“Why didn’t you color my eyes?” He said as he nuzzled the side of my neck.

I involuntarily let out a whimper as he touched my body. I had no clue what to do with him so close to me, and I wasn’t able to answer his question. I could have told him that I didn’t know what his eye color was. It would give me an opportunity to ask what color they were. As I was trying to find a way out of this situation, my stomach growled.

Maelstrom scoffed at me as he backed away from me. He pulled his chair away from his desk and placed it closer to mine. When he sat down, he asked, “have you eaten anything today?”

I was still nervous from him being so close to me, and I couldn’t find it in myself to speak. Since I was unable to say anything, I shook my head.

“Well, do you want to go get something to eat?”

It was true that I was hungry, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be walking around with him. He made me nervous, and I wasn’t good at talking to him. Going to eat with him offered an opportunity for us to get to know each other better, but it also posed a risk of causing a melt down. Even under the effects of a relaxant, I wasn’t completely relaxed.

Maelstrom stood from his chair and began to walk towards the door. “Come on. Let’s go to the cafeteria. I found it while I was on my run earlier.”

Although I still wasn’t sure about going out with him, my body decided for me. I got out of my chair and followed behind Maelstrom. It may have been my omega instincts to follow an alpha, or it could have been my desire to get food. Either way, I exited the room behind him. Once out of the room, Maelstrom closed the door and locked it behind me.

As he walked away from our room, he asked another question, “so why were you drawing me? Did you miss me that much? I wasn’t gone that long, you know.”

I quietly answered him, “I I, uh, well, uh, your hair is interesting.”

He smiled at me, “I guess you're right about that, but your hair is pretty interesting too.”

He wasn’t wrong. I was used to looking at it, but it was unusual coloring. I also had tri-colored hair. My hair roughly resembled the markings of an African wild dog with  hues of ginger, black, and white scattered around in splotches. My colors weren’t where my similarities stopped. I had big, wide ears and a fluffy tail. Just as it was obvious Maelstrom had long hair dog influence, it was obvious I had African wild dog influence.

“What color are your eyes?” I questioned him with a voice that was barely above a whisper.

“So that’s why you didn’t color my eyes in. You don’t know what color they are. Well, it looks like you can’t finish your little drawing of me without knowing my eye color, so you’re going to have to get the courage to look me dead in the eyes to find out what color they are.” He challenged me; however, this was not a challenge I was ready to take on.

I followed closely behind him as he made his way out of the building. I still didn’t know how I was supposed to interact with Maelstrom, but I was also grateful that I wasn’t going to the cafeteria alone. The only thing I didn’t like about walking with Maelstrom was the way he walked. His legs were much longer than my own, and he took long, quick steps, making it hard for me to keep up. I was having to alternate between a fast walk and slow jog to keep up with him. It was exhausting, but I was too scared to say anything to him.

When we finally reached the cafeteria, Maelstrom opened the door and held it open for me. I walked in, but I had to stop to catch my breath. Keeping up with him had taken a lot out of me.

“Are you okay?” Maelstrom asked as he looked down at me.

“You walk fast.” I huffed out.

“Why didn’t you say anything to me? I’m not used to walking with other people. I could have slowed down for you.”

I didn’t respond to him this time because I didn’t want to admit to him that he frightened me. Besides, I was still trying to catch my breath and talking wasn’t going to help me. We stood there for a while before Maelstrom picked me up bride style and started carrying me towards a desk in the room. It startled me and caused me to freeze up.

When we reached the desk, the lady commanded, “Swipe your I.D.s across the scanner.”

Maelstrom did as she said then asked, “Fly, where is your I.D.?”

My I.D. was in my wallet which was in my back pocket, but I was still too stiff and nervous to say anything. Luckily, Maelstrom decided to set me back onto the ground. It took me a second to recover, but once I did, I quickly took my wallet out and swiped my I.D. across the scanner. Once we had both scanned our I.D.s, the lady waved us into the cafeteria.

