Chapter 526

Ben leans closer to Jesse, probably explaining quite patiently that Jesse's completely misinterpreting the entire situation, as I tug on Luca's sleeve, feeling his anger surge, trying to draw his eyes back down to me.

“Luca, please,” I say quietly, a little desperate, glancing between him and Jackson. “I can explain."

To my surprise, Luca snaps his eyes shut and forces himself to take a long, deep breath. And I realize that this is not at a performance - that he's actually working, really hard, to control his temper and to not flip out, even though everything inside of him is telling him to do that.

After a few long moments, Luca opens his eyes again, settling them on Jackson, who sits very still on the couch, watching Luca's every move. "What are you doing here, man?" Luca asks, and even though his voice trembles a little bit with his anger, I can tell that Luca is working incredibly hard to be casual, to appear cool.

Jackson, I can see, senses this too. His reply is just as even. "I'm having dinner," he says quietly. "Ariel asked me to come."

Luca takes another deep breath and shifts his gaze to me. "Okay. Could I...have a word with you in the hall? Please?"

"Of course," I say softly, taking his hand and tugging him with me.

As I turn, Rafe puts his hands on the arms of his chair, his face worried, like he's going to stand up and come with us - like he's worried at me. I look wide-eyed in Rafe's direction and vehemently shake my head no.

Because, I mean, there's no risk here - Luca would never hurt me, and he's working so hard to contain his temper, he doesn't need Rafe coming to tick him off.

Besides, this whole thing is very much between my mate and I. I owe him this conversation. In private.

Luca and I step back into the hall and he drops my hand as I pull the door quietly shut. He slumps back against the wall, letting out a long breath, running his hands through his hair. "So, are you like, aware of the deal that Jackson and I struck?" he asks, confusion mixing with his dulling anger now. “Because...we kind of made a deal that he wasn't supposed to be here for these sorts of things."

"I am aware," I say, folding my hands behind my back and forcing myself to meet his eyes, determined to do right by Luca and tell him the full truth as plainly as I can. "But...I don't like how you and Jackson made that decision without asking me, Luca. I told him this as well, but I'd like to be consulted, in the future, when you decide how to split up my time."

Luca scowls, dropping his head to look at the floor. "It wasn't really like that, Ari," he says, snapping a bit, even though guilt chases his anger soon after the words leave his mouth. I can feel that, down the bond. "We weren't trying to decide your time for you...it's just very hard for us - or me, at least - to be in a room together. It felt...better to find a way to avoid it."

I watch Luca as I feel, down the bond, his renewed determination to be calm and fair, to not snap at me. And even as I'm worried and anxious about this conversation, a big part of me admires – very much - how hard Luca is working to control his temper.

"Okay," I say quietly, nodding so that he sees I understand as he lifts his eyes to meet mine. "But...Jackson is part of this group, Luca. You were part of it first, but now? After the examination, after Midwinter? He's...family."

I can feel Luca go rigid as he hears the word.

"I want him here for group dinners and study time," I say quietly, forcing myself to continue, to make my point heard. "At least, as long as he's happy to come."

Luca's fist clenches a little bit, and I know that it's an unintentional physical manifestation of his emotion, but something about it makes me feel incredibly remorseful. I feel myself falling back on my knee-jerk desire to say something to make him happy - to make it better - and I wrack my brain for what that could be -

But suddenly, my wolf nips me, fierce.

I stand up straight, looking down at my chest, wondering what the hell that was about.noveldrama