6A Day in the Life
Chapter 4
Knock, Knock, Knock.
Alexandria woke with a start. Half awake and groggy, she sat up, pushing the bedcovers away from her. She stretched and yawned.
Knock, Knock, Knock.
She stumbled out of bed, half tripping over the sheets wrapped around her feet. With one hand rubbing her eyes, she opened the door and with a yawn, said, "Hardy, why are you –"
Alexandria paused, her vision clearing. If the blonde tuffs of hair weren't enough of an indication that it wasn't Rhett, the distinctive scowl was. He dressed quite nice for this time in the morning, with a dark button down and jeans.
"Of course you aren't ready…" Mathus sighed, one hand at the bridge of his nose. "First you were late this morning and now you're going to make me late too."
"What?"
"You slept in, I'm guessing. We have breakfast at 9 AM sharp and its 8:30."
Before she could curse Rhett for forgetting to wake her up, he looked at her. His eyes trailed from her bare feet and up to her eyes, gold matching blue. A guy hadn't looked at her like that before and it made her feel…warm. A blush rose on her face. That wasn't happening, especially about a werewolf. A disgusted smirk splayed across his face and for a moment she felt self conscious.
"I see you and Rhett are more than what you seem…" Mathus stared at her.
For a second, Alexandria was confused and then she noticed what he was started at. The oversized shirt she had worn to bed, though it touched the middle of her thighs, was also clearly a mans shirt. Though his assumption was right that it was Rhett's, they were nothing more than friends and she had simply borrowed it.
"We are just friends," She said while rolling her eyes.
He scoffed. "That's not what your…attire suggests. You do know that his scent is now all over you and you will be considered his by other werewolves."
"I borrowed this to be comfortable-" She growled out before she was rudely interrupted.
"In any case, you need to get ready. The Lupe family, and guests, all eat breakfast together. You are no exception."
Shutting the door in his face, Alexandria let out a sigh of frustration. She threw on a black tank top and black pants, quickly braiding her hair to the side. When she reopened the door, Mathus was standing there with an even bigger scowl on his face.
"Of all the disrespectful things-" He hissed out, his eyes flashing.
"Oh shut it. You're going to make yourself even more late by arguing with me."
She strutted past him triumphantly, confident that she had won. That is, until she remembered that she didn't quite know where this breakfast was being held. He breezed past her, anger rolling off him in waves.
"You need to learn some respect. I am a prince, you can't treat me the way you'd treat a commoner!"
Alexandria rolled her eyes. "Stop being such a drama king."
His stride down the stairs stopped. "I am NOT being a drama king." He growled, "I deserve respect."
To that, she laughed. When he hit the bottom of the stairs and reached the mystery door from earlier, she called out to him. "I'll give you respect when you earn it. You're not just born with it, princess."
Alexandria could see his fingers clench around the door handle and almost felt bad for being rude. On the other hand, he's a big boy and she's sure he could handle a little cold hard truth.
She heard him exhale; open the door and then he looked up expectantly at her. Alexandria furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. He was being polite? As she walked down the rest of the stairs and headed in, she looked at him warily. A bright smile was plastered on his face, but there was something sinister behind his golden eyes.
"Alex! You're finally up!" She heard Rhett shout.
The mystery room was a huge ball room set up as a dining room. With gold on the walls, red and white tiles covering the floor, the room was impressive. A long table was set in the middle, with all the Lupe family including, to her surprise, the females and Rhett sat around it. She suddenly felt a little uneasy. Judging by the eye color, the only humans were her and Rhett. There was an empty seat next to Rhett, and she hurried to sit down.
"No thanks to you." She huffed at him, staring down Mathus as he sat down across from her.
William, with toast in one hand and his arm around the woman sitting next to him, called out to her. "Alex, this is Jeanette, my queen."
Alexandria studied her for a moment. For an older woman, she was quite beautiful. Her golden blonde hair was pulled into a loose bun, a few wisps framing her face. The parentheses around her mouth and the lines at her warm golden eyes indicated that she was a happy person. Alexandria smiled and did a small wave. Feeling a jab in her side, she spoke while suppressing the urge to hit Rhett back.
"It's nice to meet you."
"I'm Elizabeth, Nicholas's mate." A voice called to Alexandria.
She found the source; a heavily pregnant woman that was sitting next to Nicholas. Elizabeth had long, wavy brown hair that fell to one side and a friendly smile.
"It's nice to meet you too." She said.
