“I know Luna, but you really are going to get a lot thrown at you from the Academy itself, never mind other students.” He reaches over and clasps my hand, “I will help you wherever I can, okay?”
“I’ll try this your way, but the second I know for sure it isn’t working, we go back to my way,” I say, pulling my hand back. I can’t help the yawn that escapes.
“Is Dot still arriving today?” I’d completely forgotten.
“She is, but you’re joking if you think you’re going anywhere near her for the time being, Luna,” Rafe laughs at me.
Acehole. No, Asshole. Wait? He was an Ace, so he damn well is an Acehole.
Dot will make me feel tons better, although right now I wouldn’t be able to lift my leg over.
“How long will you be staying for?” I ask them both.
“I’ll be leaving tomorrow as long as everything is okay here, is that alright?” Rafe asks and I nod in response, looking to West.
“I’ll head out for a while if that’s okay, then I’ll come back when Rafe is leaving.”
It’s not a question but he’s asking.
“We’ll see how I am, I don’t need to be coddled.”
West smiles and starts to gather his things whilst I raise to my feet and prepare to go and lay back down, I’m tired again and the sleep will help my body heal.
I’m almost to my door when a question touches my lips.
“Hey guys, what’s with Parker not being allowed his surname? What’s the other bloodline for Ace?”
Rafe shakes his head, “Honestly Luna, it’s better no one knows because if that boy finds out before he’s privileged, his father will kill him before the sun rises the next day.”
The shock that washes over my body has me believing every word, and it makes my stomach turn.
This isn’t the catch up I envisioned, let’s not do this again anytime soon.
(Roman)
I’ve been sitting with my front door open for hours, waiting for him to leave. West left a few hours ago but I wasn’t interested in what he had to say. It’s midafternoon when her front door finally opens, and he shuts it behind him quietly, which tells me she is sleeping.
Good.
When he finally turns around, he stops at my presence, but the look in his eyes tells me he’s not surprised to see me. I don’t stand, I just hold my hands out in question. He raises his eyebrow at me, forcing me to push, Luna must have picked it up off him too.
“Fine,” I sigh, “Did you ever consider giving me a heads up? I was having Kai run checks on her and we kept coming up with nothing, I assume that is because of you? I thought there was an imposter.”
A simple nod is all I get.
“Does she have any idea what she’s walked into here?”
“No Roman, she doesn’t, and if we tell her too much all at once she’ll snap, she needs baby steps okay?”
“Have you not seen the state she is in? Nobody around here gives a fuck what she needs and you’re leaving her blind-sided,” I fume, he’s so fucking stupid.
“Roman, I’m warning you. You keep your mouth shut, this is more than all of us and you damn well know it. I trained her with everything, gave her all the skills she will need.”
“All the skills Rafe? What about her fucking mind? What about how you feel after you kill someone for the first time? Or that fact that she’ll have to continue to do so to save herself, huh? This is going to blacken her soul just like the rest of us.” I growl through my teeth.
He looks to the ceiling, like he might find some answers there, but he fucking won’t.
He can’t answer me, because he knows I’m right, but there is nothing any of us can do about it. Not yet anyway.
“She needs to rest right now. A lot will be going on with your skill-based assignments in the next few weeks. That’ll be hard enough for everybody, but it will hopefully take some of the heat off her. For now, that’s all we can do.”
He means do nothing.
Fuck.
I nod in understanding.
He holds a moment then makes to take the stairs, but I call him before he leaves, having him glance back at me.
“Is that really her? Meu Tesouro?” my voice barely above a whisper, memories floating in my mind.
“Yeah, she likely won’t remember though, she doesn’t remember West. When she saw her father die Roman, she locked those first six years of her sweet life, away. I see her shut herself down when a memory tries to float to the surface, it causes her a lot of pain. So, don’t expect her to remember that you were chasing her around even as babies okay?” He lightly chuckles, trying to make light of the situation.
I close my door without responding.
When Rafe stormed in yesterday, I’d already pieced it together, with West being in her room and the mention of Rafe being on the phone to her. Assholes had kept more secrets than they let on.
When she first arrived, I was scared she may have been Totem’s heir. Three bloodlines were crazy enough for it. It was made worse when we got nothing on our background check.
Then Parker floated to her like a moth to a flame, and he’s our best judge of character, but now, now I knew.
Meu Tesouro, her father always called her, his treasured one, and I remember from such a small age that she was my treasure too. Shaking my head, I push the memory away. If she refuses to acknowledge anything from that time it’ll do me no good to accidentally say the wrong thing.
I just can’t believe it. They said she was dead. Gone with her father, yet she’s sleeping across the hall from me right
