Rite of Submission - Rite 1

45: Sophie

  "Took you two long enough," Sophie complained, crossing her arms over her chest.

He held up his hands in surrender, "It wasn't my fault this time." He walked past me, pinching my ass as he went, making me yelp and jump up. "Don't frown like that," he chided her, "you'll give yourself wrinkles."

She accepted his forehead kiss and tried to smooth out her features. "Well, seem to be in a good mood this morning, and at least you don't look like you just rolled out of bed," she looked me over, making me blush. She shot him another accusing look. "Ok, you two, what am I missing?"

He smiled like the cat that ate the canary, "I'm sure that I don't know what you mean," he pulled my chair out, "Lexi?" he gestured at the empty chair. I couldn't look her in the eye as I made my way to the table and let him push in my chair for me. He left a soft kiss on my shoulder before sitting down beside me and pouring us each a mug of coffee. "You'll catch a fly if you stay like that long enough," he teased. She snapped her mouth shut and joined us at the table.

"Did you have any problems filling in for me yesterday?" he kicked off the usual conversation of pack business. I tried to follow along this time. If I was going to stay and be his mate for the foreseeable future, I should be able to help him as much as Sophie did. Most of what they talked about was Lupercalia, something that had always been a small thing for my family when I was growing up. We couldn't really follow traditions while living among humans.

Sophie seemed to be watching us like a hawk the whole time. She still held up her end of the conversation but I could tell that what they talked about was not what was on her mind at the moment. When Nathan came to collect Dmitri, he excused himself, leaning down to give me one last kiss before leaving. As soon as the door closed behind them, she exploded, "What the hell was that!?!" She stared at me across the table.

I shrugged. "I thought you wanted us to get along," I tried not to smile.

"I did, I mean I do but," she stared at the door for a moment, "I'm starting to think you really are replacing him one piece at a time," she joked. I just shrugged, not sure what to say or how much to tell her. "Did he seriously just hold your hand while we were eating?" I blushed, and nodded. He had seemed to try to keep some kind of physical contact through the whole meal, even holding my hand at one point. "Dmitri doesn't do touchy feely stuff like that, ever." She giggled, "Did you make another deal I need to..." A knock on the door, interrupted her train of thought, "Come in."

"Good morning, Luna. Luna Vicaria." Candice greeted us; wearing an expression that looked like she'd sucked on a lemon, and a tight sweater dress that hit her mid thigh. "Does this outfit meet your standards?" Sophie coughed, choking on the mouthful of coffee she'd just swallowed.

"No," I frowned at her, "I shouldn't be able to tell that you're not wearing a bra, and I shouldn't be able to see up your dress if there's a breeze." I smiled as her face turned red and her hands balled up into fists.

"Yes, Luna," she ground out, before storming out of the room.

"Holy shit!" Sophie breathed, "He? You? Did you? You didn't." She took a breath, "I need details."

I tried not to blush as I figured out what to say. As much as I hated the idea of keeping things from her, I agreed with Dmitri's that we shouldn't worry her if I didn't have to. I couldn't tell her about all the weird, unexplainable things that were happening to me. But I had to say something now, his behavior this morning left me with no choice about that. "We came to an understanding," it sounding like I was asking her, rather than telling her.