: an unyielding anticipation. A need to go explore, to go see what was outside. It was tempting, knowing that I was in such a country as Italy but stuck in this decrepit tomb.

Before I could talk myself into momentarily freezing time to run away and explore—I called the Chinese restaurant.

Caius's credit cards were not hard to find, like seriously, the guy kept a good chunk of them in the drawers of his desk. Nearly all of them were black cards, other than the one debit card with a puppy design on it, something that had me guffawing in shock.

I, of course, chose to use that one to put in my order—only to slide it into my back pocket once I finished reading the long number. I imagined Caius hated that card anyway, it was much better suited in my hands.

The problem came from the person needing an address for delivery, something I solved with a quick Google search of 'tours near me'. Honestly, I did not think that it was going to work until the first thing that came up was 'Grand Volterra Castle'.

Because no way these vampires actually have their own website?

I read the address of the building to the worker—the man happily told me that it would be delivered in the next 45 minutes to two hours or 30% of my money back. I pursed my lips at that information but agreed and hung up.

After that, I clicked on the 'Volterra Castle' website only to be greeted with pictures of the castle from various decades. The more modern photos were absolute trash. Not only that, but I was gaping as I read the description.

The tours were ridiculously expensive, they were charging an arm and leg for it!

€150 per person—like who does that? Especially when they know these people are not coming back!

This was definitely Caius's doing.

Only he was that evil.

The description was interesting, talking about an ancient castle built for Saint Marcus who ran all the vampires out of Volterra almost 700 years ago. It was interesting but also complete bullshit seeing as Marcus had done anything but. He was still in its walls—just highly depressed and reclusive.

It was a long process to sign up for a tour, and a lot of personal information had to be given—most likely so they knew the details of the people who they ate. Things they would need to successfully cover themselves so people did go looking for them here.

My eyes narrowed at this, and I was quickly leaving the worst review possible and giving them a 1-star on Google. I was the only reviewer other than an Arrow V who 'absolutely loved' his tour and 'highly recommends' it.

Gosh, I wonder who that could be.

He also said something about the food being great, my nose scrunched at that part because that's a vile inside joke to make.

My opinion of Aro suddenly went down a notch.

My fingers moved fast as I typed.

Jackie Harvelle:
the most HORRIBLE tour that I have EVER been on. Way overpriced for a 15-minute tour of MODERN paintings that they try and pull off as being hundreds of years old. Heidi the guide would rather shake her tits around than give an actual tour. Biggest waste of my TIME and MONEY—I do NOT recommend this at all! Save yourself and don't come here! The free winner's tours are EVEN worse, and they secretly charge you at the end!!! The food is NASTY and an additional €50 as well, it gave me food poisoning!!

I snorted while uploading it, hoping to save a few souls. It would save the ones who look at the reviews of where they go, at least.

With that, I slid my phone into my pocket and wandered toward the doors of Caius's ensuite. It was probably important that I wait in the lobby of the tomb for my food to come, alas the delivery man might end up as the takeout himself.

I was reminded that the Volturi do not feed on the locals of Volterra—so the delivery man would be safe. There were just going to be some really confused vampires, and they would probably take it out on the innocent secretary and assume she was ordering food for herself on the job.

Seeing as previous secretaries had been killed for far less than that, she would end up as a vampire happy meal.

A shiver ran down my spine at the thought.

As curious as I was as to what other secrets Caius had lying around his room—apart from his collection of credit cards—I refrained and poked my head out the double doors of the place. His ensuite was in what appeared to be a deeper and much darker part of the castle/tomb.

Interestingly enough, no other vampires were lurking in the corridors. Something that relieved me and also put me on edge. Mostly because I was currently much weaker than usual and these vamps might pop out of nowhere.

Felix and Demetri certainly loved doing that to me.

Despite my hesitation, I slowly made my way out of the room and down the drafty corridors.

With all the money they're reeling in from their murder tours, they should really invest in some signs pointing to different areas of the catacombs.

It took a good five minutes, but eventually, I found an echoey staircase that led to the part of the castle I was familiar with. Still the lower part, but it was the floor that my original room had been on.

