Page 29 of Cam's Treasure

"Caleb?" I suggested, since I didn't want to ask either of our dads for help. We wanted them to think we were doing perfectly well on our own, because I knew they'd use the chance to try to convince us to move back.

It wasn't that they thought we weren't fit to live on our own. They just missed us. Especially DD and Dad, since they had the whole soon-to-be-parents overprotectiveness going.

"Yeah, we could probably convince him to not tell the dads. Or Anson, if he sends him."

Caleb could very well send Anson, a human in the know—he was mated to a shapeshifter—who worked as a handyman for him, especially because Caleb and I...had a sort of situation going in that he was always the target of my pranks growing up, and he might hate me a little because of it. We hadn't really talked much since I got back, mostly because I'd avoided him for fear that he might not want anything to do with me at all.

"You call him," I told Micah, and he raised a brow at me but complied anyway.

Twenty minutes later, Caleb was on his back under the sink, since the space was too small for his big, bulky frame to fit any other way. I'd been surprised he'd come himself, but he'd taken charge instantly. He'd turned off a knob somewhere that had cut off the water supply to the sink, making the dripping stop, and I wondered why we hadn't thought to check for that. We could've saved so much water. We'd used the leaked water in the garden, but with all the rain, I didn't think the plants had actually needed it.

"Okay, yeah. We'll need to change these pipes. This part's all rusted, and it would've probably burst in a couple of weeks." Caleb maneuvered out of the space and sat upright, returning his tools to their bag.

"Will it take long?" Micah asked from his spot on the floor. He'd been curious about how everything worked, so Caleb had been explaining. I stood a safe distance away, keeping out of their way but still watching what was happening.

"A couple of hours, tops," Caleb said, standing to his full height as he dusted off his jeans. Caleb was a big man, as big as Cassian. But while Cassian was all big bones and cuddly exterior, Caleb was all muscles. He was the most jacked dude I'd ever seen, and I might've had a teeny, tiny, celebrity-type crush on him once upon a time. The kind of crush where I didn't exactly want to be with him or even kiss him, but where I liked having his attention on me, or just looking at him. It was probably why I'd enjoyed torturing him so much, not that it'd endeared me to him.

"Oh, that's great. When can you do it?"

"Right now, if you want. I have the pipes in my truck." His gray-blue eyes slid to me, and a dark eyebrow went up as he took a few steps toward me. "Why are you so quiet today? It doesn't really suit you."

I flushed, then scratched the back of my neck. "Um, no reason."

Micah, the betrayer, chuckled. "He thinks you're holding a grudge about all our pranks on you."

Our pranks. I smiled. I'd always dragged Micah along on my shenanigans, but they'd always been my idea. Not that Micah would ever tell that to anyone. He'd always taken half the blame, declaring to anyone who asked that we'd been in on it together. I must've started falling for him somewhere around that time.

Caleb's brows shot up, surprise clear in his eyes. "You really think I've been holding a grudge over harmless pranks all these years?"

"They weren'tallharmless," I muttered, remembering the time I'd used a makeshift glitter bomb that had exploded. A piece of it had hit Caleb so hard he'd had a bruise on his cheek for days, despite his fast healing.

Caleb shook his head, a smile quirking his lips. "You were kids. Sure, your pranks were annoying at the time, but if you were truly bothering me, I would've made sure you knew it." His eyes flashed, showing a little bit of his wolf side, and I relaxed. That made sense. Caleb wasn't the type to let someone jerk him around, and even though I was 'Raiden's son,' he would've made sure to teach me a lesson if he thought I'd gone too far.

I'd known that even back then, which was why I'd never targeted Noel. I knew that the moment I pulled Caleb's mate into it, he would react.

"I'm glad. And I am sorry, you know. I might've gone a little too far a few times."

Caleb waved me off, and then left the room, probably to get the pipes from his truck.

Micah and I shared a glance, and he grinned as he stepped closer to me.

Micah

"You were really worried about that, huh?" I asked as I slid my arm around Cam's waist, leaning into him. Our lips were inches apart, but since Caleb would be back any second, I didn't push forward.

While Cam had absolutely no problem with PDA, I preferred not to make out in front of the other clan members if possible. Mostly because most of our clan members were annoying jerks who'd whistle and cheer like they weren't just as lovey-dovey with their own mates.

"I wasn'tworried." Cam scoffed, rolling his eyes at me as if I couldn't tell when he was lying. I didn't even need to read his thoughts; I could just tell from the look on his face.

"Sure."

Caleb returned before Cam could comment on the disbelief in my voice, and I started heating up some lunch while Cam hovered around the wolf shifter 'in case he needed help.' Cam clearly wanted to make nice with Caleb, so I left him to it.

Somehow, we'd lived in our new house for a whole month and still hadn't needed to cook. I made sandwiches sometimes, but more often than not, someone from the clan would visit and bring food. Our dads had dropped by with 'leftovers' a few times too, and I wondered if they thought we couldn't cook. Cam most definitely couldn't, and while I knew how, it wasn't something I enjoyed doing, so I was happy for the excuse not to.

I knew we shouldn't be so reliant on our parents, that we should cook our own food at the very least, but I just couldn't bring myself to say no to them, and I knew Cam felt the same.

Our dads werenotdealing well with our moving out, especially Raiden. Apparently, having eggs made a dragon emotional, and Raiden's mood swings over the last few weeks had left Mistvale in a perpetual state of rainy-sunny-stormy-rainy. William was doing his best to keep Raiden steady, but he himself was also feeling the effects, so I doubted he was very successful.

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