Page 112 of Caelum

“Do you ever think about escaping Caelum?” he murmured.

I froze at the question, half certain I'd misheard. Eyes bulging, I switched my attention from the developing currency markets and blurted out, “What the fuck?” I didn’t have to watch my volume or my words in my room, but still… “What in the actual fuck, Frazer?”

I gaped at him and saw his unease blossom further as he ducked his gaze away from mine.

“What is it, Frazer?Escape?Why?” He’d never talked like this before, had never had a reason to as he was pretty much top dog here, and that he was concerned the shit out of me.

Apprehension rippled through Frazer, but this was like nothing I'd seen before in my best friend.

When I said ripple, I literally meant fuckingripple.

It took ten years for a dominant soul to push forward, to eat and overtake the other six. We were only twenty, not twenty-one. So, seeing his skin move? It freaked me out, and it took a lot to freak me out after all the stuff I'd seen in the past few years.

Sin Eaters didn’t shift. Not until the moment came to grant a Ghoul his death, and as far as I was bloody concerned, there were no Ghouls around here!

I reached out, wrapping my fingers around his wrist and squeezing, trying to ground him, to connect him with his Pack. We’d been declared an official Pack a few months ago, and ever since, I knew it had helped bind us together. But the fact Frazer had apparently been keeping secrets? And knowing Reed had as well?

It worried me.

This was totally out of character, and it didn’t bode well for the strength of our brotherhood if we couldn’t speak freely or share the hardest and harshest of truths.

“Frazer? Talk to me.”

His sea blue eyes were stormy as his gaze bounced off me, my sofa, the coffee table in front of us, and the TV screen that was showing BBC News. In my bedroom, I only ever watched British television, as it was a link to home I missed dearly. As he watched one of the newscasters report on yet another mind-boggling headline, I didn't bother pressing him for more. Not when I'd just seen his skin ripple the way it had.

But…

“Frazer,” I murmured after a good five minutes had passed. I knew the time precisely because the clock on the TV had flickered five minutes forward. I hoped the break let him calm down some. “How can I help if you don't tell me?”

I was the fixer.

We both knew that, and it was why he’d come here today. Sure, he probably wanted to know where Reed was too, but this, whatever this was, was the major reason why.

His hand balled into tighter fists, then in an explosive moment, he surged upwards. Just as I was sure he was about to storm off, he didn't. Instead, he raised his T-shirt, turned his back to me, and showed me his spine.

“What the hell?” I grunted as I took in the huge ink on his back.

We weren't allowed tattoos as a rule until our souls had battled it out among each other, declaring the dominant one in power. But this was no regular ink. I’d only ever seen it once before…

“You’ve been Chosen?” I blurted out.

I didn't wait for him to respond because I knew the answer. This ink was far too precise to have been drafted by a human hand. It was an endless scroll, pure italics, like calligraphy from a feather plume. Each letter was a work of art, and as a whole, it was beyond beautiful. So much so that I was speechless, not just from what this meant and what the mark represented, but from the glory of it too.

Just like mine, Frazer's back was a play of muscles. Some bulkier than others, but half of his spine was now loaded with the proof he’d met his mate. There were two distinct lines, like a ruler had been placed against his skin to demarcate where the tattoo began and end.

One line was at the top of his shoulders, running down to his arm like a drawn-on sleeve. The second ran down the length of his spinal column, and over those bumps, it would be impossible to stay straight unless this mark was from an unearthly tattoo artist.

More than anything, though, as beautiful as the tattoo was, it was red. Fire engine red. And in contrast to his brown skin, it seemed even more like it was glowing, and it made me want to wince on his behalf. Because,ouch.

“Who?” I whispered, knowing his answer would change everything. Especially considering Reed had a mate now too.

Frazer turned around, but only after he'd covered himself again. His eyes caught mine, and his mouth became a flat line as he gritted out, “You know about Reed, don't you?”

This time, I did wince because I knew everything about my Pack. Even things they didn't want me to know, I knew. I wasn't like Varys fromGame of Thrones—totally my weakness in book form. I didn't have ‘little birds’ everywhere, but I had my methods, and although they weren't brutal, they were damn effective. In this instance, though, Reed had shown me a few days after it had happened. No investigation required.

The hows and the whys were still a mindfuck. I’d had Reed recount exactlywhenit had happened, and he’d said that the only touching that had gone down between him and his mate was the simple brush of their hands in a corridor as they discussed a suit of armor of all things. Nothing more, nothing less. To mark a man required sex, but apparently, his mate was special.

Special, at Caelum, was dangerous.

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