Chapter 5

"What?" I gawked at him.

"What?" Jason turned to me. "Do you have a problem with this as well? Because you seem to have a problem with everything," he said.

I squared my shoulders and pulled my best fake smile.

"There's no problem," I said.

"Good," he nodded once and looked away.

I muttered a string of curses under my breath.

Cooking?

Why?!

I managed to do the laundry because I did a lot of that when I was away at camp and didn't have access to the washing machine and the cleaning because I helped clean the house most times when I wasn't so busy with work, but cooking?

That was where I drew the line.

I didn't know the first thing about that.

Why didn't they give us tasks like shooting targets on a moving horse or something?

I groaned inwardly as I watched Jason speak.

I'd never felt the urge to slap someone across the face like I felt like doing Jason.

He had been picking on me all day.

Was he always this annoying and I didn't notice because I was blinded with love?

Yes, he was supposed to be in mourning but that didn't give him the permission to be rude.

Plus, I wasn't even dead!

"....and you're all going to make fine Italian dishes," he said.

Yeah, Italian my ass.

I wasn't a fan of Italian cuisine, talk more of being able to prepare it.

"I'm so going to fail this one," I muttered to myself.

"No!" I said to myself.

I can't fail.

If working for the Alpha was my only shot at leaving here and finding my murderers, I wasn't going to let it slip through my fingers.

Plus, I had to talk to Jason properly and I could only do that at the Alpha's house because he went there often.

Spaghetti!

Yes! Spaghetti is Italian food right?

But how do I even…

"Excuse me," Jason's loud voice cut off my mini freak out and he moved away from us a bit.

"We're really going to kill this," one girl muttered to her partner.

"I know, right?" The other one giggled.

I rolled my eyes and tuned out their conversation.

Jason returned a few seconds later with a confused look on his face.

"Apparently, the Alpha wants sandwich with well-made honey mustard sauce. Whatever that is," he said.

My face immediately brightened up.

This was something I knew like the back of my palm.

"As usual, you begin at the sound of the buzzer and stop when it goes off," he continued with his normal instructions, cutting off the whispers around.

A few seconds later and the buzzer went off and everyone dispersed to various counters.

I got behind a counter and got to work immediately and a small smile played on my lips as the memories of doing this same process as a child with my grandmother flashed through my eyes.

Making honey mustard sauce sandwiches with her was always my favorite thing to do before she passed on.

Shoving the bittersweet thoughts away, I whipped the sauce quickly.

Jason passed by me a number of times but each time I tried to get his attention, he would look away with his nose up in the air.

I sighed softly and gave up trying to get his attention and concentrated on the task at hand.

Just as I placed the bread over the sandwich goodness, the buzzer went off.

"Everyone step back," he instructed and we all took a few steps back.

The sound of heels clicking followed and a petite woman came in view.

"Hello, everyone," she greeted with a wide smile. "I'm Clara and the Alpha is unable to come down for the tasting himself, hence, I'll be doing that. Shall we begin?" She asked.

A few murmurs of "yes" filled the room and she clapped her hands together.

"Okay," she said and got to work.

She got to my turn after a while and I returned her wide smile with a small one.

"Let's see," she picked up the sandwich and took a bite.

With a nod of her head, she moved on to the next person till she was done.

"We'll have a briefing with the Alpha and be right back," Jason announced and disappeared off to the distance with the woman.

I could finally breathe and I took off my apron, pushing all of my weight against the counter because my legs felt weak.

"...he looks so miserable," I heard a girl say.

"Miserable and hot!" Another girl giggled.

" His girlfriend's death must have taken a toll on him," another one said.

"I am not dead!!" I screamed in my head but no sound came out.

"Good thing she's gone," the second girl snickered. "She was always all around him and thought she was better than every other person," she continued.

I balled my hands in fists and resisted the strong urge to pull her tongue out and make her chew it.

"That's a mean thing to say," the first girl said and just before their conversation could get any longer, Jason came back with the woman.

His eyebrows were furrowed and he obviously wasn't pleased with what he was about to say.

I knew that look.

"Thank you all for participating…" he started.

"Like we had a choice," I snickered under my breath.

"What did you say?" He asked sternly.

"Nothing," I shrugged.

He eyed me for a few seconds before looking away.

"The Alpha made his choice," he said audibly. "You're coming with us."

It took me a second to realize who he was pointing to.

Who? Me?