When He's Sinful (The Olympus Pride 3)

Amusement trickling through him, he peeked up at her. Glaring at his uncle, she let out a little snort that Camden could swear meant “loser.” His inner beast bared his teeth, fully in agreement.

Rubbing at his injured hand, Sheridan eyed her. “Forgot how vicious they can be.” He lifted a brow at Camden. “Friend of yours?”

Camden didn’t confirm or deny it. He didn’t trust these people, so he wouldn’t let them see just how important she was to him. “If anything else should be graffitied, burned, or otherwise damaged, there’s really no need to pass on the information.”

Sheridan’s face fell. “I see. Can’t say I blame you for wanting nothing to do with the pride. If you change your mind, you know where to find us. Take care, Camden.” He turned away, and his enforcers followed.

Judith and her mate lingered. “Your father wasn’t perfect by any means,” she began, “and he definitely could have done better by you. But he did love you, Camden. Whenever he spoke of you, his face would light up. You were his bright spot. I know you must feel like he abandoned you when he suicided—”

“I don’t,” said Camden. “I know why he did what he did.”

The man had been chatty when drunk, so Camden knew his father had been riddled with guilt due to having fed Esme’s paranoia. Dirk had believed she might never have hurt Camden if Dirk had only handled things differently. So, counting on the breaking of the true-mate bond to kill her, he’d suicided. In doing so, he’d punished them both.

Gustavo squeezed his mate’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

She nodded and, tears in her eyes once more, gave Camden a weak smile. “Bye,” she breathed.

The tigers hopped into a black town car. Soon, they were driving out of the rec center’s parking lot. His inner beast didn’t settle, though. He was far too worked up.

The bearcat let out a soft tweet.

Looking up at her, Camden reached up and scratched her ear. “I’m good. How’d his blood taste?”

She let her tongue hang out and shuddered.

Camden felt a smile build inside him. “Come on, we need to go help Corbin lock up.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Pausing her search on the streaming service, Aspen tipped her chin toward the TV. “What about this one?” she asked, shifting slightly on the blanket they’d laid on the hardwood floor.

“We don’t need to watch a feel-good movie, I don’t need cheering up,” Camden assured her, opening his Thai takeout box. “But if I did, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have chosen Return of the Living Dead.”

She huffed. “That’s because, despite my best efforts to make you a zombie-movie fan, you weirdly don’t see the appeal in them. I never know what to say to you at times like this.”

“I liked Weekend at Bernie’s.”

“That wasn’t a zombie movie.”

“He was a voodoo-revived corpse.”

“Who only became animated when music played. And he didn’t eat flesh, mindlessly attack people, or infect those he bit.”

“Thus the basis of the movie’s appeal.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re never going to be prepared for the upcoming zombie apocalypse if you don’t study these creatures,” she said, forking some rice.

They hadn’t had a takeout picnic since before moving into this complex, but they’d often had them on the living room floor of their old apartment. As they’d both had a shit day, she’d figured it would be nice to indulge in one of their favorite dinner-habits.

He might not need “cheering up” as such, but he did need a distraction. Or, more to the point, his inner beast did—the restless energy humming beneath Camden’s skin was a dead giveaway. “Is your tiger no closer to calming down?”

Twirling noodles around his fork, Camden said, “Not yet. He would be if he’d only stop stewing on all that happened today.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “I still can’t quite believe your uncle had the downright gall to seek you out. I wanted to shit fury on his ass. You didn’t look quite so angry.”

“I wasn’t. But I didn’t like that he turned up and acted as if he gives a measly fuck about me. Even if he does care, it’s a little late to show it now.”

She ate a forkful of fried rice. “My bearcat really doesn’t like him.”

A glint of humor lit Camden’s eyes. “Yeah, I sensed that when she mangled his hand.”

Her inner animal bared her teeth in a feral grin. “She got a little cranky when he said you had ‘family’ wanting to reconnect with you. Those sorry-excuses-for-people were never your family. I’m your family. Corbin, Havana, and Bailey are your family. Those bastards who failed you can screw off.”

“Not a terribly forgiving person, are you, gorgeous?”

“Nope.”

It was one of the things Camden liked about her. He didn’t have a “forgive and forget” nature either. Some sins were too dark to be excused. Some people simply didn’t deserve to be pardoned.