Chapter 6: Negotiating A Mutually-Beneficial Arrangement

Acamar had invited Caph to the Eridanus manor for breakfast today.

Ran was to wait on the porch steps to welcome him.

She stalked downstairs, tightening her ponytail and positioned herself in front of the darkwood door like a guard, grumbling to herself inside her head.

Her uncle was leafing through human newspapers idly even though this engagement was his idea in the first place.

He was testing her.

She was sure of it.

Caph came in a taxi, dressed in a white t-shirt that revealed the silhouette of his torso when he moved. His tousled red-brown hair was messy, like he had just woken up.

'Why are you so pissed?' Caph asked as he walked up to her, hands in his jean pockets.

Ran smoothed out her expression and smiled at him.

He stared at her, blue eyes transfixed. 'Did you wake up on the wrong side of your bed? Had a nightmare or something?'

She shook her head.

He continued to instigate her with his misty seductive eyes. 'You look very pretty when you smile,' he said.

The tips of her ears turned red. She averted her eyes.

Think about the pack.

Think about the pack.

Caph patted her head patronisingly. 'You should scowl less.'

She scowled.

The door behind her was flung open and a female voice greeted, 'Welcome to our manor, Caph of Cassiopeia!'

Ran turned to see her cousin, Cass, holding the door open, grinning at Caph. She gave her cousin a grateful look. Cass winked at her as Caph entered the house.

'You didn't tell me he's hot,' she mouthed.

'You've already heard that from everybody else,' Ran grumbled through her teeth.

'It's obviously different coming from you,' her cousin whispered back. 'He's your boyfriend!'

Acamar folded the newspaper he was pretending to read and shook Caph's hand, greeting him the same way Cass did. Ran led the way into the dining room.

'Welcome to our manor, Caph of Cassiopeia. Breakfast is ready,' Acamar's wife, Cursa, greeted, putting down a plate of bacon on a table already laden with food. She didn't usually prepare this much food. 'You must be hungry.'

Caph smiled warmly.

Acamar introduced his son, Nugo, as they entered the dining room. Ran waited for him to sit down and then pulled out the chair next to him and sat down in one fluid movement.

He was amused by this.

'I thought you would avoid me,' he whispered to her.

She ignored him, smiling politely. 'What's your favourite food?'

He examined her soft black eyes, her warm but veiled expression.

Then, he leaned one elbow on the edge of the table and turned his body to face her. 'You.'

Cass choked on the spoonful of cereal she had just put into her mouth.

Ran scowled.

She piled his plate with bacon and grilled drumsticks until it overflowed.

'Let me know if you want some more,' she said patronisingly.

Caph didn't even flinch. He began to eat, engaging Ran's two cousins in conversation. Nugo and Cass were older than Ran but they didn't have ranks within Eridanus.

Nugo was a professional athlete, a runner, and Cass was in college, training to be a surgeon.

'Your family is talented,' Caph told Cursa.

Very few werewolves went to college. It was difficult for werewolves to attend college because academics required a lot of critical thinking—which their kind wasn't good at.

Cursa dipped her head politely and waved his compliment away.

'You're attending college in our county too,' she reminded him. 'What have you been studying?'

Caph stuffed two slices of bacon into his mouth at once and answered innocently, 'Sociology.'

There was an awkward pause which confused their guest.

Finally, Ran asked the question everyone was too embarrassed to put into words, 'What's that?'

After the meal, Acamar offered to have Ran give Caph a tour of the manor to see where he would be staying from now on. He also informed them that their arrangement would begin right away. They had to appear together at the 100th birthday party for the Alpha of the Phoenix pack that afternoon.

For lunch.

Ran had no time to protest that she hadn't been informed of this development.

That she needed time to wrap around the engagement she hadn't signed up for.

That she needed to plan how her fake arrangement with Caph would be put into practice.

Caph agreed emphatically and asked to be introduced to the upstairs rooms while the dining room was being cleared by the patrol assigned to the Eridanus manor that day.

Grudgingly, she led him up a grand flight of wooden stairs in the great hall and began to tell him (in a fake excited voice) about Punggol's signature mangrove trees and how her father built the manor with these unconventional dark wood plants.

Her voice, when not filled with rage, was slightly raspy and lilting. Caph liked the sound of it.

He had been surprised by how a simple change in her demeanour made such a drastic difference in the way she appeared to him.

Without being conscious of it at first, he found himself staring at Ran's long black ponytail swishing in front of him every time she turned to introduce another similar-looking room along the corridor.