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“Well, sure, I guess, but it makes complete sense,” Carter replied with a shrug. “You want Chris as your mate.”

I sputtered, making him laugh. I tried to form words, but my mouth opened and closed without a single utterance.

“Look, I can Boogle things as well as anyone, and Witchipedia was pretty clear that ogres mate and get all territorial. I mean, I assume you don’t eat people, though. Right?”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes and move on. Blood moon. So high emotions. Territorial. Yada yada crap that I don’t want to think about in conjunction with my brother. But you miss him. You need him. It’s not rocket science. Besides, I see how you look at Chris.”

“How do I look at him?” I was truly curious.

“Like he’s the best thing in the entire universe and you want to never let him go,” he answered matter-of-factly.

If I’d thought I was blushing before, I’d been very wrong. This was blushing. It felt as if my cheeks were going to burst into flames.

Carter gave me a soft smile. “I’m glad it’s you.”

“Really?” I was glad it was me too, but part of me felt as if Chris could do better.

“Yeah. You know me. I’m extremely overprotective of my younger siblings, and I worry about them a lot. Chris probably more than Sam. That girl is a force of nature. Heaven forbid someone cross her.”

I nodded in agreement. Sam was something else.

He continued, “I know you will take care of Chris and love him like he deserves. I trust you, and more importantly, Chris trusts you.” Carter patted my arm. “I’m very, very glad it’s you, Jaxon.”

The backs of my eyes burned for some reason. “Thank you, Carter. That means a lot to me.”

“Good. Now, don’t fuck this up or I will kill you and hide your body. I know people.” He gave me a smile that had zero kindness or humor in it, and his eyes seemed to glow.

I rapidly shook my head. “I would never hurt Chris.”

Patting my arm again, Carter said, “Then you have nothing to worry about.”

I tried to smile, but it was hard with Carter having just threatened me. “Are you doing okay, besides shifting randomly?”

“I’m fine.”

Glancing at him, I wondered if I should tell him about Chris’s panic attack. Carter would want to know. I knew he would. But I almost immediately decided against it. Chris wouldn’t want to worry his brother, and Carter was overprotective and relentless. He wouldn’t allow Chris to slowly come to terms with having anxiety. He would bowl everything over until he was certain his little brother was safe.

“By the monster god, seriously, calm down. I’m not going to kill you,” Carter said, readjusting. “Chris would never forgive me.”

I laughed.

“Now, if you hurt him, then all bets are off.”

“I know, I know,” I said, giving him a smile and turning back to my homework.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Christopher

Iwas jittering with excitement to the point I was bouncing in my seat. I was so ready to be back at Creepin U. Jaxon and I had texted on and off while I was gone, but it hadn’t been enough. I’d missed him. Also, though I wasn’t excited about it, I had so much homework to catch up on. We had that paper on Hamlet to work on. Why in the hell had I chosen Hamlet? Though to be honest, none of the plays would’ve been fun to write about. Shakespeare wasn’t my thing; it never would be, as much as I had pretended freshman year of high school. Still, I had to write this paper, so I had no choice but to make it my thing.

But first: Jaxon.

I bolted out of the bus the second it stopped. Whistles followed me. I shook my head, yelling, “You can all fuck off!”

“Language, Kim,” Coach snapped, but I ignored him.