Hooked (Never After, #1)

by Emily McIntire

Ru may have the title of boss, but it’s me they all fear.

If you want to ensure someone’s loyalty, you have to make sure they understand why you deserve it.

My chest tightens as I glance around, taking in our surroundings. Dozens of people, and yet it feels like he’s the only one in the room.

Maybe people never change, and it’s only our perceptions that alter the view.

An enemy of my enemy is a friend.

boys are fickle. Real men have loyalty.

This girl is liable to make me lose my mind.

It’s just hard to let go of someone, to let them drift away until they only exist in your memories.

“Just remember that whenever things feel bleak, all situations are temporary. It’s not your circumstance that determines your worth, it’s how you rise from the ashes after everything burns.”

I gave him everything only for him to be the villain in disguise.

“I would have gone anywhere with you.”

I search for a sliver of the man I thought I knew. The man who I gave everything to. But he’s long gone. Or maybe he never existed at all. He’s right. I am a stupid girl.

“I do regret that it’s come to this. It didn’t have to be this way. But we all have times in our lives when we must pick a side.”

how can you live with someone, spend years breathing the same air, worshiping their every move, loving them with your whole heart, and not really know who they are?

“I want you to memorize this moment, darling. Remember how it feels to realize your father was willing to let you die in order to save himself.”

“It’s impossible not to care for you, Wendy. If it was, you’d already be dead.”

I don’t like her knowing me as Hook, especially when she’s the only person in this world who makes me feel like James.

despite what he’s done both to me and, I’m sure, to others, I can’t change the fact that when I’m with him—when I’m truly with him—I discover more of who I am. Who I can be.

I regret, with every fiber of my being, that for even one moment you suffered under my hands.”

“You are, without a doubt, the only good I’ve ever known.”

don’t lie to me, Wendy darling. Because my heart won’t survive it if you do.”

I want her to choose me.

It’s in this moment that I know, as wild as it seems, that I love her.

you can’t help who you love.

“You’re dark and moody and mysterious. But beautiful.”

“The greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life was to love you, Wendy darling.”

sometimes true love requires sacrifice.

And to think, it all started with a little bit of faith.