Released (Highgate Preparatory Academy, #3)

by Rosa Lee

I dedicate this book to all the squirters out there. We should totally start a club! And to all you men who take the time to learn how to make the flow explosive, kudos my friends. Rosa Lee Xxx

What if in order to defeat the monsters that plague us, we have to forget our morals, embrace the darkness that surrounds us and become the most deadly monsters of all?

I guess this all started with rivers of blood, and that’s how it needs to end. One drop at a time our demons will be exorcised. I just hope we don’t lose too much in the process.

“Don’t be such a fucking ballsack, Lilly,” I hiss, because we all know pussies are the stronger of the two appendages.

I waddle-rush over there, trying to move quickly but not piss myself, as I hope with fanny flaps crossed that it’s a bathroom.

My vision goes hazy, and when my eyes blink open again, there's a dark figure framed in the now open doorway. My lids shut again, and I feel someone moving me tenderly on the bed, pulling the covers over my body, and smoothing my hair back before placing a kiss on my temple.

“Hush now, Violet. Time to get some more rest. We must take care of the baby,” a deep voice whispers, and instead of being soothing, it sounds like nightmares and monsters in the dark, but also familiar somehow.

“It’s been three fucking weeks! What do you mean there’s no fucking sign of her?”

Lowering his arms down to his sides, he looks at me with broken eyes, making the red mist begin to dissipate.

I know that he’s taken this harder than the rest of us because he was meant to be with her at the time, watching over her at the reception party. But then he got caught by his dad, and we all got distracted, which we now suspect was purposeful.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Ash,” he whispers, his voice thick and rasping. “I know, brother. I know,” I reply, my own voice hitching slightly with the pain that we both feel like a knife in the gut that can’t be removed.

My heartbeat settles a little seeing that it’s Kai, glasses askew and hair an absolute fucking mess. He’s clutching what looks like an open yearbook in his hands, looking down at it, and there’s a flush on his cheeks.

“Sorry, but I think I found something.”

“I was looking through all the old yearbooks, trying to see if the ‘Ace’ you told us about after your father’s strange phone call ever attended Highgate,” he tells us, looking at me. “And I fucking found him!” he cries out, voice full of weary triumph.

“Not just Lilly’s mom,” I say, finally tearing my eyes away from the picture to read the description below. “Fuck,” Loki breathes out on my other side. Couple destined for great things: Adrian ‘Ace’ Ramsey with his fiancée, Violet Rochester, pictured here at a gala celebrating the announcement of their engagement.

“Willow,” he murmurs, and I nod. “The Shadows,” I reply, starting to think aloud. “We’ll owe them a favor.” “I’ll give them anything bar Lilly and my firstborn,”

“We’re all in agreement then? We contact Hunter and The Shadows?” I ask, looking from Loki, to Kai, and finally Jax. The latter hesitates for a few seconds, and I can see the need to burn down the world to save our girl in the blazing cold fire in his blue eyes.

I know that whatever will leave his lips next would have our girl glaring at him. My dick twitches at the thought. “Let’s go get our girl back so we can spank her ass for being such a naughty girl and leaving us with blue balls for this long.”

“By the time we finish telling Lilly about what Loki said, his balls will be frozen solid before she’ll touch them again.”

fills a glass with water before handing it to me. I eye it for a minute, but I just can’t grasp what my mind is trying to tell me, so I bring it to my lips and glug the cool water down in one go. “Thanks,” I say, handing the glass back to her. Her brow is lowered, which makes my own dip down.

“You’re in Wiltshire, dear, at your uncle’s house. He’s looking after you, and the baby,”

“Why are there bars?” I ask, my voice soft and small as I try to make sense of what is happening here, but my mind is too foggy, and I’m unable to grab hold of a thought for too long before it flies away like a petal on the breeze.

I look back down at her. “Where is Ash? Loki? Kai and Jax?” I question, my voice trembling, suddenly overwhelmed with the need to be held in familiar arms that chase all the nightmares away. Again, there’s a flash of softness in her eyes that I can’t work out the meaning of,

After those nights, I wake up covered in sweat and feel sick to my stomach, my pillow damp and dried tears on my cheeks. I notice small bruises on my waist, hips, and breasts, yet I have no knowledge of how they got there.

