She laughed again, and he leaned conspiratorially across the table towards her. “Who do you think would win in a fight? Lucien,” he indicated their Pack Leader with a tilt of his head, “Or Lucian?” he referred to the ‘lycan’ leader of the film franchise.
“What?” Lucien asked dryly. She suspected he didn’t like being out of the loop on anything.
“Hmm.” Caia pretended to think. “Lucian is pretty tough... he can squeeze bullets out of his head. I don’t think even Lucien can do that?”
“Yeah, but silver hurts Lucian. Lucien would just laugh at a silver bullet.”
“That’s true.”
“What the hell are they talking about?” Lucien grumbled to the rest of the table.
Magnus smiled. “I don’t know, but it looks like Ry has found a fellow movie buff.”
“Ry and Cy.” Irini snorted like a teenager.
Aidan laughed with her and then quieted at the dirty look Lucien threw them.
Ryder smiled at Caia and returned to his food. She, however, was confused. She’d been getting along with the pack. Wasn’t that what Lucien wanted? Weird, moody, beast of a lykan. She sighed and turned back to her own meal.
He would have to watch his reactions. Lucien gazed surreptitiously at everyone around the table. He was being overbearing and he knew it. His only excuse was that Caia’s presence had left him feeling unbalanced. He was glad she was getting along with the pack, that she’d taken a shine to Ryder. Really. He was.
After everyone had finished dinner Caia offered to help Ella clean up. Magnus yawned and took his leave. Irini and Aidan on the other hand glanced at one another with an obvious hunger. Huh. He hadn’t seen that coming.
“Uh, Irini, you want to go for a run... with me?” Aidan glanced nervously between Lucien and his sister. Irini didn’t even bother to look back at her brother, just smiled beatifically at Aidan and nodded, jumping up from her seat in the same motion.
Ryder laughed softly as the two disappeared out of the back door and into the yard.
“I’m invisible,” Lucien grumbled to his closest friend.
Ryder sighed, getting up. “Leave ‘em be. I haven’t seen my brother so happy in ages. He’s been talking about Irini constantly since it was decided she’d be coming home.”
Lucien was confused. “I can’t even remember them having a thing together before she left.”
“You were gone at the time.”
“Hmm.”
As they stood from the table Lucien’s gaze was drawn to Caia as she cleared it. She tucked a lock of pale hair behind her ear before she picked up some plates, her long eyelashes fanning her cheeks as she looked down. He sighed softly. She seemed so fragile. She awoke every protective instinct he had.
Ryder clamped a hand on his shoulder, startling him out of his musings. He was guided from the room by that hand and out onto the porch. His friend chuckled, but it was more disbelieving than amused. He leaned against the porch frame and stared out at the woods. “Were you jealous in there?”
Lucien felt an unexpected blow of annoyance at that question. “What?” He frowned, more than irritated that he’d been that obvious. “No.”
“You were certainly something.”
Lucien shrugged, not meeting his friend’s eye. “Well you were a little...”
“A little, what?”
“For a start, you said to the girl you were in love.”
Ryder guffawed, “It was a figure of speech.”
“It was flirting.”
“I wasn’t flirting with Caia. I was trying to make the girl feel at ease. She’s had this pained look on her face since she arrived.”
Ryder was right and he was wrong? Wow... that didn’t happen that often to him. As Pack Leader he was pretty self-assured, and usually 99.9% right in most situations. Lucien sighed deeply and wearily. She was throwing him off his game. How was he supposed to handle all this? He groaned, running his hand through his hair in frustration. “I’m sorry... I’m just... It’s just… I don’t know, what-”