He couldn’t believe what an idiot he’d been. The first time he was able to see the woman they say they’d put in his room, he’d stared at her like a horny fourteen year old. Her long beautiful hair hung to one side, just flipped over her shoulder. Its auburn tresses complimented the olive tone to her skin and curled around in a soft braid. How had she accomplished that with one arm hoisted above her head the way it was? Her emerald eyes had glistened as she’d spoke with Technik. She’d seemed genuine enough and he wasn’t sure why the rest of them didn’t believe her. What had happened the night before? Julius had told him she’d put him to sleep and just now Technik had said something about a burning but he couldn’t see why these things warranted them kidnapping her.
Well, Tristan was the leader and has always made the right decisions but this time Hunter wasn’t sure. Maybe he just needed to get all the pieces to the puzzle before he questioned his leader’s authority. Maybe it was because he’d felt deception in the others earlier and he wasn’t sure why. That seemed to have worked itself out though but he still felt skeptical. Maybe it was the reaction that he had towards the woman in the room that made him want to protect her. He popped in the Kitchen to find Cook reaching out to clean a small mixing bowl.
“Hey! Don’t you touch that!” Hunter yelled out just as she touched the rim. She snatched her hand back as if burned and gasped. He’d scared her, not that he’d meant to, but he couldn’t let her touch that bowl.
“What is wrong with you? I almost died of a heart attack right here in your kitchen!” The older lady turned back to the sink where she continued to wash the dishes she’d placed before. She had soft mocha colored skin, honey colored eyes and long, soft brown hair that she kept twisted up in a frizzy bun. “I was beginning to think that you boys had changed. I’ve never been able to make it through an entire making of a meal without someone coming to stick a finger in one of the pots.” She huffed and leaned a rounded hip against the kitchen sink.
“Missed us?” Hunter sat at the table just before sticking a finger into the bowl and scooping out a tip full of icing. Cook has been almost like their earth mother ever since they’d come down from Arinth. She’d been squatting in the home when they appeared and didn’t seem the slightest bit scared that six men had invaded her borrowed house.
The safe house had actually belonged to a few Dark Warriors before them but she’d taken over the place. She’d cooked and cleaned and when they’d arrived she’d taken Tristan by the ear and told him if they’d been “fixing to throw her out” she’d show them who was boss. She’d then pulled them all into the kitchen where she’d fed them gumbo, the first Earth food that any of them had ever tasted, and chattered on for hours about nothing. She’d definitely been lonely and had time to make up for.
“Boy, don’t play with my heart. Tell me what’s going on.” Her face turned to stone as she reached out to take the bowl from him. Hunter groaned in disappointment around the icing he’d been sucking from his finger.
“Don’t worry Cook; Hunter is almost as clueless as you are about what’s going on. He’s been sleeping all day, laziest warrior I’ve seen yet. We have a guest here. She’s going to be staying with us for a while until we hear back from the Council. Do you mind if I take that off your hands?” Mendax had walked into the room and stood next to Cook. He softly lifted the bowl from her fingers and dug his own fingers into it, ignoring Hunter’s protest. Cook dried her hands on a towel and took out a cleaning wipe from the pocket of her apron. She put it in Hunters hand almost instantly, just as he began trying to lick his fingers again.
“Is she pretty? Can I meet her? There’s so much testosterone here I swear I’m going to die not seeing another feminine being! Oh, she must be frightened, being around all you men. I know I’ve been having trouble, no women around for miles!” She huffed again as if her ranting had taken all her energy.
“You go to the grocery store like…every week, Cook. What do you mean? There are so many women at the grocery store it’s like Palis all over again.” Palis was a gathering on Senatus they had every year. He understood they’d had them, similar to it, on earth a century ago or so. They’d called it a woman’s season, or coming out. Basically a bunch of women go to parties in search of finding a man to marry. He must admit that it was mostly effective as one rarely left without a proposal or two. Unfortunately, the women greatly out populated the men in the most prominent areas of Senatus, the capitol country on Arinth, and they had been thinking of inviting a select few from different provinces around the planet but that is most definitely not a good idea.
