Page 226 of Caelum

Dre snorted. “Eve, you epitomize weird. It should be right up your street.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re just as weird as I am.”

“Yeah?” He took his attention off the game after he placed his rook down in a square that had Eren grumbling and studiously glowering at the chessboard. “Like to explain that?”

“You grow cacti for fun,” she retorted.

“Not anymore,” he returned, baring his teeth at her. “Someone had me leaving my cacti behind.”

Her eyes flared wide and she staggered back. “I-I did.” The sorrow in her tone had everyone breaking off from what they were doing and staring over at her before instantly shooting Dre glares. When she saw them, though, she shook her head. “No. He’s right. I-I shouldn’t have mentioned it. It was wrong of me. I’m sorry, Dre. Not just for using your hobby against you but for making you leave them behind.”

Dre rolled his eyes—did I mention he was a prick?—but he raised my perception of him by dipping his chin. “It’s okay, Eve. I can grow some more when we eventually get settled somewhere.”

When he averted his attention to the board, I knew it was because her sincerity had surprised him. Eve, though she made many mistakes and had a tendency to allow her emotions to guide her, was a kind woman. She was gentle, too, in the grand scheme of things. Hurting someone for the sake of it wasn’t like her, and I knew Dre brought that out in her, me too if I were being honest, though I was trying to quell my sarcasm around her. It was hard. Being a Brit, my sense of humor was dark.

I reached over and cupped her shoulder. “It’s okay, Eve. You didn’t mean to hurt his feelings.”

“Doesn’t mean I didn’t.” She reached up and rubbed her temple. “I’m going to go and lie down.”

I hadn’t seen her arms glimmer with light, so I knew she was escaping to get some quiet, which was a shame because being around us as a Pack would ease her.

I didn’t argue, though, just let her head out to the stateroom I’d claimed her in. Before she crossed the threshold, I did call out, “I’ll be in later to change your bandages.”

Her cheeks were pale and her eyes wet as she turned to nod at me. Spying her tears, I released a sigh.

“She’s too soft for her own good,” Dre commented, his tone harsh enough to make me narrow my eyes at him.

“That softness will be our savior,” I retorted. “And don’t bitch about her when she was so quick to apologize. Eve didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It wasn’t intentional.”

He shrugged. “She didn’t hurt my feelings.”

“Bullshit. Unless you intentionally wanted her to feel like shit?” I cocked a brow at him, unsure why he was fighting this so hard. She’d Chosen him, and after having been out in the cold, the only one not Chosen for a time, I knew how crap that felt and how lucky Dre was.

The wanker.

Stefan sighed as he placed his whittled apple on the coffee table in front of him. “Dre, why you have to be so antagonistic toward her is beyond me.”

“She doesn’t fart perfume and breathe glitter,” Dre retorted. “She isn’t perfect, and you treating her like she is will do no good.”

“Being mean will do the opposite?” Eren countered. “She isn’t perfect. We know that without you ramming the point home. But she’s the softness we need to counter all the shit we’ve been through. If you think that’s bad, then you don’t deserve her.” His words rang out around the sitting room, echoing in a silence that was only disturbed by the documentary Nestor was watching.

None of us said another word because Eren had hit the nail on the head.

Dre didn’t deserve her softness, not without an attitude check. Eve wasn’t perfect, she had flaws, but for us? She was ours. We’d accept those flaws because they were a part of her makeup, just as she’d accept ours.

That was how being a Chosen worked.

And whether Dre liked it or not, whether he liked Eve or not, he was her Chosen.

SEVEN

FRAZER

As I stepped off the King Air 350 and onto the private airfield, I stretched, letting my muscles as well as mysoulrecuperate from being stuck in a metal box for hours on end. Of course, the King Air was luxurious, it was my family’s go-to private jet, but that didn’t make it any bigger or more comfortable for eight creatures roaming around its confines.

Creatures never did well in confined spaces, and when you thought about the reasons why, it made perfect sense. For twenty-one years, we were kept locked up tight, forced to endure medical examinations and tests to treat us, and only allowed some freedom when we managed to make it to Caelum. Though Eve’s presence in our lives had enabled our creatures to have free reign—well, most of us—we weren’t exactlyusedto it.

We’d traveled via the yacht to Gibraltar, after crossing the strait to switch between Africa and the Mediterranean, then had grabbed the jet to London.

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