Avenger(32)

“You happy now?”

“Very,” he grabbed a dishtowel off the counter and used it to clean his bloody nose.

I shook my head. “I don’t understand what that was about.”

“I wanted to see if you still had it,” he shrugged.

“Have what?” Why the hell did Nolan always have to speak in damn riddles? Wasn’t it easier to just say whatever you have to say?

“The fire,” he spoke fiercely. “The drive to fight and conquer. You haven’t been acting like a leader these last few months, Caeden. You’ve only thought about Sophie and holed up in your office doing God knows what. I wanted to see that your leader instincts were still there, and they are. So, congratulations, Caeden,” he slow clapped.

“You make absolutely no sense whatsoever,” I shook my head.

“I do make sense,” he countered, “you’re just too dense to see what I’m showing you.”

“And what’s that?”

“Do I really have to spell it out for you? Get with the program, Cay-berry,” he smacked his hands in front of my face like you might do to someone who was staring off into space—only I wasn’t.

Nothing else could be said because Evan chose that moment to step into the kitchen. “Everything alright?” He asked. “It was taking you a while to get the drinks and I heard raised voices…” He trailed off.

“Yeah, sorry,” I shook my head, “the drinks are ready.”

“Cool,” Evan grabbed several of the drinks off the tray and I picked up the remaining few.

I decided to hang out with the guys, even though I felt incredibly awkward. They weren’t my friends, they were Sophie’s, but it would have been rude to ditch them. Nolan didn’t join me. Figures.

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he meant by punching me and by a fire, and so on. Nolan needed to come with an instruction book to decipher his alien messages.

“You said Sophie’s napping?” Riley questioned.

I nodded.

“She sick?” He continued his inquisition as all of the guys stared me down. They acted like they thought I’d killed her and stuffed her body in a closet or something.

“Kind of,” I shrugged, relaxing in the leather chair, the picture of ease. “She’s having a hard time with the pregnancy.”

Kyle, one of the guys that never seemed to say much, spat out sweet tea everywhere at my words. “Baby?”

“She’s pregnant?” Evan choked, his eyes bugging out in shock.

“Uh…yeah…you didn’t—uh—know?” I squirmed uncomfortably. Thank God Sophie had surprised me with the news of the baby in front of our whole family, because if telling her friends made me feel this uncomfortable, I hated to think of how I would’ve felt telling her dad.

“She never told us,” Brody piped in. “She doesn’t really talk to any of us that much anymore. I mean, we’re off at college and she’s here,” he looked around at the large room. “I get it, I do. But we miss her.” All the guys nodded in agreement.

His words made me feel bad, because they had been really good friends to Sophie. Human friends, and I knew she treasured them.

“There’s been a lot going on,” I explained. “The pregnancy has been…difficult.” And wasn’t that the understatement of the freakin’ century.

“Is she okay? The baby?” Brody asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. Nothing major is wrong. She’s just exhausted.” And I was too. All the worrying I was doing was really taking a toll on me. I was going to have to get better about leaving Sophie with someone else so I could train with Bryce and Bentley. A lot of strength came with being a shifter, but we still had to exercise to stay in our best shape. And I knew if I ever expected to kill Travis and his mutants I couldn’t slack—and that’s exactly what I’d been doing.

“So,” Evan smirked, “y’all did get married because she was pregnant then.”

I shook my head. “No, that happened after, I promise you,” I chuckled. I really didn’t want to be talking about this with these guys.

I rubbed my hands nervously on my jeans, wishing that a miracle would happen and Sophie would appear so I could disappear from all this awkwardness.

And then, as if conjured by my thoughts alone, I looked out of the family room to see her shakily making her way down the steps.

I hopped up and ran up the steps to her side. Her skin was pale and she was way too frail. This was scaring me more and more with every day that passed. Who would’ve thought that because we’re both Alphas it would complicate the pregnancy? If anything you’d think it’d make it easier.