by A. J. Macey
“Did what? What did I miss?” Glancing between each of them, I grabbed my head to still the spinning of the room from my quick movements. Clearly, I was out of the loop.
“We found out that the girls had given Hudson a bracelet with a rune on it, it fueled those negative emotions to overshadow everything else. They were forcing him away from us. Brittney gave it to him the night of the party right before she told him about you and us,” Landon explained, gesturing between himself and Logan. My jaw dropped. I knew they wanted me to stay away from them, but I thought they were all bark and no bite.
“I barely remember the last three weeks or what I said, the guys got the rune off of me and persuaded those fucking bitches to tell us everything,” Hudson added.
“They told us about the threat, Lucie.” Logan was looking at me, anger in his eyes, but there was also something else. Something I recognized with great familiarity, fear. “They told us about how they threatened you with Noah.” I felt my throat close up as my breathing quickened.
“I guess you put it all together, then?” I whispered, trying to force the tightening in my chest to ease. I’m safe with them, he can’t get me. The guys looked between themselves before turning back to me.
“We have put together that he’s an ex-boyfriend. One who gave you all your scars.” Cam’s voice was soft, no judgment colored his words. “Would you tell us about it? If what she said was true, we want to be prepared if he does come for you.” I took a deep breath, trying to steel myself for telling a story only two have heard before.
“Alright, but Alex and Sadie should be here. They should know too,” I added. No matter how many deep and meditative breaths I took, nothing could prepare me for launching into some of the darkest times of my life.
Hudson
“I met Noah in eighth grade. He had moved to town from the East coast with his family, his dad had been hired as a general manager for an up and coming business. He was sweet and nice to me when most of the boys had been picking on me since I was little because I was shy and nerdy, you know that stupid adage ‘boys will be boys’ shit.” Her laugh held no mirth, only coldness. Her voice was low, still scratchy from her screams in the quad. I will never forget her screams. They would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.
“We became fast friends, he was nice to my best friend, Charlie, he stood up for me when the other students would pick on me. Soon enough, they left me alone. I don’t know what he did to get them to stop, but it did. We didn’t start dating until we were freshmen in high school. We were a normal couple, no red flags warned me of how he really was.” She sniffled and wiped a tear away from her cheek. My heart cracked looking at her laying in this hospital bed, watching her lay out something so fear-inducing. Her mental shields may have been strong, but her emotions were stronger and pushed against me.
“It started small, slowly getting upset about who I talk to or hung out with, nothing physical started until sophomore year. A push here and there, a hole in the wall when he was angry. At this point, I was already separated from most of my friends other than Char. She knew something was off, but I was too stubborn to listen to her.” She sobbed at the end of her statement. Oh, princess. I brushed my fingers against her arm lightly as I looked at her, trying hard to comfort her as much as I could.
“From sophomore year until the end of high school, it got worse. It moved from shoving, to slapping, to hits, to kicks and choking. Any tiny thing could set him off, I had to be extremely careful in what I said or did. He was a ticking time bomb. The ultimate controller and manipulator, twisting anything I said or did into something that would set him off. I have had multiple broken bones, cuts, cigarette burns, bruises, and more.” I felt my stomach rolling from her admission. Cigarette burns, fuck. I noticed my brothers looking equally sick and angry as I was.
“I can’t believe how anyone could hurt our Lucie like this,” I sent out telepathically to my brothers, leaving out Dean Renaud, Sadie, and Lucie. My family nodded slightly in response. The dean looked murderous, it was terrifying knowing how powerful he was.
“Two days before graduation I finally couldn’t handle anymore. He had gotten angry that I was ten minutes late to his apartment because of traffic coming from a classmate's house. She had notes I needed for a class that I had missed. He thought I had been sleeping around behind his back, ‘again’”—she finger quoted, heavy sarcasm laced the again—“Which wasn’t the first time he thought I was sleeping with someone else. He bruised my face, my arms, legs, and when I was finally curled on the ground, he stomped on my rib cage. Resulting in two broken ribs.” She looked at us.
“Was that what the bruising was that day at the beginning of the semester?” Landon’s voice was disbelieving, he was struggling with how anyone could do this. She nodded and continued.
