Dark Awakening (10 page)

Alison nodded absently, her friend's words fading to the background. She went through the
papers, signed the proper checks to the
landlord
,
and even arranged for a packing and delivery company called Two Guys, One Truck to box and transport her stuff into storage.

As they drove to her
café
, Alison couldn't stop the sickening feeling deep in her gut. She felt like she'd eaten something bad, but she hadn't. She didn't know what it was.

Jealousy? Envy?
Hate?
What she did know
though
was that she couldn't trust Rome. At least she'd been right about that all along.

* * *

Being back in her
café
helped
to lighten Alison's mood. She flipped on the lights then walked back into the kitchen and cranked up the burners and oven.

"What are you guys in the mood for?" she
hollered
through the
partition
where she'd slide the orders across to be served.

"Italian!" Sarina said
,
picking a seat at a table with square wooden chairs. When Teddy and
Gerome agreed, Alison smiled and shot back into her kitchen. It felt better than good to be back here.

She tied on her pink apron and snatched pots and pans from her
ceiling
hanger. Her mind pushed all the worries, fears, and pain from the last few days aside and focused
solely
on cutting the potatoes into triangles and slicing the carrots with a fast flick of her wrist.

Food sizzled in the pot as she added a good portion of white wine to the mixture. She flattened chicken then breaded it and seared it in a skillet as her pot of water came to a boil. When the smell and taste of the creamy sauce wasn't one-hundred percent, she added a dash of parmesan, pepper, and heavy cream.

"Voila!" She plated the dinners, resting the breaded chicken gently on top then put a sprig of
parsley
on top and some grated cheese. She grabbed a bottle of wine from the back and set it counter to take out later. She set the plates on the large, black serving trailed, bent
down,
and shouldered the heavy tray
up
.
             

She bumped open the swinging kitchen door with her hip and swept into the dining room only to come to a dead stop. The dishes rattled, dangerously close to falling.

"What are you doing here?" She glared at his handsome face and wanted to throw a plate of pasta at it. He looked taken aback by her harsh words. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, he strolled forward and plucked the heavy tray from her hands as if it was a piece of lint on her clothes. "Give that back," she ordered, holding out her hand. He looked at her little hand, then at the big serving tray filled with four plates of food.

"I'm here for lunch. I took the rest of the day off when I heard you'd been running around town. You know, you really should be keeping a low profile, not visiting all the places he
probably
knows you go to."

"Whatever," she muttered and spun into the kitchen. She plastered herself back against the wall and tried to fight the ache in her chest. How he managed to make her heart race and hurt at the same time was a wonder. He must be a wizard.
A devil wizard.

She uncorked the bottle of merlot to let it breathe and plated another portion of food. She couldn't help herself
. The bastard most likely had another woman
and slept with her
—probably a hundred times
—
and yet she was going to feed him.
She grabbed a twig of parsley and set it gently on top of the chicken, then thought better of it and took it off.
The bastard didn't deserve
parsley
.

She turned around and screamed.
"What do you want?"
How did such a big
man
managed to keep so quiet?
She
growled, clutching the plate as if she might use it as a weapon.

One corner of his mou
th kicked up. "I wanted to see how you’re doing
. You're acting a little odd." He stepped
close
, invading her personal space and
kissed
her. Before she could even blink it was over, but the taste of him lingered on her bottom lip. She licked it delicately.

"I've just had a strange day, I guess. I signed off on my lease today and hired people to move my things to a storage unit." The words came so easily from her. She couldn't
believe
how comfortable she was talking to him. He cupped her cheek in his
hands,
it was a warm, reassuring gesture.

"I should have been there for you. I'm sorry. The deadline for the project I'm working on is steadily creeping and I had to get to the office today to go over some things. Is that for me?" He looked down at the steaming plate in her hands. She nodded, struggling to remember why she was mad at him. "Smells great. Why don't we go eat?"

Alison nodded and let him take her hand in his. He
led
her to one of her tables and put a plate in front of her, then asked her what she wanted to drink and got
it for her
.

It was strange, Alison thought, being
served in
her own restaurant by a man who looked at her like she was the sexiest woman in the room.

Everyone ate and finished their plates with a stream of enthusiastic compliment that had Alison blushing,
then
laughing. "If you think this is good, you should try my chocolate cake. It's to die for."

Sarina's eyes
widened
. "Oh my god, don't tease. I need your chocolate cake now." Alison laughed and moved to clear everyone's plates
.

"I'll make you one, don't worry." With Rome's help, she cleared the dishes into the back washer. She heard the door chime ring from the front of the restaurant and went to see who was there.

"May I help you?" Alison asked. The woman looked down at her from her insanely tall high heels. Her dress was short enough that if she
were
to bend over her entire ass would be in vi
ew. Alison stifled a shudder
and stared expectantly at her red, shiny lips.