"Now that the introductions are out of the way, please make yourself at home and grab something to eat." William said, mid-chew.
Alexandria looked at the table, numerous breakfast items set out on it. She finally grabbed some toast and fruit, quietly listening to their conversations. She had all but forgotten about Mathus until he spoke up.
"Father, have you heard of this awful new fad going around with relationships? It's called, hmmm. Now I can't seem to remember…Alex, can you help me with that?" He smiled at her.
Anger boiled in her belly. William looked absorbed into the conversation, a small smile on his face. She set down the piece of toast she was nibbling on and glared at him.
"I have no idea what you are talking about." Alexandria ground out, kicking him underneath the table. His expression hardened.
"Ah, now I remember. Friends with benefits. I feel it's just for tramps but there must be other sides to it, right Alex?"
Rhett now seemed to be noticing the hostility in Mathus's voice and out of the corner of her eye; she could see him staring at her. Her anger heightened. Who was he to call her a tramp? She curled her hands into fists, resisting the urge to lunge across the table and strangle him.
"I'm sure what you saw," She kicked him and continued, "was a misunderstanding that you are too," Alex felt him kick her back and she returned it, digging her heel into his shin. His face crumbled, if just for a minute, "stubborn to realize."
Mathus slammed his hands onto the table as he stood. "I know what I saw! And quit kicking me you pest!"
Alexandria copied him. "You're a stubborn idiot; I'm not sleeping with Rhett! And maybe if you were any less dense, I wouldn't have to kick you to make you shut up!"
She could see everyone at the table held startled expressions, staring at the both of them.
"Wait, what?" Alex could hear Rhett say.
"You," Mathus growled menacingly, "are an annoying little gnat that I would enjoy to squish." He leaned forward, into her face and paused.
"You better watch it wolf boy or I'll kick your ass right here! Don't call me a tramp unless you want to lose an ear."
"Maybe you shouldn't sleep with your partner and I wouldn't have to."
Alexandria could feel her anger boil over as she pulled her arm back for a punch that would knock this idiot into next week. She swung, anticipating the sweet sound of fist to cheek that would never come. Rhett grabbed her arm, stopping her.
"Mathus! You need to treat our guests with respect – especially the female ones. Honestly, this is now how I raised you." Jeanette scolded him. William chuckled at them.
"I think all this fighting is because our little Mathus is taken with Alex!" Nathaniel jested, a smile on his face.
"Shut up, Nate. Why would I like a little gnat like her?" He pulled his lips into a snarl.
"Oh, I should punch you." Alexandria threatened, trying to pull her arm from Rhett's grasp.
"Alexandria and I are not sleeping with each other, despite what you think. I enjoy breathing, thank you and River would kill me if I so much as touch a hair on her head in a sexual manner. He hates me enough already." Rhett told Mathus, rolling his eyes.
"Who's River? Her boyfriend? Ha, I should feel sorry for the poor sap…" Mathus growled.
"Behave Mathus." William stepped in, "But I am also interested in who this River is."
With all the werewolves in the room staring at her, Alexandria's mouth felt a little dry but she spoke anyways.
"River is actually my, uh, brother."
Alexandria regained control over her own arm again and sat down, Rhett and Mathus following her lead, while the rest of the pack digested that information.
"So you have a brother, hm?" William had a thoughtful expression on his face. "Why doesn't he like Rhett?"
Alexandria laughed, feeling a little sad. She missed her tightwad brother.
"I don't know if you noticed, but Rhett's not the greatest influence on anyone."
"What about your parents?" He asked.
Rhett, knowing about the sensitive subject, looked at her and waited.
"They uh, got killed a long time ago actually. It's just me and River now." A lump appeared in her throat, making it hard to swallow.
"Oh, I see." William said, while his wife, followed by most of the pack said, "Sorry for your loss."
An uncomfortable silence ensued, and Alexandria felt like the walls were closing in on her, slowly. She cleared her throat. Speaking of siblings, they needed to get down to business.
"So um, we need to go look at Victoria's room right?" She asked.
"Yeah, we should probably go do that." Rhett answered, standing. "Thanks for breakfast though. Please, excuse us."
Following Rhett, they exited the dining hall and walked through the residential area and reached the room at the very end of the hall. The door, painted pink instead of white like the others, also had Victoria on it in glitter. As Rhett opened the door, Alexandria took one look and thought to herself that if herself and Victoria were ever to meet, they would not get along. Alexandria wasn't masculine by any means but she wouldn't consider herself girly and this room redefined that word.
