Page 53 of Caelum

“There’s no way you can fight in Aboh with that,” I said eventually, after glowering at what was, effectively, a huge open wound.

He shrugged. “Have no choice.”

“Sure you do, dumbass,” Nestor retorted, and by his tone, I knew it wasn’t the first time he’d brought this up.

“We have to go.”

He wasn’t wrong, but neither was he right.

Students grouped themselves in teams and worked months to get to the top of the league, and we were no different. Every time we won a fight in the ring, we gained points, and our Pack was always battling it out with Frazer, Reed, and Samuel to hit the top, and as a result of some stellar performances in the run-up to Reed knocking me out, we were due to hitAboh as the Alpha Team, with the Beta and Omega Units relying on us for instruction.

If we pulled out now, all that hard work would be for nothing. But, if Stefan was injured because he was weak from the mark, or if he was killed because he wasn’t fighting at full strength, then the game was over for him and we lost a brother.

The risks were immense, and I begrudged them.

Christ, I’d only been sleeping for a few hours when Eve had landed on Caelum’s doorstep, fucking up my world and my Pack’s too.

Fucking women.

Pissed off, I ran a hand through my hair and stated, “It’s not worth losing you if you’re not one hundred percent, Stefan.”

He turned away from the book he was reading. We were all studying for our finals. Even though we would be here until we were twenty-one, males had different roles to play than females.

After our final exam, our work at the Academy would consist mostly of training and practice.

Females, on the other hand, remained with the books. Though they were required to stay strong and fit—like Eve could ever be that. She was a good forty pounds overweight—their strengths came from knowledge.

Ghouls were crafty motherfuckers. They blended in with all cultures, which meant our females had to be cognizant on information that could vary from table manners to the different religions in each country. This would make them vital aspects of a Pack when we had to infiltrate a nation teeming with a nest of Ghouls.

We were so close to formalizing our Pack, and it pissed me off that the woman in our ranks had been decided for us.

A useless bitch from the States who barely understood what we were saying, who couldn’t run a few yards without turning bright red, and who didn’t understand her own culture, never mind the intricacies of another in a foreign land.

She was a stranger among her own people, and somehow, in a few years, we had to make it so that she knew her shit to be useful to our Pack and not just a deadweight.

For so long, I’d had no say in my life. Then I’d come to Caelum. I’d picked my brothers. Not just because we got on, but because we made sense, and after I’d tied us together with a loose friendship, that was when the camaraderie had grown.

It might have sounded cold-hearted to pick a Pack that way, and I wasn’t going to deny I’d acted strategically, but I wasn’t feelingcoldat thatmoment. I was boiling over with temper. Aggravated at having no say in the final member of our Pack, pissed that she belonged to Stefan in a way she’d never belong to any of us, and downright fucked off that she was going to be a burden for us all to carry.

“She’s not as bad as you think.”

The words had me blinking, and I twisted to frown at Eren. “What?”

He cocked a brow at me, unafraid of the dark promise of violence in my voice. “You heard me. Eve isn’t as bad as you think. She’s smart, Dre. I think she has an eidetic memory.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Photographic.” Stefan nodded. “You might be right, Eren. I’ve never seen her with the same book twice, and she remembers most shit you tell her.”

I frowned. “How do you know that?”

Nestor inserted, “Because we’ve hung out with her for more than a few hours.”

“Plus, she quotes the dictionary like it’s her Bible.”

Nestor shot me a narrow-eyed glance. “We all know you can be a prick, Dre, but let’s try to tone it down, yeah? We need her more than she needs us.”

That had me grunting. “BS. If she knew what Stefan was to her?—”

---