by Eden O'Neill
Tucker, another Court guy, directed his finger across the clubhouse. This particular area of Windsor House was where the boys of the Court liked to mostly dick around. Women were allowed, but they never came in here. They had their own places they liked to do shit around the old castle. Us guys mostly played video games, billiards, and whatever in here.
Wolf sat in front of the fireplace.
I stalked over in a red haze, still soaking fucking wet from physically jumping into Murphy’s Lake. Tucker and the other guys in the room eyed me along the way, and I found Wolf working his hands. He stared aimlessly at the fire, his hands moving restlessly. He didn’t even hear me come up.
I shoved him off his chair.
He hit the floor, his chair with him, and I tossed it out of the way to get to him. He threw his head back. “Dude—”
I socked him, right in the goddamn face, and the follow-through sprayed blood from his mouth like an ocean spray. He roared, grabbing for my fist, but not quick enough.
I hit him. Again and again, I hit him. I didn’t stop, determined to make his other eye match the one Sloane’s brother had done a good job on. Wolf’s first black eye had, again, been from his own antics. He’d tried to embarrass Sloane that night.
I slugged him once more, blinded, but Wolf anticipated my swings this time. Wolf got my wrists. He struggled with me until he got me off him enough to look at me. His eyes twitched, his lip busted from where I’d hit him. He shook his head. “D, what the fuck?”
I’d come at him so hot he apparently hadn’t been able to take in who his assailant was until now.
Fighting his hold, I attempted to hit the son of a bitch again, but we were equal strength. He had height where I had muscle, but for the most part, my best friend and I were evenly matched. I threw his hands off me while guys shouted around us.
We apparently had an audience.
I’d been so focused on Wolf’s ass I hadn’t cared, and currently, some of them were using the break in our fight to cut in. Two grabbed me. Others were on Wolf pulling him away.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” I shot, fighting both the guys until they got their fucking hands off me. They weren’t evenly matched with me, and no sooner had I shoved them off than I was back on Wolf. I pushed at the guy holding him until I got my buddy’s shirt in my hands. I got in his face. “You trying to fucking kill someone? Huh? Are you?”
Because he could have. Bruno Sloane could have died tonight and would have had I not saved his ass.
I snorted like a bull. “Bruno Sloane could have died, you asshole!”
“D, stop it!” Wolf growled, grabbing my wrists, and we both tumbled to the floor. Gaining the upper hand this time, Wolf got me to my back. He held my arms above me while the other guys continued to chant and yell.
Mostly for us to stop.
Fights weren’t respected amongst us. They were trivial, ridiculous. When they did start, it was usually Wolf or myself breaking it up. The Court was a brother and sisterhood of respect. We didn’t turn against each other.
Which was why I was currently fighting my best friend.
He’d gone too far tonight, too fucking far, and I kicked at him on top of me. Wolf had me pinned, and I roared, bucking beneath him. I was acting out of character.
Even for me.
I knew that but didn’t care. I still tried to fight my best friend.
“Stop, D. Stop!” Wolf roared, but I couldn’t. I continued to growl and rage at him. I was acting like a complete maniac, but he’d set me off and I wasn’t stopping.
My buddy had my hands real good. In fact, he had them so good I didn’t know why I was still fighting. I was blinded, enraged.
Wolf obviously saw that. His expression changed. The next thing I knew, he was shouting at the other guys to leave us. They appeared hesitant before dispersing, but they did.
“And close the fucking door,” Wolf yelled after them, but he’d made a mistake in that distraction.
He gave me an opening.
I took it. I shoved him so hard off me that he went flying. He backed into a chess set, and the pieces flew everywhere.
Getting up, I steamrolled him, and he grappled me around the chest like we were on the field. “Dorian!”
I tossed him off me, then shot my shoulder into him so hard he hit one of the bookcases. Books fell off the top shelves, landing at our feet. Wolf gauged his time between dodging both them and me.
