I sat on the low couch near the cold hearth, my arm wrapped in bandages, my face drained of color. He didn't even notice.
"Did you eat?" he asked flatly, pouring himself a drink. His tone carried no warmth. No concern. Just the clipped authority of an Alpha addressing a subordinate.
I raised my bandaged hand and showed him the stitches. "The healer said I need to avoid certain foods while this mends."
His brows drew together slightly. His gaze flickered to the bandage but did not linger. "Then make something that suits you."
I nodded, pulling out my phone to order something from the trading post's delivery runners.
Seeing me act so detached, so devoid of the warmth I had once shown him freely, Caspian paused. His glass hovered in midair, halfway to his lips. Something shifted behind his eyes, though I could not tell if it was his wolf stirring or merely irritation at my silence.
"Is your next check-up with the healer in three days? Do you need someone to go with you?"
"No need," I replied, my voice flat and hollow.
"Suit yourself," he muttered, draining the last of the amber liquid from his glass.
Minutes later, his phone buzzed against the stone countertop. The instant his gaze fell on the name glowing across the screen, something shifted in his face. A small smile curved the corner of his lips. The kind of smile I had been starving for across eight long years.
Later, as I padded past the guest chamber on the second floor of the pack estate, his voice drifted through the heavy oak door.
"Don't worry, Scarlett. This one's on me. I'll make it up to you tomorrow," he said, his tone warm and impossibly tender.
It was a tone I had never once heard him use for me.
The only smiles Caspian Thornecrest had ever offered me were mocking ones, sharp as bared fangs, whenever his temper flared. Beyond those, he was nothing but cold distance and silence.
But it didn't matter anymore. I refused to let it matter. The next morning, I prepared breakfast for one.
The air inside the pack estate hung heavy and still. There was a stark contrast to the usual crackling tension that saturated the den of Caspian Thornecrest, Alpha of the Thornecrest Pack.
Without delay, I plated a simple sandwich and poured a cup of black coffee. Just enough for me.