Page 8 of Love Me

“I don’t care.” That girl was a burden, a weakness, someone you can toss aside and forget about. I will never be her again. “I’m ready.”

“After we save your mother, we will get our revenge.”

“Good.”

“If you don’t want to rest, dinner will be served shortly.”

After my father leaves, I go into the en suite bathroom and take a long shower. The day’s events crash down on me. Scrambled thoughts make up my mind. I can’t arrange them to make sense.

Exiting my bedroom, I find a petite, brunette girl with the same hypnotizing silver eyes as Hunter’s on the edge of my bed, swinging her legs. She waves at me, a shy smile grazing her lips, putting me at ease.

“Hi, I’m Mia.”

“Celine.”

She pats her purple hair clip. “Oh, we’re already friends. You just don’t know it yet. We have been friends since birth. I mean, that was supposed to happen, anyway.”

The corners of my lips curl up. I like her already.

Her lips purse. “I’m bad at this.”

“Me too,” I say and approach her. Besides my childhood friends, I never had another one. I wouldn’t even know how to initiate a friendship.

She sighs a breath of relief. “I brought your uniform. We wear it all the time, inside and outside of class, except in our rooms at night. The girls wear gray, the boys wear black.”

“Thank you,” I say, taking the uniform with me to the bathroom.

Pulling up the black tights, I change into the pleated skirt and white shirt, buttoning up the vest. I am about to put the jacket on when there’s a knock on the door.

“It must be my brother.”

Walking out of the bathroom, I say, “Come in.”

Hunter steps inside, sweeping his gaze from me to her.

“My sister made her first friend. So cute.”

“Don’t be a dick. I’m still older than you.”

“By thirty bloody seconds.”

A giggle escapes my lips, the first one in the days since my entire world collapsed. I’m starting to think maybe, just maybe, everything will be okay.

***

Present Day

My days are planned down to the minute. I have a role to fulfill, as I am constantly reminded. But dealing with my new reality with my two best friends is easier. And somewhere in the past two years, I came to embrace the strict program at Preston boarding school because I don’t have time to think about anything else, and that’s a blessing.

Aside from homework, my schedule is full of extracurricular activities. Fighting lessons, weaponry, espionage, infiltration, and getting in and out of places undetected.

Every night I crash in bed, beat but resolute. For you, Mom and Dad. So we can reunite and be a family. But it’s more than that. I owe it to myself to become the wolf the Family didn’t see coming.

“Let’s go.” Hunter’s fist flies to my jaw, pulling me out of my reverie. Damn, Celine, focus. I lean back at the last second and drive my foot into his stomach, sending him to the mat.

“Again.” He comes at me, his elbow jabbing my chin. I fly back from the sheer force. “Your defense still needs improvement.”

“Thank you for the encouragement, even though you were the first to drop.” We return to our training until sweat drenches my body, and I am unsteady. “I’m more than ready.”

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