“You’ve gone too far!” I was barely able to even hear myself and all I was saying. It was like I was a fly on the wall watching all this shit happen. I was punching at my best friend’s arms, Sloane’s voice playing in my head.
The way she looked at me tonight…
She’d called me toxic, me and mine and everything I was associated with. She’d basically called me a monster.
You are one.
The rage inside blinded me, but this time, Wolf was ready. He blocked every punch, his hands ensnaring my wrist. “Dorian, stop this!”
“Is this about me?” I asked, ignoring him. “Did you find out what I did? Is this revenge for that?”
Why else would he do such a thing? I knew my friend. I knew Ares. He’d never pull the shit he’d done tonight unless provoked.
He wasn’t a monster.
This had to be because of me, all of this. I sneered. “Did you pull that haze because of me?”
“What?”
“Bruno!” I shoved until he stumbled off me, space finally between us. “Ryder and Josh said you called a haze to get him into the Court when you know we don’t fucking do that.”
We didn’t. That shit was explicitly banned. It’d been a haze that led to my aunt Paige being killed years ago, and he knew that. She’d been doing one to get into the Court the night she died, then was murdered by his great-uncle who was still in prison for the crime. She’d been in the wrong place, given the guy an opportunity. She’d been tied down to railroad tracks when his great-uncle had gotten to her.
The man had taken it from there.
The Court didn’t do that shit anymore after my aunt Paige. It was dumb shit, and it shouldn’t be done.
Wolf knew that.
“How dare you?” I growled. “How fucking dare you, Ares!”
“I forgot I planned it, man!” He tackled my arms. “I completely forgot about it. I meant to call it off, I…” He blinked as if lost for words. His mouth parted. “Sloane and her brother were getting in our way. Bru had been bugging me about getting into the Court, and I thought a haze might scare him off. Scare him out of town maybe once he knew what it was. I never thought he’d fucking do it.”
He eyed me then. I was still wet from going in the lake after him. Bru had obviously tried it.
Wolf twitched. “Is he okay?”
“Fucking barely,” I ground out, shaking him. “He almost died and would have had I not gone in after him. He didn’t make it to the other side.”
I let go, mostly out of shock. I could have died tonight too.
That might have been best.
The war inside me still raged on, and I turned my back to my friend. He came upon me, nearly silent.
“D, I’m sorry. I…” he started. “I honestly thought I was doing the right thing. I never—”
Whirling around, I grabbed him again, and this time, he didn’t fight me. I got him by the shirt, backing him to the bookcase. I snarled. “If this is some sick revenge against me…”
He studied me, still not fighting. “What revenge?”
I had to admit my friend was good, but he played me for a fool if he didn’t think I’d caught on to the real shit this was about.
“This is about me, right?” I said. “You coming at me because of what I did? I’m assuming Thatcher and Wells told you about where I went a few days ago. What I did?”
I’d been ignoring their calls, their texts. They’d even come by over the last few days, but each time I’d had them sent away. They probably had told Wolf’s ass about everyth
ing because they were worried about me.
I was worried about me.
I was worried that I currently had my friend against a bookcase, at war with one of the closest people in my life. I was worried how my life was turning out, and as each second passed, I lost more and more of a grip on it.
Wolf eyed me. “Where you went?”
My hold tightened on him. “Don’t play fucking dumb.”
“I’m not.” He placed his hands on my arms, cautious as if he were coming at an animal. “D, I set that haze up weeks ago.”
Weeks ago…
“Like I said, I meant to call it off. I set it up before I realized…” He started to say something, but then chose not to. He studied the floor a moment before facing me. “Where did you go, Dorian?”
Nausea surfaced within me, my paranoia actually bringing me here.
He didn’t know.
Wolf had no idea, and now, I just outed myself. I let go of him, but he got me by the arm.
“What did you do?” He spoke my own words back to me. He wet his lips. “Bro?”
