Page 57 of Seer

Greg shook his head. “No. She came right before I graduated college. I’ve only met her a couple of times before this visit.”

We came to Aileen’s office, a cozy little room with a desk and a sitting area, complete with fireplace. Nothing was out of place, but the ambience was comfortable and welcoming.

She looked up from her desk, where she’d been typing on a small laptop. “I hope your day was productive,” she said, eyeing us up and down. “I’m sure you’ll want to bathe before dinner. I’ve put the two of you in your old bedroom, Gregory.”

She turned to me. “He shared with his brother, so there are two beds. This connection is very strong.” She waved her finger between me and Greg. “But I can tell it wasn’t created intentionally.”

“Um, no.”

She smiled briefly, then said, “Should you decide to change that, you can always push the beds together. Have a pleasant evening.”

She looked down again, dismissing us.

ON THE TEXAS DMS DISCORD SERVER

TUESDAY, MARCH 28

Ric_DM_West_TXMarch 28 at 4:50pm

My contact in Chihuahua got back to me. Several Wonders have died in the past couple of years, but she attributed the deaths to cartel activity, so those are unconfirmed.

CHAPTER 15

CAL

We took turns showering.I went first, which I was grateful for, because I needed to jerk off in the worst way. Though that was fucking weird because I’d already done it once today. I’d woken up this morning with the hard-on from hell.

I didn’t make eye contact with Greg when I exited the bathroom. I didn’t want to know if he could tell what I’d been doing in the shower. Not that it was anything to be ashamed of. It was just another natural bodily function.

I put on jeans and a purple button-down over my “Middle Earth Hiking Club” t-shirt and called it good enough for dinner with Greg’s family and friends.

While he showered and changed, I sat on one of the twin beds with my laptop and checked my work emails, which fortunately were dwindling due to Kurt’s impending promotion and my out-of-office autoreply.

Greg came out of the bathroom looking good enough to eat in dark jeans and a gray henley that made his eyes almost glow. His cheeks were flushed. Had he been jerking off in there too?

“Ready?” I asked.

“Give me one minute.”

I nodded and busied myself putting my laptop in my newly repaired backpack. I couldn’t believe how nice it looked. Aileen had done more than fix the broken strap. She’d reinforced all of the seams, removed the stain along one side where I’d spilled a Dr Pepper on it in high school, and she’d even covered the bottom with a new piece of suede. Where she’d produced it from on short notice, I’d never know. And she’d told me the backpack would be more resistant to damage going forward.

I zipped it shut and glanced around to see if Greg was ready. He was standing next to the door with his eyes closed, and I was pretty sure he was doing breathing exercises. Was he worried about dinner? He hadn’t seemed uncomfortable at lunch earlier, but there’d only been six of us. Maybe it was his mother? She did seem like she could be a lot to handle, but she’d been making accommodations for him up to now.

I fiddled with my phone for a moment until Greg moved.

“Sorry,” he said. “Thanks for waiting.”

I stood up and shook my head. “No worries. I’m certainly not going down there and facing your mom on my own.”

He chuckled. “Understandable.”

We went downstairs. As soon as we exited the stairwell, we heard voices. Lots of voices.

Greg squared his shoulders and led me to the great room. About ten people with wolves as their second selves were scattered around talking. I only recognized Lloyd. They waved at us but didn’t approach, though that may have been due to the way Greg was walking swiftly and with purpose toward the kitchen.

Delphia was standing at the kitchen island with Silvia, and they were putting together a pan of enchiladas. Behind them, the winged red-haired guy was tending to a few pots on the stove. He wore a t-shirt with a wide collar, and his wings poked out of the material behind his head. Pretty smart way to keep from getting your wings burned or whatever while you were cooking.

The three of them greeted us, and the red-haired guy was introduced as Max. I waved and he saluted me with a wooden spoon.