5

Stacey’s POV

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My eyes widened on seeing how red his ears and cheeks were.

He was blushing.

Aahhaaaa! This gave me a perfect opportunity to tease him.

“Are you blushing?”, I smirked.

“No. go away”

“You are. I am sure you are used to all these compliments.”

“Well, it definitely doesn’t include my Luna.”, He said, raising his brow at me, trying to stop a smirk that was creeping on my lips. But that was not so easy.

“You love it, don’t lie.”, I said with a wink before walking away, getting back to my cooking. Not another word was said after that. I knew I was flirting with him. Well, you couldn’t blame me for that. The more I spent time with him after work, the more I found him attractive in many ways.

***

I observed him running his tongue over his lower lips as he was having his dinner.

“It’s too good, Stacey.”, He said and looked at me.

“Thank you.”

Even if he wouldn’t have praised the food, I would have guessed it by his expression. The constant running of his tongue over his lower lips and sometimes the moans which were escaping from his mouth without any intention. Even though the temperature in the dining room was low, he was sweating badly while having dinner. Call me stupid, but I was also observing the drop of sweats which were getting disappeared in his t-shirt after running all over his face to neck. I never cared, when Adams used to get insecure about the fact that I might fall for Derek because I had never found myself seeing him in a different way. But now, I was finding myself being attracted to him, sexually of course.

Maybe because I didn’t have Adams by my side, now. When Adams and I were together, no other man stole my attention. I was all for him, no one else.

“Are you okay, Stacey?”, He asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Sorry, what did you say hand..I mean, Derek?”, I said, cursing myself for almost calling him handsome rather than his name.

“I was not saying anything. It is just you are not eating anything.”, He said, pointing the spoon toward my plate and I realized my stupidity. “And if you want me to praise you again then I must say, you are very talented when it comes to cooking.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Can you bring lunch for me once or twice a week, please?”

“Sure. It has been a while since I cooked for anyone, you know? I used to cook for Adams all the time. In the beginning, he used to love it but then he started having the food cooked by the hotel's chef, and then he never seemed to like the food cooked by me anymore. He started making excuses not to sit down and have dinner together or if he did, then he used to point out all the faults in the food. At that phase of life, I started thinking that maybe I forgot how to cook.”, I said, sighing, resting back on the chair.

He had knocked my confidence in every aspect of my life, right after the doctor said I was barren. He used to make me feel that I was the worst cook in the world and should stop cooking. Earlier, he used to love it when we made love or had hot sex. He changed, telling me he was bored, telling me I had lost charm and blah, blah, blah. His words had such a great effect on me that I wondered whether I would be able to satisfy someone else or not.

“Then, he talks shit. You shouldn’t listen to him.”

“I know that now. At that time, I was stupid enough to listen, it still gets me sometimes though.”

“I can’t feel that pain but it sounds horrible when the person you love, the person that is meant to love you starts using their time in bringing you down and making you feel worthless but I am glad that you got out before you could have completely lost yourself in your marriage.”

“Hmm..”, I nodded sadly.

“Anyway, enough about him, let’s change the subject. Who taught you to cook?”

“My mother. She is an amazing cook. And she made sure I knew all her recipes beforeI got married to my mate.”, I said and missed her. She told me more than once that Adams was going to break my heart. She told me that he was selfish and was with me just because I was an Alpha daughter. She told me that he would jump on another woman if he found some better option. She told me that I could do better than him. Maybe I should have listened to her. But she let me get on with it because she knew I loved him.

“You miss your mother, don’t you?”

“Hmm. I am sure you will be missing your parents as well.”, I said and saw him nodding. My father, Alpha Stefan, owned one of the largest packs in the world until my marriage. Instead of handing over the whole pack to my mate, Adams, he had shared only half of it. And I was glad that my father did that. So, while partitioned, those who wanted to reside in my pack came here while the rest of them stayed in my father’s pack.

I remembered, that even Derek didn’t want to come and reside in this pack, away from his family but he couldn’t ignore his Beta duty which he had for me and my mate.

“Don’t worry. We will meet them at the party. I am sure they would be there too, after all, All the Alphas along with their Lunas and Beta will be there, at the party.”

“Well, I doubt that.”, He muttered. “My father had left the Beta position a few months before. Now the son of the old Gamma, Jasper, is the current beta of Blood Moon Pack.”

“In that case, we will pay them a visit.”, I said and kept this in my mind. “Now, Derek, I have seen you my whole life but I barely know a thing about you.”, I added.

I found myself wanting to know more.

‘When it comes to work, Derek is the best Beta among all the Betas of the packs. The best thing about him is that he knew how to act in which situation and he is a good listener. I am sure that he can lead the pack without Alpha's presence. It was Derek, who always interfered in the decisions taken by Adams, which were not right in many ways. If not him, I wonder what disaster Adams could have done because of his stupid decision.’

“That’s not part of your job to know me, Stacey. It’s part of my job to know you though.”, He smiled.

“I know, but I want to. I am enjoying spending time with you outside the packhouse. So, the plan is we will finish up dinner, and then we shall sit down with a glass of wine and you will share everything about yourself with me.”, I smiled, with a hope that he wouldn’t refuse my suggestion.

“Okay! But there is nothing much to share.”, He shrugged.

“Well, we will see.”, I winked.

“Now! Let me eat peacefully.”, He laughed, pointing toward his unfinished dinner.

“Yes, Sir.”, I grinned.

We both laughed together this time before we got back our meals. I smiled, seeing him enjoying the food.

“That was amazing!”, He gushed, lacing his fork and spoon down.

“I am glad that you enjoyed it.”, I smiled and saw him getting to his feet, grabbing the used plate, and heading over to the sink.

“Derek, what the…”, I quickly ran behind him when I realized what he was going to do. “You don’t have to wash the dishes.”

“Please Stacey, this is the least I can do after you fed me.”

“Nonsense, I will get them.”

He never listened. Instead, he filled the sink up and started washing all the dishes which I had used to prepare the dinner. I made my way to him, standing behind him. I tried to snatch the plates from him but I was small compared to his large figure.

“No!”, He said sternly, slapping my hand away.

“Please let me do this.”

“Nope! Now shoo and leave me to it.”, He said, looking over his shoulder at me.

“Make me?”, I smirked.

He turned around to face me and gave me a stern look. I walked backward when I found him approaching me until my body hit the kitchen counter. He placed both of his hands on either side of the waists. Our bodies were close. I didn’t know whether it was affecting him or not but I, on the other hand, was losing my insanity. He looked devilish handsome, and I could tell something was running in his mind.

“You are such a tiny baby in front of me. Do you really think that I can’t make you leave, huh?”, He smirked.

“Haww! You are calling me short. That’s mean.”. I said, pointing my finger on his chest and stepping closer to him, closing the small space between us. I wasn’t sure whether I was doing it right or not but I wanted to see whether he responds to me or not. In the same way, my body was responding to him being this close.

He quickly stepped away from me and cleared his throat. “I should get back to what I was doing.”, He muttered and got back to his work. I saw something in his eyes when he said that to me. I decided not to name it because I wasn’t sure until then. I let out a deep breath which I didn’t know I was holding in and sighed, pushing my hair behind my ears. I needed to stop thinking about all these things before I do something really stupid.

‘Alicia, why are you so silent?’, I asked my wolf.

‘Nothing, Stacey. I am...I am just missing my mate.’, She muttered sadly.

‘Hey! Don’t be sad. One day, we will get over this situation for sure.’

‘I hope so.’

#TBC