Chapter 34

• HAERA. As the Alpha commanded, the preparation for the ritual continued the next day and it was officially the first day of the one week long ritual and as he commanded as well, I became the new chef of the Palace. It was nothing ceremonial or special as my things were just brought into my new room for the next few years of my life and I resumed work the next day. And just like that, I became one the prestigious and important personnel of the palace. In a single day, a maid became a chef and the youngest one of all time in the palace Rumors followed my appointment and the people who used to hate and bully me didn't hesitate to spread it round that I became the Chef of the palace without any prior experience except for a few spoken words about me. The feeling of being talked about by others wasn't new to me but the feeling of being talked about because I had suddenly elevated in position high above others was new. As I left my room this morning to resume to the kitchen, the maids all avoided me like a plague and steered out of my way. I knew they were contemplating whether to acknowledge me or just go their own way instead and so they'd rather stay out of my way to help their confusion. Most of them whispered as I passed by but I tried to pay less attention to any of them and more attention to myself. The good news was that I wouldn't be bullied anymore and they would all leave me be if they couldn't accord any respect to me. Another exciting thing about this whole thing was the uniform. The uniform of the chef fit me perfectly that one would think it was specifically made for me to wear. It was a combination of black and white but it definitely wasn't as hideous and the uniform the maids wore. The uniform was another thing that showed me apart from them. When I finally got to the kitchen, maids who would help me were already lined up, heads bowed and waiting for me. The mate bond ritual was going to be a grand feast for a whole week because wolves from far and wide would be invited and it's what going to make my first day hard for two reasons; I would be cooking up one hell of a meal and two, I would be cooking that meal for my own mate getting mated to someone else. The mating doesn't happen until the last day though. Everything that happens in the first six days are just mere festivities that build up to the real thing. Most maids even find their mates on that very day and are allowed to leave with their mates to wherever with a few things as an appreciation of their work as maids in the palace. Which means, maids in the palace don't die as maids. They get to leave when they find their mates and before you know it, they are already being replaced by new set of maids starting from the youngest wolf ages. It is why most maids look forward to rituals like that because they mean one thing; Freedom. The maids standing in front of me weren't familiar but I could tell that most of them were older than I was. I was conflicted, not knowing where and how to start with them. "Good morning...huh..." I was nervous as hell and I kept trailing my words off. My palms were sweaty and I rubbed them on my new uniform. I knew I had to get it over with. I closed my eyes, thinking deeply and wondering within myself, what would Balfour do in this situation? What would he say to them? I imagined him telling bland jokes that he expects someone to laugh to because it's funny to him. I imagined him singing with his terrible voice, a song of welcome to the maids who come to help him. At least that was what he did on my first day of being assigned to the kitchen. I was fourteen and I messed up every other chore which got me both punishments from Gennora and my bullies. That day, I was pretty battered up. My body was covered in bruises and I was teary but he sang for me and it was the funniest thing ever to see a fat chef sing with a spatula and dance around the room. I knew right then that the kitchen was where I belonged. "You are a special one, I can feel it. I just don't know hoe special you are. But I can't wait to find out." He had said to me that day when my wounds healed up in minutes. And I have always felt special ever since then. I breathed in and out as the thought of him flowed through my brain. I can do it. I can do it. I told myself. And with one last intake of breath, I opened my eyes and turned to the other maids. "I know we are all confused, tired and helpless because he isn't here to be in control of everything. I feel the same too. This uniform only sets us apart in appearance and not in feelings. We have to work together to make the kitchen a safe haven again. Our best, that's all I'll ever need from you and that starts now." Well...it sounded good enough to my own ears when I said it. However, it sounded to their ears, their face lit up and the nervousness seemed to disappear as soon as it came. We began work in earnest. I had a couple of recipes stored in my brain. They were for him and they were recipes for grand feasts like this. Whatever happens, I knew it had to be perfect. The first day of the mate bond ritual is usually about the arrival of all invited guests from the other packs and setting up of the arena where the ritual would take place for the next six days but this time, considering the people who were getting mates today, it was understandable that the crowd was much more larger than the usual which meant more work for me to do. We had to make snacks, soup of different vegetables and spices and every other meal that's needed to carter the needs of the guests. I worked tirelessly and had little time to think about my mate getting mated. It's just the first day. I kept telling myself. Anything could happen before the last day, anything could disrupt the ritual. That was what I told myself until the fifth day of the ritual. Nothing changed. For me and for the people around me. More guests arrived, more celebrations and more festivities under the moon. Each of those five days as I returned to my room, I was always too tired to think about anything else and just went straight to bed only to wake up the next day and continue the routine. I never leave the kitchen until the day's work is done and that's usually very late in the night when I hardly have time for my own