Chapter 6 Meltdown

• Braxton’s POV
• As I walk towards the back door of Tristan’s house, I am hit with a smell of burnt food. My brows scrunch up knowing that Addy is an amazing cook and I have never known her to burn anything.
• I open the back door quietly and walk down the short hallway to the kitchen in long strides. I peep my head around and see Addy.
• It looks like a flour bomb has gone off in the kitchen and there are burnt cookies and bowls of messed up looking batter on almost every surface of the kitchen countertops.
• I watch her quietly as she pours ingredients into the bowl. I scowl as I notice she is putting in a large amount of salt into the bowl. She then lifts the oil and starts pouring it in when, I walk all the way into the room.
• She still does not notice me, which she should have sensed me from the moment I walked in, so I know she is out of it now.
• I reach over and grab her hand and keep her from pouring more salt in the bowl. She screams when she feels my hand on hers.
• “Damn it Brax! You scared the shit out of me.”
• I put the salt back down on the counter and walk around to her while she screams at me.
• I smirk at her, “I was standing there for five minutes. The fact you never even sensed me tells me how out of it you really were.”
• “I am not out of it; I am just busy.” She huffs.
• “Busy with trying to burn down the house?” I ask, as I pick up a burnt cookie.
• She rolls her eyes at me, and pushes me to the side while she starts mixing the batter she was working on when I walked in. “ I am making grief baskets for the warriors families. You know I always make baskets for their families, and for whatever reasons my stupid cookies keep coming out like crap.”
• She takes her finger and dips it in the batter and puts it up to her mouth. I become entranced as she licks the batter from her finger, and for a moment I can’t help but think how good it would feel if it was my dick she was licking instead of her finger.
• Oh, hell no, I can’t think like that, she’s my best friends sister.
• I pull myself back out of my thoughts as I watch the scowl on her face, and she runs to the trashcan to spit it out.
• I try to hold back my laugh as I watch her knowing good well, what she had done to the batter. She looks over at me and scowls at me and I can’t help but die into laughter more. She stomps over pissed.
• “What the hell do you want Brax! I don’t have time to entertain you. I have shit to do and I have to get it all done. I still have to pack the baskets if I can ever get some damn cookies made and get these baskets to the families. So please tell me how I can serve you, Alpha.” She said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.
• Oh man she’s pissed.
• My smile fades and I look at her knowing it’s not anger but pain I see in her eyes.
• “Addy, you don’t have to make the baskets.”
• “Yes, I do. I always do. I always make grief baskets for the warriors’ families. My mom always did, and I have always done it since...since…we lost her” she mumbles the last part.
• I watch as she shoves the bad batch aside and grabs another bowl to start a new batch. I walk behind her and grab her arm as she reaches for the flour. She doesn’t look back at me, and I continue to hold her wrist.
• “What do you want Braxton?” she huffs.
• “Addy, you can’t even focus. You have destroyed...”I look around the kitchen at the disaster, “ I don’t know how many batches already and right now, the last thing you need to do is try to do for others. You are grieving too Addy.”
• “I am fine Braxton! The families need their baskets and I need to make their cookies and I need too..”
• “Addy stop and look at me” I command in a stern voice as I turn her around.
• I hold her head in between my hands, and I look down at her. “Addy, little moon, I know you are hurting. I can see…” before I can even finish she shoves me away from her and I see as tears pool in her eyes.
• “I said I was fucking fine Braxton!”
• “I was fine when my mother died 5 years ago, and I am fine now. I am a big fucking girl, and I don’t need someone coddling me because my parents are dead! They’re fucking dead!” she yells as tears start pouring down her face.
• I snatch her to me and hold her against my chest. She tries pushing away from me, but I don’t let her. She starts beating my chest with her fist and scream.
• “I need to get these baskets done. Let go of me!”
• “No.” I respond curtly.
• “Braxton let me go” I hear in the middle of a sob. “I have to be strong. I have to hold it together.”
• “No Addy. You don’t. You don’t have to be strong all the time.” My heart is absolutely breaking as I feel her entire body start to shake with sobs. She is the strongest person I have ever known, but even the strongest weep.
• “But I do, I have to be strong otherwise Tristan will be worried, and he won’t be able train like he needs to be Beta. I have to be strong...”
• Oh, my sweet Addy. Even when she is completely breaking, she is thinking of everyone but herself.
• I can feel Blaze pacing in my head, he is hurting for Addy too. He has been just as protective of her as I always have been.
• “No Addy, you don’t. Let me be strong for you.” That’s when I feel her entire body give out. I hold her to my chest as I slowly sit us down on the kitchen floor. I hold her in my arms and let her cry into my chest.
• We sit like that for an hour. She finally stops crying and just snuggles into my chest trying to calm herself.
• My heart feels so full with her in my arms, and I can’t help but feel like this is how it should be. I am pushing my nose down into hair taking big whiffs of her scent.
• Her scent has always been so amazing. I feel her lean off my chest and look up at me. I put my hands down over her cheeks, as I look down into her eyes.
• “I’m sorry.” She mumbles
• “Don’t be. I am glad I could be here for you.” I wipe the tears that are left on her cheek and get lost in her beautiful blue eyes.
• I feel her breath fanning across my face and I lean my head down towards her as my lips ghost hers I hear the back door open, and we both quickly push away from each other.
• Tristan walks in and sees us on the floor in the middle of the destroyed kitchen.