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To those walking in darkness, may you find your North Star, and one day feel the light.
I told her I break pretty things. She asked me to promise.
A slow smirk spreads across my lips as I take in the sight. Thick, dark hair, long and lengthy with pasty-ass skin. There she is. The picture of payback.
A perfect knockoff of her punk-ass brother.
Bass bishops sister!
I shouldn’t play with my food, but what am I to do when it so clearly wants to play back?
“Why’d you let me think she was you?” She scoffs. “It’s not my fault you assumed I was the taller, hotter, easier of the two of us.”
“Whatever,” she huffs. “I’m Brielle Bishop, and I’m late.” She turns around and walks away. Leaves. Yeah… I don’t fuckin’ think so. I chase her ass.
“Why’d you let me think your cousin was you?” Because I’m tragic and eager to please. “She seemed more your type.”
“My type, huh?” he bites with blatant aggravation. “How you figure?” “I mean… you’re basically wearing the same pants, so,” I joke. “Peas in a pod, Tweedledee and Tweedledum... Cheech and Chong?”
A Brayshaw just kidnapped me. And I straight-up let him.
With tight lips, he brings a hand around to shake hers. “Mac.” “I knew it. Not Maddoc or Captain. Interesting.” My eyes snap to hers at the mention of my brothers. “What’s interesting?” “That you’re here and they aren’t. I thought you guys were like, the Three Musketeers.” She surges.
It’s fuckin’ official. This girl’s whacked out.
“Why am I here?” I repeat her question, my smirk slowly growing. “I’m here to learn more about the girl who’s been hidden away.”
“So what do you say, little Bishop, you in?”
I wonder how far down the tattoo on Royce’s neck leads? “Ask and I’ll show you,” he teases with a measured grin. “Got a habit of speakin’ out loud?” “One I wasn’t really aware of until, you know... today.” “Keep it up, it’s good for my ego.” “Mm,” I tease, tilting my head. “I feel like your ego is really well-fed.”
I mean, the height difference could be super interesting, right? A single, dark brow lifts before me, and I wince. “My bad.” I should have guessed not even my thoughts would be safe with the likes of him.
“You mean with Raven?” he asks about one of the newest members of my family. The one and only person I’d give my all to, should she ask me for it, my brother’s new wife, and the last remaining bloodline of the Brayshaw name.
Maddoc’s dad became ours, and since then, we’ve earned our place. Raven just happens to be a larger piece of the puzzle we didn’t know was missing.
Bishop showed loyalty to Raven, same as he did us since the day he set foot on our grounds, and I’m supposed to respect him for that. For helping one of us when she needed it, for having her back when we weren’t there to do it, no questions asked, no consequence too big. But I can’t. To be real, I don’t hate the fucker. I can’t lie and say I didn’t think he would keep my sister-in-law safe, because I did. But it wasn’t his place, it was mine.
Maddoc was fucked-up, Cap was laid up, and all that was left was me. And then he stepped in again, pissed me off and now I want to piss him off, and what better way to do that than play with the sister he thinks is out of reach?
No one is out of my reach. Am I being a bitch? Don’t know or care. Sister for a s...
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Maybe that’s twisted, maybe I’m twisted, but I never claimed to be the sane one, that’s Captain. Maddoc is the angry alpha, and me, I’m the fuckin’ wild one. The time...
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He wants to step into my family, insert himself where he’s not wanted. Touché, motherfucker. Consider me inserted.
Brielle will know me and she’ll know me fucking well.
An unquestionable alpha.
A wolf in a god’s body. A god in his own sense. An anomaly.
Like the North Star in a dark night’s sky, he burns too bright to hide.
Royce turns his entire body, now facing me full-on, and a slow, mischievous smirk appears. He holds his hands up lazily. “Ball me, baby girl.”
I turn, ready to walk the hell away, but Franky shoots a hand out, gripping on to my upper arm, and tugs me toward him. The slightest of jolts zips through my chest, and I whip around, ready to serve him in the nuts, but in the time it takes me to spin toward him, he’s already buckling before me. The hand that was attached to my arm quickly falls, Franky’s knees hitting the ground with a hard crunch. “Fuck!” he shouts with a low growl.
In the same second, a new set of arms wrap around my middle, and I’m tugged away with a gentle force. “Hey, what—” “Girl, you better hope that’s not the boyfriend you mentioned,” is whispered in my ear, and when I glance behind me, it’s Mac I find, but he’s not looking at me. He stares straight ahead, a tense expression drawing lines along his forehead.
I focus forward as Royce plants his foot back on the ground, and when his gaze comes up to lock with mine, I pull in a lungful of air. As black as a winter’s night, his eyes spear mine, cold and dark with no sign of life in sight. A monster in the light. This is the Royce Brayshaw I was told about. The one who transforms in the blink of an eye.
Royce taps his shoe against Franky’s ribs, his chest rising and falling angrily as he watches me through blank eyes. “This your man?”
My brother constantly reminds me how I’m to fear all who hold the Brayshaw name, but standing here, staring into the shadowy eyes of one, I feel none. Not even a hint. The opposite in fact, as the throbbing at my temples seems to dwindle.
Franky catches it and a harsh scoff leaves him. “Brielle’s man?” he taunts, purposely loud for his peers. “You must be new. No one here would touch that.”
Royce is standing at his full height, so his hands barely reach the belt loop on my pants, but that doesn’t stop him from curling the middle fingers of his left hand through one as his right comes up to my neck. I have no idea why I let him. I should crush his windpipe, jab a finger between his ribs... something. I don’t. I don’t breathe either, officially a board piece in his little game of humiliation.
“That’s right, my man. I’m new to her,” he mocks Franky, making a point of tilting his head a bit, his attention locked on me. “But not for long, ain’t that right, baby girl?”
“I was bettin’ on brown.”
“Yeah, well.” I roll my eyes playfully. “I’m pretty good at disappointing people.” “Who said I was disappointed?”
“Don’t you think you should go now, or did you not start enough trouble to feed your rebelled soul?” “Baby girl.” He pushes closer. “You know nothin’ about my soul, and if you call that trouble, your little world here must be as lame as it looks.” “If you’re not a fan of this little world.” I give a small shrug. “Go back to your own.”
“George, I...” I what? What can I even say? The guy who slipped onto campus and went all Damon Salvatore, started whooping on people because of me is a stranger to me?
“Whoa now. How the heck did you folks get locked in there?” George asks, meeting my eyes one last time for a small wink. What... he locked them inside? I spin around, quickly moving toward my next class, but as I grow closer, I realize Royce had it all covered from the start, and not for his benefit. For mine.
Because while the sun and the moon light our lives with a single glance, to feel that light is rare, and something that can’t be robbed from you before it should. Because a feeling comes from the inside, not the out.
Blue. No, not blue, teal. Fuck, not teal... A little deeper, a mix of both, but crisp and clear with an icy center. Turquoise.
“Are you trying to seduce me in the fridge of a mini-mart that smells like recycled mop water?” “Come on now, little Bishop, you’re smarter than that.” He leans in, his smirk a mischievous one. “If I wanted to seduce you, you’d be in my hotel room already.”
Man, he’s seriously on that pro ho level.
I pull out my books and start on my homework, feeling guilty for wishing the light away, but so ready to be able to climb into bed and stare at the stars.
Ugh she sleeps outside.
“Ponyboy!” She grins. “RaeRae, I fuckin’ miss your ass already.”
