Sakura's P.O.V
"Are you two ready to get your own rooms?" Seth asks with a grin. "Is that even a question? You try sleeping on concrete for a week and some." Soren groans as she stretches from her cell. "It's about time we got a bed," I sorely get up from the floor. While we were able to visit Kate, we weren't permitted to sleep there.
It was a real bummer. Seth unlocks both our cells. "I am sorry it took so long," he grabs my hand. I shake my head. "It was out of your control. No need to apologize for that." He smiles at me. "You said something about a bed?" Soren says, interrupting our little moment. Seth sighs.
"Right." He leads us out of the dungeon and into the pack house. It is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. The first floor consists of a kitchen and a dining room. Tables and chairs were neatly set out, waiting for people to claim their seats. We go up the stairs. I look down at the cafeteria from the view the railing provided.
We take a left and go down a hall that is filled with rooms on every side. They are fairly spaced out so unless this place has thin walls I don't think we will be awoken by our neighbors. At the end of the hall, we take a right. We stop mid-way. He enters the room with a key and we are shown to a small room that consisted of a twin bed, a couch, and a mini tv.
As we go deeper into the room I see that it also provides a small bathroom that is linked to another room. "The room on the other side of the bathroom is Soren's. 'Does being the Beta's mate have any benefit? This room is for a toddler. You can't even fit onto a twin-sized bed.'
Soren says through the mind-link. 'It's better than a cell.'
'Is it though?' I roll my eyes at her comment but she wasn't wrong. I would have to cramp myself to fit into that bed. The cell had more room. You could not take more than five steps without already reaching the end of the room. I cringe at the thought of sleeping in the bed. The closet was miniature and couldn't hold more than three pairs of clothes and there were no drawers.
Soren's room was the same. "You're pulling our leg right?" Soren said to Seth. He clenched his teeth. "It was the best we could do in such little time. All of the other rooms are occupied. Some even have roommates." Then expand your building. For a high-ranking pack, they certainly didn't act like one. It wasn't like they didn't have the money.
Soren sighs. "Whatever," she flops on the bed that barely contains half her body. "Do you have no other bed at least?" We were going to be more sore trying to fit into the bed than we would be on concrete. He grimaces at the bed, seeing just how small it was when Soren laid on it.
"Unfortunately, no" I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's fine. You did your best." He reaches for my hand and lays his on mine. A pillow makes contact with Seth's face. "Make puppy eyes in Sakura's room. By the way, when are we going to eat?"
A vein pops out of Seth's head. He takes a deep breath. "In a minute. The chefs are cooking something up."
"I would certainly hope you aren't talking about the same chefs who made our first batch of eggs when we first arrived."
"Can't you be grateful you at least had something to eat? Surely it's better than the dirt you ate before arriving here." Soren scoffs.
"Do you think you are some hero? You took two rouges off the street and prevented them from starving so they have to accept your nasty food because surely they had worse." Soren sits up and walks over to Seth. "While I appreciate the thought of someone making food for us, I would rather eat the 'dirt' I had before." Soren smiles.
"I am not saying that," Seth grips my hand. "Then what are you trying to imply, because it sounds to me that you think everything here is above us. We told you we lived most of our lives as humans. They have great food and better eggs. I am not trying to come off as ungrateful I'm just saying that I am sure no other wolf here gets that kind of food. They did a lousy job because they didn't think we were worth the effort.
And while we were in a dungeon they very well knew we weren't criminals."
"Enough," I say. "Remember our terms?" I ask Seth. I don't wait for a reply and continue. "You two need to get along. And the perfect way to do that is for both of you to go on a date."
Seth looks at me in disbelief. "Relax. Consider it more of a hang-out. You two have to spend the rest of the day together."
"Sakura-" I cut Soren off. "It's final." I go behind Seth and push him out of the room and do the same to Soren. I take the keys from his hand, smile, then close the door.
Soren's P.O.V
You cannot be serious. I don't give Seth a second look and head down the hall and out of the pack house. He scurries after me. "Where are you going?" he asks me. "Somewhere,"
"Do you always have to be so difficult?"
"I am not being difficult. I genuinely don't know where I am going all I know is that I am going somewhere. Preferably somewhere without you." I roll my eyes. "That defeats the entire purpose of this." I stop in my tracks and turn around abruptly. Seth stands directly in front of me without any breathing room. He backs up when he realizes I stopped.
"And this is? What, a hangout? A date? We both know this is never going to work. Do you want to know why?" He clenches his fists and nods.
