Broken Bonds (The Bonds that Tie Book 1)

I can live with being hated. I hate myself enough to know just how easy it is to loathe me

My brain hasn’t even caught up to the fact that someone is here, when he grabs the door handle and yanks it open, shirtless, bed-rumpled and in all his early-morning glory.

Sage and Sawyer look at him in twin images of shock.

It would be absolutely hilarious if it wasn’t also completely freaking shameful. There’s no way I’m getting out of this without them making some comment that is going to make me want to die because one look at him, and they have to assume we’ve spent the whole night fucking like horny rabbits.

“Well, excuse the fuck out of us! Sage, we need to leave. Now. Move it.”

I pull the dress over my head and fold it up, carefully bending to slip it into Sage’s bag because my tits are a little bigger than hers and there’s a real danger of a nip slip happening tonight. When I straighten up, I find Gabe staring at me like I’ve grown an extra head and I have to glance down to make sure I’m not actually flashing the entire freaking party my goods.

“What? What the hell are you looking at?”

He grunts at me, shaking his head and muttering under his breath as he jumps head first into the pool, “I fucking hate you.”

Well, what the fuck have I done to him now?

I snort at her. “Fuck that, I want her dead. I’ve called dibs on her in the apocalypse. Gabe can take Riley out, and you can fuck Felix instead, he has my vote.”

We turn the corner to find Felix standing there, grinning like a freaking devil, and Sage instantly turns beet red.

“I knew running off to heal you would work in my favor. Thanks, Fallows,” he calls out as we pass by him, winking at Sage who is trying not to look as though she wants the ground to swallow her whole.

Felix snorts at the look on Gabe’s face as he presses his palm to my chest, his gift flowing into me and healing everything it touches.

I feel the moment it touches my own gift, skirting around it respectfully.

Felix’s eyes snap to mine.

I give him the smallest shake of my head that I can manage and, bless him, he presses his lips together firmly in silent reply. I decide that I’ll back him with Sage if she ever asks my opinion because that right there is a truly good man.

So I smirk and shrug at him, the picture of a smug bitch. “What, like it was hard?

“Shouldn’t you hate me for rejecting your favorite student?”

He shrugs. “The best things in life don’t come without hard work. If he wants you, he should prove himself to you. I’ve known a lotta bad kids in my time here, you’re not one of ‘em.”

I step back, pressing my back against the wall behind me and preparing myself for whatever the hell is about to happen when there’s a grinding, groaning, snapping sound—

And then the walls start moving.

What in the Harry Potter bullshit is this?!

a sheepish grin over her face as she looks me up and down in a kind but assessing way that attractive girls do.

I stare up at them all and memorize their faces.

I could kill them all right now without breaking a sweat, but I’m not a fucking monster, no matter how badly they all treat me. I’m above this shit.

I repeat my mantra in my head again. Better to be hated and alive, better to be in pain than a murderer, better to be alone and safe.