The woman's voice was
soft
and sexy. "I'm looking for Rome. Ah! There you are." She flounced over to him completely ignoring his look of disbelief, and then anger.

"What are you doing here, Sandra?" He turned to look quickly at Alison, his jaw hardening. Alison swallowed,
then
went to work
scrubbing
the tables they'd eaten at. She made eyes with Sarina who was glaring bullets at the bitch in heels. She scrubbed the tables harder than necessary. There wasn't anything on them anyways except a few crumbs.

"I came to see you, baby. It's been too long. I miss you so much. You haven't returned any of my phone calls." The
woman
trailed a long painted fingernail down his chest.

"That's because I called things off between us and you know it. Don't act like there was anything more between us, ever." His voice was cold. He flicked her finger off him with a slap at
her wrist.

Finding the tables completely clean and not wanting to move past the
fighting
couple to go back into the kitchen, Alison settled down into a chair and turned to watch the show.
She definitely won a point for being brave. Besides, she was relieved to know he really wasn’t seeing a woman on the side.

"Things were hot between us, Roman. Come on, can't we just hook up? I'll let you tie me up again." She smiled widely at him
. To Alison it looked
like a predator baring
its
teeth
before it lunged
. Her teeth were shiny and impossibly white against the sharp red of her lipstick.
Was anything on her not perfect?

Rome unclenched his jaw. "Get out of here, Sandra. We're done, forever." He stepped away from her and
crossed
his arms, then nodded at the front door. "Take a hike."
             

The women's eyes glowed with the eerie light of her lykaen rising to the surface. She turned and growled at Alison. Her beast was at the surface, which would make her much stronger, quicker than usual.
Alison felt her own surfacing.
The idea of a fight didn’t sound too crazy either.

"It's this little bitch, isn't it? You got a thin
g
for losers in glasses now, Rome?" She threw her head back and laughed huskily, then sauntered to the front door with her long-legged stride. "
What kind of lykaen needs glasses?
And here I thought you liked real women." She punctuated her comment with a cock of her hip. She looked once more at Alison and gave her a withering glare. "As for you bitch, Conlin wants you back for good...and he's not going to stop until he gets it."

Everyone in the room tensed. Even the sound of breathing stopped. "He says he looks forward to making up for lost time with you." She giggled, the sound high-pitched and scary,
then
slipped out of the
café
.

"At least your taste in women has improved,"
Gerome
joked. Alison turned away from Rome. She couldn't stand the hard look he was giving her. She didn't want to know what he was thinking about, or what it looked like he wanted to say.

"Let's just go home,"
Alison
said, her voice weary and tired.

Chapter
1
1

The car ride home was silent and awkward. How she managed to home with Rome in his black SUV and not with Sarina and the guards had her crossed arms squeezing tight across her middle. The bastard seemed to think he had some right to her.

As for Sarina? Well, she was a traitor. She winked at Rome and practically shoved her towards his car after she locked up the
café
.

Too many negative emotions were swirling in her, furling
together to put her in one hell of a mood
. Anger, jealousy, possession,
fear. And one tall woman se
t all that into motion.
At the moment
, jealous
y
was seething at the top of the list.

To know that Sandra
touched Rome's skin, felt his breath along her body, his hands on her skin, his beautiful cock thrusting inside her.
It was enough to have her hands curling into fists.
God she wanted to punch her way through the window and make a break for the trees in the distance. Anything to burn off this coiling heat.

It was he who
broke the silence. "I'm sorry about that. She and I have been over for weeks, it was never anything serious anyways." She watched
his jaw
clench
from
the corner of her eye.
He looked like
he had more to say but was biting
back the words.

Alison had questions burning like hot acid in her mind. She closed her eyes and turned away, counting back from ten
over and over
. She'd always had this bad habit of asking stupid questions.
Questions that lead to answers she almost never
liked. She opened her eyes to see they were nearing Kategan territory.

"How long were you with her?"
Old habits
die hard
.
Shit.

His shoulders bunched
. "Two months." So many emotions she felt from just those two
words. But she didn't want to think about that right now, so she pushed it away. Even as she
knew
she had zero right asking such questions, another came out.
It was like pushing a slinky down the stairs, once it started it just kept going.

"What did you like about her?" She wanted to
add that she didn’t think it was
her charming
personality
, but then again she apparently had some charm somewhere. Alison was banking
it was in
the boobs.

He cut a hard glance at her. "I really don't want to talk about her." The hard muscle of his forearm curved and twisted as he squeezed the steering wheel.

Alison bit her tongue to keep
from
asking any
more, or giving anything else away. Afraid she'd already done too much. She made herself shrug and toss him a
no problem
smile.

Inside she was dying. She was relieved when they pulled into the large compound that was Kategan territory. The
sentinel
guards at the front gate waved them on at the sight of familiar pack faces.