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I huff with impatience, more than ready to be done here. I’m not happy. Axel’s a fucking dick. I can’t believe he’s done this. Any of this. And to top it all off, Odile’s now throwing shit and demanding we leave her room.
Like it wasn’t bad enough to be totally blindsided by Odi storming into the canteen and marching up to us when I didn’t even know she was a student here, Axel had to go too far and get her branded as The Doe. In permanent ink! Never in the history of the Hunting Grounds has The Doe been tattooed – she’s usually just marked in some way on her clothing. Pretty soon her identity becomes known to everyone on campus and the mark isn’t necessary anyway.
So what the fuck was he playing at? Why the permanent brand? Why Odile? I honestly don’t know how he’s still breathing. Odi isn’t a pushover and I sure as shit know that if I woke up with a tattoo on me, I’d lose my damn mind, big time. I mean, sure, Odile seems pissed, but not nearly enraged enough for the assault that’s been carried out on her. I hope she’s not thinking it’s temporary or some shit.
Fuck. Why did Axel have to do this?
I grit my teeth as I watch him taunt her, refusing to leave and trying to send the message that he owns her. Which, I guess in a way, he now does. She won’t back down though, and I can see us being stuck here all night in a pissing contest between the two of them if we don’t intervene.
My eyes cut to Kaiden but he’s enjoying himself far too much. He lives for drama. Sighing, I realise it’s up to me. I’m just debating what to do when my phone beeps.
“Guys, we need to go,” I call out softly, a slight hint of urgency in my vocals. Dad’s message simply said to call. “The General doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
Odi takes a sharp breath like she’s in pain, and I can’t help but stare at her. I’ve tried to avoid all contact until now, but the sound she made – and the reasons behind it – are impossible to ignore. The other two fail to notice, their attention fully on me as soon as I started to speak.
“Can you guys go ahead and video call him? Tell him I’m caught up with swim practice.”
“Sure.” Kaiden bumps a shrug, effortlessly, while Axel studies me intently, wondering why I want him to lie to my father for me. Eventually he nods without saying anything and turns back to Odile.
“Harry is part of the game, he’s in on the organisation, which is why he can’t help you and he can’t talk to you. Don’t attempt to see him in person. We have eyes on you at all times,” Axel warns as he steps towards the door.
At the last moment, he turns back to face her and reaches out. Possessively, he runs his finger across her tattoo, the ghost of a smile on his lips.
“Beautiful,” he murmurs, almost to himself, before raising his gaze to meet her defiant blazing stare head on with a smirk. “Don’t forget, I own you now.”
“Fuck off! No one owns me! Get the hell out, the lot of you!” Odi screams, shoving Axel through the door and pushing Kaiden out behind him. She turns to me but in a flash I cross to her, slamming the door between my brothers and me, pinning her against the door.
“Leave,” she demands.
“No.” I shake my head. “I want to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you of all people,” she spits. I feel the rage and disdain rolling off her in waves. It’s palpable, and my heart hiccups noticeably in my chest. Pissed off Odi has always got my pulse racing and my dick hard. But now isn’t the time. Not if we’re about to talk about my dad.
“We need to talk about The General,” I insist and this time she cringes away, turning her head to the side. She can’t get away though, I have her caged in by my arms on either side of her head. “Look at me,” I say softly. She ignores me. “Odi, please.”
She ducks out from under my arm and walks to the other end of her room, standing with her back to me and staring out of the window which is open a crack. She always had her window open no matter the weather. I don’t know whether to be sad that she still feels the need, or relieved that the girl I once knew and loved is still in there somewhere.
“After all this time, are you still afraid of The General?” I ask softly.
She whips around to glare at me, her eyes blazing defiantly, but tears wet her lashes. I don’t think she even knows they’re there. I long to reach out and wipe them away but I know that my touch wouldn’t be welcome. Hell, she’d probably stab me for less.
I’m about to urge – to beg – her to say something…to tell me what’s wrong when her face, her shoulders, her walls...hell, everything crumbles and she collapses onto her bed. Before I can blink I have my arms around her and by some small mercy she doesn’t push me away, or run a blade into my chest.
Fuck. This is bad. What do I say? What did he do? The General is one sadistic, mean, son of a bitch and I vowed, what I thought was the one and only time he laid a hand on her, that it would never happen again. “He’s dead. I promise you. I will kill him for whatever he’s done.”
She probably thinks this is just another empty promise like all the others I made her: I’ll never leave you, I’ll never hurt you, he’ll never touch you again…I’m a fucking failure. No wonder she can’t stand the sight of me. It won’t lessen her suffering, but if I kill him… No, when I kill him, it may at least ease her fear.
He may be my father but The General, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is living on borrowed time.
“Why are you crying, Odi?” Axel asks me. It’s the first day of school and I finally get to move up to the secondary school to be with the boys. Only, instead of it being the best day ever, it’s the worst.
“There’s a boy in my class. He isn’t very nice.”
“What did he do?” Kaiden growls. Zie pulls me into a hug. We’re standing in the middle of the canteen and everyone is staring but the boys don’t seem to care.
“Nothing. He just...it’s nothing. I’m fine now. I just didn’t realise how hard it was going to be moving to a new school and having to make new friends.”
“You don’t need new friends. You have us,” Axel insists.
