LOGIN~Amelia~Serena showed up at the door with a gift bag and the energy of someone who had been dying to talk for three weeks and was finally being allowed to."Okay first of all," She stepped inside without being invited, shoved the bag at my chest, and pulled me into a hug before I could say anything. "You look amazing. You're huge and glowing and I hate you a little bit.""Hi to you too."
~Amelia~And at the edge of the treeline, watching it all unfold like she was supervising, a woman I didn't recognize. Short hair, lifeless eyes that made her scarier than the fighters.And behind her, Blake.He stood with his hands in his pockets. Watching.
~Amelia~I smelled coffee before I even made it downstairs, which was the first good thing about the morning.The second thing was considerably more distracting.Kaden was standing at the counter when I walked in, shirtless, sweatpants sitting low, hair still a mess from sleep, holding a mug like he hadn't just committed a crime against my ability to think clearly. I stopped in the doorway for exactly one second too long.He didn't even turn around. "You're staring like you haven’t seen me before.""No, I’m not." I crossed to the table and sat down. He turned around then, and the look on his face said he'd already figured out exactly what the situation was. He set a mug in front of me, leaned down until his face was level with mine, and said very quietly: "Your heart rate went up the second you walked in."I picked up the mug and looked somewhere else. "That's because I walked down stairs. Cardio.""Sure it is." He pulled out the chair across from me, sat down, and flipped open the n
~Amelia~Caleb called a meeting.He put a single sheet of paper on the table. Three bullet points. I'd learned that if Caleb needed a full page to explain something, the thing was very bad. One page meant it was just bad."Blake has found a partner," he stated.
~Amelia~Uncle Alan did the hug first.That was the thing about him, he always led with the hug, arms out before he even finished crossing the distance, like the physical contact was the priority and everything else came after. I'd loved that about him since I was small. He hugged like someone who understood that people needed it and wasn't embarrassed about that being true."You look tired," h
~Amelia~I kept it straightforward, what the alliance could look like going forward, why it was worth keeping even without the personal arrangement he'd come here expecting. By the end he said to send him a proposal and he'd read it."You did your homework," he complimented."I try to. My position here is new. I don't have the luxury of
BLAKE’S P.O.VMy head was pounding in my skull. It almost felt like someone was using my head to do construction work. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t, merely doing that was too much for me. I had never felt so weak or worn out in my life.I could feel the cold ground under me and I tried to figu
AMELIA’S P.O.VWhen Blake returned later, it was already nighttime. The moon was high in the sky and I could hear the crickets chirping outside. The only source of light was the tiny lamp on the small coffee table. I ran the plan over again in my mind being careful to make sure there were no holes in
KADEN’S P.O.VThe scolding from Caleb was exactly what I needed to get off my ass and start focusing on the right things.The flower I had gotten from Brittany was dead by the time I got back to it but I was able to describe it enough for a simple internet search and luckily, we were able to found it.
AMELIA’S P.O.VIt had been a week since my little outburst and Blake had been walking on eggshells around me. He did everything I wanted but stayed away from me to give me some space. It would have been cute if it wasn’t so pathetic. He brought me breakfast at the same time every day and ate from my







