Chapter 7 - Dog food

They ate in silence and when they finished Lucine went to collect the dishes to clean them. Aram held her wrist when she went to take his.

— After you do that, wait for me on the living room couch.

She did as he asked while Aram headed to the room. He returned with a box of first aid supplies and sat on the same couch as her, but further away.

—  Now take off your sneakers and put your leg on the couch.

She obeyed him, put her foot already without the sock up the couch, near where he was. He took her leg, put it in his lap and began to carefully examine her injuries. He realized that there were several scars, one on top of each other, which meant that she spent a lot of time tied with the ropes hurting her. The wounds healed and others were opened. At that moment he knew that the female had gone through something truly bad. He thought it best not to make any comments, washed the area with serum and applied an antibiotic ointment.

— You’re taking too long to heal because you’re too weak.

— Yes, I have not been able to take the form of a wolf, my physical and psychological are a mess.

Lucine thought it best not to mention the time she had become supreme Alpha.

Aram finished banding one foot and asked her to climb the other, repeating the same procedure. The curiosity about what she had been through tormented him but it was not the time for interrogations. When he finished, he gently lowered her feet back to the couch. He put everything he used in the briefcase again and got up to put it back in the room.

Then he sat down again, next to her on the couch.

— Lucine, why didn't you tell me you were hurt before you carried all that firewood? Especially, wearing sneakers without socks, it's already getting cold, it could have made your wounds much worse.

She looked at him for a moment, unable to hide the mixed feelings she brought within herself.

— Haven't you seen the old scars, Alpha? Complaining is not something I've been allowed to do lately. In fact, I don't remember having voting value at some point in my life. You knew them, you know what kind of wolves they were.

— Who did this to you?

Aram asked bluntly, facing her.

— The gammas. We can say that I didn't go with them willingly that night, but I don’t want to talk about it, if I have a choice.

He nodded and looked away to the ground, seeing such a young female in that situation caused pity, and a huge rage from the worms that had done that to her.

— All right, just take care of those ankles right. I’ll work a little more with the firewood.

He stood up and she made mention of following him, but he made a signal for her to stay where she was.

—  You don’t even think about it. You stay here watching TV and make the list I asked for with the things you need.

He handed over control of the television to her and headed towards the back.

The next day, Aram gave thanks for being free from the honeymoon and being able to leave the hut. He went to the house of the elders, where the important hearings and meetings of the clan were held, to know if there was any urgent demand, preferably very time-consuming, that would keep him away from his hut and his wife for as long as possible.

When he arrived, his uncle received him.

- Aram, what a surprise you are here. The marriage is really doing you good, even making you return to the elders' house. He ignored the old man’s joke and went right to the point.

— Is there anything that needs to be addressed? Some clan's demand? We need to organize everything for the winter.

— Come on, let’s have some coffee.

The uncle took him to the small kitchen and served the drink in a mug.

We have already harvested what could be harvested and arranged the shelters of animal creations. We sell the surplus and, with the money, buy other products that we don’t plant, to divide among all. We need to set up a meeting to do the division properly and schedule the killings. This winter we may have fewer animals than in the last, the meat will have to be rationed.

This was not good news, Aram thought. With food rationing, tempers used to get exalteds.

— Uncle, what if we could get temporary jobs for the men in the timber industry? It would be a good way for them to make extra money. The person responsible for the extraction, which is a few kilometers from here, has already asked me for men, they are always in need.

— It's a good idea, it's best to schedule this meeting as soon as possible. Everything needs to be settled when the cold comes.

— I'm going to ask the guard’s betas to warn everyone.

He sent a text message announcing the summons. By the way things worked in the Village, until the evening everyone would already know and attend the meeting on the next day.

— Uncle, I need to see the supply depots and the herds. Evaluate everything before tomorrow.

— Yes, come on, I'll take you myself.

The elder said he was moved and relieved.

Aram took all day to inspect everything and count the provisions. If families wanted abundance, they would have to take jobs in the timber industry. When the sun began to set, there was nothing left to stop him from going home. He and Lucine had exchanged a few words, when he returned from work with firewood, the day before. She had warmed up food for them and, even though he was tired, 06:00 pm was too early to go to sleep, so they watched a documentary about the wildlife that was on tv while eating and then went to sleep. 

When he entered the hut, she was in the kitchen.

— Hi, the wedding food is over, so I made something that can be considered a stew.

When he left in the morning she was still sleeping, now she was wearing another set of sweatshirt, one in gray color, which fell as badly as the other. She had long hair, which was impressively gray,  fastened in a ponytail, and he noticed that she wore the slippers he left on the side of the couch in the morning when he left. Those slippers should be a lot more comfortable than the sneakers, due to the injuries she had.

— I've already set the table, you can sit down and I'll take the pan.

Lucine said, still a little insecure, but excited to have done everything herself. Aram served himself a good amount of stew, the smell was not bad, but the appearance was horrible. He made no comment, just concentrated on serving his dish.

— I didn’t have internet access to get any recipe, so I kind of followed my instincts. I chose stew, because I confess that I thought it would be easier. And it was, that package of cooked meat that was in the fridge made it a lot easier actually. I just needed to mix it with the broth and boil it all.

She kept chattering and apparently waiting for him to prove it. When he had tasted the first spoonful he realized something she had said. Package of cooked meat? He didn’t remember having something like this in the fridge, nor raw meat he should have, he hadn’t been shopping for weeks. He immediately went to the kitchen sink and spat in the sink all the portion he had put in his mouth.

 Lucine was surprised at how quickly he got up.

— Wow, by the smell I didn't think it got that bad.

When he finished rinsing his mouth and spitting in the sink, he finally spoke

—  That in the fridge wasn't meat, you crazy girl, it was dog food.