“Everything else had been healed by then, but like I said, I needed a few more weeks for that to heal,” she admitted quietly.
“What did you mean when you said you couldn’t handle it anymore?” Dean Renaud asked, watching Lucie intently.
“I finally told Char and my mom what had happened, Char that same night and my mom the next day after she had explained what I was. Char came over once I had told my mom, we made a plan to get me away from him. The day of graduation, we were supposed to act like it was a normal day, but Char and I had purchased bus tickets for right after the graduation ceremony. We packed our bags that night before and loaded them in the trunk. We were technically supposed to go to the large graduation party with Noah after graduation, but when the ceremony was over, and everyone was taking pictures and distracted, we left. My mom drove us immediately to the bus station, and we left the city. She’s going to school at UW in Seattle so we took the same bus there where she headed to her university, she had had a job lined up for the summer so it wouldn’t have been suspicious for her to leave early.”
“I hopped on a second bus and came here. My mom had contacted the school that day before graduation asking if I would be able to help around campus in exchange for early living quarters, which you already knew”—she waved a hand at Alex—“so, that’s the basics. He didn’t know I left, we had made sure to get my mom, Char, and me all new numbers and that no one back home knew which school I was actually going to. We went with my initial school I applied for when I thought I was human as a cover story. So far, Noah hasn’t reached out to my mom or Char, but I know if he found me I would be in some serious shit.” Her voiced wobbled towards the end, fear permeating her emotions at the thought of him finding her.
“So, with Declan being at that party, it could become a serious possibility,” Cam added. She nodded glumly.
“And with Claire’s threat, we need to make sure you are safe,” Nik interjected, his statement clipped in fury. Dean Renaud’s head snapped to Nik.
“What threat?” he demanded.
“Claire and her friends; Brittney, Madison, and Khloe have been targeting Lucie all semester if she didn’t leave Dante or me alone. They gave me a rune bracelet that kept me away from them. They threatened her a few weeks ago at a party where one of Lucie’s old friends who knew her and Noah was there, that if she didn’t stay away from us, she would have Declan tell Noah where she was. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he found out anyway since Declan now knows you’re here and are a supe, which is big news,” I explained to the dean, looking at Lucie at the end. Her face was paling rapidly as her breathing was short and fast.
“She’s panicking,” I shot through the telepathic line to my family. Dean Renaud called for the doctor who came in and gave Lucie a sedative allowing her to calm into a deep, restorative sleep. Probably a good idea after tonight anyway, I thought to myself.
“I want you all to stay close to Lucie over the next few weeks until we determine if Noah will be a threat to her or not. I plan on dealing with the girls, do you have the rune?” Dean Renaud asked us. Landon handed him the cut leather bracelet and the small piece of metal, his frown deepening into a sco
wl as he examined the rune. “I will increase security around campus until we see how this will play out. If she suspects anything at all that he knows where she is or that he’s coming here to get her, you let me know immediately. We have a backup living location for her if it looks to be unsafe to stay in the dorm.” We looked at each other confused at where she would go. Dante asked him straight out where.
“She lived in the old head librarian’s rooms in the library during the summer semester, Muriel approached me before move-in if it would be acceptable for Lucie to keep those rooms for herself and I agreed. If I’m informed correctly, she still has most of her stuff in those rooms with only a small amount in her dorm.” My eyebrows furrowed trying to remember where those rooms where at in the library, but came up blank. Dean Renaud continued, cutting off my internal thoughts. “If it does get to the point she needs to go there, at least one of you will be required to be with her at all times as well as security outside her room. I won’t let anything happen to her.” He looked at her sadly. I couldn’t help myself, I lowered my shields to read his emotions. For some reason, he was taking everything she had admitted personally and on a much deeper level than I would have expected. He nodded at us before exiting the room, leaving us with our sleeping girl. Sadie, who had been silent during the exchange left as well, her eyes drooping with exhaustion.
“It is going to be a long few months ahead if it looks like he could find her,” Nik broke the silence. We all nodded and hummed in agreement.
