I roll my eyes at her as Leo bends over to change a fitted sheet, and Loz groans. I giggle.
"Damn that is one fine piece of beta."
"I mean, if Adonises are your thing, sure."
She pokes a rainbow ice-cream coated tongue out at me.
The woman's southern-tinged voiceover murmurs in the background as we eat. "… it made so much difference not wakin' up to a pile of laundry overflowin' out the door. Y'all really made me feel like I mattered by takin' care of that."
The voiceover beta laughs at his embodied counterpart. "Yeah, a good pack will always take care of all those things. It's why ethical heat support is so important."
Loz snorts again. "Not fucking wrong about that one," she mutters into her spoon.
I look away, briefly, and purse my lips. There must have been another reprint of those awful photos in some skeezy tabloid again. Loz has the lawyers all over it, so we don't get alerted to it every time any more, but occasionally, my 'helpful' sister will send her one she comes across, just to make sure the lawyers don't miss it.
"Did Trix send you another photo?"
She pauses, and nods.
"Ugh. Far out. I'll talk to heragain." I run a hand down my face.
She shrugs. "You know Trix. She just wants to help. If she didn't care, she wouldn't."
"Seriously though, you know how direct you have to be with her. If she knew it upset you and you hadn't told her, she'd be devastated."
Loz toys with her spoon. "I know. And I don't wanna know, but… I'm kinda glad she's checking? Making sure the lawyers don't miss one? She did catch that weirdly flipped one a month ago on that fucking creepy message board. I swear that girl has ninja Reddit skills."
I can't suppress the scoff and sigh that slip out. "That girl spendswaytoo much time on those open-source investigation subreddits," I mutter into my bowl. "I keep hearing about heronline 'buddies' who help her 'sleuth'. At least tell her to go through me."
Loz chuckles. "I did. And you know what she said? One of the random anonymous internet strangers who helped her hunt down the picture told her to make sure thatIwas the investigation focal, just in case there was anything untoward. I did remind her that not only had you been fully cleared, but we'd found the mole. And she just said 'better safe than sorry.' And then she left me on read."
"Ugh. Was it Oversteepedagain? She keeps banging on about them. Apparently they're her Reddit soulmate."
"No fucking clue, babes." She chuckles. "But she was fucking set on it, whoever's idea it was."
I roll my eyes and groan into my bowl.
"Want me to ask Ben to talk to her?"
Loz sits up a bit straighter. "Don't go siccing the Captain on her," she mumbles, looking away.
"Loz, he's really not that scary."
She shrugs. "If you're his sister, maybe he's not. Dels, after what he did to Steve—"
I frown. "Your stepdad frigging deserved it, Loz. You know that better than anyone. Ben wouldn't do that to anyone else."
She glares at me, her nostrils flaring, and leans over and snatches up the remote. She pauses the screen, climbs onto the couch, and sits with her arms folded and foot tapping.
"Hey! They were just about to show the first knotting scene! Loz—"
"Nice deflection, Dellie.Almostfucking had me. Now do not think for asecondyou are getting away without telling me what the fuck happened last night."
I drop my spoon into my bowl and pinch my lips.
She pats the couch. "Nup. Not happening. Up here, please. No hot alpha knots for either of us until you spill the fucking beans, Dellie girl."
The pain I'd been drowning out with our favourites from home comes roaring back under her silence.
