Page 114 of Caelum

Eve… the woman who made innocent and naive look raunchy… somehow, she had two Chosen and was stuck with me too.

The fixer in me wondered at how I could resolve this situation, but this was a clusterfuck beyond even my skills. That didn’t mean I had to lay down and let everything we’d worked for die a death, though.

I just needed to start at the beginning. Well, after I’d figured out exactlywherethe beginning was.

My day had just grown more complicated than anticipated.

ONE

EVE

“Houston, we have a problem.”

“Houston?” I frowned at Dre. “What does that even mean? Why are you randomly talking about cities?”

Dre, everpatient, narrowed his eyes at me. “One issue at a time, Eve. The fact you're an idiot where pop culture is concerned isn't important?—”

Before Dre could even finish the sentence, I shrieked as Frazer grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to the wall.

After six weeks at Caelum, a special Academy for people like the three of us tucked away in this public bathroom, I wasn't unaccustomed to violence. Not when one of the classes should be titled Violence 101—see, I'd read1984. Orwell knew his stuff. I wasn't totally backward when it came to pop culture anymore. Still, it surprised me because Frazer had been so fast, so quick to react to Dre’s insult.

The sad fact was, if Dre wasn't insulting me, it would be weird. He wasn't nice to me, or pleasant, ever. He never had a kind word to say, never had a smile for me, and was generally mean as a rule.

“You take that back,” Frazer ground out, and I blinked at him, appreciating the husky growl in his voice, as well as the unadulterated view of his rather muscled back.

A back that was loaded with more ink than I'd ever seen before.

It was sprawled across the entirety of his left side. The ink was so sharply delineated that it met a line that even ran in between the nodules of his spine. His shoulders and the back of his waist were highly defined, but itwas the ink, something I had learned was called a tattoo, that had me reaching forward and pressing my fingers to the different letters covering him.

At my touch, he released a hiss and froze as though my fingers were red-hot.

Stung by his rejection and ashamed at how I’d touched him without permission, I jerked away, my fingers snapping back as quickly as he'd leaped at Dre. But when I ceased touching him, he looked over his shoulder and stared right at me. There was pain in his face. His expression was tormented—brows furrowed, mouth downturned, and his eyes? They were like blue pools of misery.

“Don't,” he rasped.

“Don't what?” I replied shakily. “Touch you? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to?—”

He quickly shook his head and then, sounding pained, whispered, “No. Don't stop.”

My mouth worked a second before I gave in to temptation and reached for him once more. The second my fingers connected with his skin, he released a hiss and Dre, the jerk, took advantage of his distraction.

“Watch out,” I yelped when Dre dipped his head forward, his forehead coming scant inches away from connecting with Frazer's. The larger man grabbed a firmer hold of him, so firm that Dre's eyes bulged. “No, Frazer,” I chided, then begrudgingly added for my Pack’s sake, “the dick might deserve it, but you'll get punished for hurting him too much.”

“You're all heart,” Dre mocked, glowering at me when Frazer's chokehold lessened some. He raised his hands and Frazer backed off out of Dre’s space but remained close enough for me to recognize that Frazer could pounce and be on him in an instant.

That probably shouldn’t have satisfied me as much as it did.

With a shrug, I told Dre, “I've shown you more courtesy than you've ever shown me.”

Frazer's nostrils flared. “He's cruel to you?” he barked, making my eyes widen at his anger. Until he glared at Dre, I wasn't sure if it was aimed at him or me. “Your humor is biting, Were, but watch your mouth around Eve. From now on, if I see you be anything other than kind to her, I’ll rip your fucking head off.”

“Like you even could,” Dre sneered—rather foolishly, I thought. It was pretty much like throwing more gas onto the fire.

“If I can't, I have no rights to her. But then again, I have a Vampire and a Hell Hound to back me?—”

“And I don't have an Incubus? A Lorelei and a Gargoyle?”

“Not where she's concerned.” Frazer's mouth tightened.

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