Free Seer: Reckless Desires (Norseton Wolves Book 8) by Holley Trent Page B

I’m going to give you one about your relationship.”
    “That’s hardly the same thing, and you know it.”
    “Doesn’t matter. This is what Ma brought us up to do, right? Be so annoyingly enmeshed in each other’s personal business that we’re not sure if we love each other or if we each want to dig a grave to roll the other into.”
    “Me worrying about you having blackout seizures is a reasonable sort of nosiness. You insisting that I should harass a lady who’s just not that into me is unreasonable. Do you see the difference?”
    Petra reached over and plucked the side of his forehead.
    “Ow!”
    “You’re stupid, Arnold. I told you that you didn’t need to concern yourself with my health because Paul is monitoring me.”
    “So I should give up any and all responsibility for you now, right?”
    “You were never responsible for me. In case you forgot, I left our old pack voluntarily. I didn’t need you to be my protector. I left because we were better off together than separate. But we’re not in a place anymore where nobody cares about us. And you think I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m on to you. Don’t try to change the subject and distract me. This conversation is about you and what you’re not doing to get your mate.”
    “I thought that discussion ended when I informed you that she wasn’t into me.”
    Petra closed her eyes, forced out a sharp exhalation through her nose, and clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “You know,” she said quietly. “I started taking up meditation a couple of weeks ago. Helps me sort through the overflowing psychic crap that bleeds over from Paul.” She opened one dark eye and fixed it on him. “The practice was his mother’s idea. She doesn’t really understand wolves at all, but she comes up with ideas, anyway.” Petra opened her other eye so both orbs were focused on her brother. “Sometimes, her ideas aren’t so bad, and that’s why I don’t dismiss them out of hand. She’s just trying to help as an outsider to the relationship who can maybe propose different things because she’s not as caught up in all the noise as Paul and I are.”
    “What are you telling me, Petra?”
    “I’m saying this not as your sister, but as an outsider looking in. Most of the wolves here didn’t know what functional relationships looked like until they had a chance to form some with people they actually liked. You and me, we’re no different from them. Our parents didn’t stick it out, and so we think, why would anyone? But the thing is, we’re biologically coded to be faithful, and to stick around when we’ve found the right person. I’ve never been surer of that.” She gestured toward the houses around the wolf courtyard. “They’re not just playing around. This isn’t an experiment for them. You had an inside edge, Arnold. You were sent to fetch the person you’re supposed to be with, and yet you’re sitting here screwing around with a gun instead of trying to ingratiate yourself with her a little bit. Two freakin’ months you’ve avoided her, Arnold? Really? ”
    “She was clear that she wanted to be left alone.”
    Petra rolled her eyes, muttered something incoherent under her breath, and then stood. “Let’s go. Now.”
    “Where are we going?”
    “Lunch. Put your crap away and let’s go. This pack only has room for one loner wolf, and Darius already has that title.”
    She jutted her hand down toward him. The stubborn crease between her eyes suggested that she wasn’t going to give him any room for negotiation.
    Fortunately for her, he was too tired to argue. He hoped that if he did what she said, he could finally get some sleep.
    ___
    Arnold twisted the corner of his paper napkin into a crude shape and ground his teeth, giving his sister the same evil glower across the diner table that she was giving him.
    “That was dirty as hell, and you know it,” he said.
    Paul, seated beside Petra and opposite Arnold in the booth,