Page 31 of Caelum

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 even that because 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.

What was it about her?

Just because she was his Chosen didn’t mean he had to like her. There were Chosen who couldn’t stand one another. Nicholas had a mate and he spent his whole year in Caelum, and his woman flew in a few times every couple of months to hook up then she got the hell out of here. The tension in the school was thicker than the mist on a mountaintop whenever Janvier was here because she always put Nicholas in a piss-poor mood.

Having a Chosen didn’t mean you thought the sun rose and set on that person, but Stefan apparently didn’t get that memo. And shit, Nestor and Eren weren’t even hers, but they were always standing up for her.

Eren had even jumped in front of her today like he thought I was going to beat on her or something.

Dick.

I lifted the beer to my lips and took a deep sip. The burn of the alcohol soothed me like nothing else could, and I wished for something stronger.

We could drink here from eighteen onwards, but only beer. Liquor was for when we hit twenty-one, and by that point, we were only stuck at Caelum while we waited for the rest of our Pack to hit that milestone, so we tended to wait for our freedom to get pissed out of our brains.

I was dehydrating from the need for vodka, so I finished off the beer and the follow-up. Only when I was on my fourth did I feel a little less tense.

Sidling up to one of the girls in my year, Becky, I watched her grin at me as she looped her arms around my waist. As we ground into each other, she yelled over the music, “How many did you take out?”

“Personally?” I asked, cocking a brow at her.

Her eyes flashed with excitement as she nodded, her bright blonde curls bobbing around her shoulders.

“Eighteen,” I admitted. While I was tempted to beef up the numbers, there was no point. Everyone that had flown out would be bragging about their ‘kills,’ and word spread as fast as the bullshit did around here.

“Eighteen?” She bit her bottom lip. “You’re a hero,” she whispered, standing on tiptoe so she could brush her mouth over mine. Her hands dropped down to my ass, and she ground her pelvis into mine, and I enjoyed the soft pillow of my cock against her stomach.

This was what I needed.

The beer and then someone like Becky to soothe my temper, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit, lick my… ego .

Smirking at the thought, I blinked when I saw Eve storm into the room.

She was such a goody two shoes that I was surprised to see her at the party. I wasn’t even sure if that word was in her vocabulary—except for the one that she had in her memory because she’d memorized the damn dictionary by the time she was eight or some shit like that. I wondered how old that dictionary was because she was missing a hell of a lot of words. It was why she was so irritating to talk to.

As Becky ground her hips into me, I watched while Eve glanced over the crowd. For a second, I wondered if she was trying to find me. The thought set me on edge, but when she saw me, any belief that I was whom she was seeking disappeared. Her top lip curled in a sneer, and she cut the connection between us.

I’d admit to feeling stung by that sharp rejection—enough that I tensed in Becky’s arms.

“You’re all stiff,” Becky said, giggling at her play on words.

Christ, what was it with women? I had one in my life who could barely string a sentence together without sounding like something from a historical drama, then another one who thought she was a comedian.

Becky tried to tug me away, drag me toward one of the shadowed corners that we’d made out in more than once over the years. But I kept her in place with my hands on her hips.

“I like feeling you grinding on me,” I lied, but she took the bait and began moving on me even harder, which I’d admit felt awesome.

In the darkened common room, I watched as Eve slipped between the sofas, avoided the long table that was stacked with beer, and winced at the loud music. I wasn’t sure where she was going, but I kept my attention on her.

When she seemed to have found her destination, I gaped for a second, then I narrowed my eyes, wondering what her next move was.

Beside Frazer, the dick, she looked even rounder. I wasn’t sure how that was possible, but she did. She looked shorter, and those fucking curves of hers made her look all the more feminine.

Even though Becky was fit as hell, she was as muscled as me. I’d felt those muscles personally so I could attest to the truth of that. But Eve? She was soft. It was way too easy to imagine rubbing my cock into her stomach and feeling the gentle give of her flesh.

I almost snorted at the thought because there was no way in hell, not after she’d cut me so blatantly when we’d caught each other’s attention just moments before, that she was about to let me or my dick anywhere near her.

Not that I even wanted to.

At all.

Right.

She hollered something at Frazer who…

I frowned.

Ignored her?

Fuck, more than that. He blanked her. Totally.

Why the hell did she even want to talk to that prick, though? To thank him for helping Nestor? For doing what any soldier at Caelum should have done?

As the thought crossed my mind, she grabbed his arm and tugged. The move was amusing considering she was like five-feet nothing, and he came in at around six-six.

Again, he ignored her. It was like Eve was a mosquito dancing around his head or something. But, to be fair, he’d have given one of those irritating motherfuckers more attention than he gave her.

Seemed like I wasn’t the only one who didn’t think she farted glitter.

“What are you looking at?” Becky demanded with a pout, looking over her shoulder to see where I was staring. When she saw Eve being snubbed by Frazer, she snorted. “Serves the bitch right. You should have seen what she did to Lewis today.”

“What did she do?” I asked, my attention on Eve as she batted big brown eyes at Frazer then shifted around to see Reed. When he spotted her, Reed acted pretty much the way Frazer had—but he turned his back on her.

I saw two expressions on Eve’s face. She was dumbfounded at their treatment, but more than that, she was hurt. It made my stomach churn to see that hurt, and I wanted to pound on the bastards for treating her like that.

Fuck, I knew I didn’t treat her much better, but she was my Pack brother’s woman. I could treat her like that. They fucking couldn’t.

And hell, her brow had started to crumple and her mouth began quivering.

Was she going to cry?

Dammit to hell.

In front of everyone?

“Lewis was just having a bit of fun, you know?” Becky whined, buzzing into my thoughts like a fly dancing around shit. “She picked him up by the throat and flung him into the wall and then a glass table. She’s a lunatic.”

I gaped down at her. “Eve did what?”

She shrugged. “Well, I mean, that’s what Louise said. She was there and saw it all.”

Chinese whispers, I figured, but most gossip had a seed of truth to it.

With her shoulders low, I watched as Eve started to make a move out of the room, but then Eren and Stefan appeared and hauled her into their sides. I wasn’t altogether surprised when they tried to make her dance. She was edgy after the way Frazer and Reed had snubbed her, but when Eren hugged her, she didn’t look like she was on the brink of tears anymore. Then, Stefan whispered something in her ear that had her laughing and relaxing into him.

I almost envied them at that moment, but before the green-eyed monster could overtake me—I had way too many monsters inside me without adding another to the mix—I asked Becky, “What did Lewis do?”

I knew that prick. He stirred shit better than my mother had stirred her chocolate mole sauce.

“Was just messing around, you know? It’s not his fault she couldn’t take a joke.”

“Some joke,” I muttered. “He has a foot on her and about eighty pounds.”

“Louise said her Hell Hound came out to play. ”

I cocked a brow, interested by that news. Everyone’s souls had a habit of coming out to party in times of trouble, but whatever Lewis had done, it wouldn’t have endangered her. Not on Caelum grounds, at any rate.

For her beast to be close to the surface?

She was strong.

I wanted to grind my teeth at that. Of course she was strong.

Aside from the fact she somehow managed to speak the same language while saying shit completely different than the rest of us, knew jack shit about our world and should have the word ‘TROUBLE’ tattooed on her fucking forehead, she would make Stefan a fitting mate if she could intimidate a guy like Lewis.

“Why are we still talking about her?” Becky grumbled, and I narrowed my eyes at her. She knew I hated that voice. Her cheeks blushed, and her hands came to rest on my chest. “Want to go to my room?”

I smirked at her. “What do you think?”