Elaris's POV
The dining room was a wide affair, just as I remembered, but the chandelier was drawn lower now, the tablecloth was changed, the chairs too, the…
I breathed a hard sigh, and I willed my mind to forget every little detail it was obsessing about, and I turned my concentration back to the three men on the table, who looked up from their meals to me as I walked in. Torren had a bottle of whiskey by his elbow, which he slugged like the unrepentant drunk that he was, while watching me make my way into the room.
Karl, on the other hand, froze on his food; he raised his head enough to slant me a polite smile. "How are you doing, Dr.?" he said. He tried his best to keep his voice neutral, but somehow it bothered him between being too polite and also prejudicial. With our altercation this afternoon, I wasn't so surprised.
Darius looked up from his food too, and he mumbled a greeting to me as courtesy demanded. Aside from the others, he was the only one that kept his business primarily on his food. Karl stole glances at me between his meals, staring at me over the rim of his glass when he drank. There was something calculating about his stare; I could tell he was either scheming something that heavily involved me or he was studying me.
But still, he wasn't the reason for the slight irritation in my insides, the reason I adjusted uncomfortably on the seat. Torren was, unlike Karl. He stared outrightly at me, eyes boring into me with the same intensity as a bullet drilling into skin.
I adjusted on my seat, still uncomfortable under the stairs. I looked away, and I took a plate and proceeded to serve myself. I noticed my hands were trembling as I scooped up salad onto my plates. My nerves were never this bad, but I had never been stared at by two men before, two men that I was fated to, and who I wanted to hide my identity from.
My fingers trembled around the tongs as I picked up a drumstick with them. Were they already suspecting who I am? But they have no reason to; I have changed my looks, changed my eyes, I have…
I shut my eyes for a moment and steadied my nerves. There was no reason to fear; I was just being unnecessarily paranoid. If they had even the slightest suspicion of who I am. Or who I might be, they'd be more action around the table than harmful stares.
I picked up my cutleries, looking away from Torren's daring and unflinching stare. Karl still had the graces to look away from me before our eyes could meet.
I ate carefully, feeling the spicy chicken come alive in my mouth, an explosion of spice on my tongue. For a moment or more, I forgot about the stare, and I butted into my food, eating quietly. But it got to a point I couldn't take it anymore, and I leaned back in my seat.
I looked at both of them as I spoke, making sure our eyes all collided the next time Karl raised his head to steal a glance. "Do either of you have anything to say to me?" I demanded. "If you get on with it, you don't have to stare me to death; I don't bite." I said.
Torren said nothing but grunted, his jaw ticking hard. Karl, on the other hand, made an exaggerated huff, dramatizing that he thought the statement was ridiculous. "I wasn't staring at you, Doctor Elara. I was just eating my meal."
"Yeah, you were doing that and staring at me at the same time." I said, steering all my gaze at him, accusing him since he was the only one that denied it.
His jaw clenched, and he frowned. "You must be mistaken; I wasn't staring. I had no reason to be staring at you, Doctor Elara. Why would I even be staring at you?"
"That's the same thing I want to find out, Alpha Karl." I said, making the accusation heavy on my voice. "Your eyes were certainly lingering on me for reasons I don't know."
"Like I said, Doctor Elara." He spelled out between clenched teeth, stare tight now; I could see the fury in his eyes. "I wasn't staring at you. You must be—"
"She isn't wrong, Karl. You were indeed staring at her. Intensely, or for that matter."
Karl's amber orbs roared murder as he steered them at Darius. "I wasn't staring at her. Both of you are making a mistake." He grunted.
Darius lifted his head now, and he slipped on a wry, polite, but obviously mocking smile. "Perhaps we truly are." He said, and before Karl would murder him with his stare, he returned to his food.
Karl returned to Hoss Food too. Now he fought every urge to look up at me or anyone, the strain in his shoulders as he bent to his food. The veins on his neck all hinted at the struggle.
But the war wasn't over; that was just one down, and there was still one to go. "Can you keep your eyes to yourself, or if you have—" I directed at Torren before he cut me short.
"My eyes are just where they needed to be," he replied, tone tight and clipped.
"And why does that place need to be me?"
He shrugged his broad shoulders, and he tipped his bottle to his lips, still staring at me like he was seeing through my skin at every atom in me, and the sight was so fascinating he couldn't look away. "Just coincidence," he said, with a dry grin. "For all you know, I could be staring at the pillar behind you, and you are the one in the way of what I am staring at."
I wanted to confront him, to challenge him, but I stopped, clipped my lips shut, and returned to my meal. There was no way I could win this war against him. I steered all my frustration to the cucumbers as I picked them up again. They almost snapped in my hands. How I wished I could just bloody murder him, I growled in my head, looking away from his growingly intense stare.