Page 15 of Caelum

FOURTEEN

DRE

When I stared at Stefan’s back, not for the first time, I wanted to shake my head at the sight.

It seemed too incredible to believe.

Mates at our age were pretty much unheard of. But to find them through the simple touch of hands? Impossible.

The mark didn’t lie, though, and I saw it every time we hung out in his room and messed around on his PS4. He never wore a shirt in here, and I knew why too—the mark was red-hot. I’d touched it accidentally the first time he’d shown it to me, and both of us had yelped. It was a burn that hadn’t healed in some ways, except there was no infection. No leaking flesh or pus. Just red, raw skin that was waiting on the Claiming to calm it down.

“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 hit Aboh 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 feeling cold at that moment. 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?—”

“She’d run for the hills,” Eren said drily. “She isn’t like other girls.”

“How do you mean?”

“If you ask her what a penis is, she’ll give you the dictionary’s definition of it. I don’t think she knows what it looks like or what it does.”

“So? I’ve seen her with you. She cuddles into you all the time.”

“That’s true,” Stefan agreed thoughtfully. “But it might be the first bit of affection she’s had in her entire life. Why wouldn’t she leap at it with both hands? I’ve never been cruel to her. We’re all very kind and gentle with her and help where we can. She feels safe with us.”

“She isn’t safe, though, is she?” I pointed out, glaring at him. “If you get killed in Aboh, then she’ll suffer for the rest of her life without you.”

He scowled at me. “I won’t die over there, douche.”

“That mark looks like it happened yesterday,” I retorted. “You can’t tell me it isn’t affecting you in the ring. I saw you with David. He almost got the better of you yesterday, and he can’t fight for shit.”

Stefan grunted. “He was a Hell Hound yesterday, and I was a Vampire. I got blood after the fight when I realized how weak I was.”

“You shouldn’t be taking blood from anyone other than Eve now,” Nestor pointed out .

“I know.” Stefan grimaced. “How can I explain that to her, though? She’s still using the bags of blood Lori gives her.”

“She doesn’t know we take from the vein?”

“I think she has to because the books will instruct her that way, but I don’t think that’s enough to make her seek a vein.”

I shook my head at him. “We’ve been given the biggest weakest link ever.”

“Only for the moment,” Eren retorted.

“Why are you defending her? You know I’m right!” I ground out.

“Because when you hang out with her and stop fucking judging, you’ll see that she’s nice.”

“Nice?” I felt my mouth work at that and knew I was doing a great impression of a goldfish. “ Nice? Because that’s going to save our asses from the Ghouls, right? Her baking them fucking cookies and hugging them when they get hungry.”

“Don’t be a dick, Dre,” Stefan grated out. “Just because I haven’t claimed her doesn’t mean I don’t feel the bond. She’s mine, and I won’t have you disrespecting her.”

I ground my teeth, clenching my jaw as fury ricocheted inside me. It was to our bad fortune that my Were was out to party today because I knew, with another word that pissed me off, I’d be ready to smash their faces in.

They knew how close to the edge I was, but I also noticed that they didn’t back down.

In the short time they’d known Eve, she’d wormed her way into their defenses, and I didn’t appreciate that because it made me feel like I was left out in the cold.

A knock sounded at the door just as I was getting myself back under control. Because the Were was there, right at the surface, I could scent who was hovering outside like a goddamn bad smell.

“It’s Eve.”

My tone was bland, and I was proud of that because I wanted to snarl her name.

I watched as Stefan dragged on a shirt and winced as the fabric settled against his marked back. Once he was covered, he called out, “Come in.”

The door popped open a faint inch and Stefan laughed. “I’m decent, Eve. Wouldn’t have called you in if I weren’t.”

When she peeped around the door, her cheeks were bright red as usual. She looked like a cherry, one that had been dosed in isotopes, so she was lit up like a Christmas tree all the time. Her eyes gleamed as they darted around the room’s occupants, and her bun was no longer neat as a pin but messy. Enough so that I saw the chestnut glints in her hair—not that I wanted to notice that.

“Is this a good time?”

Her hesitance, though polite, put me on edge, especially as she gnawed on her bottom lip as she stared at my chin when her gaze passed over me.

Really? How many times did we have to tell her she wasn’t intruding before she fucking listened?

Nestor kicked my foot, jarring my bad leg. My knee complained and so did I—with a glower at him.

“Be nice,” he hissed at me under his breath, then to Eve said, “Ignore Dre, Eve. He’s just a bad-tempered son of a bitch.”

Her eyes widened at his words. “Nestor, is that really kind to malign Dre’s mother?”

Nestor snickered. “Dre’s the first to malign her.”

Eve frowned but didn’t comment on that. Instead, she shuffled over to Eren who was sitting at the bottom of Stefan’s bed. Nestor and I had taken over the sofa, and Stefan was at his desk.

When she went to Eren, Nestor and Stefan’s attentions returned to their books, while Eren sat up. The dynamic had me scowling.

What the fuck was happening here?

I didn’t carry on reading the boring crap the instructors wanted us to discuss on the theory of capturing and slaughtering Ghouls. That kind of shit wasn’t something you could learn in books but in combat. At least, that was what I believed, not that the teachers ever fucking listened.

Instead, I watched as Eve pushed back so she was at Eren’s side. The two of them were pressed together, their heads touching as she showed him something in her hand.

Nestor kicked me again. “Don’t watch them,” he whispered.

“Why?” I mouthed the word, not wanting him to kick my leg again—and the bastard would. Just so I wouldn’t offend Little Miss Priss over in the corner.

“She gets embarrassed.”

Great. I almost rolled my eyes. This was exactly what we needed. A woman whom we flustered.

I could just imagine the Ghouls stopping their attack because she was uncomfortable with their attention.

Christ.

Ducking my head so I appeared as though I were focusing on the book in my hand, I managed to peer over the top to investigate what they were doing .

When I saw that Eren was trying to show her how to use a cell phone, I felt like crying.

Useless was useful when it came down to describing this bitch, and fuck me, I was stuck with her.

She was going to be the death of us. I knew it like I knew my face in the goddamn mirror.