Page 102 of Caelum

What was it about her?

Just because she was his Chosen didn’t mean he had to like her. There were Chosen who couldn’t stand one another. Nicholas had a mate and he spent his whole year in Caelum, and his woman flew in a few times every couple of months to hook up then she got the hell out of here. The tension in the school was thicker than the mist on a mountaintop whenever Janvier was here because she always put Nicholas in a piss-poor mood.

Having a Chosen didn’t mean you thought the sun rose and set on that person, but Stefan apparently didn’t get that memo. And shit, Nestor and Eren weren’t even hers, but they were always standing up for her.

Eren had even jumped in front of her today like he thought I was going to beat on her or something.

Dick.

I lifted the beer to my lips and took a deep sip. The burn of the alcohol soothed me like nothing else could, and I wished for something stronger.

We could drink here from eighteen onwards, but only beer. Liquor wasfor when we hit twenty-one, and by that point, we were only stuck at Caelum while we waited for the rest of our Pack to hit that milestone, so we tended to wait for our freedom to get pissed out of our brains.

I was dehydrating from the need for vodka, so I finished off the beer and the follow-up. Only when I was on my fourth did I feel a little less tense.

Sidling up to one of the girls in my year, Becky, I watched her grin at me as she looped her arms around my waist. As we ground into each other, she yelled over the music, “How many did you take out?”

“Personally?” I asked, cocking a brow at her.

Her eyes flashed with excitement as she nodded, her bright blonde curls bobbing around her shoulders.

“Eighteen,” I admitted. While I was tempted to beef up the numbers, there was no point. Everyone that had flown out would be bragging about their ‘kills,’ and word spread as fast as the bullshit did around here.

“Eighteen?” She bit her bottom lip. “You’re a hero,” she whispered, standing on tiptoe so she could brush her mouth over mine. Her hands dropped down to my ass, and she ground her pelvis into mine, and I enjoyed the soft pillow of my cock against her stomach.

This was what I needed.

The beer and then someone like Becky to soothe my temper, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit, lick my…ego.

Smirking at the thought, I blinked when I saw Eve storm into the room.

She was such a goody two shoes that I was surprised to see her at the party. I wasn’t even sure if that word was in her vocabulary—except for the one that she had in her memory because she’d memorized the damn dictionary by the time she was eight or some shit like that. I wondered how old that dictionary was because she was missing a hell of a lot of words. It was why she was so irritating to talk to.

As Becky ground her hips into me, I watched while Eve glanced over the crowd. For a second, I wondered if she was trying to find me. The thought set me on edge, but when she saw me, any belief that I was whom she was seeking disappeared. Her top lip curled in a sneer, and she cut the connection between us.

I’d admit to feeling stung by that sharp rejection—enough that I tensed in Becky’s arms.

“You’re all stiff,” Becky said, giggling at her play on words.

Christ, what was it with women? I had one in my life who could barely string a sentence together without sounding like something from a historical drama, then another one who thought she was a comedian.

Becky tried to tug me away, drag me toward one of the shadowedcorners that we’d made out in more than once over the years. But I kept her in place with my hands on her hips.

“I like feeling you grinding on me,” I lied, but she took the bait and began moving on me even harder, which I’d admit felt awesome.

In the darkened common room, I watched as Eve slipped between the sofas, avoided the long table that was stacked with beer, and winced at the loud music. I wasn’t sure where she was going, but I kept my attention on her.

When she seemed to have found her destination, I gaped for a second, then I narrowed my eyes, wondering what her next move was.

Beside Frazer, the dick, she looked even rounder. I wasn’t sure how that was possible, but she did. She looked shorter, and those fucking curves of hers made her look all the more feminine.

Even though Becky was fit as hell, she was as muscled as me. I’d felt those muscles personally so I could attest to the truth of that. But Eve? She was soft. It was way too easy to imagine rubbing my cock into her stomach and feeling the gentle give of her flesh.

I almost snorted at the thought because there was no way in hell, not after she’d cut me so blatantly when we’d caught each other’s attention just moments before, that she was about to let me or my dick anywhere near her.

Not that I even wanted to.

At all.

---