by Nora Cobb
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, events, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Hate Me copyright @ 2020 by Nora Cobb and Scholae Palatina Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HATE ME
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
LOVE ME: Weissmore Academy Book 3
PRE ORDER LOVE ME:
OTHER BOOKS BY NORA COBB
HATE ME
Chapter 1
Anna
“Frankly, I’m not surprised. I mean the woman clearly hates you, Anna.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, rubbing a hand over my face. Johanna and I sat in our dorm room, rain pelting the window and further dampening the mood that I was in. “That makes me feel so much better.” I had started talking to her again yesterday, after the blow-up at the lake, knowing that I needed to keep my allies close if I was going to get through this. I wanted to think that they were just looking out for me and that was the thought I was going to cling to, no matter what.
“Oh, Anna,” Johanna sighed, hugging her pillow to her chest. “I wish I could tell you differently, but let’s face the facts. Based on your link with her, what woman wouldn’t hate the daughter of her husband’s fling?”
I thought about her words. What a crazy couple of months I had endured, first thinking I was off to college but instead becoming a student at Weissmore Academy, an ultra-exclusive higher learning institution for the wealthy and titled. I had first tried to figure out why I was here, combating the hatefulness from the other students for me being here, until the headmistress had dropped a bomb and changed my life forever.
Now I knew who my father was and that I had lineage tying me to the emperor of Rome, but there was still the huge gap on who my mother was and how the heck an American had gotten involved with a royal monarch.
I had my theories, but I couldn’t prove any of them right now.
I swallowed. “I guess you are right, but I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t even know who my mom was until I came here.”
Johanna cocked her head to the side. “You think that she’s the reason you are here? Isauros, I mean.”
I wouldn’t think so. Why would she want to bring me here just to taunt me? “Don’t you think that a woman like her, married to a man like my father, could have offed me at any point in my life?” I asked lightly.
“Maybe,” Johanna shrugged, popping her gum. “But what if she couldn’t find you? What if your mom hid you so well in the States that Isauros wasn’t able to hunt you down?”
That was a possibility, I guessed. That was why it was so important for me to find out who my mother was. I needed to know her backstory and maybe it would link all of this together.
But no one was helping me do so—not even the ones that had offered—and it was starting to frustrate me greatly.
“Has your case manager gotten back with you yet?”
I shook my head, thinking of the empty email inbox that I had checked earlier. Sara had said it might take some time and I wasn’t a very patient person, but I knew she would do all she could in her power to get me what I needed.
“Well,” Johanna said, placing the pillow aside on the bed. “One thing is for sure. She must want something out of you, or I imagine you would already be dead.”
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically, shooting her a look. “It’s comforting to know that the woman who runs this place could shoot me in my back and no one would care.”
“I would,” Johanna protested. “Hey, if word gets out—”
“Word can’t get out,” I interrupted. It was already hard enough surviving in this academy but if word got out that I was some illegitimate daughter of the headmistress’ husband, that would make things ten times worse.
Well, outside of those that already knew. “We have to keep this between us.”
Johanna chewed on her lip. “All right, fine. I won’t say anything. Are you going to tell Arthur?”
I thought about the handsome king who had stolen my innocence and then broken my heart, somehow becoming sort of a friend up until recently. “I have to,” I sighed, pushing my hair out of my face.
“You don’t have to,” Johanna frowned. “I thought you had broken things off with him?”
“I did,” I said slowly. “It’s just complicated, all right?” Just because he lied to me didn’t mean I could just cut off my feelings for him. I didn’t like him like I had before, but there was a soft spot in my heart for the grinning fool.
A very small soft spot.
“Well, I already told you this once, but I will tell you again,” Johanna was saying. “The kings are dangerous, Anna. They are going to hurt you in the end.”
I balanced my chin in my hand, thinking about the kings and how they had infiltrated my life during my time here. The three kings were all seniors and from very influential families all over the world. For some reason, they had decided that my lineage was top on their list and had made some crazy pact to get me pregnant so that they could claim me and my supposed future throne.
The problem was, I hadn’t found out until I had lost my virginity to Arthur a month or so ago. Now I had an unlikely alliance in various stages with each king while they struggled with their own friendship now that their pact had been spoiled.
“I’m going to get supper,” Johanna announced, standing and stretching her limber body. “You coming?”
