What We Left Unsaid

“Why aren’t you out on the run?”

A delicately trimmed eyebrow arched in return, eyes giving a single, pointed sweep over the man before her. She didn’t need to say anything to make her point.

“Kettle: pot, right?” the man returned with a nod, sighing a bit as he lifted a hand to run through his hair. He took a moment to search through the cupboards and fish out a cup before he glanced back up at the still-watching woman. “You want me to come out and say it, don’t you? Fine: I didn’t want to deal with all of the stupid fucking comments from the guys. Happy?”

The tilt of the head and the sad frown that appeared on the woman’s face told the man she was anything but. “I’m sorry for all of that.”

Green eyes glanced up through thick lashes and thick framed glasses, considering the woman for a moment before he turned away from her and went over to retrieve the milk from the refrigerator. “You didn’t mock me; you have nothing to be sorry about,” he said simply.

“No,” the woman quietly agreed, “but that doesn’t make me not sorry. I just... We don’t talk much.” She paused, a smile spreading over her lips as the man turned to her and arched two telling eyebrows. “I just want you to know that you can talk to me if you ever want to.”

The man gave a soft snort of a laugh, replacing the milk jug and closing the refrigerator door. He took a moment to lift the glass to his lips before he responded to her. “I know, Kat. Thank you,” he told her softly, before taking a few more sips from the glass. As he set it on the counter beside him, he let his lips twitch up into a sideways smile, arms crossing in front of him and body leaning against the counter. “What, do you want me to vent my soul to you now? I can get all over-dramatic for you and lay down on a couch and tell you all about my mother.”

That had the redhead laughing in return, eyes twinkling even as they rolled skyward. “Another time, perhaps.”

The guitarist snorted in response, opening his mouth to comment, but getting cut off when his ears picked up the sound of heavy pawsteps. He caught the sympathetic look that was sent his way just before the kitchen was suddenly flooded with six canine figures, but he chose to pretend he didn’t, instead reaching for his glass again and focusing on that.

It wasn’t long at all until all of the wolves had disappeared again, undoubtedly heading town the halls to shift and change. While he used the silence that followed as an opportunity to down the last of his drink and drop the glass into the dishwasher, the woman only pursed her lips and watched him.

“Stop staring at me with that look on your face, Kat.”

“What do you want for dinner tonight, Zacky?”

The Italian arched a brow, standing back up and lifting a hand to tap his glasses back into place. “Pity dinner? That’s new,” he commented, only to huff out a sigh when the woman only kept staring at him. “Fine, fine. How about that weird chicken dish you make so well?”

“The ‘weird chicken dish’? Which of my personal recipes is ‘weird’?”

The words brought a smile to the man’s lips again, causing him to snort in amusement and give his head a shake, which he was sure was the woman’s plan in the first place. “Don’t look at me like that, you know what I meant. The exotic chicken one; you know which one I’m talking about!”

“Oh, hey! The weird chicken dish? Is that what we’re having for dinner? Dude, I love that dish!”

Both heads turned to the archway as three men returned, fully clothed. Green eyes narrowed irritably at the sight of the woman following them in, but the man carefully held his tongue, instead turning to the one who had spoken. “Thank you, Johnny,” he said thankfully, extending an arm and gesturing in the shortest man’s direction. “See, Kat; everyone calls it that!”

“This loser’s not picking on your food, is he, Kitten?”

A soft smile answered the man. “No, Matt; Zacky was just selecting tonight’s meal. I was thinking some potatoes and a casserole for the sides. How does that sound?”

“That sounds wonderful, Kitten.”

“Hell yeah it does!” Brian called out in agreement, earning a laugh from the redhead, who happily nodded.

“I can help you with the cooking, if you’d like,” the blonde offered, speaking up for the first time. And when she did, Zacky wasn’t the only one in the room to frown; the redhead’s lips fell, too.

“I think I can handle it on my own.”

Dark eyebrows rose once again as the shorter guitarist turned his attention to the alpha female, a bit surprised by the quick shutdown, even with her tone remaining sweet as always. Still, his surprise didn’t stop him from glancing back over at the blonde, lips pulled back in a smug smirk.

“Of course,” was the woman’s calm response, her expression appearing carefully controlled. That is, until she caught his gaze and instantly scowled in response.

“Sorry we were gone so long,” Johnny finally said, breaking the awkward silence that had started to form. “We would have been back sooner, but this one,” he started to explain as he jabbed a finger in the blonde’s direction, “couldn’t keep up.”

Zacky’s smirk only grew.

“I could keep up fine! No one told me that the route changed, is all, so I went the wrong way. And stop fucking smirking at me, Baker!” she snapped irritably, her eyes rolling as she glowered at him. “Your dick belongs in your pants, not your personality.”

Though her little piece of advice earned a few snickers from the other men in the room, it didn’t seem to dent the beta male’s mood, his lips still holding that smug smirk. “At least I have a personality, Barbie.”

“Well,” the blonde said in exasperation, clearly not in the mood to stand around and argue, “I’d love to stay and chat, but to be honest I’d rather be hit by a semi right now.” And, with that, she turned on her heels and headed out of the room.

