Exhaling, I open the drawer and pull out the smelling salts. Maybe I got a little carried away. As I’m about to wake her, my phone rings through the speakers, cutting off my playlist and announcing August is calling.
I quickly answer, “Wy, what’s up?”
“You need to get over here. Rowan is having a temper tantrum over my pick, and Liam is backing him up.” He sounds amused but annoyed.
“Let me guess. You were egging him on?” I ask.
“Would I be me and he be Rowan if I didn’t do such a thing?” he chuckles.
“Fine, let me put Pamela on ice, and I’ll be right over.” With that, I end the call.
I plan to put everything away, but her soft moans make me pause. What’s another thirty minutes?
“Glad you could rejoin the land of the living. Now, like I was about to say before you so rudely passed out, tell me what I want to know. You have ten seconds.”
When she makes no attempts to speak, I start a countdown, “Ten…nine.” She looks delirious, but that’s not my problem. “Six…five.”
She still hasn’t made a peep by the time I hit one. “The hard way it is.” It’s my favorite way. I love when they think because I’m young that I can’t be so depraved. The joke’s on them.
I grab my paring knife, puckering her nipple with a pinch, I slice that bitch right off. Smooth like butter.
“Nothing to say?” I try again. Only cries fill the room.
“Suit yourself.” I start to carve at her chest, but my phone interrupts my music and my concentration.
Can’t I torture in peace?
“Yes, Wy?” My exasperation is evident as I massage my temple with my free bloody hand.
“You should’ve left your house ten minutes ago. Stop teasing Pamela and get your ass over here,” he insists.
“Fucking fine!” I growl.
“Don’t get aggressive with me. Once we finish up with Rowan, we can go see our girl.” He knows he has me now.
“Excellent point. I’ll be there in fifteen. I need to shower.”
Rinsing my blades, I inject Pam with some antibiotics. I can’t have her dying on me.
“I’ll be back. I’m off to see my Angel,” I say, mainly to the air. Pamela has passed out. I guess losing a nipple will do that to you.
Still not feeling completely at peace, I pull a knife, at random, and carve traitor into her forehead.
Once I’m finished I head back upstairs, my blood pumping for a different reason.
Emma.
I’m on my way, Angel.
ROWAN
“August, are you out of your ever-loving mind? How could you pick Emma?” I shout.
I still can’t believe this asshole chose that nobody for such a prestigious position. I’m not the biggest supporter of the selection. The women we select are supposed to be in the running to be our wife. Emma isn’t worthy of sharing our air. I don’t care how hot she is. She’s not Calloway Elite material.
“Seriously, Wy, you can’t pick her. You have to choose someone else. I mean, at least Karl has sense and chose Summer Anderson. She’s annoying as hell, but she’s of way better breeding,” I try to reason with him, but there’s no getting through to this asshole unless I do something drastic to change his mind.
“Don’t include me in your dumbass logic. I would’ve chosen her too, but I was under the impression she wasn’t an option. She’s not exactly one of the original families,” Karl starts.
“Another reason for us to be suspicious,” Liam chimes in.
Ignoring Liam and turning to August, Karl continues, “Smart move on your part, Wy. I don’t know how you got the sign-off from our dads, but smart move.”
What the fuck is wrong with these fools? Can’t they see this is a bad idea?
We all agreed to pick girls we could control, and Emma is far from someone who can be influenced. We had a plan, and there’s no way I’ll let some trash screw it up.
“Liam, please talk some sense into these two idiots,” I sigh.
With Seb unable to openly make his choice known until after the society’s first social event, he’s been MIA.
“You two can’t honestly not see the flaming red flag here?” Liam asks, standing in the center of the carpeted floor.
We’re in our space at The Tombs. I called a meeting a few hours after school. I needed time to cool off with August’s pick, but it obviously didn’t work.
Liam’s long legs begin to pace the floor, moving from carpet to concrete and back. He begins to list every reason August’s choice is a bad idea.
“First, she moves here out of the blue, no wealth to speak of, into one of our properties, during a selection year. Second, as soon as she arrives, there’s an uptick in activity from an unknown organization. Third, she listens to no one and fights us at every turn. And lastly, our dads approved her, which is the biggest red flag of them all.”
“All points that can be refuted,” August snaps back. “One, it’s not unheard of for people to move into this town. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Two, we’ve been investigating a highly sophisticated secret organization for far longer than she’s been here. Not to mention, she knows nothing of this world. All of her background checks have come up clear.” He turns his calculating hazel eyes on Liam and me when he makes his final points. “Liam, you did the background checks, and Seb has also dug into her school history. She’s not from our world. Finally, our dads approved all the picks.” The smug bastard shrugs from his spot on the couch.
Karl stands, a sly grin making his angular cheekbones more pronounced as he proclaims, “I do believe that’s check and mate fellas. Unless you’re saying our dads, Seb, and you are all incompetent?”
Not willing to just let this go, I try a different approach. “What if, and hear me out, what if she’s a plant and the other organization made sure she could pass through everything with flying colors?”
Until these guys stop thinking with their dicks, I will have to be the voice of reason.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.