bad. Like, really bad.
The problem was, Dad was also the only person in my life. It may have been selfish, but I didn’t want to give him up. We moved around so often that the only friends I had were short-lived and fair-weather. Over the years, I’d turned to the company of books more than people when Dad wasn’t around. Characters could never escape me. Not when I could trap them in my kindle for the rest of time. Suckers.
I bashed my head back against the seat, knowing it was petulant but not caring in that moment as I threw a growl of frustration into the mix too. “Why can’t I just come with you?”
“Don’t drag up that old argument, Tatum. This has been a long time coming. It’s not like I want to leave you here.”
I turned to him, finding so much love in his eyes that it made my heart hurt. Dad was my one constant thing in this world. As much as I hated to admit it, stepping out of this car into that scary-ass horror movie of a building was kinda freaking me out. And with the frantic look Dad was giving me and the gun he’d just stashed in my bag, I wasn’t exactly getting the calming vibes I needed right now. Sure, I was trained to shoot, fight and forage. But this wasn’t the apocalypse. I reckoned that would have been a walk in the park compared to this. Because this was the one thing I actually feared. Bonding.
Normally, I could fly in and out of people’s lives like a breeze, never getting attached. I was a pro at that. But here, I was going to be immersed twenty four seven in the company of other teenagers. I was going to have to ‘make an effort’, ‘get out of my comfort zone’ and – heaven forbid – ‘mingle’. Though the idea of making real friends had always appealed to me, the reality was that I was always ready to up and leave them behind. For my scenery to change and for the faces around me to change with it. But this wouldn’t be like that. Dad had enrolled me for the entirety of my senior year.
“Don’t hate me,” he said softly and I pursed my lips. I was seventeen. A year later and we wouldn’t even have been having this conversation. Why did fate have to be such a bitch?
A guard ushered us through the two immense iron gates and Dad pushed the stick into drive as we sailed through them.
“Have you got your pepper spray?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“And your tactical pen?”
“Yup.”
“And your self-defence keychain?”
“Yes, Dad,” I groaned. “You know I’m not actually allowed any of this shit inside the school gates, right? If I get caught-”
“I taught you too well to get caught,” he said proudly and a smile tugged at my mouth.
“Well that’s true,” I conceded and he shot me a grin.
We pulled up alongside the huge wooden doors and I tried not to feel intimidated by a building. It was working its hardest to look like a mean bastard though.
A guy appeared around the side of it, strolling towards us up the path and the sight of him made the breath stall in my lungs. Like, had the air actually just turned to stone? I couldn’t get a single ounce of it into my chest.
He wore a Titans football jersey in the school team colours of forest green and white, the material clutching his powerful frame. His face could have charmed a snake from a mile away, every line and feature the kind of angular I’d only ever seen in magazines. His inky hair fell into eyes that were the colour of jade and his boyish smile looked like it needed to feed regularly on innocent girl’s heart’s to keep it intact.
I wasn’t the type of prey this hunter was used to, but I also couldn’t deny the way my cheeks flushed and I was still choking on nothing but apparently solid air. My blonde hair, blue eyes and full lips were nothing but a mirage painted there by my genetics. They were skin deep, but I knew how to wield their power when I needed it. This guy clearly knew how to wield his own power too. But where I wore my skin like a shield, he wore his like a weapon.
He walked forward in the slow, casual way that said he was in complete control and he rolled up his