“My name is Roman Kent, this is Rowan Kent, and we are part of the security your uncle has hired to help keep you safe.”

Hunter ‘Shadowman’ Anderson: Found her.

“I’ve just spoken to Hunter, and the Kent twins have seen her,”

“They say she’s weak, likely drugged up, and seems confused, but looks like she’s being fed and has a nurse with her.”

We’re falling apart without her, and I don’t know how much longer we can go on.

“Kai’s birthday is in three weeks. We will book flights to Amsterdam, it is his eighteenth after all, but once we get there, we fly back to England and meet up with the Shadows. We’ll need their help. Meanwhile, we replace her current nurse with one of our own. Hunter knows someone, so we can keep a closer eye on her and try to help where we can and stop the drugging,”

I often see the Kent twins and they always make me smile, reminding me of each of my potentially imaginary lovers in various ways. Their playful banter, their sense of brotherhood, and the darkness that lurks within them, waiting for an outlet.

“Thank fuck–I mean thank goodness I found you, Jacky,” he says, his voice a little breathless, although the lack of colour in his cheeks gives lie to the picture that he ran all the way here. Or maybe he’s just that fit. “Your mum is on the phone, something about your father having a fall and in hospital.”

“I can help Lilly if you want to go now. She sounded pretty upset,” Roman adds, and although he looks sincere, I’ve had some experience—I think—with trickster boys, and there’s something a little off about his expression. Almost triumphant. My eyes narrow at the same time as my skin prickles while looking at him, sure that he’s up to something.

We watch as Jacky rushes off, and he doesn’t speak until she’s rounded the corner and is no longer in sight. “They said you were like a pixie,” he tells me, and my heart stutters in my chest, the world dropping away at his seemingly innocent sentence.

“Princess?”

My limbs go weak, and Roman grunts quietly as he takes more of my weight, my fingers digging into his arm. I know that voice, dark as a moonless night, but the kind of dark that hides you from the monsters seeking to steal you away.

“A–Ash?” “Fuck, Princess…Fuck, it’s so good to hear your voice,”

“You’re…you’re real,”

“Yeah, Baby Girl, we’re real,” another deeper voice tells me, a similar stutter to Ash’s marring his usually gravelly tone. “Jax,”

“Don’t cry, Pretty Girl,” yet another voice pleads, one that’s usually full of mirth and mischief. “Loki!”

“We don’t have much time, darling,” the final of my Knights says, the melody of his voice dulled slightly. “Kai,”

“I told you that we were bound for all eternity, my darling. We were always going to find you. You’re our beating heart,”

“Your…uncle…took you,” Ash replies, seeming a little unsure of his words. “And we think my father is involved too.”

“Adrian?” I question, my head giving a slight shake. “Took me?”

“Yes, and we think that he might be drugging you to keep you compliant,” Loki interrupts, a sound of pain followed ...

My fingertips trace the fading bruising on my hips, the ones in the shape of fingertips. The nightmares, the visions of shadowed men, and dreams of Robert, the guy who tried to rape me. Were they imagined too? And what about my baby?

“Once we get there, we’ll catch a plane to England, and with the help of our Shadow Crew friends, we’ll come and get you,” Ash adds, taking up where Kai finished.

“Oh.” I look back up at Roman, seeing a smirk on his admittedly pretty face. “Oh!” I gasp when it finally clicks. “The Shadows, Willow’s brother’s crew!”

“I swear to you on my blackened heart and all that is left of my soul that we will come for you, and fucking dance in the blood of those that have harmed you, my love,” Jax vows,

I see Jacky hurrying over, her face damp and eyes puffy, and the thought that maybe her father’s accident wasn’t so accidental suddenly occurs to me. I freeze for a moment, but then realise that although I feel sorry for her, it doesn’t horrify me, nor the idea that my guys may have had a hand in the misfortune of an innocent bystander. I’m clearly not as lily-white as I used to be, and somehow, I’m not ashamed of that.