Page 176

Then something else took over. Something quick. Decisive.

And fucking furious.

Watching Cage burn, heal, and burn again was one of the most satisfying deaths I’ve ever delivered. I don’t regret it.

The buzz of my phone startles me, and I have to push aside stacks of texts and search under papers before I finally find it shoved all the way back behind my monitor.

Of course, the second I find it, it stops buzzing. I curse, hoping I didn’t just miss a call from one of my contacts. Some of the academic types can be real petty when they want to be.

Thankfully, it’s just a text from Vae. I relax and thumb it open, expecting to find his usual ramblings interspersed with tangents that always leave me trying to decode what his actual point was to begin with.

Instead, his message consists of three words.

Breakfast. Ten minutes.

Well, safe to say he’s still upset with me.

With a sigh, I push back from my desk and stand, wincing at the way my joints crack when I move. The muscles in my back and shoulders are painfully tight from sleeping hunched over a hard surface, and right now all I want to do is get in the shower and let the hot water soothe away the ache.

Of course, once I get in the shower, my brain refuses to allow me a few minutes of blissful silence. Instead, I’m plagued with the memory of Idril in the courtyard last night, protecting that behemoth of what’s supposedly a cat.

Or, used to be a cat? Maybe?

I have no idea.

The hot water’s nearly gone when I finally climb out of the shower, and I have to hurry through toweling off and getting dressed. Exactly ten minutes later, I’m walking into our Pack dining room.

I almost turn around and walk right back out when I see that Caelan, Soren, and the Omega are sitting together at the end of the dining table.

Schooling my expression into something more neutral, I make my way toward the head of the table and take my seat. I drape my napkin across my lap and try to stop my eyes from darting toward the door every five seconds until Vae appears.

In typical Vae fashion, he doesn’t explain why he’s late. He just grins and shrugs before taking the seat to my right.

For the next seven and a half minutes, no one speaks. Only the faint hum of the AC cycling through the vents and the clink of dining utensils scraping against china fill the silence.

The only thing preventing me from grinding my molars to nubs is the calming scent of my Pack swirling through the room.

What’s strange is how Soren’s spicy chestnut and pine blends almost perfectly with ours. That’s almost unheard of for an outside Alpha—especially when there’s already an established Fated Pack Bond.

I’m halfway through a mental checklist of items to research with Riven when Caelan’s low, rumbling voice breaks the silence.

“You really should eat a little more than that, Omega.”

An unexpected sense of longing washes over me. Caelan’s tone when he speaks to his Mate is so gentle. So full of concern. I glance down the table at the Omega.

“I’m just full, that's all,” she responds, pushing little pieces of scrambled egg around her plate with her fork.

“Maybe we need to discuss your appetite with Calder,” Caelan murmurs thoughtfully, tucking a strand of silky white hair behind her ear.

I glance down when I feel a sharp pain in the hand holding my knife. Small drops of blood appear from the shallow cut in my palm before my healing kicks in.

What in the hell led me to pick my knife up by the blade? I reach for another napkin and blot away the blood.

“Why do you need to speak to Calder?”

I don’t remember deciding to speak, so I’m almost surprised when the words leave my mouth. I’m even more surprised when Caelan answers.

“Because she’s barely eating. I’m worried that after an extended period of forced starvation, there’s something wrong we might not be able to see.”