It took only another few minutes before I made my way into the lobby—something shocking because I had fully expected to be stopped by now. The lobby was the main entrance to the castle and the most public area.

I was forbidden to go anywhere near it for that reason. Not that I gave a flying fuck, if Caius did not want me here then he should do a better job of stopping me.

The secretary was furiously typing on the computer and I was rather silent upon my entrance, therefore, she did not notice my prompt arrival. Looking around and taking a large whiff, it became apparent that my food had not yet arrived.

So, I took a seat on one of the few chairs in the 'waiting area'. I was silent for a few moments, looking around the old-styled room before becoming bored and beginning to scroll through TikTok.

It was only the noise of the first video to pop up on my 'For You Page' that had the secretary jumping and looking at me with wide eyes. She did a double-take, looking around before her attention fell back to me and she was hastily trying to talk to me.

"I'm sorry, was there something I could help you with, ma'am?" She questioned, her voice heavily accented.

I dragged my eyes away from my screen and shook my head at the woman.

"No, but thank you," I nodded before going back to the video of a lady who glued her hair down with gorilla glue and was now facing the repercussions.

My mouth formed an 'O' as she cried, tapping her fingers against her hair which made an unnatural tapping noise.

"IT DON'T MOVE—MY HAIR AIN'T MOVING!" She yelled while clapping angrily at the screen. "I done washed my hair 15 times and it do NOT move! HELP ME!"

"Jesus Christ," I muttered before swiping up and being greeted by a good-looking boy around my age dancing.

I could not watch him for long before snapping fingers caught my eye. The secretary had been desperately trying to get my attention, the poor woman obviously confused.

"Ma'am, I cannot have you sitting in here if you have no business with the tours or the company..." She explained kindly, but there was a nervous undertone to her voice.

Whether she was scared of getting in trouble for allowing who she thought was a random person to sit in here or she was scared of me being eaten if I remainded too long—I may never know. What I did know was that this was the warmest and sunniest part of the clocktower castle: and I was either going to sit here till my takeout arrived or I was leaving through those doors and walking around the town.

Then again, if I left and this secretary accidentally encouraged it because she didn't know who I was, I had no doubts that Caius would kill the poor woman himself.

With that thought, I could not stop my sudden impulsiveness from taking hold—I wanted to stir the pot and cause my own entertainment.

I deserved it after the full moon I endured.

"Actually, I'd like to speak to your manager..." I crossed my arms in a mockingly serious way, looking at the secretary with my lips drawn in a line.

It took everything in me not to cackle.

She was frantic, stuttering anxiously before she finally managed to get out, "I-I'm sorry? Might I ask why that is?"

"Yes, my name is Detective Yermom from the FBI and I am here to investigate both a lead and complaint about this being the last location on record for various missing people traveling from the U.S..."

The secretary now looked scared as she gaped at me.

No way she bought that.

In all honesty, if I actually was a detective—this bitch would expose the Volturi and ultimately the entire supernatural world with that expression of guilt alone. Like holy shit...

The poor woman proceeded to scramble around for moments, flapping her arms before hastily telling me she'd be right back with a 'supervisor'.

Who the hell was she going to walk back in with? Marcus?

I hadn't even shown her a badge or anything to prove myself.

Now I felt slightly bad for interrupting her actual work. But not bad enough to stop—now I was curious as to who the damn supervisor is.

There was absolutely no shame as I stood up and went around to the back of her desk to spot what she had been working on on the computer. Right away I could see that she was booking people and accepting payment and identities for a tour at the beginning of August.

Angrily, I sat in her chair and began to reject everyone for this tour. It may have not been much, and she was probably just going to go back and start accepting people, but I tried my damnest to save even a person or two.

I certainly know if I was booking a tour and was rejected at first, I would not accept them crawling back and asking if I was actually interested. I could only hope that some of these people had that same respect for themselves

To my horror—a feeling of immense guilt swept through me. Guilt over the fact that I was essentially trying to stop Caius from eating. Then again, the chances of that man starving due to this of all things were incredibly low.

