Page 25 of Specter Bred

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then Cutter barked out a laugh.

"We've spent three weeks thinking this idiot wandered in from a farm."

"I did wander in from a farm, sir," Hayes replied helpfully.

The bastard had casually revealed he'd been one of the deadliest marksmen in Arca, then somehow made it sound completely unremarkable.

"Luckily you're an excellent shot, because you suck at everything else," Grizzly grumbled as he patted him on the back.

Suddenly, I felt very, very, alone.

A few minutes ago, I'd been riding the high of beating Redwood. I'd finally proven them wrong. Proven I belonged here. Proven I could compete with the best candidates in the country. But now, as recruits gathered around Hayes, slapping him on the back, congratulating him, and peppering him with questions, that feeling soured.

The same men who had spent the first week talking about running him out of ASOG because he was a beta were now staring at him like he'd hung the moon. His beta designation no longer mattered because he'd given them a reason to look past it.

The realization hit harder than any insult Graves had ever thrown my way.

Because I'd done the same thing. I'd beaten Redwood and outshot nearly every candidate on the range. On top of that, I'd survived every punishment Graves had thrown at me. Yet, nobody was gathering around me, slapping me on the back, or suddenly questioning if a woman belonged in Specter training.

Hayes had stopped being an outsider.

I hadn't.

A day ago, there had been two of us against the world.

Now there was only one.

And somehow, that felt worse than being alone from the start.

Chapter 4: Sammy Hayes

Maeve had barely spoken to me in weeks, other than to tell me to move out of her way or go fuck myself.

Truthfully, I hadn't seen much of her either.

Ever since the shooting assessment, she'd become even more determined to prove herself.

I'd thought beating Redwood would be the victory she needed and finally let her breathe a little. She'd outshot one of the strongest alpha candidates in the class, forced half the recruits to reevaluate her, and proved she could hold her own.

But Maeve didn't seem interested in breathing.

If anything, winning only made her hungrier to do it again.

Which, admittedly, only made her more impressive.

She stayed after every training session, spent extra hours in the gym, and somehow always found another drill to run when everyone else was heading to chow. More than once, I'd come back to our dorm after lights out only to find her bunk empty. I wasn't entirely sure when she slept.

The woman trained as if she had something to prove to God himself.

Scratch that. Not God, Graves.

As for me, things had gotten considerably better.

The recruits had finally stopped looking at me like a beta who'd wandered onto the wrong base and started treating me like one of their own. Guys who'd spent the first few weeks questioning whether I belonged in Specter training now partnered with me during drills, saved me a seat at chow, and occasionally asked for shooting tips.

They even invited me to a card game.