Page 145 of Caelum

I’d admit to feeling protective of Eve. She was Pack, and that was all the excuse I needed, but equally, that wasn’t enough to explain the strange sentiments she inspired in me. And considering only Samuel and myself weren’t mated to her, it was either going to go down one of two ways.

Either we were the unlucky pricks who’d be without a mate in our Pack—even though that was normal, our Pack was turning out to be anything but—and Eve would still be ours regardless.

Or, we were just waiting on Eve’s eighth soul to pick us.

I wondered what triggered the selection process, but I wasn’t fretting about it too much. There was so much more to worry over. Dre could shift now, and considering what Eve could do, we were just waiting on Nestor and Reed’s souls to become dominant.

What Eve had done with Dre had changed everything for us. Everything. If she could force our souls into claiming dominance, then we didn’t have to wait here for the portal.

Didn’t have to stick around like sitting ducks just waiting to be shot at by the faculty.

The prospect of my Lorelei taking control of me a few years ahead of schedule didn’t perturb me. At eighteen, I’d been ready, but the way creatures developed had me stuck in this stasis, along with the other men in my class and the year above.

There were certain things nobody had an answer for, and while we were here, waiting, the unknown, oddly enough, gave me hope. No one knew why the portal existed. No one knew how a female picked her Chosen, and no one knew what the mark meant.

That language that appeared on a male’s back?

We knew it wastongues, the language we all spoke after we crossed the portal on our arrival at Caelum, but the words?

We had no idea what they meant.

No one recognized them, and as far as our records ran, we knew we’d been around since the beginning. Back when Noah had flooding issues and King David needed ahaircut.

Some things, no matter how much time we put into research, could never be explained, and in truth, that was what gave me hope.

If we couldn’t explain that stuff, things that were intrinsic to life here at Caelum, then why should we be able to explain Eve?

Maybe other creatures were like her, but they’d just never come to Caelum.

Maybe she wasn’t destined to become a Ghoul at twenty-one…

That, naturally, was my biggest fear.

“She’s safe with him.”

I jolted in response to the words then turned to nod at Samuel in greeting. “Didn’t think she wasn’t,” I told him earnestly.

The other guy shrugged. “He’s Hell Hound. I know what their reps are. Damon is scared of him?—”

Damon was one of the facility’s top Enforcers. Only the best could go out and recruit on Caelum’s behalf. Damon was one of them and Merry, another Enforcer, had been the one to bring Eve back to the nest.

“I’m sure he is, but he’s her Chosen. It’s different.”

“I’m glad you realize that,” he replied, and there was a stiffness to his tone that had nothing to do with the hint of the Queen’s English accent that colored his words.

Samuel often came across as pompous. Not just because of his faint accent, which even years here hadn’t destroyed, but it was his manner too.

Dude could be an asshole.

“I do,” I assured him.

“Why are you watching them together then?” he asked quietly, cutting me a look that I sensed rather than saw. My attention was back on Eve.

“I’m not. I’m watching Eve. Reed just came back from surfing. Eve went out because she saw a parrot in that tree.”

“And you let her go out there alone?”

“She doesn’t realize it, but she’s got cabin fever.”

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