The Curvy Human Behind The Alpha's Survivor

The Job

Nina's POV

Six months later…

"Okay, but did you actually throw the spoon at her or did you just set it down really aggressively? Because the story's been through three people already and it keeps getting better."

I laughed into my coffee, the first real laugh I'd had all week. "I set it down firmly. There was no throwing."

"Firmly." Cass grinned across the tiny table, wedged into the even tinier kitchen of my even tinier apartment. "You've ruined this for me. I've been telling people you Frisbee'd a spoon at Lucinda Ashworth's head for six months."

"Please stop telling people that."

"Absolutely not. It's the best thing that's happened to that family in a decade."

I shook my head, but the warmth of it stuck around after the laugh faded. Six months out and Cass was still the one person who could make any of it sound almost funny instead of just sad.

"How'd you even manage it," she said, quieter now, stirring her coffee she wasn't drinking. "The actual leaving part. One day you're at that dinner table, next thing I know you've got an apartment and a stack of divorce papers."

"Turns out when your mother-in-law humiliates you in front of an allied pack, the exit paperwork moves fast." I shrugged. "Jace didn't fight it much either. He wanted to be an Alpha more than he wanted to be a husband. I think some part of him was relieved. Easier to let his mother win than to keep choosing between us."

"Coward." She snorted.

"Comfortable coward.” I corrected her. There's a difference, apparently."

"Not really."

"No," I agreed. "Not really."

She reached over and squeezed my hand once, quick, before going back to stirring. "How's the body stuff? The cycle, all that."

"Better, actually." I turned my mug in a slow circle on the table. "I have a new doctor, an actual treatment plan instead of Lucinda's specialists reporting to her before they reported to me. Cycle's regulated for the first time in two years. Energy's better."

"So the PCOS thing is—"

"It's been managed. I still don't love how I look most days, if I'm honest. That doesn't just switch off because a doctor says my labs are better." I picked at the edge of a napkin. "But I don't feel like my body's a courtroom exhibit anymore, so. Progress."

"Progress counts."

"Progress pays my rent about forty percent of the time, so we'll see."

Cass snorted. "Speaking of paying rent."

"Oh no."

"Nothing bad. Just, I might have a job for you."

"Cass."

"Listen before you say no." She held up both hands. "It's a big gathering in neutral territory. There'll be humans and wolves which means good money and zero chance of anyone's mother showing up to ruin your night."

"I don't cater for wolves, not anymore." Most of the wolves I'd come in contact with were very terrible people.

"You cater for people who pay well and don't insult your body over the entrée. This is a different crowd entirely." She leaned forward. "It's Griffin Wolfe's territory. You know the name?"

I did, vaguely. "The neutral Alpha, sure."

"He's throwing this big alliance gathering and he needs a caterer who can actually cook instead of whatever catering company they usually use that serves rubber chicken to werewolves who can smell exactly how sad it is. I mentioned you and he wants to meet."

My stomach dropped. "I don't know, Cass."

"Nina." She pouted. “Common, you're really good at what you do.”

"It's a werewolf event. I just spent a year getting insulted at werewolf events."

"By one specific horrible woman at one specific horrible family's events. This is a different world honestly, from what I've heard about how Griffin runs things." She softened. "You've been doing sad little backyard parties for six months. You're better than sad little backyard parties."

I didn't say anything for a second, staring into my coffee like it might have an opinion.

"It pays well," she added, gently now. "And it's enough to actually get you somewhere instead of just keeping you afloat."

"And if it goes badly?"

"Then it goes badly and you never have to see any of them again. Also, you come cry on my couch about it, I'll agree with everything you say even if you're wrong. Same as always."

That got a small laugh out of me despite myself. "You're really selling this."

"I'm being honest, which is worse." She grinned. "So? Yes?"

I looked around my kitchen, and thought about the last time I'd cooked something that actually excited me instead of something that just needed to get done.

"Yes," I said, before I could talk myself out of it. "Fine. Yes."

Cass whooped loud enough that my neighbor banged on the wall, which only made her laugh harder.

We talked at length before she decided to leave.

My phone rang around ten that night, after Cass had gone home and I was elbow deep in menu ideas I'd already scribbled across three different napkins.

"Hey, it's me." Gabriel's voice came through the other end of the phone."Hey, stranger. Where've you been?"

"Around. Here and there."

"Listen, is it okay if I crash at your place for a few days? Just, things are a little complicated right now."

"Complicated how?"

"It's nothing serious. I just need somewhere to lay low for a bit."

I should have asked more questions because some old part of me knew this wolf better than anyone. But it was Gabriel, the same Gabriel who used to sneak me extra fries after his shifts when we were seventeen and broke, the same Gabriel who showed up at my apartment the night the divorce papers got signed and didn't say a single word, just sat with me until I stopped crying.

"Yeah, of course," I said. "The door's open. You know where the spare key is."

"You're the best, Nina. I owe you."

"You owe me nothing. Just, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied. "I'll see you soon, yeah?"

He hung up before I could push further.

I stared at the phone a second, that old familiar unease settling low in my stomach, then set it

aside. Gabriel had been disappearing and reappearing like this for years. This was nothing new. This was just Gabriel being Gabriel.

So I went back to my napkins.