“Anyway, I guess it’s hard after what happened to your parents.”
Aiden pushed off the wal , eyes suddenly a steely gray. “I have friends, Alex, and I know how to have fun.”
My cheeks grew even hotter. Obviously, I’d hit a sore spot. Whoops. Feeling very lame, I finished up training and hurried back to my dorm. Sometimes I wondered what I was thinking when I opened my mouth.
Disgusted, I took a quick shower and changed into a pair of shorts. Soon afterwards, I headed back to the hub of the campus to meet up with Caleb in the cafeteria, determined to forget my awkwardness.
Caleb was already there, in deep conversation with another half about who’d gotten better scores in their field exercises at the end of last semester. Since I had yet to take part in any field exercise, I was pretty much left out of the conversation. I felt like a loser.
“You going to the party tonight?” Caleb asked.
I glanced up. “I guess so. Not like I have anything better to do.”
“Just don’t have a repeat of last time.”
I shot him an evil look. “Don’t leave me hanging while you run off to Myrtle, you douche.”
Caleb chuckled. “You should’ve come. Lea was bitching up until the moment she saw Jackson without you. She practical y ruined everyone’s night. Wel , Cody actual y ruined everyone’s night.”
I pul ed my legs up and leaned back in my seat. This was the first I had heard of that. “What happened?”
He made a face. “Someone brought up the Breed Order crap again, and Cody was real y out of it. He started talking smack about it. He was saying stuff about us halfs not belonging on the Council.”
“I’m sure that went over wel .”
He smirked. “Yeah, then he said something about how the two breeds shouldn’t mix and al the crap about the purity of their blood.” He paused, eyeing someone behind me with great interest.
I twisted around, but I only caught a glimpse of caramel-colored skin and long, curly hair. I turned back to him with a raised brow. “So, what happened?”
“Um… a couple of the halfs got pissed. The next thing we know, Cody and Jackson were brawling. Man, they were going at it.”
My eyes widened. “What? Did Cody report him?”
“No,” said Caleb, grinning. “Zarak talked Cody out of it, but he beat Cody down. It was pretty awesome. Of course, the two idiots made up afterward. They’re fine now.”
Relieved, I settled back in my seat. Striking a pure—even in self-defense—was a fast way to get kicked out the Covenant. Kil ing a pure in any situation would get you executed, even if he was trying to cut your head off. As unfair as it was, we had to be careful navigating the politics of the pure-blood world. We could knock the crap out of one another, but when it came to the pures, they were untouchable in more ways than one. And if we happened to break one of the rules… wel , we were only one step away from a lifetime of servitude—or death.
Shuddering, I thought about my precarious position. If I didn’t get accepted in the fal , servitude was what I had to look forward to. There was no way I could al ow that. I’d have to leave, but where would I go? What would I do? Live on the streets? Manage to find a job and pretend to be a mortal again?
Pushing those troubling thoughts away, I focused on Jackson’s party, which I final y agreed to attend, and a couple of hours later, I found myself there. The little party real y wasn’t little; it looked like al the halfs who were stuck at the Covenant during the summer had spil ed across the beach. Some sprawled across blankets; others reclined in chairs. No one was in the water.
I opted for a comfy-looking blanket beside Luke. Ritter, a younger half with the brightest red hair I’d ever seen, offered me a yel ow plastic cup, but I turned it down. Rit hung out with us for a little while, talking about how he was getting ready to travel to California for the rest of the summer. I was only slightly envious.
“You aren’t drinking?” asked Luke.
Even I was surprised by my decision, but I shrugged. “I’m not feeling it tonight.”
He flicked a long strand of bronze-colored hair out of his eyes. “Did I get you in trouble today during practice?”
“No. I’m usual y easily distracted. So it was nothing new.”
Luke nudged me, grinning. “I can see why you are distracted. Too bad he’s a pure. I’d give my left butt cheek for a piece of that.”
“He likes girls.”
“So?” Luke laughed at my expression. “What’s he like?
He seems so quiet. Like you know he’d be good in—”
“Stop right there!” I giggled, throwing up my hand. The movement pul ed my sore back muscles.
Luke tipped back his head and laughed. “You can’t say you never thought about it.”
“He’s… he’s a pure,” I said again, like it didn’t make him sexy.
Luke shot me a knowing look.
“Okay.” I sighed. “He’s actual y… very nice and patient.
Most of the time… and I just feel weird talking about him.
Can we talk about some other hot guy?”
“Oh, yes. Please. Can we talk about another hot guy?”
Caleb snorted. “Exactly the thing I want to talk about.”
Luke ignored him, his gaze flickering across the beach and settling near a couple of coolers. “How about Jackson?”
I eased onto my back. “Don’t say his name.”
He chuckled at my pathetic attempt to make myself invisible. “He just showed up without Lea. Come to think of it, where in hel is that little ho?”
I refused to look up and draw Jackson’s attention. “I have no idea. I haven’t seen her.”
“Is that a bad thing?” asked Caleb.