Page 177 of Caelum

I tilted my head to the side as I looked over at my Pack leader. “Two days ago.”

Frazer’s lips twitched. “You’re too efficient, Samuel. It’s creepy.”

I had to laugh at that. “You’d be bitching me out if it still hadn’t set off,” I pointed out.

“Of course.”

“So, basically, I can’t win?”

He winked as he took a seat next to me. “Yup. That’s about it.” His arm spread out over the back of the sofa as he relaxed. His gaze took in the news I had playing on my big screen before he cut a look at my laptop.

Reed and Frazer knew what I did on there, so I didn’t bother hiding it. Sometimes I did if I worried they’d think I was obsessing—and there were no bones about it, some days I did obsess—but today wasn’t one of them. I was busy, had a lot to do, and my body was aching from letting Eve at me.

It was kind of like inviting a terrier to bite you. The bites still stung like a motherfucker, but you didn’t lose an arm in the process.

“Heard about the sparring in the gym,” Fraze drawled after a few seconds, even though I knew he was watching me watch my folks as they shared a cup of afternoon tea together in the kitchen of my childhood home—funny how the longing to be there had waned now Eve and her chaos were filling upmy days.

“Yeah? What about it?” I didn’t bother looking at him, knew his brow would be puckered as he tried to figure me out.

There was no point in telling him that he never would. Fraze didn’t work that way. If I didn’t love the bastard so much, I’d think he was bigheaded, but it wasn’t arrogance, just fear. Fraze feared losing people more than most did.

Even though I understood, empathized even, I wished that fear didn’t turn him into freakin’ Oprah when times were tough.

“Why did you spar with her?” he questioned. “Thought you didn’t like her.”

I snorted. “What’s not to like?”

“Dre finds it easy enough,” he pointed out, and I cut him a look, and we both broke out into grins.

“Dre’s a dick.”

“Won’t hear me arguing,” he countered.

“If you want to Winfrey someone, go fix him. I don’t need patching together with Pritt Stick.”

He snorted. “Who says I’m trying to fix shit? Just trying to understand you, bro. You constantly do shit that makes no sense.”

“Makes no sense to you,” I corrected, cocking a brow at him. “And if you’d seen her in the gym, you’d have waded into the mud as well.”

He scowled. “Explain.”

“They’d pitted her against a fourteen-year-old. A fourteen-year-old, Fraze,” I repeated, shaking my head. “Coach is a dick. He saw her attack me, saw what she has in her, and pitted her against a kid? Yeah, no way in fuck Eve was going to try to fight her. Not even to train.”

“So, you hurled yourself at her to help?”

“Of course. She needs to learn how to protect herself.” My mouth twisted as I stared at my mom who had just finished her tea and was back at work, making my favorite soup. She used to cook it for me when I was sick—chicken noodle. My brother Darian had shingles, which had to suck considering the kid was nearly eighteen. The sickness was going to mess up his final year, which royally sucked. “She wasn’t about to do that against a puny little girl.”

Frazer narrowed his eyes at me. “I didn’t think you liked her.”

It was my turn to snort. “I don’t have to like her. She’s Pack.” And that was it as far as I was concerned. He didn’t need to know that I’d taken to thinking of her last thing at night. Not just the crazy shit either, but the way her hair fell into her eyes, how her cheeks blossomed with heat when shewas embarrassed… I felt ridiculous but it wasn’t like I could control where my thoughts took me in those moments before sleep.

Frazer fell silent at that, then he hummed under his breath. “Which sibling is ill?”

I shot him a look. “How do you know someone’s sick?”

“Your mom only makes that soup when one of her kiddos has the lurg.”

Fuck, I loved that he knew that.

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