“Not yet, sorry. I promise I will soon.”
“Okay, thanks. I appreciate it.” She started to move away but I looped my arm around hers before she could.
“Hey, why didn’t you tell him you were moving out?” I tried not to use my commanding eldest sister tone with Vianna but it came out anyway.
She looked away and the tips of her ears turned a dark blue from embarrassment.
“I was afraid he’d say no,” she admitted.
“Vianna,” I sighed. “If you want to be treated like an adult, you need to face problems like this head on. Zander didn’t seem mad at all that you’d moved out, but I could tell he was hurt that you hadn’t even told him before you did so.”
“Oh,” the young sirret woman pouted. Her long silver hair fell over her shoulder as she scanned the room.
“I’ll go talk to him,” Vianna sighed and walked toward her brother with a clay bowl filled with food and her shoulders slumped.
I turned my attention to the food on the table and smiled at Orsu as he cooked over the makeshift stove.
The smell of cooked meat wafted up to my nose and immediately made me queezy. I turned my attention to the flat bread that was being offered as well as the fresh fruit.
I filled my plate with both and looked for a place to sit in the crowded meeting house.
There was a seat near Favalor. He was sitting by himself looking like a lost puppy as he eyed Vianna sitting with her brother so far away. From the way he looked at her, you’d think they were on two separate planets instead of just two sides of one room.
I sat next to the sad sirret male and his face brightened with a warm smile as he greeted me.
“Good evening, Fatima.”
“Good evening,” I smiled back at him and heard a low growl from across the room.
Zander was staring us down with a ferocious expression on his face. Favalor sunk down in his seat in an attempt to avoid the fire shifter’s gaze, but it was no use.
“Just ignore him,” I whispered. “He can’t do anything more than growl.”
“Maybe to you,” Favalor huffed. “I’m pretty sure he’d beat me up, if he thought Tarak wouldn’t mind it. It’s only out of respect for the Savrix that he keeps his distance.”
“Is it true that he dislikes you because you pretended to be loyal to Dameron?” I asked in a hushed tone.
“Yeah, he says anyone who was loyal to Dameron has no honor.”
“Were you ever truly loyal to Dameron, or were you pretending the whole time?”
“I was never loyal to that vile male,” Favalor’s lip curled back in a snarl emphasizing his disgust.
Zander must have thought that snarl was directed at me because he got up from his seat and prowled toward us like a lion on the hunt.
The big shifter with broad shoulders and red hair leaned in close to Favalor and spoke to him in a low and threatening tone.
“It is only by the grace of the goddess and the will of the Savrix that you sit here today unharmed, but if you snarl at Fatima again, I can assure you that not even the goddess herself can protect you from my wrath.”
“I wasn’t snarling at her. I promise,” Favalor confessed as sweat began to form on his brow.
“He’s telling the truth,” I chimed in. “We were discussing Dameron. That is what made Favalor snarl.”
“Stop bullying him!” Vianna had caught up to her brother and chastised the big male in a way that only a younger sibling could.
“Come on Favalor, we can go eat dinner somewhere else,” the young Sirret shifter grabbed the male she clearly loved so dearly by the hand and pulled him safely away from her brother.
There was a momentary pause in conversation from everyone in the dining hall as the two love birds left the building, Vianna slamming the door behind them.