self. And so, I hardly so anyone except the maids who worked for me and took the meals over to the arena to serve. I didn't see the princess. My mate or Gennora. Gennora didn't even show up for once at the Kitchen and I was really thankful that I was out of her wrath, far away from it. The kitchen has always been my safe haven but now? It really seemed like home to me. Occasionally I feel a pang of sadness and extreme pain and whenever that happens, I knew my mate was probably in a very close contact with the princess. The pain usually renders me weak and powerless for minutes and I started to fear that it would hurt Dezra and make her begin to lose herself and become weaker by the minute. What kept me going apart from the writings of Balfour on the wall was the praise I received from the Alpha at the detriment of his daughter who was hell-bent on making sure I return back to her. The Alpha wouldn't have it though. He was glad and I was more than happy that I have finally proved myself that there was more to me than sheer luck. The sixth day of the ritual came sooner than I expected and when I realized how soon it had drawn. I started to panic. I panicked because of what would happen to me when my mate finally marks another the next day. Will Dezra disappear? Will she become too weak to do anything? Will I become too weak? I feared weakness more than anything but I didn't know what to do. I haven't shared it with anyone other than Balfour and look what happened to him. I have contemplated it times without number when I lay on his bed and read the inscriptions on the wall. Could he have died because he mentioned the forbidden beings who have already been casted out of the packs all over the Werewolf communities? Was it my fault that he died? The fear had me in such a stronghold that I kept it to myself as much as I wanted to let Ulric know too. I was afraid that the only other person who was rooting for me could get hurt too and so I kept it all to myself; the pain, the sorrow and the anguish that sears through me every time. I was at the kitchen as usual on the sixth day of the mate bond ritual. Had I given up? No. Was I doing anything about it? No. I just buried myself deeper in the work that I did in the kitchen. The Kitchen was especially rowdy today because it was the last day before the main ritual. I was tired but still kept looking after what the maids were doing while doing my own myself. A lot of cooking was going on. Whisking of eggs and mixing of batter, pounding of doughs, chopping of vegetables, frying and boiling. It was all epic and I had to ask for more hands to help in the kitchen. Everything was going fine not until one of the maids rushed in from outside after delivering a set of meals we just finished cooking up. She was breathless and her cheeks were the deepest shade of crimson color. I could tell she ran her way down here. "Chef." She coughed out. I suspected something was wrong with her and I knew I wouldn't like the sound of it when I hear it. "Is something wrong? Are you okay?" I asked even when I knew and saw that she was nothing but okay. "The guests are asking for a food whose recipe we don't have." She dropped the bombshell. My eyes widened because the main food on the menu was peach pie. I swallowed. Surely, I could do it. Whatever food it was they wanted; I knew I could do it. I just needed to know which food it was. "Which food is it?" I asked, expectantly and waiting for her to mention something pretty simple that I could easily handle without stress. "It's Cinnamon rolls chef. We don't even have cinnamon and the Alpha expects it to be done in an hour. The guests keep asking for it." Cinnamon rolls? I've never made it before. Neither have I seen Balfour make it before but a couple of times walking into the kitchen, I have caught the sweet scent of it in the air signifying that Balfour probably made something with Cinnamon, only he never made it in front of me. I wondered why and how he even got Cinnamon. Cinnamon couldn't be found in our own pack but at some other places in the Woodlands. There was no way we could pull it off in an hour but I knew we had to try. No one gives a shit about if we could find it or not. I already knew that testing days like this would come and I was prepared for it. I already had a plan set in motion. "Go find the head of the guards, Ulric. Tell him you're from me and that it's very important for him to go help me find cinnamons as soon as possible. He'll help, I'm very sure of that." The Maid did as I commanded and bolted out of the kitchen. Now to my other plan. The recipe. I knew Balfour has it somewhere. If he makes use of it when I'm not around then it had to be somewhere in the Kitchen, written on the walls because that's the only place he could hide something as precious as his recipes. I began to look at every of the walls. I moved shelfs and plates. I moved foodstuffs all around, looking at the four walls of the room and every corner while the other maids looked at me like I was crazy. I found a few inscriptions by the wall but I knew most of them and they weren't the recipe for cinnamon rolls. I searched around like a crazy woman until I got tired and frustrated making me slump down to the floor, breathing heavily, with my head rested against the wall. I was about to stand to continue looking for it when a very small shade of ink caught my eyes. It was so small that I could hardly see it and so I let Dezra take control for me with her sharp wolf eyes. Gotcha! It was the recipe to the Cinnamon rolls. Written so carefully that no one could see it easily with their naked eyes. I smiled at Balfour's attempt to hide his recipe. "It's okay now Dezra, you can go." But she didn't listen. Something else caught her eyes and it was right beside the recipe for the cinnamon rolls. Whatever it was, I knew instantly that it was not a recipe because my name was boldly written there. It was like a letter to me. I touched it, it was fresh and wasn't fading like the other recipes on all of the walls. I could instantly tell that it was recent. The writing on the wall was recent and it was written by Balfour as a message to me. And when I read it, I had the answer right there in front of me even if it made me go pale. Balfour was murdered.