The better question was: what hadn’t I done? How had I gotten to this place?
I had no words for him, pushing him away, but he had me good.
He gazed around the room this time before bringing his attention back. “Whatever it is, we’ll make it right, okay? But I can’t help if I don’t know.”
There was no one to help me.
It was already done.
I did what I had to do.
“I already took care of it,” I said, forcing myself to look at him. “I took care of him.”
“Who?”
I closed my eyes. “I did what I had to do.” My jaw clenched. “And you wouldn’t have agreed.”
He shook me to make me keep focus on him. He was one of a few who could get to me. Not even Thatcher and Wells could get me to face them full on and stare whatever it was in the face like Wolf. We’d been boys since the womb. I folded my hand over my face.
“Hey.” He leaned in. “What happened?”
“I got him involved, that’s what happened,” I said, nodding. “And you were right. It was Pandora’s box.”
It was a box I couldn’t close, but I’d done what I had to do.
Cringing, I shouldered Wolf away, but he got me back.
“You didn’t,” he said, looking at me, but when I said nothing, he paled. “Please tell me you…”
“I did.” The truth. I faced away. “Why do you think Mayberry suddenly came back into town this year?”
I hadn’t exactly lied to my friends at the beginning of the school year. I’d told them I had a contact who’d suddenly come out of the woodwork to help us. That contact had been able to find Mayberry and even get her to come back into town. As it turned out, our principal had needed money. She’d spent all her late husband’s life insurance on a recent drug habit, pharmaceuticals and other shit. Our dear headmaster had turned into nothing but a drug abuser after she’d left this town and racked up quite the bill to back it.
It’d been too easy really, for that new contact to find her. That contact had power, influence.
He’d even arranged for her to get her old job back.
He had pull with the school, got them to even give her a bonus for coming back. The amount had happened to be just what she owed all those drug dealers.
How could Mayberry turn that offer down?
Yes, my contact had arranged that. He’d forced our headmaster to come back and to the mercy of my friends and me.
I just hadn’t told my friends who that contact was.
Wolf swallowed, looking at me. “I told you we’d find another way. I told you it didn’t have to come to that.”
He’d told me a lot of things.
I just wished I would have listened.
I left him, staring at the same fire I’d caught him looking into when I’d arrived. “I did what had to be done.” I placed my hand on the fireplace. “I did what I had to.”
Wolf moved with stealth in the room. I knew because when I looked up, he wasn’t where I’d left him.
He was beside me. His hand came down on my shoulder. “What did you have to do?” When I said nothing, Wolf shook his head. “What did you feel you had to do?”
I did what he would have done too, what had to be done to protect my family. Had he been given the opportunity, he would have done the same. “I had no choice, Ares.” I cringed. “He threatened me, my family and our way of life.” I swallowed. “I couldn’t let that happen. I…”
He angled me around, but I couldn’t look at him. Next thing I knew, he grappled me with his long wingspan.
And I was holding on to him like a little bitch.
I couldn’t stop myself, two fucking seconds from breaking down. “I had to.”
“What?” he questioned in my ear. “Say it, D.”
I couldn’t, my hands gripping his shirt. He said we didn’t have to be monsters. But how could a monster be anything other than what it was destined to be? We were Legacy, and this was mine.
It’d always be shrouded in the dark.
Chapter Thirty-One
Sloane
“I told you he had nothing to do with it,” Bru spat. He dropped onto the couch beside me, his hair wet and clothes changed like he’d showered. “And I wanted to get into the Court. Me.” Bru frowned. “All Dorian did was save my life.”
Dorian had saved his life. But he was also associated with Ares “Wolf” Mallick. I played on my phone. “Dorian did save your life and I appreciate that, but—”
“No but.” Bru stood, his hands up. “He saved my life. He stood up for me.” Bru heaved a dry laugh. “And you threw that shit into his face so fast it was ridiculous. He had nothing to do with Wolf wanting me to do that haze. Also, did you forget that I crossed Wolf first? I mean, I punched him in the fucking face over you.”
