Poison

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

 

Talon was supposed to be helping Melanie clean up after breakfast, but he wasn’t doing a very good job. Instead of paying attention to the dishes he was supposed to be drying, he found his attention focused on Melanie, who was completely oblivious to him.

“Stop drooling over there!”

Talon nearly dropped the plate he had in his hand when Dakota startled him. She laughed, always loving the fact that she could do that to him. Once she realized that Talon constantly zoned out while in Melanie’s presence, she had taken every opportunity to startle him.

With a growl, Talon flung the damp towel in Dakota’s direction. She dodged out of the way and then picked up the towel from the floor and threw it back at him. He caught it, and then went back to drying the dishes as if nothing had happened.

Throughout the entire thing, Melanie had stayed completely silent, hardly even glancing at the others. She rarely involved herself in any interactions between the other wolves. Usually it was only after Talon’s gentle urging that she joined the pack in doing anything.

“Hey,” Talon said as he was putting the last dish away, “I need to talk to you about something. You think we can go over to the barn?”

“Um, sure,” Melanie said, almost whispering. She pushed a strand of black hair behind her ear as she looked around the kitchen, making sure it was completely clean.

There was nothing else that she could have possibly cleaned and she glanced up at Talon. When he met her green eyes, he smiled, but she looked away quickly. It wasn’t just that she had issues making eye contact – she mostly didn’t want to look into his eyes. The brief moments she had looked into his warm brown eyes, she always felt as if she would get lost in them. She found it simpler to just avoid looking at him.

Grabbing his bag from near the front door, Talon walked with Melanie outside and towards the old barn. Before Melanie had come along, the barn had been completely unused ever since the Carter family had stopped raising livestock years and years ago. Besides some old farm equipment, there had been nothing in there until Melanie moved in.

It wasn’t the ideal living place, and Talon wanted better for his mate, but he had to admit it wasn’t that bad of a place. They at least had electricity, and with enough blankets, the ground was comfortable enough to sleep on. Talon even managed to pick up a dresser from a garage sale for her.

Talon put his bag down on his pile of blankets that he called a bed. The Carters had offered to let him stay on the couch during his visits, but he much preferred staying with his mate. He unzipped the bag and was disappointed to see the copper rose had been partially smashed. He no longer regretted hitting Jason.

“I got something for you,” Talon said as he tried to fix the petals. “But it got a little damaged.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Melanie replied.

“Yeah, well, I wanted to.” He turned to face her and saw that she wasn’t even looking at him. He hesitated, unsure of himself. Although the Carters assured him that Melanie understood what mates were and that she did seem to like him more than she did anyone else, Talon still wasn’t sure how she would react to the news. She was just too closed off.

Taking a calming breath, he closed the distance between them, making it difficult for her to avoid looking at him. She tried looking down, but he lifted her chin up. He grabbed her hand before she could back away and placed the flower in it. He then let her go, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.