I shook my head. “I’m not hungry.”
“I will bring you something anyway,” she stated, crossing the room and opening the door. “Mainly because I don’t want to hear you grumble about how hungry you are later.”
I laughed as Johanna walked out, wondering why a princess would want to be friends with an American orphan.
Well, I really wasn’t any longer. I was an heir apparent to some royal dynasty that was more powerful than anyone in the academy. It was a definite power trip to think that, but until I could prove it all and put the story of how I gotten on this earth together, I wasn’t going to let my head swell. I was still Anna Komita.
Lying down on my bed, I tucked my hands under my head and stared at the rain as it slid down the window outside.
What was my mom like?
How had she met my father?
Were they in love? I wanted to think so. No one wanted to hear that they were a product of a one-night stand and in my heart, I wanted to believe that my father had been enamored with my mom, possibly because his wife was a cold-hearted bitch, and that he had pursued her until he had broken her down. If I was any indication, my mom would likely be a strong woman, not needing any man to take care of her.
It was a nice dream, one that I hoped I could prove to be true in the next few weeks or so. I was tired of being told that I was a nobody, that I didn’t matter or that I was a person to be used and cast aside when everyone got their fill of me.
Arthur hadn’t, but even with me knowi
ng that he had planned to use me, he was kind of helping me find my mom.
Sighing, I watched the rain. My life could never be easy, of course. I couldn’t just have a normal set of parents, with a normal house and a normal future.
I didn’t even know who I was, but I wasn’t leaving this academy or letting anyone scare me off until I knew where I belonged.
Or if there were people waiting for me to find them, a family that I never knew existed.
A family. What would it feel like to have a family? There wasn’t a person at this academy, minus me of course, who knew what it felt like to be all alone in this world. Even if they weren’t coddled, they had a cushy lifestyle, never having to worry about their next meal or how they would pay for their necessities.
Even Johanna had a pretty sweet setup.
I didn’t know what that would feel like and knowing that I was inching ever so close to who I truly was would bring about feelings I had never experienced before, especially if there were family members involved.
I hoped there were. I didn’t want to get to the end of this story and still be alone. I couldn’t even count on the people that I had made friends with to be there at the end and I desperately wanted blood ties, someone to call part of my family. I wanted someone to be on my side for once, to comfort me when I needed it.
Most of all, I wanted to belong to something. For a girl who had spent all her life not belonging anywhere, I wanted to make that happen, to have a sense of belonging if nothing else.
One thing was for sure; I wouldn’t be eating Christmas dinner with headmistress Isauros. She would likely poison my food and gleefully watch me die a slow death without hesitation.
**
I met up with Arthur the next day, choosing to meet him in the library rather than at his mansion, mostly due to the fact that it was still raining outside. I still wasn’t used to the weather here in Switzerland. One minute it was hot and the next, it was like it was going to snow outside.
I shoved my hands in my hoodie as I walked through the doors, waving at the curator as I passed. I had tried to ask him what his name was, but he had held his hand to his heart and told me to call him curator.
Another secret that this academy was hiding apparently.
Placing my bag on the table, I dropped into the seat, waiting for Arthur to arrive. I wanted to catch him up about my visit with Isauros and ask if he was still willing to help me try to find out about my mom. He had been against it, though he hadn’t come right out and said those very words, but I could see in his eyes that he thought I was treading into dangerous territory.
Of course I was. Someone had gone to great lengths to keep me a secret or rather to keep this secret from me until this moment in time. Why, I didn’t know, but I was intent on finding out.
Even if it cost me everything in the end. I mean, I didn’t have much to lose to begin with. I really didn’t know what it was like anyway and in my mind, I was still the American orphan.
Did I really want to be princess or empress or whatever I was supposed to be? I wasn’t sure. Sure, I would gain the title that would put me above all these others here, but it didn’t mean I would find what I had been searching for all my life.
After all, my father was dead and so was my mother. It wasn’t going to bring either of them back.
But it could bring me others, family members that might actually be happy to know I existed.
Or it could bring me family members that wanted me dead, like Isauros. Still, I wasn’t going to find out unless I pushed the envelope and tried to dig into the places that no one wanted me in. I wasn’t going to let this go. They could threaten me all they wanted, but I wasn’t about to just walk away from finding out what happened to my parents.
“Hey.”