"Because somewhere in your heart you feel you are superior to us. Because you have electricity and food at your beck and call, you feel you are better than those who don't. That we should be grateful because you at least offered. So when we are 'ungrateful' it's disrespectful to you.
What is disrespectful to me is when your chefs make something for me with the least amount of effort possible because they don't feel the need to try. After all, we should be grateful for the tiniest bit." I turn around and keep walking. "I am sorry," I hear him say from behind me. "I shouldn't have acted like that. I was raised better."
I look over my shoulder to see him looking at the ground in shame. I redirect my head to the area in front of me and keep walking. "Are you coming or not?" I ask without looking back.
I don't need to look back to tell that he is surprised. His footsteps catch up to mine. We keep walking into the woods. "So, what is your favorite color?" Seriously? This is what we were going to do? I had to give credit where credit is due. He is trying. "Purple,"
"Mine is orange," I nod my head. "Have you had any relationships?" That went from one to one hundred quick. "I've had one,"
"How did it turn out?"
"He's dead," I said bitterly. I heard him gulp from behind. "You're clearly trying hard so I will give you this. Don't mention anything about family or friends. Not even romantic relationships."
"Okay," he said solemnly.
Seth's P.O.V
How did her boyfriend die? Why did he die? Was it a girl? She doesn't seem to swing that way though. Every bit of Sakura and Soren's past is dark and bleak. They have never met their parents, their brother mysteriously left, and both people in their relationship seemed to have passed. "Did you hear me?" Soren asks. "Uh, sorry no," she huffs. "How did you become Beta?"
"Ranor is like a big brother to me. He personally trained me and knows he can always trust me with anything." She hums.
"That's good. An alpha should trust his Beta on a personal level." This surprised me. I have gotten a lot of comments saying I am only Beta because Ranor fancies me. While it is true that Ranor and I are close on a personal level, he would never pick me if he didn't think I was ready.
"Sakura keeps telling me that you are really sweet and kind, but no offense, I am finding that hard to believe." To my surprise, she laughs. "She is my little sister, I raised her. Of course, she is going to think that. Especially when I was all she had." They must be as close as Ranor and I. Possibly even more.
"Why don't you like to show that side to others?" she frowns. "I am afraid to care for others. When I did that, they died. But that is the thing. You can't help who you feel for. No matter how much you want to deny the feeling." She says with a straight face but I can see the pain in her eyes.
"People like you usually don't admit something like that." she scoffs. "I may not always like what I am feeling but I am aware of them regardless. You asked me a genuine question so you got a genuine answer. I am not as complex as you may think." I consider her words.
"I am sorry you had to go through that."
"Don't be. I enjoyed those moments and will always treasure them forever." She keeps the same straight face but her eyes are bitter-sweet. "We are going to see a waterfall soon." Her head snaps toward me and her eyes shine.
"Are you serious?" I have never seen her this...happy. I nod my head at a loss for words. "How come I don't hear it? Or smell it?"
"It is concealed. It's in a cave so it masks the scent and the rocks it is surrounded by muffles the sound." she grabs my hand and starts to run. "Then why are we walking? Let's go!" She takes me by surprise when she starts sprinting away. I give her directions and we run until we stand in front of a cave.
"These rocks conceal a lot of noise. Even standing directly in front of it I can barely hear anything." I nod my head in agreement. "It's great for extracurricular activities. If you know what I mean." I wiggle my eyebrows. I don't know how she would react but I am hoping to keep the mood going.
Her face deadpans. I try to keep a smile but I fall into shock after she says, "Pig," and walks in without another glance at me. I stay at the entrance, stunned. I finally shake my head and run in after her.
I watch her watch the waterfall as the crystals shine in the cave. Her eyes held so much emotion until they eventually pooled with tears and she started...crying. I instantly ran toward her. "Are you okay?" I reach for her but she slaps my hand away and turns around. "I'm fine," she says, her voice thick with emotion.
I put my hand on her back. "Do you want to go back?"
"Why would I want to go back?"
"Because you're crying,"
"I'm not crying! I said...I'm fine...I'm fine. Drop it." Unsure of what to do or where we are at, I decide to not touch her. "Hug me and comfort me dammit!"
"You just told me to drop it!"
"Yeah, as in don't talk about it!" She turned to face me and rammed into my chest. The waterfall masks the sounds of her crying as she shakes in my arms. I slowly bring us down onto the floor. We sit there with her shaking in my arms, the noise of the waterfall surrounding us as the cave shines its beautiful crystals.