“We need to be here for her,” I added, looking over her beautiful face that was marred in scars and bruises. “I think we should also talk about something we should have discussed at the beginning of the semester.” I looked at the rest of my family. “I won’t be running from how I feel about her anymore.”
“We all have feelings for her, but we don’t even know if she likes us like that,” Dante added, rubbing the stubble on his chin.
“Well, she asked us once in the library about multiple partners and if we’d ever really considered it,” Cam admitted. “When we asked her why, she lied saying there was no reason. She’s asked if Nik and I would ever consider being with her together.” My eyebrow raised thinking of our Lucie with them and found myself getting hard as steel in my tuxedo pants. Nik looked surprised, a small smile crept onto his face.
“Really?” His gravelly voice was hopeful.
“Yeah, tonight when we were dancing. She knows we all care about her, I told her so. I don’t think she would have an issue with being with us,” Cam admitted.
“But what if…” I swallowed hard, worry settling in my stomach, “what if I fucked all this up because of the last few weeks?” I voiced my ultimate fear after learning about what had happened.
“Pretty sure she would have thrown you out of the room if she didn’t want to talk to you. Dude, she even told you she missed you, I think you’re fine.” Dante rolled his eyes at me.
“Such a way with words,” I shot telepathically to him, he burst out laughing. A smile crept onto my face.
“We can talk to her about it when she’s a bit more healed, I don’t want to overwhelm her after tonight,” Logan offered from his chair at the foot of her bed. His fist was curled in front of his mouth, elbow propped on the arm of the chair as he watched her sleep. A round of agreements went up as we slid into other conversations waiting for our Lucie to wake up. Our Lucie is going to be okay. With that thought, I drifted off to sleep in my chair next to the bed, my hand still holding hers.
Epilogue
October 31st
Wednesday Night
Lucienne
My chest had been sore for the last few days since the dance, making it difficult to move or twist. Thankfully, Alex gave me, Sadie, Benji, and my guys Monday and Tuesday off extending our weekend through the Samhain holiday. Sadie and Benji were out grabbing lunch for everyone while I was laying between Hudson and Dante on the mattresses we had piled in our dorm living room. The twins were lounging in their usual spots on the couch, Cam was situated in an armchair, and Nik was sitting behind me running his fingers through my hair as he leaned against the bottom of Cam’s chair. We had continued our Marvel marathon through the rest of the weekend, only leaving in shifts to get food. The guys had refused to leave my side since I was released from the infirmary late Sunday evening.
Something felt right being around them all again. I didn’t realize how a piece of me had broken that night of the party but being snuggled up to Hudson’s side, my head laying on his chest while Dante curled behind me soothed me. Dante’s cheek rested against my back, and with Nik playing with my hair, listening to the rest of my guys' talk and joke, my broken heart healed.
I’m home, I realized. I love my mom and Char, but that place hadn’t felt like home since Noah had ripped my life away from me. I found that missing piece between these oddballs who formed their own misfit family. I knew, deep within my gut that it was going to get worse. I knew without a doubt that Noah would be coming, but I also knew as long as I had them and Sadie, Benji, and Alex, I wouldn’t be alone. I will have that fire within me, Jonathon’s story echoed through my mind. I was too comfortable to move when my phone dinged with a notification. It wasn’t until I went to change into pajamas that I saw the text.
Unknown Number: “hello Lucie baby.”
Smoke and Survival
Book 2 of the Best Wishes Series
Coming July 2019
Acknowledgments
Jake, my amazing husband who supported me and cheered me on even when I doubted myself.
My mom and mother-in-law who had to listen to me ramble on and on about every little detail, bump in the road, and each step of the process.
My content editor for making the long, grueling process of editing extremely entertaining. Especially with your love of “Cammypoo”.
Finally, for all of my readers, this wouldn’t be possible without you.
About the Author
A.J. Macey has a B.S. in Criminology and Criminal Justice, and previous coursework in Forensic Science, Behavioral Psychology, and Cybersecurity. Before becoming an author, A.J. worked as a Correctional Officer in a jail where she met her husband. She has a daughter and two cats named Thor and Loki, an addiction to coffee and swearing. Sucks at adulting and talking to people, so she’ll frequently be lost in a book or running away with her imagination.
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