Chapter 2 - Mate Bond

I hated it.

I hated him, but I knew this was my only shot out of this hell hole. Mum was dead, I had nothing left here, nothing. I was a fucked-up nuisance, and no doubt the landlord would kick me out as soon as the day is over,i had no friends, not anymore.

So I accepted Lyon Stone’s offer, even though it was with a heavy heart.

I was currently in a car, having flown out of America by midnight, landed in Canada, and was on transit to this new home in the East…

Lyon and I hadn’t spoken a word, not once…

But I could see his glances at me, and his frowns, and I knew it was mostly because of the streak of red in my hair and my gothic look, a look I particularly went for.

Mum had hated it.

Hated that I was like this, this broken vase she couldn’t fix no matter how much she tried.

And her loving me doesn’t mean I got to change anything about myself, not even my look…

Suddenly, after spending more than twelve hours passing through so many forests, we stopped at large gates, so large one could think it was a prison, even the walls were high up.

But my pride wouldn’t let me ask him if he was taking me to sell me into whatever shady shit he was into.

The man was fucking rich, I could tell it by the way he smelled, his watch, and the private jet he had used to smuggle me out of America, and now an SUV.

But I wasn’t impressed.

I smudged my nose in disgust.

Gosh, I wished I could leave, but he made me a deal, and particularly he made me sign it on a fucking piece of paper. The man from before had been a lawyer from social services.

I’m so sure he didn’t even want to take me.

So why would he?

The gates opened after a dark-skinned man came to check the car. They nodded at each other as he drove right into the premises.

We drove for a while before we spotted the houses. Just as before, it was also filled with forests. There were mostly cabins here and there as we passed. I spotted some cottages, but I observed they all looked luxurious, with good driveways and a little forest at every turn.

Then the car kept going as the cottages disappeared, then came bungalows and duplexes.

“What is this place?” I faintly asked.

“Woodland. A private estate, only accessible to members of society. If you’re good, you can live here for as long as you like. You wouldn’t have to leave,” he said.

I scoffed as he opened the door, and I realized we had stopped in front of a bungalow.

I was right, of course.

Then I spotted three individuals standing outside.

Lyon walked up to them.

An older woman, whom he shared a kiss with.

I poked my jaw.

Of course he was married.

She was beautiful, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Typical.

Behind her stood two twins. They had the same features as their mother, but they both seemed to be my age.

Then I spotted a boy besides them 

Unlike the rest, he had dark hair and green eyes, he looked like Lyon,like me.

“Oh dear, she is beautiful…” the woman mused as she came over to me.

Overwhelmed by the shock, I smiled a little.

At least she could be nice.

“Hi dear, welcome to my home. I’m Lily, and this is Amber and Ash,” she greeted, introducing both twins, who I was sure I couldn’t tell apart, apart from the fact  that one of them wore glasses.

One of them looked at me with disdain, and the other smiled, a little smile.

“It’s… nice… to meet you,” I choked out.

Was it nice to meet them?

I mean, I was just thrust into this shit.

“And I’m Roger!” the little boy jumped as he introduced himself.

Could I say he was little?

He was literally taller than me and the girls, but I just knew he was younger.

He had the brightest smile among everyone.

“Come this way. I prepared dinner. I hoped you wouldn’t mind…” she said.

As the girls strode into the house, I followed behind them.

I turned to see her glance at her husband.

I hated to be rude, but I hated this…

I stepped into the house  

Gosh, it was beautiful.

Everything seemed so expensive, from the rugs to the designs.

Then I spotted a table.

There were five identical chairs and an additional chair that seemed out of place, probably fixed it here for me.

Somehow it reminded me of myself, of me, what I was to them…an outcast.

“This way…” Lily gestured, but I stopped.

“Emmm, I’m going to skip out on dinner. I don’t really… uhhh… do dinner. Can I… can I get to my room?” I whispered, trying to seem nice.

