Ice Blue [ Book One ]

11 // Apologies

I twirled spaghetti on my plate, eyeing it with distaste and not once did my stomach twinge with the feeling of hunger. I had already eaten an entire two plates — unusual for shifters. Four plates were the minimum healthy amount. Two plates was considered unhealthy, it doesn't give our body the vitamins, energy, and calories we need. Meals need to be eaten in the larger amounts. I was eating the human regiment size, which is not good for me.

"I'm not leaving this spot until you finish that plate," my brooding mate growled from across the table, his brown eyes burning into me.

"Guess we'll be here a while, then," I murmured, pressing the pad of my thumb to the top of the sterling silver fork and gazing blankly at the table beneath the plate.

Another growl echoed across the table and I did my best to ignore it. If Princeton was going to be a man-child [ he's been acting like this all day ], then I'll surely act like a child as well. When he matures, I will as well.

"Rivera, you've lost too much weight to be considered a healthy shifter," Princeton ground out, his tone causing me to allow my eyes to lazily drift up to him. He was glaring at me, his nostrils flaring with frustration, and his hands clutching the end of the table. "You will finish that plate, then you can go back to this stupid thing you've been doing."

The words took a second to register, but when they did I saw red. "Are you being serious?" My head snapped up quicker than it had in a few weeks. It made my head hurt. "Please tell me you're being an asshole to get my attention — because you did not just say that to me."

His lack of response was all the answer I needed. A little growl rose in my throat. Even Feline was pissed, and pissing her off was a hard thing to do. "You have no right to try and tell me what to do, how I do it, and when I do it. I am not an object for you to own, possess, and control. So take your orders, Alpha, and kindly stick them up your ass."

Silence was what his response was, besides his heavy breathing from across the table. It did not take a smart person to understand that he was trying to rein his wolf in. "Rivera, you're acting like a child," he eventually got out. "You're acting like a child who did not get what she wanted, so she's lashing out. You're being stupid, immature, and frankly I'm done trying to prove myself to you. I have apologized to my fullest extent, and yet you sit around and wallow over your losses instead of trying to move on. My pack has been nothing but welcoming, my family has treated you like your own, and you take it for granted. Grow. Up."

I snapped.

I heard the shatter of a plate and felt stinging in my hand. Glancing down carelessly, I realize my fist had curled and smashed the plate into shards - some of which were dug into my hand and caused bleeding. I didn't care.

"You have the audacity," I snarled, standing up from the table with my fist still curled, "to lecture me like I am but a mere cub who has yet to see her first shift? You have the goddamn balls to look at me in the eye and tell me I am immature and need to grow up?" I stepped forward, watching his gaze flicker with the settlement of his words. Now he had to face the result of them. "Your pack has been less than welcoming. They have made it very clear where I came from and that you are the only reason I have safety here. If it were up to them, I'd be gone or dead. Your sister? She wants my heart in her jaws, but you can totally overlook that, too." I was getting angrier.

Princeton moves and stands as well, keeping a careful distance from me. His eyes are flaming, but mine hold hellfire. "Your apologies are but words that leave your mouth to make you feel better about yourself. This dinner was the closet thing to sincere apology I have seen. You think "I'm sorry" and a kiss on the cheek will fix how your leaving made me feel? I felt abandoned again, Princeton, just as I was settling in." My injured hand clenched tighter, digging the shards of the plate deeper into my skin. "A phone call would have satisfied me for Christ's sake! You left me alone! And all you had to say was "I'm sorry", and believe that it would forever make things better? You're stupid! Stupid!"