Hunting Ember (Pride of Alphas #1) - Milly Taiden Page 0,1
for a whole afternoon. But what she wanted, more than anything in the world, was her own bakery. Something all her own. Her parents had offered to front the money for the venture. They would have to skimp and scrape, but the Bradys were willing to do all kinds of sacrifices for their daughters. But that was not how Ember wanted to get her bakery.
She was dead set on working for it, on earning it with her mettle as a baker. What better way to prove that she was the best than in an actual baking competition judged by the world’s best pastry chefs? There wasn’t a better plan. This was it, and she wasn’t going to mess it up.
“What are you girls doing in here?” Liza Brady chided, waltzing into the kitchen. “Dinner is already on the table. It will get cold. I did not spend all day cooking up a storm for my daughters to eat a tepid meal.” She clapped her hands together. “Come now.”
With a backward glance toward the cupcakes, Ember followed her mother and sisters into the dining room.
Their father, Virgil, was already sitting down at the head of the table, sipping a creamy soup.
“I made lobster bisque,” Mom explained, tucking in on Dad’s left.
Sparx sat in her usual seat with her blond hair and keen brown eyes, eying the meal nervously. No doubt, in a few short moments, she would push away her bowl of delicious soup, claiming that she had to be careful because the network was on her ass about looking good again. It had been a refrain since Sparx was a teenager.
Cinder, the Brady family's baby, had brown hair and green eyes just like their mother. Her makeup was always done with expertise and flawlessness, making professional makeup artists weep with jealousy. Cinder grabbed her phone from her back pocket and snapped a few pictures of the table before posting it onto her social media, where there were millions of followers, hungry for her next post.
Ember wasn’t famous and renowned like her sisters, and she was honestly okay with it. Her own hair was auburn, like their father’s, and her eyes were a passable shade of brown. She had curves on her curves because she was a baker, and she refused to not taste every little thing she made. It wasn’t just about quality control. It was about good sense.
Life was too short to pass up eating a good macaroon, or perfect cookie, or delectable mousse. There were a lot of things to taste out there, and Ember wasn’t going to worry about her waistline.
“A toast,” Virgil took up his wineglass, raising it high above his head. “To Ember, who starts a new project, a new adventure, tomorrow. May you succeed!”
“May you succeed,” the rest of the family chorused their motto.
“How are you feeling?” Mom asked her, a worried frown pulling at her beautiful features. Liza knew her eldest was the shy, reserved one who wouldn’t do so well under the glaring limelight. “Not too nervous, I hope?”
Ember gave her mother a wide smile. “Not nervous at all,” she lied.
Because it was a lie.
Ember was a nervous wreck. It wasn’t just the competition that was weighing on her. She had a secret, one that she didn’t know how to handle.
She had no idea how to tell her family. Would they believe her? Would they panic? Would they insist that she not compete in the Bakers Gotta Bake television show?
She couldn’t risk it because of one pesky letter.
The piece of paper sat in her purse, far off in the entryway. The note had been left on her front porch the morning before, threatening her with violence if she didn’t pull out of the show.
It was insane, just someone trying to frighten her.
Besides, who would believe that someone was after her? She wasn’t Sparx with television fame or Cinder with the millions of followers. She was just some baker going on a baking show. No one was going to try and kill her over it.
Chapter Two
Kai
The sun was setting, but it was still quite hot. Kai flipped the steaks over on the grill, taking a sip of his beer to cool down. It was a peaceful evening that was just about to turn chaotic. His parents were already bickering inside over which salad dressing to put out, while his brother was running late, no doubt slowed down by his kids.
Kai enjoyed the silence, but it was also a clear sign that he was