The Chef's Sick Mate (Book 17 of the Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 31

Gen's eyes snapped open and she sat up in bed. Where was she? She looked around the room and it all flooded back. Regal Eclipse. The pack she was about to join.

Her eyes widened. She was about to join a pack. A werewolf pack. She shook her head in amazement at how quickly her life had changed in the last few months. From feeling like she could barely making it a few hours without a nap, and pretty sure she'd never see her next birthday to feeling like she had so much energy she could burst.

Her gaze darted to the time and she saw that it was 8:30 in the morning. 7:30 if she was still at home. Breakfast would be served in a half hour. She needed to get up and get ready. She couldn't be late.

Gen got out of bed and hurried into the bathroom, letting her mind wander back to the dream she'd just had. She'd been having the same one every night since Ana and Aidan showed up at their house. The same man was in it, the one Jules insisted was their mate.

He was gorgeous. Beautiful. She couldn't believe a man that looked like that was her mate. Except that he probably wasn't that hot in person. She was probably mixing him up with her book boyfriends. But last night in the dining room ... How many of those men has been extremely hot? All of them. It was intimidating, and made her unsure that she actually wanted to stay here.

Jules was excited about the dreams. Gen not so much. She wasn't putting any stock into it either, or at least not into the way he had looked. Dreams were just that. Dreams. And apparently her love of reading about hot men in her romance novels had leaked over into her subconscious and made her dream that she was mated to one. She'd conjured up an absolutely beautiful man for herself.

Though part of her wondered why in the world she hadn't dreamed about herself actually doing something interesting with him. Instead, he always just studied her with those intense blue eyes of his before he turned around and walked away. Like he wasn't interested in her.

That had to be it. She'd convinced herself that no man would be interested enough in her to actually want to kiss her, have sex with her, or be with her for any real length of time, and her mate would be no exception. She doubted the mate bond worked in real life like it did in the books. That was highly unlikely.

It just couldn't be like that. He would be like the man in her dream. He'd take one look at her, then turn around and walk away. Maybe that's what the dream was. A way to prepare her for what was to come. She'd be fine though. Or at least she was good at lying about it. She'd survived all this other crap. She could survive a rejection. She would survive it.

Gen sighed. She really wanted a chance to talk to her sister. Alone. She wanted to ask her a bunch of questions. But Ana was wrapped up with Aidan, and Gen could hardly blame her. Aidan was gorgeous too.

Once she was dressed, she pulled her hair back into a bun, amazed she actually could. At least like this, it looked halfway normal. She found a hair tie buried in the bottom of her bag and carefully secured it. She pulled a few wispy ends loose and thought she looked halfway decent. The one good thing was that her face had filled out. She no longer looked like the walking dead. Her cheeks weren't sunken anymore and she no longer has dark circles under her eyes. Maybe once she joined the pack, she could sort of trust her body to hold down food and she could actually eat more.

Gen walked over and grabbed her phone. Her mother had left her a message.

Headed down to the dining hall. You were still in the shower. See you there.

She wouldn't like the fact that Gen was running late. Gen sighed softly. She hadn't meant to sleep in. She probably needed to set an alarm. She was so used to waking up whenever she felt like it. She opened the door to her room and was immediately hit in the face by something that smelled amazing. She stopped, standing there for a moment, and breathing it in. What the heck was that, and where was it coming from? Not the direction of the dining hall, that was for sure.

She stood there for a moment, debating what to do as she breathed in that scent. It smelled so freaking good. But she should probably just head for the dining hall. She was already late. Gen debated for a moment, then gave in. She turned to the left instead of to the right, following her nose.

Her sense of smell was much better now than it had ever been before. Sometimes it was a blessing; sometimes a curse. Right now, she wasn't sure what it was. She supposed if she got in trouble, it was most definitely a curse today. But Aidan had said they could go wherever they wanted.

Jules sat up in her mind, her bushy tail swishing back and forth as she waited to see what the scent led to. Gen could feel her excitement, though it barely registered in her mind.

Genevieve came to a stop in front of a large door, and stood there for a moment, staring at it and debating what to do. It was a swinging door. She carefully eased it open, and peeked inside.

The kitchen. Gen poked her head inside and glanced around. There were three women and two men inside making breakfast. None of them were paying the least bit of attention to her.

She let the door close again and sighed softly in disappointment. Of course something from there smelled good. She rolled her eyes at herself, then turned and headed back down the hall to the dining hall. Well at least now she knew where the kitchen was.

She wondered if maybe she could help out in there. It was one thing she could do. She liked cooking. It might be the one positive thing she could do for this pack. The one thing of value she could bring. Maybe. She was willing to learn. But she needed to join the pack first. Right now she was just a rogue.

***

Lincoln's gaze snapped up as the scent of something amazing hit him straight in the face, stronger than the hashbrowns he was in the middle of frying up. He turned and  glanced at the swinging door, and saw it moving slightly. His gaze darted around the kitchen, but there was no one new, and the scent had already started to fade some among all the other strong scents in the kitchen.

He'd started coming down here every morning to help with breakfast, settling into a routine. It made him feel useful around the pack since he wasn't a liaison and still single. It also was a distraction. A much needed one. He could concentrate on something he loved and debate on whether or not he wanted to take over this kitchen temporarily. He was still up in the air about it, mostly because of his job and his mate.

He knew at some point though, he had to give Brianna an answer. If he told her no, she needed to have time to find someone else. But he was honored that she trusted him enough to ask him first.

The kitchen was full now, with three women and two men that had showed up to help out. Some of them were in the dining hall, keeping the buffet full and neat. Brianna was over at the stove, stirring the gravy, while he worked at finishing up the hashbrowns on the griddle. It was the one thing that stopped him from going to the door and looking to see what that scent was, though the more he thought about, he began to think he'd probably imagined it.

"Linc?"

His gaze darted up to Brianna.

"Can you take those down to the dining hall as soon as they're finished?"

"Yeah, not a problem," he answered, turning back to the griddle. He was cooking two separate piles. One on the well done side of the cooking spectrum and one not so much. He preferred the well done ones personally.

The moment they were done, he pulled them off the griddle and into one of the serving pans, then placed the cover over it. He turned and headed out of the kitchen and into the dining hall.