Page 21 of Specter Bred

As Hayes passed, he leaned close enough that only I could hear him.

"Good job, Firecracker."

I groaned.

"Don't call me that. I told you to quit it with the nicknames. I already have one too many."

His grin only widened.

"It suits you."

"It doesn't."

"It does."

I shot him a glare.

He just laughed and continued forward.

"Told you I'd find the perfect one!" he called over his shoulder.

I rolled my eyes.

Hayes's golden hair and tanned skin practically glowed beneath the afternoon sun. Everything about him was warm and inviting, from his easy smile to his charming Southern drawl.

People gravitated toward him without even realizing it. Recruits who'd spent the first week swearing they'd run the beta straight out of ASOG were already laughing at his jokes and slapping him on the back like they'd known him for years.

Meanwhile, I'd only made enemies. Well, except for my roomate, who refused to accept we weren't friends.

Everything about Samuel Hayes was sunshine and I hated him for it.

Not Hayes himself.

I hated how easily everyone accepted him.

He was a beta. Someone who, according to most of these recruits, had even less business being here than I did. Apparently, it was easier for them to accept a beta than a woman. At least Graves still disliked him just as much, if not more than he disliked me.

"Let's see if this assessment goes as pitifully as your last ones, Farm Boy," Graves said as Hayes took his place.

Samuel simply shrugged, not bothered in the slightest by the insult.

"I'm actually pretty good at this one, sir," Hayes said with a dimpled smile, swinging the rifle over his shoulder as if it weren't a deadly weapon.

"Well, that would make it the first thing you've been good at since arriving at training," Graves replied dryly. "So I certainly hope so. On my mark."

Hayes just grinned.

When Grizzly shouted, "GO!", he began.

He lumbered into position like a log rolling downstream. All loose limbs and awkward coordination. Watching him, you'd never guess he was about to outperform some of the best candidates in the class.

Then he shot.

And it was fucking glorious.

I had spent my entire turn calculating. Reading the wind. Studying the flags. Making corrections after every shot.

Hayes didn't seem to do any of that.