“What’s the problem?”
“Honestly?” Cal said, “She lives in a shithole.”
“Look at Cal, starting to have standards,” Liam commented.
Cal rolled his eyes. “I don’t understand it. I know rent is rough, but I can’t imagine that she isn’t being paid decently for her job to live somewhere at least a little safer.”
“Where does she work again?” I asked.
“The university library.”
“She works at Prestford?”
Cal paused as if he didn’t want to tell us and keep his new friend all to himself. Eventually, he nodded.
So did I. “I can look into it.”
“You don’t have to. It was just shocking considering how she seems to try to take care of herself otherwise. Or at least she tries to,” expressed Cal. “And...”
“And?” I asked.
He paused. “Nothing.”
“Trying to find an easy reason to offload her, beta?” Liam asked. He was beginning to have the moody tact of his teenage self that I often got into fights with or ignored until it passed when we lived in a small boarding school dormitory where there was no escaping it.
All of us must've had something under our skin lately.
“No." Cal nearly growled.
“What then?” he asked. “Going to bring her over for a dinner of cereal and talk out your confused feelings for each other?"
“Maybe.”
My eyes flicked back up from where they fell off my two pack mates bickering.
Cal shrugged. “She likes cereal.”
“You’re kidding.”
Cal shook his head. “I think she could use the friends too. The only problem is that she seems to have had a not-so-good experience though. With alphas.”
“You didn’t tell her you were already with a pack?”
“Well...”
“Cal,” I admonished. Cal might not have been a great communicator, but he did know better than to hide us.
“I was waiting for the right moment.” Cal turned. “And yes, I did tell her after the first date. We were just talking about you guys today. She wanted to know more about all of us.”
“Good. It’s not right for you to not tell her," I said. "It probably only made her more nervous because you tried to hide it."
“I know that,” said Cal. “Now. For a minute there, I just wasn’t thinking.”
“When do you?” muttered Liam.
“Knock it off, Liam.”
“You act like this is even a good idea. What’s going to happen, Cal, huh?”