Page 184 of Caelum

I cut him a look, saw that Eren had delved into the Tupperware housing his gift to Eve. She was munching on it too, and her face had me hiding my smile behind my beer.

Orgasm by food was a thing, and Eve had just experienced it.

Burying the bottle in the sand, I held out my hand. Eren placed a sticky piece on my fingers and I chomped on it also. Shitwasgood.Wasn’t the first time I’d had it though. He’d made it a few years before after he’d watched a foodie show one night with no sleep.

He had too many of those.

I remembered that year in particular. After the baklava, he’d taken to cooking at night. Good stuff that had padded out my food hoard quite nicely. Wasn’t sure why he’d stopped, to be honest, and it was why his admission he’d been watching cooking shows had come as a surprise because, one morning that year, just another random day, there’d been no Turkish food for breakfast. It had sucked but, while we were Pack, we didn’t really talk about shit.

Not until Eve.

She was changing things for a lot of us, and I was about to find out how much.

TWENTY

EVE

The night wasn’t anything like I’d anticipated. I’d been to a party at Caelum over a week ago, and I thought I knew what was what, but out here on the beach? It was wilder. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the lack of supervision—not that I’d seen any of the faculty hovering around at the other party—or just the wildness in the air that came from being so close to the sea, but it was like something from a movie the guys had made me watch.

I just couldn’t settle on whether it was likeThe HangoverorBridesmaids.

A lot of the girls were hopped up on beer and weed, or so I’d heard Reed mumble. A while ago, I’d have wondered why anyone would eatweeds, but now I knew what that meant. Cannabis. Where did they even get that stuff here?

Soda and candy were considered contraband, but weed wasn’t?

Boggled my mind.

The girls were dancing like it was their last night on Earth, and the guys? They were slinking around them like rattlesnakes, just waiting to bite. I wasn’t as naïve as I’d once been. I knew some of the score now. Amazing how a lifetime’s innocence could be jarred within a handful of months in a place where very little was taboo.

Sex?

Nope. You could do that when your souls deemed you were ready.

Alcohol?

Nope. The souls were also in charge on that score, and apparently, the faculty bought beer for the older students.

Candy?

Ha. That was the no-no.

The guys were hovering around where we’d set up, and I wasn’t sure if that was because they didn’t want to dance or because they didn’t need to. Seeing the girls moving their bodies the way they were made me uncomfortable. It was overtly sexual, yet they were proud of their figures, comfortable in their skin. The discomfort was addled with a hint of jealousy and a dash of concern. While I wished I felt that way with my body, I also had to wonder if the guys wished I’d dance like that.

Did they want me to do that?

Could I even if I wanted to?

I wasn’t sure. Truly wasn’t. I had seven guys in my Pack. My souls, those pesky critters, had Chosen six men. I was supposed to dosomethingwith them, but how? Goodness, having watched enough TV for a lifetime in the past few weeks with the guys, I was well aware that most women couldn’t handle one man, never mind six… and it wasn’t like I could leave Samuel out in the cold, was it?

Though I had to admit, I wasn’t as overwhelmed as I ought to be. Had to be the souls talking, but I liked being clustered with them. I not only felt safe, but like a queen too. Those girls wore skirts shorter than my damn panties and were dancing as if their bodies were walking sex, all because they were trying to entice guys to them.

Me?

I just sat here in an overlarge shirt, yoga pants, and sandals, and had seven hovering around me.

Self-satisfaction filled me, and was it good or bad luck that my gaze connected with a woman I’d seen hovering around Stefan?

Genevieve.

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