Pink walls, pink carpet and in general, pink everything. The room was filled up by a large bed, a vanity, a dresser and a large closet. Rhett already started pulling items out from under Victoria's bed and Alexandria started searching her vanity. Going through her various make up and hair products, she felt it was a bit useless. What would be an item that would be of use to them?
"Hey Rhett," She called, a smile on her face. She was brilliant if she didn't say so herself. "Did Victoria keep a diary?"
Rhett paused, "I think so."
"I think that's where we should start. She might've written down a lot of things that could help us."
"Sorry to break it to you, Detective Phoenix but a thing like that would be carefully hidden."
"Especially with how many brothers she has…" Alexandria trailed off.
At one point, little Alexandria had a diary. As embarrassing as it was, it helped her to write down her feelings and such. River might be the poster child but when they were younger, he was just like every other brother out there: annoying and a nuisance. So she hid it in the one place that he wouldn't dare look.
Alexandria started pulling out drawers in the dresser, and by the third one, she had found what she was looking for. Digging through the various thongs that Victoria owned, her fingers finally hit something hard and cold. She pulled out a pink journal with a lock on it. With the diary in one hand, she turned to look at Rhett with an eyebrow raised. The look of shock on his face was proof enough of her genius.
"Well, I'll be damned. How did you know?" He sputtered.
"Experience." She answered triumphantly.
Rhett burst out laughing. "What, did little Alex have a diary?"
Alexandria could feel her face heat up in embarrassment. She walked past Rhett on her way out of the room and said, "Shut up."
"Awh did you write about your crush on me?" He spoke between giggles.
"I swear to God Rhett." She threatened. "We need to find William, where would he be at this time?"
"I don't know? He could be anywhere really."
Letting out a frustrated sigh, she kept walking but turned her head to speak to Rhett. "Well, I guess we better start looking, ri-"
Her cheek hit something hard and while she inhaled in surprise she smelled pine. She stepped back and rolled her eyes in disappointment. Of course.
"At the least, watch where you are going please." Mathus huffed at her.
"Do you know where your father is?" Rhett asked, coming up behind Alexandria.
"As a matter of fact, I do. But before I take you to him, there is something that I must say." Mathus looked at her, "I'm truly sorry about how I acted at breakfast."
Alexandria had to choke back a laugh. Now he was going to try and apologize? He must have an ulterior motive.
"Yeah, you can shove that apology where the sun don't shine."
Mathus let out a frustrated grunt and turned to Rhett. "Is she always this difficult?"
Rhett laughed. "Oh yeah. But you did say some pretty messed up things. Give it time."
"Listen Alex," Mathus started, "My father ordered me to apologize. As annoying as you are, I'd like it if you'd accept and move on."
Alexandria thought for a moment and said, "Nah."
He huffed. "Fine. He's in the office with my mother."
They followed him to the other side of the castle. Rhett walked in front with Mathus, speaking to him and then patting him on the back, while Alexandria trailed behind. She had the sneaking suspicion that they were talking about her.
Mathus opened the door for them when they got to the office and slipped in after them.
William and Jeanette were at the far end of the table, deep in conversation when they sat down. Alexandria kept the diary in front of her, waiting. It only took a few minutes for them to realize they had visitors.
"Ah Mathus, with Alex and Rhett in tow! Did you apologize to her?" He said to Mathus.
"Of course I did." He said, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. "Not that she accepted," He grumbled quietly after.
"Good! I'm glad to see you two getting along."
Jeanette placed a hand on her husband and spoke. "Did you find something helpful in Victoria's room?"
"Yeah, we found a diary." Alexandria told her. The light in Jeanettes eyes brightened with hope.
"Ah I'm so glad! We are one step closer to having our baby home." She said affectionately.
"Lets crack it open and read it for clues." William said, a smile on his face.
Alexandria's own smile faltered and she looked down on the pink diary in her hand. A diary is a very personal object and to have your parents and your brothers look in it and read it is a violation. You'd feel betrayed and angry. She tried to bite her tongue but before she knew it, she was speaking.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
She could feel all the eyes in the room burning holes into her. Great job Alex, she though to herself, you managed to piss off everybody in the room in one sentence.
I feel like there is a loooot of dialogue, maybe too much?..anyone else?
Writing Alex & Mathus is too much fun..
Read & review :)