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Something in his expression made her bite her tongue against any questions—and she had plenty. She nodded instead.
“Good. But first… I can’t take this tension. Whatever it is between you and Naomi, we squash it. Now.”
He entered the kitchen and exited through the back door, leaving her to catch up. When she did, Micha was sitting on the bottom porch step. Almost comically, Naomi stood across from him, her eyes in their direction.
“What the hell is this?” she snapped. “The Spanish Inquisition?”
“Enough.” Bill’s tone was so sharp Naomi swallowed, her tan complexion a few shades paler. Even Micha flinched and jumped to his feet.
“You two,” Bill went on. “Muck out the stables and come to an understanding. You arenotto fight. You talk. All this hostility is giving me a splitting headache. I need to sleep. By the time I wake up, I expect some semblance of harmony. Understood?”
“Yes,” Loren whispered. The thought of causing him pain, even unintentionally, smothered any irritation she felt toward the blond. For now.
To her credit, Naomi had the sense to look guilty as well.
“Good. Now go. Micha, you can patrol the perimeter if you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing!” The younger man shot off while Bill headed for the kitchen.
His voice reached back to them, slightly less stern. “Both of you aren’t as different as you think and not to be a downer, but we have bigger things to worry about than teenage drama for the time being.”
He was right.
But that didn’t make facing this showdown any more appealing.
19
“Idon’t care what he says,” Naomi snarled from her end of the barn. “Don’t expect me to sing kumbaya and hold hands. As far as I’m concerned, our relationship doesn’t have to extend beyond this stupid house. He’s planning on ditching us, anyway, remember? No need to play happy family.”
Loren let the vitriol fly unchallenged. Anger still simmered within her—though she could admit that mixed within Naomi’s ranting was some small shred of truth. Either way, she lacked the energy to fight. Bill’s plea might have been partly responsible, that and the overwhelming exhaustion she could feel lurking just beyond her own consciousness. It seemed crazy to even think as much, but… Could it be his? Whathefelt?
If so, he had minced his words. This tension wasn’t merely exhausting him. It was draining him of everything he had left. Or, it was at least partly the reason.
While she wasn’t sure if psychic abilities were part of the lupine power set, even the possibility distracted her from everything else. She was able to overlook her disgust for Naomi and purely focus on shoveling manure from the stables. Eventually, Naomi took the hint and pulled her weight, matching Loren wheel barrel for wheel barrel.
Finally, every stall was clean, but rather than guide the horses from the paddock where they nervously grazed, she and Naomi lingered in the pasture instead. Their unspoken directive loomed overhead, though neither party seemed eager to address it.
Finally, Loren sighed and faced the blond first. “I don’t know what your problem with me is.”
While not an apology, it seemed to be enough of a catalyst to garner a response.
“Problem?” Naomi threw back her head, her hands on her hips. “That would imply you were important enough to ever matter to someone like me. Newsflash—you don’t.”
“Fine.” Teeth bared, Loren turned on her heel as fresh anger strained her sympathy for Bill. So much for a truce. “I won’t bother. Be a selfish bitch then and hold onto your stupid grudge—”
“You have no idea, do you?”
Reluctantly, Loren turned back. “What do you mean?”
Naomi’s scowl was still firmly in place. Her eyes, however, sported a hint of an emotion she wasn’t used to seeing there. Pain?
“Innocent, princess Loren. Drawing sympathy and attention wherever she goes. With one look, you have the whole world eating out of the palm of your hand. I could respect that. But not the game you play. You scurry away as if everyone is out to get you, when hell! You bat your lashes, shed a few tears, and boom. Men like Officer McGoven are rushing into battle to defend you while those of us who aren’t blessed with the damsel gene get treated like the enemy.”
For once, the blond’s voice boomed without the aggressive flair that made her such a cruel bully. In this instance, she was ranting, driven by pure emotion. Loren didn’t even know how to counteract the tirade.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh really?” Naomi crossed her arms. “That’s the point. I bust my ass to get good grades, make a decent impression, succeed where I can. Then little Miss Loren comes in and gets top marks within three months. Even with this whole teen wolf thing, I can’t even have that. You want to know what he—” she jerked her chin toward the house. “Told me after he mutilated me and turned me into a monster? He said it might be hard for me to adjust, but I was lucky. Perfect Loren Connors was also a wolf freak, and we could bond over growling and shit.”
