Serix averted his gaze when Cassie glared at him and Ryan. Now that he was calm again, he could see just how badly he had messed up this time. He had stepped within inches of getting locked up for fighting. In his anger, he had forgotten what being separated would do to both of them. It had been selfish of him to bring that risk back to the surface and waste all of their hard work to get the half-bloods to accept him. Even if Ryan had provoked him, he shouldn’t have let the human get the better of him like that.

Cassie whirled on Ryan first, chiding him for his immaturity, but then she turned on Serix with just as much ferocity. He winced at the distress in her voice when she brought up the hold. She was far more upset than she had ever been with him before, and he hated it. He wished he could turn back the clock and stop himself from getting into that fight with Ryan. It had been pointless and only served to hurt them both in the end.

Cassie paced between them for a moment and then stopped, [b]“You know what? This is what I’m going to do. I’m not talking to either of you. Not until I see you two getting along. Not a single word. No ifs, ands, or buts. If you two can act civilized by the end of tomorrow, then I might consider it. If not, heh, well then I guess it’s going to be pretty quiet between us, now isn’t it?”[/b] She crossed her arms. [b]“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m heading to bed. This is the last you’ll hear from me until I see a change. Goodnight, gentlemen.”[/b]

Serix stared after Cassie in dismay as she spun around and walked away from them. She was [i]really[/i] mad if she was willing to pull a move like that. He had to force himself not to chase after her. He would probably only make things worse if he tried to plead with her now. So instead, he turned to take his own frustrations out on Ryan. They glared at each other for a moment and then sighed in unison. There was no point in feeding the flames of their battle after they had both just lost the prize.

“Look,” Serix said, holding out his hand to Ryan in the human gesture. “This doesn’t mean I like you, but I want to talk to my mate. Truce?”

“Truce,” Ryan said, reluctantly taking his hand. “But I’m not going to stop trying to get her back because of this. I can’t let an alien walk away with the love of my life.”

“The same goes for me,” Serix broke out in a grin. With that, the two shook hands and parted ways.

Serix returned to his bedroom, where Cassie had already lain down to go to sleep. He smiled and crept into the room, quietly shutting the curtain behind him, and slipped into bed with her, wrapping his arms around her middle while her back was to him. He pulled her close to himself and whispered in her ear, “Come on, Cassie. We both know you can’t stay mad at me forever.” He kissed her gently on the neck. “You were the one who wanted to have a kid here. That can’t happen if you’re going to ignore me like this.” He kissed her again and buried his face into her neck, his voice muffled against her skin, “Please?”