“So that gives the guy every right to try and kill you?” I asked, both appalled and shocked. “You really are desperate for friends.”
His face exploded in color, his eyes enraged. He put a hand to his chest. “Newsflash, sis. You can’t control everything all the time. You can’t protect me all the time. Hell, you got enough on your plate with that shit with Dorian.”
“What are you talking about?”
His frowned deepened. “You’re into him. I know you are, and you’re bullshitting if you tell me any different. I see how you’ve looked at him.”
“We screwed, Bru,” I said, passing that off. I played on my phone. “Doesn’t mean anything.”
“Right.” He forced fingers through his ebony locks. “You’re too busy jumping down people’s throats to see what’s in front of you.”
“Are you done?”
“Not quite.” He stood in front of me. “And I practically begged Wolf to let me into the Court. Was he in the wrong for basically trying to kill me? Yeah, but none of that has anything to do with Dorian. Zero percent.”
My fingers slowed on my phone.
“Get over yourself, sis.” Bru cuffed his arms. “Before you end up as lonely and guarded as Dad did toward the end of his life.”
“Probably should go to bed.” I gazed up at him. “Before you say something you’ll regret.” I was still his older sister. I didn’t care that he’d overshot me in size years ago.
Clearly over it, Bru raised his hands, muttering a curse before escaping my sight. Odds were, he just hadn’t wanted to be in the same room with me.
I didn’t care as long as he did what I said.
If I had things my way, we would have packed up the Chevelle and left this godforsaken town in a cloud of dust behind us. I was aware Dorian had nothing to do with tonight. I had eyes, but when would Bru see he and the rest of those guys were all one and the same. They were all Legacy. Thatcher and Wells had been nice to me lately, but they both had put hands on me before.
It didn’t matter if one of those boys saved Bru’s life tonight. It didn’t matter if I was “into” on
e of them like he claimed. Which I wasn’t.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
I had to. It was the only way to keep my sanity.
My phone buzzed with a text.
I couldn’t identify it with the number, but I obviously read it.
Unknown: Hey, it’s Wolf. Ares.
I saw nothing but red, basically growling at the text. I was about to shoot off at him, but Ares’s text message bubble popped back up.
I was curious.
I waited for him to type it out and see what he could possibly have to say to me.
Ares: I’m aware both you and Bru probably want to kill me right now, and if it means anything, I meant to call that haze off. We don’t do those anymore to get into the Court. Haven’t in a long time.
Dorian had said as much.
I didn’t care, though, as I watched Ares’s text bubble pop up again.
Ares: Anyway, the whole thing was my idea. Honestly, I figured your brother would bitch out. I didn’t think he’d actually do it. That haze is crazy.
Well, he’d guessed wrong.
Asshole.
Ares: I shouldn’t have done it. I know I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry. I didn’t want him in our group. I wanted nothing to do with you and thought it’d help to get you both out of town.
Well, at least he was honest.
Ares: I was harsh. I was a dick.
I wondered why he was saying all this to me. Why he was texting me at all.
Ares: It seems your brother is as fierce and determined as you. Makes sense since you are his sister.
Oh my God, he was paying me compliments now? Who was this guy and where was my arch nemesis Wolf Mallick? He hated my ass. Point blank.
Ares: I snap judged you. Hell, I’ve been a fucking little bitch.
Me: Are you making a point? You could have killed him.
I shot off one in the middle of his weird rant because I didn’t want him in my phone, compliments or not.
Ares: Hey, hi. Uh.
I waited a second before he sent me more, and really, all this was super weird now. He almost sounded flustered.
Ares: Yeah, I’m making a point. I’m really sorry, but that’s not why I texted. It’s Dorian. I need to talk to you about him. Something’s going on with him.