“Yes, but I can’t bring them here! Tell them what? I’m a woman in her forties and I live with a bunch of warrior alien men with crazy abilities who carry around swords and kill people that I cook for and sometime have to stitch up? I don’t know how many times I’ve stitched you boys up. It seems like every time one of you leaves the other five of you come back with bruises or something. Seriously, what is it that you spend your time doing? I just don’t understand why you can’t just be safe. Go around like normal human beings!” Hunter and Mendax sniggered as she worked herself into a tizzy as she usually did, eyes glistening as she called them out. She’d even stood up and paced around him and back to the sink. Just then the kitchen door opened and Tristan stepped in. He must have recognized the tantrum as he began to chuckle as soon as he saw her.
“But we aren’t human beings! Cook, you do know that Constantine will heal us. You don’t have to take care of us.” He’d made an emphasis on the word ‘have’ but she ignored it.
“…always sticking their fingers into my cookie dough and they don’t even think to take their shoes off when they come in from the snow. Like those beautiful floors won’t get slippery when it melts. They’d don’t even know the meaning of hanging up a jacket or picking up their underwear!” She stopped just briefly to quickly take off her apron. “Julius? Ha! Your healer? Julius can barely take care of himself, that boy never learned how to do laundry! How does one be a doctor and can’t figure out how to keep a white shirt clean.”
“We are warriors, Cook, we didn’t have to learn how to do laundry!” Hunter knew it was a mistake the moment it came out of his mouth. Hunter squeezed his eyes shut, and chuckled, as he prepared for the swift slap to the side of his head. Despite her heavy and easily provoked rants, Cook was sweet. She always found time to love on them but always made sure they knew respect and kept the slaps light and dished them out regularly. He opened his eyes to a squint as the slap never came. A silence settled over the kitchen just before Cooks voice came out breathless.
“Well I’ll be. You are just the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen! Please, everyone around here calls me Cook but you can call me Arinth. Come, Come! Let me fix your hair!” Her voice was soft but excited as she motioned for Adrian to come over. The warriors all stared at her stunned; their jaws hanging open in surprise. Adrian glanced briefly at Hunter before ducking her head and walking past him to sit cautiously at the table.
“Your…name is Arinth? That’s the name of our home planet. Why didn’t you tell us?” Tristan’s voice boomed in the open space. Cook turned and stared at him for a moment. She seemed taken aback more at his tone than what he’d said. “Why didn’t you tell us?” he said in a softer tone.
“It’s the name of your home planet? I didn’t know. Well, my boy, you never asked what my real name was. I much better like being called Cook by you, though. It made me feel all motherly. It was what you took to calling me the first day you arrived and…I guess it stuck.” Cook, Arinth, turned back to Adrian and touched her tasseled hair; fussing over her.
Tristan stood up straight still shocked as to what Cook had revealed. He sent out a feeler to the other warriors and even reached out to Technik who was in his lair in the basement, as usual. Cooks name is Arinth. Arinth; as in the name of our home planet. We have a woman who’d already lived in the safe house and also stumbled upon a mysterious woman with abilities who’d initially lied to us about having them. What else do we not know?
She didn’t actually lie, Tristan. That’s why I didn’t get any deception from her. Like Cook said, we just didn’t ask the right questions. Maybe, she never would’ve thought about it in that way if we hadn’t mentioned it. I’m sure if we’d stopped to ask Cook what her name was long time ago we would’ve figured it out then. Mendax rose from his lounging position against the counter and turned to leave the room. He gave Arinth, Cook, a finger wave and a crooked smile as she looked up at him. His last glance was towards the beautiful woman that sat before Cook at the kitchen table. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth at how vulnerable she looked getting her hair fixed. He scowled, turning to leave. Adrian was Hunter’s mate, not his. He’d do well to remember that.
Well…If we are asking the wrong questions then what are the right ones? Julius followed Mendax from the room; Vectio did also with a small grunt they all assumed was agreement. It seemed that the only person that could get him to really talk was Adrian. Did that mean something? He thought to himself.
Tristan nodded at Hunter as they filed from the room. He needed to find out what was going on in his house and fast. Hunter was the one who could figure it out, track her past. Who is Arinth? Who have I let into our circle? Was keeping her around a good idea? Maybe the whole keep your enemies closer spiel. He didn’t realize he’d projected his thoughts into the group’s mental channel until Hunter finally spoke.
No matter who she is, if we can’t trust Arinth, whom can we trust?
"The only way to be a writer is to write, write and write. The only way...is to write." -Irma Jemison
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