Page 122 of Caelum

She was curled into the side of the sofa the closest to the window, but Stefan was on her right side, and though Frazer was pacing, he hovered to her left. I understood the need to be close to her. It had been something I'd been fighting for weeks now, but I'd always managed to keep away, considering the consequences.

Was this the moment to share what I was to Eve? Or would it just make things worse?

“What are we going to do?” Stefan growled out before I could say anything, and his proprietorial tone pissed me off as it had been doing since she’d Chosen me. My Hell Hound tensed inside me, and I had to ball my fists to contain the sudden swell of possessive anger bubbling away in my core.

She’s mine too, I wanted to hurl at him, but before I could, Eren’s soft reply had me tensing: “We have to keep this among ourselves.”

Dre snorted. “No shit, Sherlock. Unless you want lover girl to lose her head, then we’d best keep things beyond quiet. That means no asking for advice, no looking for information in the library. Even asking about the possibility of a female having more than one mate...” He cracked his knuckles. “It’s the start of a slippery slope.”

Because I agreed with him entirely, I nodded and added, “He's right. It’s in our nature to seek answers to the questions we have, but we have to ignore them.” I ran a hand through my hair, pulling at the longer strands in frustration. “The only trouble is, what do we do and where do we start?”

Frazer moved around the sofa and squatted down in front of Eve. One of his hands slipped over to her knee before sliding up so he could grasp a hold of one of Eve’s hands.

I studied the move and analyzed how it made me feel, and when the Hell Hound didn't react, didn't try to rip off Frazer's head, I released a shaky sigh of relief. The Hell Hound recognized Frazer was his Alpha. The trouble was, if Stefan touched her, I wasn't sure what the beast’s reaction would be. The creature reacted poorly to hiswords, so God knew what it would do in response to his actions.

“Eve, you need to tell us what’s going on here,” Frazer urged. “Talk tous. You've learned quite a lot since you've been here, and I've seen how much you read. Do you know anything, anything at all, that could clarify this situation?”

Her brow puckered and she shook her head. “I've been reading, yes,” she whispered softly, “but the books never mentioned anything about a mating. Nothing about being Chosen. I didn't even know that was possible. So, the reading list that Nicholas gave me...” Her voice trailed off, but the mention of our principal, Nicholas, had us all stiffening with dread.

Nicholas may have appeared to be like any other administrator in a school, but he wasn't.

He was old. Over three hundred years old—at least, that was the gossip. He'd survived more Ghouls than most humans had hot dinners. He'd singlehandedly brought down one of the biggest Nest Leaders in the world—Emmanuel, a female Ghoul who’d had over three thousand in her nest. He’d dismantled hers from the bottom up and had earned his position at Caelum as a result.

“I wonder why he didn't give her any books on the mating?” Eren mumbled. “We all learn about that stuff in our second year.”

He shot me an uneasy look. One I understood because it didn't make sense. “I mean, Eve, I've seen the books you're reading. You have to be up to date with the syllabus,” I mused, wondering what in the hell was going on.

She shrugged. “I’m ahead, but every time I go see him, he gives me a different list.”

“Do you have the latest list with you?” I pressed.

Eren waved at her and said, “Give me your phone, Eve.” To us, he explained, “I started photographing the reading lists because she kept losing them.” When she passed over the cell phone, he swiftly found what he was looking for. When he scanned through the list, he nodded more to himself than to us. “There’s a lot of general knowledge books on here. He's obviously been teaching her things about the world at large, not just about us.” He passed it to Frazer who’d held out his hand for it.

When my Pack leader scanned over the list too, nodding in agreement with Eren’s declaration, I murmured, “Because Eve is so innocent, he probably never imagined she'd be interested in things that a lot of girls her age would be. They’re obviously trying to ease her into our world.”

Samuel shot me a glance. “Don't you think you should tell them?” he encouraged, and there was a warning in his tone that told me he wouldn’t let me remain silent.

My mouth pinched—I should have known he'd say something. I was surprised he hadn't by now, if I were being honest.

Stefan glanced at me. “Tell us what?”

“You’re not the only two males that Eve has Chosen.” And with that, I shucked off my shirt and twisted around to show them the way of it.

I wore her mark too.

FOUR

EVE

It was stupid. I knew that. Really, really stupid to get so angry over this, but Iwas.

I was furious. But I had spent my life being silenced by men, my life dictated by their words.

My mouth tightened as I tried to contain my outrage, tried to stop the words from spilling forth, but as the men began to talk around me, about me, I couldn’t stop it.

Couldn’t contain the words.

“Shut up. Just shut up!” I started off squeaking, only to end in an outright roar.

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