I watched as Arthur slid into the seat next to me, flashing me his cocky smile. My traitorous heart went pitter-patter as I took in his button-down collared shirt and jeans, the casual way he lounged in the chair like he owned the place.
Well, he kind of did and it was still hard for me to believe that he had taken an interest in me.
Oh wait, he had done it so that he could become part of one of the largest and most powerful families in the world.
Yeah, that wasn’t hard to remember at all.
His grin faded. “Why did you just look at me like I kicked a dog or something?”
“Nothing,” I muttered, not wanting to dredge up old memories right now. “I need to tell you something.”
“Okay,” he said warily, looking at my stomach.
I knew instantly what he was thinking. “Oh my God! No.”
He shrugged. “I could at least hope some of those little guys won the race, right?”
I hit him on the shoulder, my hand colliding with the solid muscle. “Concentrate, will you, and get your head out of your ass for a minute?”
“Fine, fine,” he conceded, holding up his hand. “What is it?”
Quickly I told him the abbreviated version of my conversation with Isauros, making sure to get all her threats in a few words.
“Shit,” Arthur said after I finished, his eyes darkening. “She will follow through on her threats, Anna. I hope you understand that.”
“I don’t care,” I said hotly. “She can if she wants, but I’m not going to stop.”
“Anna,” Arthur said quietly, true concern in his expression. “You can’t go up against her.”
I stared at him. “What would you do if you were in my shoes? What if you didn’t know what happened to your parents and desperately wanted to know, Arthur? Would you just stop? Don’t you understand? I don’t belong to anyone, anywhere! What’s wrong with me wanting to know who I am?”
He took my hand in his and I didn’t fight him, seeing the pleading in his gorgeous eyes. “Anna, please. I know you are frustrated about this, but she will hurt you. You are messing with her life too, by pulling up the past, and if she feels threatened …”
“Then I will pay for it,” I finished for him, withdrawing my hand from his. “And I need to know that you will help me until you can’t any longer, Arthur. I need my friends.”
“Friends,” Arthur said slowly, pushing out of the chair. “You know I want more. We had more.”
“Under an illusion you mean,” I said softly, looking up at him.
He ran a hand roughly through his hair. “Come on, Anna. You know it wasn’t all an illusion.”
Maybe not, but he had still done it, end of story. “I’m too set on finding my lineage at the moment,” I said instead. “To be involved with anyone.”
Arthur looked as if he wanted to say more, but instead blew out a breath and walked away. Well, that had gone just as well as it had with Johanna.
It looked like I was on my own.
Chapter 2
Royce
The swords clashed hard in the empty room, the sound bouncing off the walls as I blocked Max’s thrust. “You left your left open,” he growled, resetting his feet.
“The fuck I did,” I answered, doing the same. Sweat poured down my chest and pooled in the waistband of my shorts, my muscles screaming for a break, but I couldn’t stop until one of us finally yielded. It was how we played this game, proving that we were the true king.
Even if it was for a few hours.
Max grinned and the sword was thrust in my direction again, the tip blunted so we wouldn’t kill each other accidentally. While I preferred the weight of my own sword, I was using one of the academy’s for this purpose. The weight was off, and I was having a devil of a time trying to control my skills against my opponent.
Though Max’s true passion was rowing, he did love a damn good sword fight, which was why I picked him over Arthur to join me here. Arthur, well, I didn’t know what was up with him. We were barely speaking, which was fucking fine with me.
I blocked Max’s blow easily and fought him into a corner, his grunts loud in my ears as he expertly got himself out of it, something that normally wasn’t the case. �
�Your fucking game is off,” he said, tossing the sword back and forth between his hands. “Get your shit together, Royce.”
I narrowed my gaze, attempting to clear my mind. He was right. My game was off, more than I cared to admit. Using a series of maneuvers, I was able to get Max off his feet. Somehow, he kept ahold of his sword and I jumped as he tried to sweep my feet from under me, landing easily on the balls of my feet while he recovered to a fighting stance. “Try again, fucker,” I grinned, mimicking his stance.
His eyes grew hard and he slowly started to move in a circle, forcing me to follow him and wait for his first attack. “You know I saw Anna in the library again,” he said in a low voice, a hint of a grin on his face.
I gave a casual shrug. “So?”
He laughed. “She’s looking into her father again. I don’t think she has been scared off yet.”