I was rejecting the sixth person, writing the response to them as to why they were rejected as being 'lazy Norwegian swines' just as the secretary came back, talking in panicked Italian to a confused Demetri.

I wanted to laugh at the fact that along with the esteemed tracker—he was also the 'supervisor' of the front desk.

The name tag set in front of the desk read 'Cecilia'.

"Ma'am, what're you doing?! You cannot be back there!" The secretary named Cecilia exclaimed, racing behind the desk just as I finished the last rejection.

I looked up, ignoring the way that Cecilia tried to move me out of the way—my werewolf strength causing me to stand as an immovable object. Demetri was staring at me in a way that told me he was already done with my bullshit.

"Sir, I'm Agent Yermom from the FBI—I'd like to ask your boss a few questions?" I crossed my arms over my chest and spoke in a mockingly low tone.

The human, who still believed me, was looking back and forth between myself and Demetri with huge eyes.

"My boss is busy at that moment," He deadpanned. "But I can guarantee that he would be immensely unhappy to see you here..."

"Well," I clicked my tongue, "Sometimes in life, we need to deal with things that don't make us happy. I'm sure you understand that?"

Demetri performed a very human motion, the vampire pinching the bridge of his nose while shaking his head. He muttered something I did not quite catch—something about finally getting grey hair after almost a millennia.

"Jaclyn, I swear by the Gods..." He ground, his voice too quiet for the human to pick up but loud enough for me to hear it. "Now is not the time, trust me..."

Now that piqued my curiosity.

"Is your boss that busy?" I questioned innocently.

I don't know why he was still playing along, especially with how irritated and seemingly busy he was, but it was amusing nonetheless.

It also had me wondering what the hell was going down—there must have been a reason I did not run into any of the guards while making my way up here. Any other day I would not have made even it halfway up the staircase without using my abilities before someone would stop me.

"Yes," He finally said, "Now, I will keep this incident between myself and you if you allow me to escort you back to the master's chambers... calmly..." He narrowed his red eyes at me.

The human secretary gasped before she asked Demetri something in Italian. The tracker did not even move his eyes away from me as he responded in equally as fluent Italian. Whatever he said has the human secretary moving away from me, her eyes wide.

"But Cecilia said that if I have no business with the company—which I don't—then I should escort myself outside..." I said innocently.

I immediately felt bad when the secretary stuttered and went back on her wording.

"No, no, ma'am—I did not know who you were before! Please follow Mr. Demetri back!" She was panicking, especially at the annoyed glare that Demetri threw her way.

While it was nothing more than a petty annoyed glare in my eyes, to the secretary it was probably terrifying with the knowledge that Demetri could and would eat her at any given second.

"Enough of this, Jaclyn, you need to come with me back to Master Caius's chambers immediately," He huffed.

"Have you never found it weird to call them 'Master'? Like seriously, I know you're from a different time and all, but in these ages, calling someone that is basically a sex kink, friend." I scoffed, crossing my arms and still not moving from my spot.

Demetri's right eye twitched.

He was wearing the same thing he did every day, the same thing that all the guards did. Black slacks along with a black button shirt hidden under a tailored dark overcoat. When they left the castle, they all wore long black cloaks.

"Jaclyn, I am giving you one last opportunity—if I am forced to go get Master Caius so that he may escort you himself, trust me when I say that it will not be good," Demetri said.

Common sense led me to just give in. To roll my eyes and follow the sand-haired bastard back to the more protective interiors of the castle. But, quite frankly, I don't have common sense.

And I am exceptionally stubborn.

Not to mention, while I may have forged my own path of entertainment, there was a literal reason I was waiting here. I would not move from this area until my food was successfully delivered and in my hands.

"Demetri," I said slowly, finally wandering out from behind the desk causing the secretary to sigh in relief and take her spot back. "How many ways do I need to tell you no? You want to hear it with an Australian accent? Nawr!"

It was perhaps one of the worst-sounding accents ever, and I knew that based on the look that Demetri gave me alone. It was a mixture of him looking like he wanted to laugh and cry.

