Page 188 of Caelum

I couldn’t discern much from his voice or his comments. He didn’t sound overly angry, but he wasn’t indifferent. Not entirely.

But I had no idea what to say to him. No idea whatsoever?—

“Happy birthday, Eve.”

Taken aback, I blinked at him. “Thank you, Samuel.”

He nodded then took a step backward. Before he turned to head back to our Pack, he murmured, “Next time, try to field her punches. You were right to knock her out as quickly as possible, but you’ll feel that hit to the jaw for a few days to come.”

“What should I have done?”

For the first time, he laughed, and the sound? Wow. It made butterflies dance in my stomach. “Knocked her out the second you had a hold on her hair.”

Despite myself, I smiled, and the smile didn’t die as he wandered back to my other Chosen.

TWENTY-ONE

FRAZER

“Goddammit,” I groaned, remembering why I loathed waking up on the damn beach when the sun pierced my retinas better than a dagger might slice into my eyeballs.

Throwing my forearm over my face, I heard other groans and knew the sun wasn’t only my alarm call.

After releasing a deep yawn, I slowly lowered my arm and saw the men around me starting to stir. Tucked up in the tent, Eve didn’t appear to have moved, and as I looked at her, all curled up in the shadows, I thought back to last night and immediately, my morning wood turned from a semi to a full-on ache.

“Little ballbuster,” Reed rasped, and I cut him a look and saw he was staring where I was too.

It figured. She was ours, after all.

A thrill surged through my veins at the thought, and I watched as the others, my new Pack, flickered a glance her way also. Only Nestor was sleeping still, and that was because the lucky bastard was curled up with her. Although, not-so-lucky considering we were going to have to make the trek back to the school, and he’d looked shaky as fuck all last night.

I hoped for his sake he was feeling better.

“How long did you sleep?” Stefan asked.

I froze at the question, not sure who it was aimed at, then saw he was speaking to Eren.

“I managed about forty minutes.”

Forty minutes of sleep? Jesus, no wonder he looked wide awake. Although, that didn’t fit. Shouldn’t he look more exhausted?

The other guy shrugged. “Better than nothing.”

Which was what he usually got?

How the hell did he cope?

The thought sent unease through me. Not only because an exhausted soldier was usually a shit soldier, but also because it sucked donkey bollocks that Eren never got any rest.

“Nestor stir at all?” Dre inquired around a yawn. He flung his arms over his raised knees and squinted out over the shore before glancing around the bonfire.

In the light of day, things looked a shit ton shadier than in the kinder shadows. There was crap everywhere that they’d have to pick up if Nicholas wasn’t going to rain hell on us, and the scorch marks from the fire looked grim. Bodies were strewn here and there, some curved into each other, some all alone. Some were dressed, someweren’t. It was easy to see which couples had got it on under the stars, only for the light to reveal their secrets to their class.

Not that there was any shame in that.

Which was why I’d been furious last night at Genny’s insinuations. She’d fucked half our year, and the guys she hadn’t fucked were because she wasn’t attracted to them. Whether or not Eve had been blowing our brains in the sack, she didn’t have a right to judge.

Figured that another woman would do that though.

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