God of Pain (Legacy of Gods #2) by Rina Kent

“We get it, Remi, you won.” Cecily leans back against her chair. “You’ve been making a hundred and one speeches and toasts to inform us of the fact.”

“You zip it, nerd. What do you know about winning highly competitive sports?”

“The fact that you act like a wanker after every win.”

Ava laughs. “True that, Rems. We’re starting to wish that you don’t win anymore so we don’t have to sit through these tedious speeches.”

“What the actual fuck? You bitches are jealous of me and it totally shows on your snobbish faces. Anni, Glyn! Help me out here.”

“I mean, it’s not completely false,” Glyn says with a raise of an eyebrow.

“You little—”

“You’re really awesome, Remi,” I cut off his rage-filled—or dramatic—comeback.

“Right? I knew you were my favorite.” He takes a detour, comes to my side, and grabs my shoulder.

Or starts to.

The moment he touches me, Creigh slaps his hand away. “I said. No touching.”

“Whoa.” Remi laughs and puts both hands in the air. “Territorial much?”

“Tell me about it.” Ava side-eyes Creighton. “He doesn’t even let her spend time with us anymore.”

“We went shopping yesterday,” I offer with a smile.

“After, like, a whole week of no shopping. You’re losing bestie privileges, Anni.”

“You barely drop by the dorm anymore,” Cecily supplies.

“Or spend girl time with us,” Glyn says.

My smile becomes awkward at best. “It’s not that I don’t want to—”

“You spend more time with Killian than with us, Glyn.” Creighton looks at her, then slides his attention to Ava. “And you ignore everyone when my brother is around.” He stares at Cecily. “As for you, let’s just say you’ve been sneaking out whenever everyone is asleep. So do not, under any circumstances, attempt to make Annika feel bad about choosing herself.”

The table falls silent.

While Creighton has been slowly but surely becoming somewhat talkative with me—and by talkative, I mean his replies aren’t monosyllables like in the past—he’s still the silent presence at the table.

So the fact that he said all of that, and even attacked them during it, has driven everyone to the shock phase.

“Damn,” Glyn breathes out. “Looks like you have one hell of a solicitor on your team, Anni.”

“For the record, I don’t ignore everyone whenever He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is around.” Ava points a finger at Creigh. “That’s fake news!”

“You kind of do.” Cecily coughs. “Constantly.”

“You damn traitor!” Ava nudges her before a sly grin lifts her lips. “What’s with sneaking out when everyone’s asleep? I knew you were hiding something from me.”

“T-that’s not true.”

“You just stammered, bitch!”

They start arguing, but when Remi joins in to egg them on, they give up on poking each other and gang up on him instead. Glyn and Bran try to mediate but are currently losing.

Creighton, however?

He has a pleased expression on his face, as if he did what he set out to do.

Everyone says Landon and Eli like to instigate chaos, but Creigh can reach their level if he puts his mind to it.

Or if he feels that I’m in a compromising position.

“Don’t fake a smile when you’re feeling uncomfortable. If you’re in a bad mood, show it,” is what he’s been telling me again and again, trying to make me get rid of what he calls a nasty habit.

Being with Creighton is similar to being thrust into this country’s weather. At times, he’s amicable, allowing some sunlight to slip from between the clouds, but most of the time, he’s rainy and miserable.

Well, he’s not miserable, I am.

Because ever since he told me about his childhood and revealed the fact that he’s adopted, he’s shot down any of my attempts to reopen the subject.

No matter how much I talk about my family in an attempt to have him reciprocate, he just isn’t having it.

His phone rings and I catch a glimpse of ‘Landon’ on the screen before he gets up and tucks a strand of brown hair behind my ear. “I’ll be right back. Behave.”

Then he’s heading toward the hall to take the call.

I wonder what he and Landon talk so secretly about. The other day, I found them in the kitchen and Landon was whispering in his ear like the devil.

For some reason, that made me extremely uncomfortable. I’m aware he wouldn’t really hurt his cousin, but I don’t know why I have a bad feeling about whatever information they’re exchanging.

Creighton told me it’s nothing I should worry about, which made me more concerned.

While Landon and Eli might have similar traits, I know for a fact that Eli dotes on him and would never sabotage him. Landon, however, is a wild card.

Remi slides to my side, surprisingly interrupting his arguing session with the girls. I would’ve sworn that he enjoys that a bit too much to walk out on it.

He tips his glass against mine and grins, looking so aristocratically beautiful. “Now that the territorial little shit is out of the way, let me thank you, Anni.”