Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1)

by Chloe Walsh

It was her birthday. Today was Shannon’s sixteenth birthday. And she was spending it with me. I was glad. How crazy was that? This girl who before Christmas was a total stranger, and since Christmas, I couldn’t imagine going through a day not thinking about. I didn’t want to give her back. Something inside of me told me that if I did, she would return with another bruise. At least if I kept her with me, she would be safe. There was something very fucked up about her life. Something that made me want to snatch her away and take her with me, wherever that may be. I wasn’t stupid. I knew someone had put those marks on her face. And her thighs. And her arms. And I was fairly fucking sure that if I stripped the girl bare, I would find plenty more. I didn’t know what was happening, or who was bullying her, but I would figure it out. Straight out asking her was out of the question, though. She was so goddamned guarded that it was almost impossible to penetrate the walls she built up around herself.