I woke up to the sound of dishes crashing and Jeddi whining. I shot out of bed and stormed out of my room in just by panties and cami. I didn't give a damn about Cale seeing me half naked. I was too agitated. I had barely slept a wink.

In the kitchen a broken bowl was on the floor. Jeddi was licking the pool of milk and a yellowish goop. Cale had his back to me, washing the pots of all things, trying his hand at the 'Domestic Human,' for reasons beyond even my receptive mind. I didn't even want to know. He was none on my bees wax, and I wasn't any of his, no matter what enemies we shared.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"What does it look like?" he said without turning.

I grabbed the mop from the bucket and got to work, nudging Jeddi out of the way with my bare foot. When I'd finished and blew my hair out of my face, I found Cale facing me, wiping his hands with a dish cloth; a smile played on his stupid impeccable lips as he took in every inch of me.

"What? Have you never seen a woman in her underwear before?"

He blushed. He actually blushed.

"I wouldn't exactly call it underwear," he murmured as he turned around to rinse a plate.

"Whatever. Why are you washing the pots instead of brainstorming some plan? Do I have to do everything around here?" I stamped the mop against the floor then placed it back in the bucket. I caught Cales fleeting gaze in my direction. This time I could have sworn he looked kind of upset.

I stared at the mop for a moment. I wasn't reading anything new about Cale. He must have had a shielding power or something. All I got from him was a chattering in his head, mixed with himself sighing every so often. His aura was a bluish gray, conveying a calm slowly rippling with ...anxiety.

He stopped cleaning the dishes and went to sit at the table. He just stayed there, with Jeddi at his feet, who incidentally now seemed very fond with him. Maybe Cale really was persuasive, even to canines.

"Siriala," Cale began, but he didn't continue, he looked to be finding it hard to. His jaw tensed as his hands clenched. I sat beside him, instincts wanting to place a hand on his, wash away what was troubling him, apart from the obvious. But then I remembered how he'd refused to marry me. He looked my way as if hearing my thoughts, and his sorrowful eyes were his apology. But his tribe couldn't read minds, nor could they fool me into thinking they could apologize for thinking themselves better than Serians.

Something glinted, and I realized it was a black and sapphire ring on his wedding finger. I hadn't noticed it before. My gut clenched. I wasn't sure why it bothered me. I hardly knew him, and other than helping me to get home and his...body and face, he hadn't really proved worthy of my attention.

He followed my gaze and finally blinked, then placed his hand under the table, as if that way it could be erased from my memory for some reason.

"So ... the man creature. Feeus," I said to fill the silence. "He's obviously still hatching a way to exterminate humans. He obviously doesn't have the power to do it alone or with his new breed." I was jabbering, and I knew it. Cale kept his head lowered, seeming small and condensed in his chair, too deep in thought, but too distant from himself at the same time.

His aura was darkening too. I was about to open my mouth but there was a knock at the door. I shot up. Cale was fully alert.

I peered through the peep hole and leaped before answering the door. "Grandma Perrn!"