Cold Flames

Strawberries and French .17.

.November.

Gracie returned while I was cradling my plate of pancakes with Darla nowhere in sight. At my questioning gaze, she explained, "She's having a nap."

"Isn't it a b-bit early for a n-nap?"

Gracie giggled, "The princess gets what the princess wants."

She made her way opposite me on the counter and I suppressed a moan as I chewed on the fluffy pancakes. Miss Iris was an extraordinary cook.

Gracie watched me eat quietly and I felt extremely awkward. I stopped chewing for a moment and purposely avoided her gaze. She smiled softly to herself and muttered under her breath, probably not for me to hear, "Just like she described."

My ears perked up at that. Did someone here actually know me? I pretended I hadn't heard and ignored what she said, looking down at my plate which was already half empty.

"So how old are you?"

"Twenty one. Y-you?"

"Twenty three, a year younger than Hunter and three years younger than Jace. Birthday?"

"20th of March."

"Cool, I was actually born in November," she gave me a cheeky smile. That means her birthday is a little less than a month away.

"I w-was conceived in Nov-November."

I was grateful for her trying to make small talk with me and I could tell she was subtly trying to put me at ease which I was thankful for.

I swallowed another piece of pancake and this time, I couldn't keep my moan in. Gracie smiled in understanding which made sense since she had eaten the same thing for breakfast.

"Miss Iris, your cooking s-skills are amazing!" I complimented her from my seat, licking the homemade syrup off my fork.

"Thank you sweetie! Mamma's secret recipe."

I nodded and took another mouthful of my food. It was pure bliss. The only thing missing were some strawberries.

Gracie and I picked up our conversation from where we left off. Soon enough, we were talking like old friends with Miss Iris included in some topics and I noticed how Gracie purposely included her in the conversation.

At my old Pack, nobody gave Melissa or the rest of the caretakers the time of day, but here I was in the Brown Haze Pack where the wife of a Beta was laughing and conversing with a mere caretaker. Astounding.

I felt myself loosen up and become less awkward and stiff with my replies. Gracie did most of the talking however between the three of us but I really didn't mind. I was just glad that when I took the bold leap of inputting my own comments on certain topic and sharing some stories of mine, though they were few, she had listened and hadn't shut me down or spoken over me which had happened to me a lot.

Gracie's eyes were twinkling and I found myself choking on air due to my uncontrollable laughter accompanied with Miss Iris's when she told us about how Jace had reacted on her due date for Darla.

"So he a-actually told you to stop pus-pushing so he could get a club sandwich?"

Gracie nodded and we all burst out in outrageous laughter, but in a way I could definitely see Jace in that position. His wife was already 9.5 cm dilated after nineteen hours and he asked her not to push so he could get breakfast, claiming he didn't want to miss the big entry.

"Immediately I got Gracie out, I called him sweetly to the bed and when he was close enough, I pulled his ear and gave him a hard knock on the head, I swear he almost cried. Do not ever get a pregnant or a woman in labor angry."