He didn’t know what it was that had him speaking again and stopping her in her tracks when she was about to leave just like he wanted her to, but he wanted to have the last word. “Leaving so soon?” he asked mockingly. “Damn! I was just about to poison the tea.”

Slowly, the blonde turned around, a small smile on her lips. “Unfortunately, we’ll have to reschedule that for never. While I’m gone, though, perhaps you should do some soul-searching. Maybe you’ll actually find one.”

“I’m not the one that needs to look within; you’re the one with more issues than fucking National Geographic.”

“Mhmn,” she hummed out, sending the male a pitying look even as his comment earned a snort of amusement. “I’ve heard snappier comebacks from a Rice Crispies bowl, you know.”

“Yeah,” the black-haired man brushed off easily, “well I guess you’d be used to eating cereal alone. No one in that big pack of yours ever want to eat with you?”

Her blue eyes flashed in irritation, giving him the momentary satisfaction of knowing he had struck a nerve, but she was quick to laugh it off. “Oh that’s absolutely, positively hilarious coming from you, now, isn’t it?” she asked with a sharp tilt of her head. “What’s with you, anyways? Still pissed everyone found out I marked you?”

Her comment was more than enough to earn a vicious growl from him at the memory, his eyes flashing amber in irritation as he glared heatedly at her. He set his jaw, once more reminded of its constant aching. “Why don’t you go outside and play hide and go fuck yourself?”

Blue eyes gleaming smugly, the blonde snorted, taking a deliberate step closer to the man and tilting her head speculatively once more. “Did I touch a nerve, there, dear mate?” When he couldn’t help but growl again, her smile grew. “Now, tell me, what’s with the glasses? Do you need them to see the size of your dick?”

She barely got a chance to breathe in after she finished speaking before she was slammed harshly into the wall, a hand at her throat and a growl right in her ear. A few of the observers in the room made noises of protest, but when the man didn’t immediately shift or launch fists, they held back, undoubtedly just standing around watching.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Baker,” the alpha warned carefully.

But Zacky wasn’t listening. He was too busy leaning into his mate’s ear, his low growl fading away and giving him a chance to speak. “If I were you,” he told her just quietly enough for only her to be able to hear him, “I wouldn’t say one more thing about my dick unless you want to be reminded exactly how wrong you are. Am I understood, mate?”

“I’m gonna go ahead and call that bluff,” she told him, tilting her head so that she was speaking into his ear this time, though her voice was definitely audible to all of the others in the room. “Unless you want to explain yourself to our dear alpha over there, that is. Should we run your threat by him?”

Growling irritably, the male pushed away from her, releasing her just as he was sure she had expected him to. He sent a glance over at the larger man in question, taking one look at the look on the man’s face and cursing in irritation. Lifting a hand to rub over his jaw again, he paced over to the other side of the kitchen, separating himself from the blonde and sending another, pointed look in the alpha’s direction, hand still at jaw. He took a deep breath to visibly calm himself down before he even considered looking back in the woman’s direction. “Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you hadn’t been born everyone’s little princess, Rinaldi?”

“Do you ever wonder that if you ran as much as your mouth did, you might actually be in shape, Baker?”

While pretty much everyone else reacted to that little line of hers, he only smiled, snorting at the attempt and looking at her in disgust. “You’re so fucking shallow, you make kiddie pools look deep,” he told her with a shake of his head. “Guess the apple doesn’t really fall far from the tree in your family... not that it can, I mean, since there aren’t any branches.”

Her eyes flashed amber before they settled into a glare, her body visibly shaking in anger. “Well, someone got up on the wrong side of the cage this morning.”

She hadn’t said the word, but he knew what she had been insinuating, and it caused a violent growl to escape from him. And, goddamn, his jaw was killing him; he had to keep rubbing it and it still felt like he was teething. He quickly decided it was time to put more distance between the two of them, just on the off chance that it might stop the irritation. So, this time, it was he who turned to leave, sending a last glare at the still-watching blonde.

“Wait, is your jaw bothering you?” she called out just as he was leaving, causing him to spin around and look at her through narrowed green eyes. There was a smug smile on her lips that he instantly decided was not good. “Man, that just bites, doesn’t it?”

Again, he slammed her into the wall the second her words registered, knowing it wasn’t just a coincidence that she had chosen the word bite. Once again ignoring the noises of surprise that came from the onlookers, he pinched her throat and glared straight into her eyes. “You knew about this?” he growled out in question, furious. “What else do you know about this, Rinaldi? Is there another way to make it stop?”

The woman only smiled, blinking innocently as she looked back up at him. “I can go get you a condom, if you’d like,” she offered. “That way, you can have protection when you go fuck yourself.”

And that was when the man finally did something stupid, his spare fist flying out and slamming through the drywall right next to the blonde’s head. “You stupid fucking inbred bitch!” he snapped, before promptly pulling away and removing himself from the room. As he stormed away, though, he still heard the conversation that followed.

“Did you or did you not tell him you’d murder him if he broke one more thing in your house, Shads?”

“Drop it, Brian.”

“But--”

“Fucking drop it!”