Trifecta: Ice [Complete]

Ch 29: Unwanted Advice

There was nothing more I could have asked on my birthday for than to have Elise with me.

In all honesty I had been stewing all day while I waited for her to call. And then she showed up on my doorstep.

Now she was sitting in my chair in my room, eating a cupcake like it was any other year. If I were in my wolf form my tail would be wagging.

She looked absolutely pretty and her shaking was not as bad as normal. Was it due to being home again? Was Serge hurting her more by keeping her away?

"Why can't you just stay in our territory?" I asked her without thinking.

She glanced at me with a deer in the headlights expression and I instantly regretted opening my big mouth.

"I can't," she said. She bit her lip and I realized my question had increased her trembling. Damn it.

Well, I had already screwed up so I might as well get some information. "Why not?"

"Because I can't function when h-h-he's t-too far away. H-he had to leave during the at-at-attack last night and i-it was terrible, Matt."

"But right now you're..."

"H-he's out in h-his truck."

Her words sapped some of my pleasure. I had an irrational urge to go to Ruth's room and glare down at him from her window, but I was not stupid enough to waste my time with Elise.

"Did he give a time limit again?" I snapped more harshly than I should have. I gripped my temper with both hands and forced it down where it would not upset her.

"Yeah, h-he said to spend at least an hour."

At least? I did not know what his game was.

It had to be an attempt to get back in everyone's good graces again after stealing Elise. At best he was sucking up to Nick after his huge screw up; probably trying to get on Elise's good side. It had not escaped my notice that she was already being too soft on him.

But why was he trying so hard? Was it just for the peace of the Trifecta, or was there something else?

Before I could figure out the bastard's game or come up with something to get Elise's mind off of him, there was a knock on my door.

"Who is it?" I asked begrudgingly.

My younger twin sisters did not wait for permission to enter. They pushed open the door and descended upon us like a plague of locusts.

They bore identical heart shaped faces with the same cute features, but it was blindingly simple to tell them apart because Joanna was in a hair dye phase and Lydia was perpetually in a not-doing-what-Joanna-was-doing phase. Joanna had gold streaks in her hair and gold painted nails and while Lydia's hair was a black as the day they were born.

"Elise, we heard what happened," Joanna said as she hugged my friend.

Lydia hung back next to me. "How are you doing?"

"I'm o-okay," Elise said, although it was obviously a lie.

"I heard you were living in Serge's house," Joanna said. "What's that like?"

"Good thing you weren't making out when we came in," Lydia commented to me in an aside while Elise described the bastard's lair to her twin. The way they worked together to tag team me irritated me to no end.

"Shut up, Lydia," I snarled under my breath. Interfering sister.

"What? She didn't hear me," Lydia hissed back. Her eyes were wide with fake innocence.