ALAYNAI wake up the next morning with my head feeling slightly better. My room isn’t spinning anymore, but my body still feels shaky. I shift my head to the other side and find Brandon lying next to me. His eyes are shut and his face serene. My head is lying softly on his arm.Oh my!I cover my mouth in shock. How did we end up like this? Why is he in my bed? Did we sleep together?I touch my head, trying to remember if we did anything other than talk last night. I was picking up the glass, then he came to the kitchen. Damn. I probably passed out. I still have a fever; I can feel it, but my temperature is a bit lower. I let out a sigh of relief. Nothing happened. We only slept. But why did he stay here?I shake his shoulder and whisper. “Brandon? Brandon...”He groans, and his eyes open slowly. “Alayna.”“What are you doing here?” I ask, but I can’t seem to move my body. I may be shameless, but screw being shameless. I like being next to him. I didn’t ask him to sleep next to me eithe

BRANDONFor the past decade, I learned to restrict myself. I trained myself to feel numb, so I would feel nothing. Nothing, because it’s easier than feeling any pain at all. I hated the sensation of any skin-to-skin contact. It would only remind me of the pain I’d been through at the hands of those filthy men who ruined me. It would crawl all over my body and pass through my blood, deep in my bones—to my soul. Then it would hurt so bad and linger in my chest like pounding thuds. I would bathe in my own sweat, my limbs would get numb, and then I would pass out. I knew my illness so well.I succeeded through the years, but it was always there. Back then, I didn’t call it living but surviving, at most. I had no other purpose but to get justice for my family’s demise—to get revenge. I shut myself off from the world, never letting anyone in except for Lennie, Oliver, and probably Cassius. Even after our childish rivalry, he’s still one of the people I chose to trust. And Casey, of course.

ALAYNAI feel miraculously light the next morning. I don’t have a fever anymore. But I’m late for work—it’s already nine, according to the clock on my wall—though Casey’s no longer next to me, so I think she probably made breakfast. But even then, I get ready for work and take the last medicine capsule. Cassius’s note makes me smile.Don’t forget to take this. I’ll see you later - CassiusI briefly spoke to him last night because I was too lazy to get up. But when he checked my fever I was only pretending to be asleep, and then he left.There’s no one around the dining area when I slip in, so I go to my kitchen to continue my daily routine when Ms. Lennie enters.“Good morning, Ms. Lennie,” I greet, almost singing while I’m putting on my apron.“Good morning.” She looks at me curiously. “Are you sure you can work now, dear?”“I slept the whole day yesterday. I’m bored.” I glance at the schedule. Brandon wants a salmon en papillote. A French dish.“Are you sure?”I nod. “Absolutely sur

BRANDONThe Underground is frenetic when I arrive at the Wolf’s sanctuary. They’ve made the first floor a nightclub that requires an entry ticket.A woman in a red leather suit with some tribal ink on her neck approaches me, showing me the way to their leader. I’m surprised that Oliver had set this place up for them; it makes me realize he is capable of bigger things, and that I need him now more than ever.When he first introduced me to the idea of getting the mob to our side, I was hesitant. The Katrakis family had been working with these kinds of people for a very long time now, and it made them even more powerful. I didn’t want to consider it. I declined the idea whenever Oliver was pressing it to me. I believed the only people we could trust were ourselves.But Oliver has been persistent, and he rarely insists on anything. He provided me every piece of information he had about them; how they worked, where they came from, their mission, and their purpose. Honestly, it was the very

In Lawrence, I grew up not only with my twelve adopted siblings but with three other kids close to my age. Jason, his older brother Christopher, and Arianna Valentine. They were the children of a very kind couple who lived across from our house. However, an ill-fated tragedy befell their family and they lost both their parents. Mom and Dad adopted them, along with our still growing family.They’re not merely my neighborhood friends but my siblings—at least that’s what we all thought and promised back then. In their hearts, I belong to their small family.We shared many things. Arianna used to be my playmate even before the adoption. We bathed together as babies. Our mothers were best friends. We all went to high school together, slept in the same room, shared clothes, celebrated holidays and birthdays. We had the same taste in food, had our first crushes together, cried, fought... we’re practically inseparable. And Jason and Chris would fight those who would try to bully us like the d