"Take a picture, it'll last longer," I said, crumbs spraying down my front.
A chunk of Pop-Tart broke off, and I missed my lunge and watched it hit the floor. The surprisingly clean floor, except for the bits I'd dropped in the last few minutes.
The hardwood boards were a bit scratched up, but Lucian obviously swept them often. Oops.
He huffed. "Pretty sure I'll have all the opportunities I need to look at you, now that we're mated for life."
He didn't sound like he was looking forward to it.
"Way to bring down the mood, Lucian." I shoved the last of the Pop-Tart into my mouth as obnoxiously as I could. A few more crumbs pattered down onto the floor, and I didn't feel guilty this time.
Lucian grumbled something I didn't catch, shoved the door back into place, giving it a lift and a tug, and crossed the room to drop onto the scuffed leather couch set across from the bed.
The space in between was bare except for another overturned milk crate doubling as a table. Not a rug, not a TV, nothing.
A long sigh was my only answer.
Lucian scrubbed his hands over his face and fell back in a graceless sprawl, legs akimbo and head tipped back.
"Where were you today?"
I hadn't really meant to ask; it just popped out. And I couldn't have sounded more like a bored and jealous husband if I'd tried.
Clearly Lucian agreed. He cracked one eye open to peer at me and said, "Talking to Jace. We just fucked a couple of hours ago. Miss me already?"
Anger boiled up in a sudden burst, taking me a little by surprise.
"Go fuck yourself," I snarled, pissed that I'd sounded so needy and pissed at him for noticing, and hell, pissed at everything.
But why shouldn't I be pissed off? I was kidnapped. And now I was mated.
This sucked.
"Maybe you could've, I don't know, stuck around for five fucking minutes to make sure I wasn't dead? Or gone grocery shopping once in the past decade?"
"With what, magic beans?" he shot back, baring his teeth. "You may have noticed I'm not exactly rolling in it. Sorry to disappoint you, sweetheart, but if you were looking to sponge off the Reese pack for the rest of your life, you fucked up."
That sarcastic, hostile sweetheart hurt like hell.
Figured, that the first time anyone ever called me that, he didn't mean it.
"Maybe you shouldn't have blown the whole month's budget on salon shampoo, then! And 'sponge off the pack'? Are you out of your mind? I didn't want to mate with you in the first place!"
"Yeah, well, neither did I, and the stupid shampoo was my Christmas present from my mom. She wanted me to take care of myself and have something nice for once.
Also she probably thinks I'd stand a better chance of giving her some grandkids someday if women think I smell good."
Lucian jumped to his feet and leaned over the kitchen island, which might have been a comforting barrier if I hadn't known he could be over it and have his teeth in my throat in two seconds.
"But I guess that plan's off the table since you were stupid enough to get yourself kidnapped and then convince Jace to make it my problem!"
His voice had risen to a shout, his eyes were glowing, and if I hadn't already been braced against the sink, I'd have stumbled backwards.
I had clenched my hands around the edge of the counter, though, hard enough that my fingers were losing sensation.
My heart was beating hard enough to jump out, and I couldn't get a full breath even though I was panting.
Stupid fight or flight.
I hated being a coward, I really did. But the way he looked right then, a flicker of a whisker away from wolfing out completely and ripping my entrails out, I couldn't blame myself too much.
"Maybe," I whispered, and then swallowed hard, licked my lips, tried to fill my lungs. "Maybe we should both take it down a notch."
Lucian didn't move, didn't speak, but the gold slowly faded out of his eyes, leaving nothing but human blue.
He moved back. Not much, but enough that I could relax a tiny bit.
At long last, he said, "You're right. We're stuck with each other." He sounded wondering, as if he'd only that moment realized it. "We're stuck with each other," he repeated, and that time he just sounded fucking depressed.
"Yeah. We are." I relaxed a bit more. Not going to be eviscerated this time, it seemed.
"Okay." He blew out a long breath. "I can try to be polite if you can. But." He fixed me with a steely look. "If you get Pop-Tart crumbs in the bed, I'll rip your fucking throat out."
Okay, and that was the second time in a day he'd almost shown a sense of humor. I was starting to wonder if I should be looking for an empty pod out behind the shack.
For once, I kept that thought to myself. Tact! I had it!
"Yeah, and if you go get some actual food and turn on a heater in here, maybe I won't have to huddle under the blankets and gnaw on toaster pastries to survive."
So maybe tact was overstating it.
"Fuck you, Landon," he said, but without heat. It sounded mostly like a reflex response. "I'll go raid the pack house."
"Please bring back something that used to be in a grocery store, and not in a wild animal," I said, trying not to sound too pitiful. "You know. Something that humans eat."
"Humans eat deer," he grumbled, and made for the door, but I thought I saw a trace of a smile.
Would wonders never cease?
He wrenched the door open again, and as he put a foot outside the conversation rewound in my head until...
"Wait, why would you care if I got crumbs in the bed? We're not sharing that bed!"
Lucian turned his head enough to glare at me over his shoulder. "It's the only bed, princess."
And with that, he walked out, slamming the door behind him.
I slumped back against the counter and stared morosely at the only bed — the full-size bed, that Lucian probably didn't even fit on alone without his feet hanging off.
It was going to be a long rest of my life.