But if anything, I wasn’t nice.

I wouldn’t fail to observe the way Lyon narrowed his eyes at me, but it didn’t matter.

This was too much.

Far too much for me.

“Oh. Amber, show her to the room, would you?” he called.

One of the blondes stepped forward, and I followed her with my duffel bag.

Not that it had much anyway.

I’d given everything to Alice back home and handed the keys of the apartment to the landlady.

There was no going back now.

I was literally in the middle of nowhere.

A fugitive.

I had a shot at a new life, a new home, and everything new.

Mum would have wanted this for me.

Wanted me to start afresh.

Though I couldn’t do right by her in life, maybe I could make her proud in death.

I could live the life she wanted.

The hallway stretched as Amber stopped at the very end of the hallway.

Her eyes narrowed as she opened the door.

Just as I stepped in, I sighed.

The room was beautiful.

Classic.

Pink.

So pink that I almost flinched from the aesthetics.

Don’t get me wrong, it looked like a normal room for a teenager.

But that teenager wasn’t me.

I didn’t do pink.

“It was my room, you know, before you came,” she blurted out.

I turned to look at her, leaving the doorway.

Suddenly I knew the type of girl she was.

The bitchy type.

“Too bad. It’s mine now,” I said.

“For a while, till you get tired of behaving yourself and Dad has to send you back to the hell hole you crawled out from. I know people like you. You have no restraint, you have no control. My father is a hard man to please, you know. Super hard. You’ll have to double try,” she chuckled.

I scoffed.

“Nice pep talk, Barbie. Now I’d love to be alone,” I hissed.

She gritted  her teeth scoffing , she turned about to leave then stopped .

“A month. I give you a month. You wouldn’t last anywhere,” she snapped as she shut the door.

As much as I would have dragged her by her hair and made her apologize, this wasn’t the time for a fight.

I settled into the room, and there I stayed for a very long while, as I grieved..I probably wasn't able to cry for my dead mother, but i did now in the comfort of this room.

Days went by.

We had gotten here by the weekend, and I had spent the rest of the two days in the room.

As much as this house was luxurious, it wasn’t home.

Couldn’t be.

Mum wasn’t here.

These were all a bunch of strangers trying to be nice.

Except Amber, of course.

Over the course of days, though I stayed in my room, Ash and Roger brought me food.

Lily checked up on me sometimes, with a smile on her face and a look that showed me she pitied me.

And gosh, I hated it.

I hated being their charity case.

By Monday, my father had burst into my room and announced I was starting school as a senior.

Of course I was.

He had further gone to give me a pep talk about behaving myself and trying to get along with the rest of the kids.

So here I was.

Beside me was my Halfsister standing in front of a large school.

Amber soon split off from us as she met up with some girls by the right as they squealed and hugged each other.

They looked just like her.

Those types of girls back at school that were typical and spoiled.

Of course they glanced back at me, and I just knew she was telling them about her family's new charity case.

“Come, let me show you around and get your schedule. Dad already enrolled you, so this will all be easy,” Ash said as she led me past the entrance.

Everyone stared at me as I walked beside her.

Like really stared.

“Ignore them. Here at Woodland, we barely get any visitors. You’re the first one in years. I mean, they’re just, uh, curious,” she said as she led me in.

Just then a series of gasps and murmurs erupted.

They weren’t staring at me anymore.

They seemed attracted to something.

Several girls rushed past me, bumping into me as I staggered back.

Ash caught me before I could fall.

“What the hell?” I cursed.

Just as I turned, I froze as I caught sight of what they were staring at.

Walking toward the school was the most handsome man I’d ever seen.

He seemed taller than the rest, muscular.

His skin was so pale, but he still managed to look so masculine.

But that wasn’t the weird thing about him.

It was his hair.

It was white.

As white as snow.

Suddenly he stopped as he sniffed around, his eyes searching the students until they finally fell on me.