Kamari relaxed fully upon seeing the food. He ran a hair through his damp grey hair and sighed in exasperation. "Sorry," he said under his breath. "I shouldn't have..."
"It's cool," I said when he trailed off. "Hell, I get cranky when I get woken up from a nap. I can't imagine how you feel."
Kamari flashed me about five percent of a smile. I smiled back. I'd take what I could get.
"You're okay to eat?" I asked. "No nausea, right?"
"No, thank Nautilus," Kamari said.
I snorted. "Yeah, you hear that, Granddad? You've got a guy here who appreciates you, so please fix the water, okay?"
Kamari let out what might've been a small laugh. The sound of it was oddly pleasing. "I wish that had worked."
"Me too."
Kamari picked up a large fish and brought it to his lips. I traced the supple curve of them with my eyes before I realized what I was doing. I tore my gaze away, but not before seeing Kamari's teeth shift into those of his orca form as he bit down on the fish.
Those teeth could take my arm off in one gulp,I thought. The idea thrilled me, for some reason. Shouldn't that have been horrifying, not exciting?
A fish was thrust into my face.
"Here," Kamari said. "You must be hungry, too."
"I got those for you. I can hunt my own."
Kamari rolled his eyes. "Just take it, wolf."
My lagging brain caught up with me. Was this a peace offering? Maybe it was Kamari's wordless way of thanking me and apologizing for his accusation.
If that was the case, I wasn't about to slap away his olive branch. I took the fish and smiled.
We ate in silence until the prey pile disappeared. I was relieved to see Kamari had a healthy appetite after his brief bout of sickness.
"You said this happened to your father, too?" Kamari asked.
"You remembered that, huh? My pops, yeah. We were taking a vacation back when I was a kid, so we left the wildlife reserve and found a little beach. This wasn't connected to the ocean, though, and it wasn't under my Granddad's domain, so the water had no salt. Pops thought it'd be okay to go for a swim with me and Dad but he got sick after a while, like you did. He was worse off, so I was worried the same thing would happen to you."
"You were worried about me?" he asked.
"Um, yes? Obviously I was."
Kamari scowled. "How is that obvious? Random alphas don't go around being worried about omegas."
"First of all, I don't think I'm arandomalpha anymore," I said. "Second, that's kind of pessimistic, isn't it?"
"No," Kamari said bluntly. "I've met enough of them to know."
My eye twitched. "Well, what about me?"
"You appear to be a mild exception. For now."
"Thanks."
Kamari met my gaze evenly, unblinking. His eyes were dark liquid pools that I found myself unable to tear away from. My breath caught in my throat.
What was this weird feeling? I knew Kamari hated me, and yet...
I blinked, shaking off the sensation with a shudder.