It was much larger than any cafeteria I had been in growing up. It was also a self served cafeteria styled much like a buffet rather than a traditional high school cafetiera. I wasn’t sure where to go or where to start. I was hoping that Maelstrom would take the lead, but he just stood behind me.

“Well, are you going to go?” Maelstrom asked me as he nudged my shoulder with the upper part of his arm.

“I don’t know where to go.” I squeaked.

He laughed at me. “Wherever you want. You take the lead, and I’ll follow. This way I won’t go too fast for you.”

An alpha following an omega? It was a weird thought because typically the omega follows the alpha around. I would have started walking somewhere, but I still wasn’t sure where to start. I was stressing out again, and I was almost to the point of curling up and just shaking.

“Let’s go this way.” Maelstrom suggested as he grabbed my hand and started pulling me somewhere.

Although I wasn’t enthusiastic about his way of getting me to move, I went with it. It was awkward having my hand inside of another person's hand. I was not comfortable with people touching me, and Maelstrom was no exception to this. I just accepted it because I was hungry and wanted food but didn’t know where to start.

We stopped at the closest island to the Entrance. It had an array of pizza on it. Some of it looked good while others looked purely experimental.

“Do you want pizza?” Maelstrom asked me.

I didn’t answer him.

“Let’s get some and eat it while we look around.” He suggested as he pulled me along with him. “Look at all this. Raw meat on pizza! I have got to try that. What do you like?” He attempted to get me to talk again to no avail.

He grabbed a plate and put two slices of the raw meat pizza on it. After he had his slices of pizza on the plate, he walked down it slowly, trying to give me a chance to see everything. There were too many choices, and I was overwhelmed by it.

When we got to the end of the island, Maelstrom asked, “Did you see anything you want?”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted any pizza. I still wasn’t calm enough to speak yet either.

“Okay, then, let’s look at this island.” Maelstrom proposed as he started walking towards the next closest island.

This one was obviously the salad bar. A salad wasn’t a bad place to start when you didn’t know what else to get; however, it was a bad choice when there were too many options to put on a salad. Maelstrom slowly walked across this island as well to give me time to see everything it had, but I never made an attempt to stop him or get something.

“There’s got to be something you want.” I could hear the irritation in his voice. “Let’s check out the next island.”

With our hands still connected, I had little choice but to go with him. When we arrived at the next island, I was surprised to see that there weren’t too many options available. It only had a few dishes, and they all looked like they went together to make one meal. On the island, there was grilled chicken as a main food with sides of carrots and peas. I was okay with this option. I didn’t have to make any hard decisions if I simply got everything from this island. It would make an adequate meal after all.

Maelstrom was getting ready to leave the island when I tugged at his hand to tell him I didn’t want to leave. I walked over to the island and grabbed a plate with my free hand. I wiggled my other hand free from Maelstrom’s grip so that I could place food onto my plate. Maelstrom placed his plate of pizza down on the counter and grabbed himself another plate. He also decided to put the chicken and sides onto a plate for himself.

When he finished pilling the vegetables onto his plate, he smiled at me and said, “let’s get a table.”

He took the lead again. He didn’t take my hand this time because both of his hands were full. This made me a bit nervous because I was afraid he would start walking too fast for me again since he was no longer connected to me. Instinctually, I reached out and grabbed a belt loop from his pants so that he couldn’t get too far from me. He paused when he felt the tug but quickly recovered and found us a table for two

Maelstrom was quick to dive into his food and start eating. On the other hand, I was a bit hesitant. I didn’t like eating in front of people I didn’t know. Eventually, I slowly started eating my carrots.

After I took a few bites of the carrots, Maelstrom asked, “why are you such a nervous wreck?”

I looked at him and  caught a glimpse of his eyes, but I didn’t pay attention to the color. I didn’t want to make eye contact with him, so I quickly looked away before answering. “I don’t like change.”

“Okay. Why are you so scared of me?”

I silently shoveled more carrots into my mouth in an attempt to avoid answering him. He quickly finished the chicken with the sides and started eating the pizza. His whole face lit up when he took a bite, and he quickly picked up the other pizza.