However, he said nothing, simply nodding his head with a fake smile and whizzing out of my sight.

This was bound to end in disaster.

The secretary was watching me through hazy eyes of discomfort.

"I have Chinese food coming, do you want some?" I questioned her, attempting to be friendly—this had no doubt been a hard day at work for her.

She blinked her wide blue eyes and hastily shook her head before furiously getting back to work. My lips pulled into a frown, but I could not blame her. If I was in her situation (not that I ever would be because I would never accept this shitty of a job—especially with Caius being the entire HR department), I would be scared shitless.

Right on cue, the entrance opened and a scruffy man walked through wearing a worse-for-wear polo and hat with the name of the Chinese restaurant that I ordered from. He was skinny and short and looked as though he gave zero fucks.

My type of person.

"Jaclyn?" He questioned with a thick Italian accent and tired sigh as I walked up to him.

"In the flesh," I greeted with a smile, holding out my hands as to take the large brown paper bag from him.

At that moment, there was another call of my name. Except this one was much much angrier.

"Jaclyn!" Caius all but roared as he stormed up the staircase—black cloak whipping behind him as though he was Professor Snape or some shit.

Demetri was hot on his heels.

Thankfully, they both stopped themselves from getting too close upon seeing the delivery man I was with. Seeing as they had no contacts and there was sunlight streaming through the windows—neither of them could leave the safety of the archway and come fully into the lobby.

Not unless they wished to break their own law.

They could not even kill this delivery man seeing as he was a local.

I grinned at Caius who had metaphorical steam coming from his nostrils as he watched me.

"Too slow," I hummed under my breath, fully knowing that both Caius and Demetri could hear it.

With my hearing, I was easily able to hear the deep growls beginning to rumble from Caius's chest. Growls low enough that the humans could not hear.

"You ordered the dumplings, steamed bao buns, chicken egg rolls, beef chow mein, and short ribs?" He read off the order easily, making sure that it was correct.

My face twisted into one of total despair.

"What about the strawberry boba?" I panicked, my heart breaking at the thought of not having it.

The man snapped his fingers and pointed toward the door.

"Sorry, I forgot it on the delivery bike—just give me one moment!" He handed me the bag of food before turning and hurrying out the door.

The second he was out the door, Caius appeared behind me, his speed causing my hair to whip ever so slightly. I could only imagine what I looked like holding Chinese food with a vampire looming behind me.

My head barely scraped past his chin as I tilted it backward and stared up into his cold angry red eyes.

"Are you jealous that you can't share this with me? Is that why you're upset?" I hummed condescendingly.

Caius barked a sarcastic laugh. "Oh, trust me, I certainly would never share such dog food with you—"

"—That could definitely be taken as you being racist, so let me stop you there." I snarked and he pursed his lips.

We both knew that he did not mean it like that, I only chose to give him a hard time. Unfortunately, it only upset him more.

"Thin ice, dog, you are on very thin ice—the only reason I haven't thrown you over my shoulder and taken you back to my wing is because that wretched human is climbing the steps to come back as we speak with that dastardly drink of yours..." He hissed and without further comment, he was suddenly back in the archway of the stairs.

Demetri was long gone.

"Dramatic," I puffed just as the lobby doors opened once more, and the delivery man was walking inside with a large boba drink.

I was nearly jumping for joy as I took it from him.

"Thank you so much!" I chirped.

He nodded, "Yes, and do you mind just confirming that credit card number with me one more time?"

"Definitely!"

I quickly placed my food and drink on the secretary's counter, she glowered at this. With that, I dug the puppy-decorated credit card out of my back pocket and began reading the long number, ignoring the deadpan expression Caius gave at the sight.

"And add a €150 tip on there for yourself!" I cheered, fully knowing that was the same price for one person who took a final destination tour with the Volturi.

Caius growled angrily as the delivery man happily did as I asked, nodding his head in great thanks as he left through the doors.

"You sure you don't want any of this, Cecilia—?" My question was abruptly cut off as Caius appeared in front of me yet again, swiping the puppy card from me before I could even blink.

