Page 149 of Caelum

“Yeah. I did. Sorry. I didn’t mean?—”

“I know you didn’t,” I instantly countered because Samuel hadn’t been prying. Everyone, apart from maybe Eve, knew about my past. “I miss them, but it’s a different kind of ache.”

“We’re unusual.”

“Yes, we are,” I admitted, and I wasn’t throwing bullshit either.

Creatures with love for their parents were few and far between.

“You still have family though, right?”

I shrugged. “Kind of. My sister is still alive, but after what I did to my brother-in-law before I came here, I doubt she’d ever want to see me again.”

His brows rose. “What did you do?”

I couldn’t stop myself from smirking. “Mohammed was gaining ground in the government. He was ultra-conservative, ultra-traditional. Muslim to his core. I was a piece of shit to him because he thought I was sick, you know?”

“Yeah, I can believe it,” Samuel replied edgily.

“When Rastri, one of the recruiters, came for me,” I informed him, “he knew what I was, what I could do, and my Lorelei held the fort that day.”

Samuel’s brow furrowed. “What did you do?”

My smirk morphed into a grin. “Enticed a reporter to Mohammed’s office.”

“Why?”

“He had a lot of affairs. A mistress here, a lover there.”

“The reporter caught them in the act?” he guessed.

“Best day of my life.”

“He hurt you?”

I nodded. “Made me miserable…” Understatement of the century. “…so I repaid the favor.”

Samuel pursed his lips. “We can cripple him financially, you know?”

“My sister… she’s conservative too. I doubt she ever divorced him. It would hurt her too if I did that, but thanks for the offer.” I grinned at him, and suddenly, out of nowhere, my distrust disappeared.

Any dude who was willing to ‘financially cripple’ someone you loathed was a friend in my eyes.

ELEVEN

STEFAN

Having spied Eve with Reed in the garden, I grabbed a pack of dried fruit and nuts from the stash in my room, and shoved a few more into my pockets, then headed out to the yard.

Ever since the shit with Dre, Eve was spending more time out there, finding random excuses to be out in the fresh air, avoiding being alone with us in private areas so we couldn’t discuss more classes. Since the debacle with the bear, I understood her hesitance, but she’d have to get over it. She needed our help. One-on-one with someone who understood the soul she was dealing with that day.

Still, it was no hardship to go and spend time outside with her. I enjoyed it. Enjoyed being with her. Even when she was being cagey, she was entertaining, but something was going on in that pretty little head of hers, and I didn’t like it. She was overthinking, and to be honest, I knew that was dangerous. Sure, that sounded like something a chauvinistic prick would say, but it was the truth.

She was running scared, and I didn’t blame her. What was happening was enough to make me scared of the future and what her oddities meant for us as a unit.

Keeping her safe was my only priority, my Pack’s too. It didn’t matter that the Pack appeared to have grown, thanks to Eve’s uniqueness, since it was what it was. Packs shared their females. Not because we were into orgies, but we were into protection. Why would I try to protect Eve on myown when I had others to help keep her safe too? And, usually, it worked with any other female mates that were added along the way.

We were all just one overlarge episode ofBig Lovewaiting to happen, but this shit with Eve? I had a feeling it wasn’t going to work that way. We were hers and nobody else’s. Which might have been a good thing, considering keeping her out of danger was looking harder and harder to accomplish now that she had markings of her own to hide—marks that females shouldn’t bear, and ones that Nestor and Dre didn’t have on their backs. More weirdness.

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