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Alec. Aurora had been avoiding us all day.Under normal circumstances, that might have amused me. Today it didn’t.The image of her face kept replaying in my mind as I drove—the bruise on her cheek, the way she’d looked away when I asked about it, how her entire body had gone rigid the moment we noticed. Someone had put their hands on her. I was certain of it.Maxwell sat beside me, arm resting against the window, staring out at the passing streets. For once, he looked as troubled as I felt.“You’re thinking about her,” he said.I snorted. “You’re one to talk.”“Someone hit her.”Maxwell’s expression darkened. “I know.”Silence settled over the car. Neither of us liked where our thoughts were headed. Aurora had brushed us off, deflected, and changed the subject. But she hadn’t denied it convincingly. The more I replayed the conversation, the less I believed her.“I should have pushed harder,” I muttered.“She would’ve run.”“She did run.”“It’s her way of coping.”I exhaled sharply. U
Aurora. The scarred man took another step toward me, his heavy boots thudding against the worn floorboards. The second man lingered near the doorway, arms crossed, watching with bored detachment.Instinct finally shattered the icy paralysis that had locked my limbs. I ran.Not toward the front door—toward the kitchen. The house’s layout flashed through my mind in frantic, broken pieces. Back door. Neighbor’s yard. Fence. If I could make it outside—A hand clamped around my wrist like iron.I cried out as the scarred man yanked me backward. Momentum jerked me off balance, pain shooting up my arm. He hauled me against him with almost no effort, as if I weighed nothing.“Let go of me!” I twisted violently, digging my heels into the floor, fighting for any traction.His grip tightened. “Stop struggling.”My stepfather stood a few feet away, eyes fixed on the floor. He flinched at my cry but didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t lift a finger to help.The realization hit harder than the fear:
Aurora.The whispers started before I even reached my locker.At first, I thought I was imagining it—paranoid after the morning’s disaster. But the stares followed me down the hallway. Phones are angled just a little too obviously. A cluster of girls near the water fountain stopped talking the second I passed, then burst into hushed giggles.By the second period, it was everywhere.Someone had snapped a picture. The kiss. My hand fisted in Alec’s shirt, our mouths pressed together in the middle of the courtyard like some dramatic scene from a bad romance. It was already circulating through the school’s group chats, blurry but unmistakable. Did you see Aurora and one of the Wolfe twins?She went straight for it.Thought she was too good for anyone.I kept my head down, earbuds in even though no music played. Every time I caught someone looking, heat crawled up my neck. The bruise on my cheek suddenly felt exposed again, no matter how much concealer I’d layered on.I ignored the twins
Aurora.I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep until the pounding on my door dragged me awake.For one disoriented second, I thought it was still part of the dream. Then the knocking came again—sharp, insistent.My eyes opened slowly. Gray morning light filtered through the curtains. My cheek felt stiff and tender where my stepfather had hit me. My throat ached from crying.For a long moment, I simply lay there, staring at the ceiling and wishing I could stay buried under the blankets forever.Another knock. “Aurora.”His voice. Of course.As if last night had never happened. As if dragging me down the hall and locking me in my room had been completely normal.“Aurora.”I sat up slowly, my head heavy, my entire body weighed down by exhaustion. The doorknob rattled. The lock clicked. The door swung open.My stepfather stood in the doorway.The sight of him tightened something sharp in my chest. He looked awful—not dangerous or angry like last night, but wrecked. Hair disheveled, eyes bloo
Aurora.The twins were insane.That was the only conclusion I could settle on as I walked up the front steps, keys cool and heavy in my palm.I unlocked the door and stepped into the dark entryway, the familiar creak of the hinges echoing too loudly in the quiet house. Their words refused to leave me alone, looping endlessly in my head like a song I couldn’t turn off.We like you.We’d like you to be our girlfriend.Even now, standing in the shadowed hallway with the faint smell of stale air and old carpet around me, the confession sounded absurd. Brothers—actual brothers—casually proposing to share the same girl as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. And somehow, to them, the strangeness wasn’t the sharing. It was that I might say no.I dropped my bag onto the floor with a soft thud and rubbed my arms, trying to shake off the lingering tension from the car. Alec’s quiet certainty. Maxwell’s calm confidence. The way they had looked at me when they said they’d wait for
Aurora.The drive started in silence.Not the awkward kind. Not even the tense kind. Just a heavy, loaded quiet, the kind that settles after too much has happened and no one knows how to begin.I sat in the back seat because it felt safer. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Neither spoke for the first several minutes.Streetlights slid across the windows as Ravencroft faded behind us. The town was quieter at night, shops dark, roads nearly empty except for the occasional passing car.I kept my gaze fixed on the glass. Looking at them felt dangerous.The image of Ethan on the floor kept replaying in my mind: the bruises, the split lip, the way no one had helped him. The way no one had even seemed surprised.My jaw tightened.“You shouldn’t have done that.”The words slipped out before I could stop them.Neither brother answered right away.Alec kept his eyes on the road. Maxwell stared straight ahead through the windshield.“We know,” Maxwell said.That wasn’t the answer I expected
Denver.The door closes behind her with a soft sound that lingers longer than it should.I remain where I am, my gaze fixed on the grain of the desk, a copy of the contract still lying open where I placed it. I do not move. I do not exhale. Years of command have taught me how to sit with decisions
Selena. I didn’t sleep last night. I kept turning in bed until morning came, my thoughts running in circles.I couldn’t stop thinking about what Denver might want from me. What kind of offer could he possibly make?I didn’t have to wait long.Not long after sunrise, a maid knocked on my door and t
Trigger warnings: This chapter contains physical assault, threats, and parental betrayal.-----Selena.Christopher found me the next morning.I felt it the moment the guards outside my door shifted, their posture changing in that subtle way that meant someone important had arrived. Someone they ans
Denver.I woke that morning to the sound of someone knocking on the door.I groaned, unwilling to open my eyes for another hour or two, but when the door opened and my beta walked in, I knew sleep was done for.“Good morning, Alpha,” Jacob greeted as he stepped further into the room.“Good morning,







