“Greg said it could take weeks before I can shift,” August said, which skewered me with renewed guilt. August must’ve spotted the guilt, because he added, “But I feel good. Great,even.”
I sensed he was overplaying howgreathe felt to reassure me, but I also sensed, through the link, that he wasn’t in anypain.
“As you both can see, though, Dimples doesn’t believeme.”
I pursed mylips.
“You sure you feel up for a run, man?” Mattasked.
August shook his head. “Don’t you start babying me too,Matty.”
Cole smirked. “Ness’s babying you, Auggie? I’m sure that’s reallyawful.”
August smacked his friend, which just made Colechuckle.
I rolled my eyes. “If you guys are done acting like girls, can wego?”
“Acting like girls?” Cole howled a laugh. “I’ll have you know, we Rogers are extremely manly. Watt,though—”
“Don’t bother coming into work on Monday. You’refired.”
“August!” Iyelled.
“Don’t worry, Ness. That’s the twentieth time he’s fake-firedme.”
“Nothing fake about it this time,” Augustgrumbled.
“Temperature’s supposed to be scorching today,” Matt said, setting his mug in the sink. “We should head outsoon.”
33
“Yo, Matty, can we stop?”Cole wheezed. “My lungs are on fire . . . and I feel like I’m gonna hurl.” He was running beside me while Matt and August were ahead ofus.
Wayahead ofus.
Even though my lungs felt vacuum-packed, at least I didn’t sound as though I was about to dropdead.
Matt whirled and jogged backward. “If you quit smoking, you’d feel a lotbetter.”
August glanced over his shoulder at us. Like Matt, he’d barely broken a sweat. “Maybe we should take a breather. Don’t want to have to explain to Kasie how she lost her oldest son to physicalexertion.”
Cole flipped him off before coming to a stop. He bent over and clutched his thighs, panting hard. “Why are we running . . . on a Saturday morning . . .again?”
“Because Ness needs endurance training,” Matt said, finally haltingtoo.
“Let me rephrase. Why amIrunning? Liam should be the one up here murdering hislungs.”
A shadow crossed August’s face at the mention ofLiam.
“Liam’s Alpha,” Matt said. “He’s magically in better shape than all of us put together. You knowthat.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Magically?”
“The blood oath acts like natural steroids,” Augustexplained.
So why had he asked me to prep him for the duel when he didn’t need anytraining?
My gaze snagged onAugust.
