Page 118 of Caelum

“How did I do it?” she whispered, her voice low and husky.

“You didn't really do anything,” I said with a sigh. “Your soul did. The Sin Eater in you Chose me.”

“While also Choosing Stefan?” Dre cocked a brow at me. “That makes no fucking sense.”

I shrugged rather than admit that, somehow, Eve had also chosen a Hell Hound. “Does he have the same mark I do?”

His nostrils flared with irritation, but he nodded. “He definitely does.” He cut Eve an exasperated look. “Trouble with a capital T.”

“I didn't do anything,” she argued waspishly.

“You didn't have to. Just by breathing, you’re a walking disaster area.”

“There’s no point fighting fate,” I reasoned, knowing I should defend her but shit, Dre, for all he was being a dick, did have a point. The impossible was happening between our Packs, and it was thanks to this one woman.

“No point? What the fuck do you think the faculty is going to do when they find out about this?” he growled, and I winced because he was right.

“What do you mean?” Eve murmured, any pinkness in her cheeks having disappeared in the face of his words. She was white as a sheet, so frail and sickly looking that I wanted to embrace her.

Fuck, I didn't even need that as an excuse to want to tuck her in my arms.

I'd never had these feelings before. Not even with Louise, who was the only person I had truly loved before Caelum. Loving Reed and Samuel was different, and technically with Louise too, since she was my cousin.But as hard as I'd wanted to protect Louise, and as badly as I failed, it didn't compare with the bone-deep, intrinsic need I felt to shelter and shield Eve from the harshness of our world.

Dre made a disgusted sound. “I mean,” he snapped, “that Caelum doesn't do freaks. If you don't fit in, then you're eradicated. That’s how it works. You’re no better than a Ghoul to them.”

I wished he were wrong, but he wasn't, and that terrified the fuck out of me. Even though I hadn’t known about the other Chosen, it was why I’d been contemplating escaping Caelum. Eve was odd, in more ways than I think most realized, but I did. To be more precise, my Sin Eater did.

I said nothing about that, though, instead focused my ire on Dre who was being a prick as per fucking usual.

“Are we going to have a problem?” I growled, flexing my fists.

He cut me a look. “No. She's Stefan’s, therefore,unfortunately, she's Pack,” he sneered. “I honor my Pack.”

“You disrespect her at every turn,” I pointed out, still on edge.

Dre shrugged. “Until she earns my respect, I'm not going to hand it out freely.”

“Is she safe with you?” I asked, needing to hit this home because Dre, through his dislike of her, could be the one who informed Nicholas about how peculiar Eve truly was.

“I told you already,” he ground out. “She's Stefan’s. He's marked. Whether I like it or not, she Chose him, and for whatever fucking reason, he wants her,” he growled. “Worse than that, the other dipshits in my Pack want her too. They’re all making moon eyes at her and jumping however high she asks them to?—”

“I've never asked any of them to jump!” Eve butted in, her tone indignant enough that, even in this shit show, I had to hide a laugh.

Dre narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you purposely dense? Or just fucking stupid?”

She folded her arms across her chest. “If you're going to malign me, then at least be accurate about it.” Her chin tipped up. “I'm not stupid. You all talk like ingrates. If you used words that were in the dictionary then I'd understand you. But you don't.”

“It’s called living in the twenty-first century,” Dre snapped.

“And we're getting off the point,” I cut in before this could turn into a fistfight. “Look, whatever the hell is going on here, we can't avoid the truth—Eve, you're in danger. If we want to keep you safe, then we’ll…”

Eve, shaking her head, whispered, “I've Chosen you… but what does that mean for us?”

It was the first time she'd taken an active sort of ownership over what she'd done, inadvertently or not, and I gentled my voice as I repeated the truth to her, explaining, “The Sin Eater in you recognized me as hers.”

“But, what does that actually mean? I understand the words for once, just not the meaning,” she questioned, her brow puckering. “Mine for what?”

My lips twitched. “To do with as she wills.”

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