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Theodore nodded, gripping the sofa for dear life in an attempt to prevent himself from launching at the alpha and climbing him like a tree.
“Okay,” Royce said. “I’ll get it cooking so we can eat before Dr. Shera comes for your checkup.”
Chapter twenty-four
Theodore
Now he had to admit it, Royce was a decent cook. The zucchini chili was superb and paired well with the loaf of crusty bread he’d picked up from the store. After Theodore polished off two bowls and took his stomach medicine, he snagged his cookies and was curled up on the sofa in his nest of blankets.
What he really wanted was to beg Royce to manhandle him again. But Theodore didn’t think he could take the embarrassment for a second time that day.
After hours of talking about anything but Theodore’s heat, they both ended up where they had been the previous night. Royce lying on the floor in front of the sofa while Theodore was hunkered in his nest.
“Royce, what do you do?” Theodore asked.
“I’m an enforcer.”
“No, I know that, I mean what do you do when you aren’t being an enforcer.”
“Not much … I sometimes volunteer at the firehouse or the conservation center.”
“Oh come on, you’ve gotta have more than that. Friends, hobbies, anything.”
“Not really.”
“What? You’ve lived in Elk Cove for how long and you expect me to believe you don’t have any friends?”
“I don’t have friends.”
Theodore scoffed. “You’ve had no less than three alphas drop off food and clean laundry while you were here, and you’re trying to tell me you don’t have friends?”
“Well, maybe for their part they think we’re friends. But I prefer to keep everyone at an arm’s length. It’s just easier that way.”
“You don’t seem to want to keep me at arm’s length.”
“That’s different,” Royce said. “You, your presence in my life, are a gift from the fates. Why would I want to ignore that?”
Theodore blushed. Royce hardly knew him, and yet the alpha was ready and willing to place Theodore’s existence on a pedestal and worship him.
“It’s not that I hate them. I just tend to avoid gatherings and my neighbors.”
“Why?” Theodore asked.
“I don’t really see the point. I’ve tried in the past. I’d go on trail hikes or cookouts or whatever it was, but everyone else around me always seemed so happy, so fulfilled. And I wasn’t. I just didn’t fit in. Besides, everyone leaves eventually, so what’s the point of getting close to them.”
Theodore scowled at the ceiling. He was sure this attitude was the result of Royce losing his family and then being in the system for years. How many different homes had he been to before he aged out? It had to have been quite a few for him to have this outlook.
“What about the military? Do you keep in contact with any of your old service buddies? Isn’t that a thing?”
“Most of them are dead.”
“Is that why you left? You mentioned you left the military the second your contract was up.”
“No, I left because nothing shows you how corrupt your government is like working for them.” Royce rolled to his side so he was facing Theodore’s profile. “Pay wouldn’t come through, or at the correct amount, you’d get these terrible orders that everyone knew were bad, either logistically, structurally, or plain suicide missions, and we’d have no choice but to follow because some bureaucrat somewhere decided it was a good idea. You’d have politicians pitting people after each other because of their parties and using our deaths as leverage, when in reality behind closed doors, they’re all working the same angle. I was just sick of being a pawn. Most of my buddies died after they got out.”
“Why?”
“They couldn’t adjust. Fell into liquor, bad habits, there’s a litany of problems that come with leaving the service. Of course the military and government always promise help and all that, but when you need it, you find no one’s actually there because alphas are supposed to be strong and resilient. Nothing’s supposed to bother us, so we aren’t supposed to need help or ask for it.”
