Cruel World (The Tribe Book 1)

25. Before the Gathering

"After the meal, I wanna talk to everyone, okay?" Amber announces as she hands everyone their plates for dinner. "Where's Salene?"

"Sleeping," Patsy answers, "she said she didn't want any dinner."

"Oh, so she talks in her sleep now?" Jack says, trying to be a smart ass.

I look over at him from my table with Martin, Reg, Flynn, Caleb and Trudy and raise an eyebrow at him. He catches sight of this and quickly turns his head down towards his food.

Caleb and Flynn snicker at this, as do Luka, Caspian, Nolan, Beau and Ryker as they traipse up the stairs to join us. KC pops up the stairs right after them, having taken to the boys quite well as they treat him like a little brother. A few other members of the tribe, mainly Bray, Zandra and Dal, have been giving the kid a bit of hard time.

"Missing the occasional meal is fine. Besides, we eat far too much sometimes," Bray says as he brings out the rest of the plates before plonking down in the spare seat next to Trudy.

"Has anyone seen Lex?" Zandra asks, stomping into the café.

"No, did you not find him to tear him a new one?" I ask. The boys all look confused with the exception of Martin, and I mouth to them that I'll fill them in after dinner.

"Amber?" Zandra continues, ignoring my question.

"How should I know?" Amber retorts.

"Well he's somewhere," Zandra strops.

"Maybe he heard you looking for him and heard the fight earlier, and figured it was safer for him to bugger off for a bit," Martin suggests, and she sighs in frustration.

"What do you want him for?" Trudy asks, also not in the loop.

"That's my business. Where's Ryan?" Zandra asks haughtily.

"Zandra, it's not fair on Ryan for you to only go looking for him when Lex pisses you off, it's leading him on and you know it. Now, sit down, eat your food and be thankful to Amber and Bray who cooked it for us," I say sternly, and thankfully she doesn't argue.

"In any case, Ryan can't be far off. It's dinnertime," Amber smirks, knowing that boy can't resist the smell of food.

Slowly, everyone finishes their food and Amber and the kids go off to try and get Salene out here for the meeting.

"Any idea what this is about?" Martin asks.

"No idea, she didn't run it past me so I have no clue what's going on," I sigh, leaning into him.

"What was all that about before?" Trudy asks quietly, not wanting to alert Zandra.

"Lex screwed Tai-San twice, she claimed it was because Lex's aura needed to be balanced, Tai-San got a warning about her behaviour and the consequences if she ever does something like that again," I give them the summary of what happened.

"Geez, no wonder she wants to tear him a new asshole," Ryker says, whistling lowly.

"How does he think that behaviour is right?" Beau asks.

"My guess is as good as yours," Reg responds.

"My bet is a lack of structure and lack of role models growing up," I shrug.

"That'd do it," Flynn agrees with me, wrapping an arm around Trudy and pulling her closer.

"When are you two gonna get married?" Caleb asks.

"At this rate, I don't know if there's gonna be a double wedding," Martin chuckles, and we all join in.

"Probably just gonna happen when we get impatient and don't wanna wait for them to get their shit together," I tell them, leaning into Martin, who kisses me on the temple.