The sickened luna’s last chance

Chapter 177

Ella

I couldn’t help but laugh at Alexander’s declaration about cooking all of my meals. The man who had barely shared a meal with me, let alone set foot in our kitchen during our entire five–year marriage, was now planning to become my personal chef for the remainder of my pregnancy.

“Alexander,” I blurted out, “When was the last time you actually cooked something?”

He paused in the doorway, one hand on the frame. There was no hiding the way the tips of his ears reddened slightly. “Define… cooking.”

“Making food. From scratch. With ingredients.”

“Well…” He ran a hand through his red hair, looking almost sheepish. “I can make coffee. And toast.”

“Toast.”

“Really good toast,” he insisted, which only made me laugh harder.

“Alexander, you don’t have to do this. Lilith can keep cooking for me, and we’ll just figure out where the mercury came from—”

“No.” The intensity in his voice took me by surprise. “I need to do this, Ella. I need to know that what you’re eating is safe.” He paused, and for a moment, the air was tight. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen him so… protective of me.

It was for the baby, of course. But it was still sweet.

“But you’re right,” he admitted. “I’ve never had to do much cooking for myself. As an Alpha, there were always servants around, people to take care of things like that.”

There was something almost vulnerable about the admission, and it made my laughter turn into a quiet

smile.

“I’m determined to learn, though. For our baby. For you.”

The sincerity in his green gaze made my wolf purr with satisfaction. Lilith’s hand tightened around my arm, and when I met her eyes, I thought I saw a hint of something that looked like a halfway point between amusement and tenderness there.

A few minutes later, I found myself perched on a stool at the kitchen island, watching Alexander stare at a collection of ingredients. He’d rolled up his sleeves in that way that I always liked, and was furrowing his brow. He and Lilith had both tried to get me to rest on the couch, but I couldn’t help but want to watch.

“You’ve been staring at the spice rack for fifteen minutes,” I snorted.

shot me a sideways look. “I’m

“Formulating what, exactly?”

of penne.

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wolf chuckled. I held back a laugh in response to her quip as I watched him fill a pot with water and place it on the

to add salt to the water,”

“Salt?”

while it cooks. Makes

nodded seriously and grabbed the salt shaker, dumping what looked like half of it

get up from my stool, but

got it

I’m the

a look that was half annoyance, half amusement.

help but let out a

next twenty minutes, I watched Alexander cook. He managed to get the pasta cooking without any major disasters, and moved on to

I repeated, watching him open four different

make it look easy,” Alexander

been watching cooking

cheeks reddened again. “It’s a guilty

didn’t know you even had any guilty

garlic clove with the flat side

shrugged. “You just never struck me as much of

there’s a lot you don’t know

over the sound of sizzling as he dumped a can of tomatoes into the

to what Liam had said earlier about doing something daring, thinking of myself for once, and just fucking talking to

been easy here, in

it was so fucking scary. And in a stupid way, I hated the thought of potentially ruining

that I kept finding myself slipping into. The one where this was real, where Alexander

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Chapter 177