Page 101 of Caelum

“We have to wait until we’re twenty before we can officially form a Pack, but most people collect friends with that in mind way before then. They start out as friendships, and then by the time we’re twenty, and we have a handle on what we’re going to be, we can start to think about making things official as without the Buses or a Sin Eater, a Pack can’t form so that changes things.”

When he fell silent, she didn’t reply for the longest time until she whispered, “How is it you all managed to keep these things from me?”

“It wasn’t about keeping things from you,” Stefan answered gently. “It was about figuring out what you needed to know and when. You have so much to learn, Eve. So much. It’s a case of figuring out where to start and when.”

“You start with the monsters who can and will attack us, Stefan!” she ground out. “I mean, isn’t that obvious? Here I was, a sitting duck, just thinking everything was going to be okay now that I was away from the compound and we’re in as much danger here as we were on the outside world!”

“No. No Ghouls have ever tried to take on Caelum,” Eren attempted to reassure her, but she grunted as though that were beside the point.

Which made no sense considering that was her point.

Women.

I was sure they made no sense on purpose sometimes.

“So, why would Nestor suggest I read these stupid N-Files?”

“Because, as a Pack, it’s our duty to go out and eradicate Ghouls. There’s a lot of information to sort through, not just information on the Nest Leader themselves but also on the area we’re scouting… things that, with your memory, would be beneficial to our team.”

“That sounds like you’ve decided I’m a part of your Pack.”

There was a dangerous edge to her voice that had me shifting on the bed with unease.

“We thought it was a given,” Stefan replied, sounding surprised, and who could blame him? She didn’t know it, but her souls did—they’d laid claim to him.

“Nothing is a given,” she said with a sniff, then I felt the air around her shift as she got to her feet.

Belying her words, she leaned over me. I knew because her tits pressed into my arm, and I stiffened when her lips touched my forehead.

“I’ll be back to check on you later, Nestor,” she whispered, then she shuffled off and left me alone with my brothers.

“What the fuck was that about?” Eren demanded.

I wanted to join in the debate, but I couldn’t. It was taking everything I had to stay conscious.

“I have no idea,” Stefan replied. “Unless… Is she running scared? She’s had a lot thrown at her these past few days. Nestor being hurt was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“You might be right. That shit with Dre didn’t help.”

What the hell had Dre done now?

Goddammit. The Were needed to be on a leash.

Although I wanted to grumble, wanted to shoot the shit with my brothers, I didn’t. Now that Eve was gone, I knew they’d go soon too, knowing that I needed my rest more than I needed their company.

When they shuffled out a few minutes later, I was left thinking about Eve’s words, as well as the ones she’d issued silently as she’d kissed me on the forehead.

Whether she knew it or not, she was ours. But she had a few weeks’ grace to come to terms with it, just as Dre did. Because the second he hit twenty, and he declared us as his Pack, I’d beat the crap out of him if Eve wasn’t on the official registration.

THIRTY

DRE

What was it about that chick?

She was some kind of moron, yet she had Nestor, Eren, and Stefan leaping around her like her pussy was made of twenty-four-carat gold or something.

Fuck, it wasn’t eventhatbecause I knew Stefan’s back wouldn’t be hurting him still if she’d Claimed him, so she wasn’t even tying him in knots through sex.

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