He shoved it deep in the pockets of his trousers, his angelic face painted with an ugly sneer. One that had the secretary quaking in her feet and sitting low in her seat as though to hide. Unfortunately, it only had me smiling up at him happily, and if I actually had a wolf tail at the moment, I had no doubt that it would be wagging.

"You bad insolent, little girl," He clicked his tongue while shaking his head. "How dare you pull me away from something so important for this?!"

I stared at my bag of food quizzically. "Do you think if you soaked one of the eggrolls in blood that you would be able to eat it? You could sit at the table with me and try it..."

Caius appeared taken aback by my question, his nose scrunching as he glared.

"You test my patience. Do not mistake me for having ridiculous curiosity like Aro, I am far from that. For you to even suggest such an outlandish thing in the midst of this is insulting...!"

"So you're easily offended? Noted..." I nodded, yelping as he grabbed my arm hard enough to bruise and pulled me away from the lobby in a manner that was anything but gentle.

I desperately held onto my food and drink—eyes wide as I haphazardously tried to keep up with Caius's borderline supernatural speed. It was not nearly as fast as he could go seeing as I was able to up, but it was more of a struggle considering I was holding things and also being pulled along.

He was cursing in Italian, that much I knew based on what he was muttering as we breezed through the corridors. I glared as we passed by a smug-looking Jane, only for the smug look to be wiped off her face as she smelled the human food in my grasp.

Instead, she gave me a look of disgust.

It seemed they all hated human food here.

Caius huffed the smallest of snickers at that, something that had me scowling at him and trying to dig my heels into the ground below. He continued to drag me despite me not moving my feet.

"Enough of this!" He barked, suddenly turning to me and wrapping his right arm around my waist.

I yelled as he hiked me up and zipped into the kitchen. The speed was unprecedented, a speed that I was barely ever able to hit while not shifted, let alone on the day after the full moon.

My food and drink were quickly placed on the counter as I bent over  gagging from the speed.

"Damn it, you stupid vampi—" My words were cut off.

Caius gripped my shoulder, pulling me upright and spinning me to face him. My eyes widened as one of his cold hands pinched my chin between his fingers, forcing me to look into his red eyes. They were hard and gleamed the color of rubies. For a moment, I saw nothing but familiar ice. But then, something flickered within the crimson depths, a shadow or perhaps a spark, too fleeting to be fully grasped.

As we stared at each other, the world seemed to fall away. That spark, or whatever it was, grew. It passed through his eyes like a whisper of warmth, dissolving the harshness into something unexpected. His gaze softened, and I felt a similar shift within myself, a crack forming in the walls I'd built around my heart.

Unwanted feelings of tenderness surged through, overwhelming in their intensity. His grip on my chin loosened, fingers brushing against my skin with a gentleness that belied his nature. I could see the struggle in his eyes, the battle between the millennia-old coldness and this new, unwelcome emotion.

Caius's hand fell away, but his eyes never left mine. For the first time, I saw him not as the ruthless enforcer of the Volturi, but as my mate. The connection between us pulsed with an undeniable truth: despite everything, we were bound by a devotion neither of us had sought, yet neither could deny forever.

...AND IT WAS HORRIBLE!

It was all the damn full moon's fault.

As my eyes hardened, so did Caius's.

"Stay," He ground harshly. "I have business to get back to: you are to either stay here or you may go back to my chambers when you finish eating..." He ordered before a vicious smirk appeared on his features. I jumped as a cold hand stroked my skin through the triangle cutouts of my flare pants. "And don't defy me—you're already in the dog house..." With that last statement, he was gone in a blur.

I was left gaping, groaning as I stomped to where I set the food down. My emotions were a whirlwind as I angrily took it out of the bag, many feelings were raging war inside of me, but the most prominent one of all was something rather concerning.

Beneath the irritation at Caius was sadness.

A sadness that blooms from loneliness. Much of human culture revolves around food as well as the camaraderie that comes with many meals shared together. Even with a mate, I still had no one to share a meal with.