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A huff of disbelief left me before I could prevent it. “It’s true, Galanthia. You lost your shit on me, and now you’re trying to pin that reaction onme.”
Raven held up her hands. “Does this need arbitration?”
Galanthia and I replied in unison, “No.”
Raven stepped back. Galanthia folded her arms over her chest while looking away. Something like guilt winked in her eyes. A flash of something else too, though it wasn’t very clear whether she was reacting to me or her alpha. Maybe both.
“Juriah and Macy argued like this a lot before they realized they were mates,” Raven explained in a soft voice. “But if it’s not that, then I’m happy to offer some counseling so you two can get back to working together.”
That might have been a more stupefying suggestion than working with Galanthia at all. “You can’t be serious, Alpha.”
“I’ve helped people get along before. I can do it again.” Her smile was optimistic. Goddess, I wished I could say the same for myself. “Many mates start off this way.”
Galanthia threw her head back and laughed. Offensive as it was, I had to agree with a few ragged chuckles of my own. I shook my head. I scrubbed my fingers through my hair, playing with the spikes that were dusted with perspiration and debris.
“No, I don’t think that’s it,” the cackling angel claimed. She wiped a tear from her right eye. “My mate must be back in Estaria. There’s no possibility of mating here on this plane.”
Raven stroked her chin. “Why not?”
“It’s not right,” Galanthia claimed firmly. “Not with him.”
“Why not him?”
My hands were itchy. I wanted to go for a jog in my wolf form. Ineededit, actually, because this conversation was getting out-of-bounds. “My mate already exists, Raven. You know that.”
“Jazmin was never your mate. She was just a woman with whom you had a child.”
“Well, it’s not that easy to say. It’s just—”
But I couldn’t get the words out because of the way Galanthia was looking at me.
With pity.
Like she felt the twinge of agitation in me when I heard the name of that woman who had abandoned my child and me. We shared the moment together, Galanthia and I, and we seemed to tune in to each other in the same way we had when we’d screwed right next to the pond.
With affection.
Abysmal reaction aside, she gave me a split second of mercy, and that was enough to send me back to the staircase. “I gotta grab that trash. Lanthie?”
She nodded curtly and unfurled her wings. One mighty flap shot her up to the second floor without argument about the nickname I’d given her. Raven never stopped watching us, not for a moment, especially when we hauled the trash together through the new double doors and out into the hallway.
Why were people interested in us? Everyone had probably heard by now that Galanthia had previously been in a pack with me. That extended to Andres and Spencer, but were they getting the short end of the stick? Nope. Just me.
Once the trash was in the dumpster, I returned to the building to close up shop for the day. Galanthia and I had done plenty. It was time to go home and rest. Maybe Leo would be up for visiting his grandma if she was feeling better. I had to text Etta to make sure.
Raven stopped me on the way out. “Listen, I didn’t mean anything by…”
She let the sentence hang in the air.
I waved her off. “No, it’s fine, Alpha. I think Galanthia and I argue because we’re just combative with each other. It’s just our energy.”
“I think it’s a lot more than that.”
“I’ll apologize. If that helps.”
She spared a mournful smile. “Do you want to apologize?”
Friendship therapy hadn’t been in my cards this morning, so I chose not to answer her question. Internally, though, there was a huge debate happening about whether or not I should talk to Galanthia directly about the whole bullying business. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but she clearly found it invasive enough to put me on the chopping block. An apology could help.
