Shameful by May Dawson
18
West
I hadn’t seenLegacy in four years. What I remembered, from when she was sixteen and I was eighteen, was a fresh-faced girl with long, dark hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose. She’d been a serious athlete, training with all the guys, which got our attention. I could’ve sworn half of us had a crush on her, which was funny because she always seemed completely obtuse. She kept to herself, trained hard, was polite and kind and distant.
Maybe that was part of why we’d all had a crush on her. She’d seemed so untouchable. I was older than her and I did my best to keep my eyes to myself. I tried to avoid her in the trainingyard.
But now she looked different. Not only had she filled out, her body curvier than it had been four years ago, though that wastrue.
Now her eyes were wide, her pupils dilated, no matter how much she tried to force a stiff smile across her lips. She was terrified.
It made me want to protecther.
But I was the thing that had come to hurther.
It hadn’t bothered me before. But now I froze in the doorway, horrified.
Rhett went ahead of me, like he always did, his voice calm and soothing, talking too fast. “Hey, Legacy. You’re going to come with us. We’re all going to head back to Reject Island together.”
“Okay,” she said, and she made no motion towardus.
“Go,” Cyrus barked at the other man in the room. He had dark hair, tanned skin, a face like a ghost. He must be Legacy’s father.
He hesitated, and before Cyrus’s aggression could ratchet up yet another notch, Legacy said, “It’s okay, Dad. I’m ready. You cango.”
Her voice was calm, totally different than the look in her eyes, which was a littlewild.
Her father glanced at me, then at Cyrus, as if he too were gauging how to keep things calm, then he nodded.
“Love you, princess,” he called over his shoulder as he headed for thedoor.
“Love you too, Dad,” she called back. Then the back door slammed shut, as if her father couldn’t entirely contain his feelings.
Silence hung in the air between the four of us. Legacy still eyed us all like a wounded animal.
Cyrus grunted. “Princess.”
She wouldn’t be a princess on Reject Island, that was forsure.
Legacy took a faltering step toward us, but Cyrus suddenly lost his patience. I was familiar with that phenomenon. He grabbed Legacy by the back of the neck and dragged her toward us. Her sneakers slipped out from underneath her, and she struggled to stay upright, clutching his wrist with her fingers. He was implacable, easily twice her size, as he dragged her over tous.
When he let go, she landed at our feet. She looked so small and broken there for a moment. Her dark hair hung over her narrow shoulders, brushing the slick marble floor.
Then she looked up, her eyes narrow, full of defiance. Her gaze foundmine.
If she looked at Cyrus like that, he might beat her to death here in this house while her parents hammered at the door. I had firsthand familiarity with hisrage.
Rhett was starting to say something, sounding light as ever. Maybe he was trying to figure out how to con Cyrus into setting us free, even though I told him not to waste his hopes.
But all that mattered right now was getting this girl out of here before she made things even worse. She was already opening those full, lush lips, drawing a breath in, her nostrils flaring.
Being Rhett’s brother had taught me a few things about saving a talker from themselves.
I reached down and grabbed her, throwing her over my shoulder. She let out a screech of protest, but I ignored her, turning and carrying her toward thedoor.
“Well, guess we’ll be going now,” Rhett said, to no one in particular.
He scrambled after me, got ahead, then opened the cardoor.
It was a good thing too because Legacy had turned into a wild cat. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find her shifting in my arms, because she was throwing elbows, thrashing back and forth. Then she suddenly went liquid and boneless, and I almost dropped her. I clung to her, and she came back to life, slamming her elbow into my jaw. Stars exploded in my vision. Little firecracker packed some power.
“Shit,” I said, throwing her into the backseat. She turned to look at me over her shoulder, dark hair flying, and I could tell she was about to kickme.
I threw my weight behind her, forcing her into the car as Rhett slammed the door shut behind us. The way I’d folded myself into the car behind her took most of the power out of the kick that slammed into my thigh, but not all ofit.
“Enough of that,” I said, and since her blue-jeaned ass was right there over the seat, I smacked her ass. It was a small retaliation for the throbbing ache in my jaw and in my thigh, but she gasped, as if I’d just betrayed her, as if she hadn’t been trying to beat me bloody for picking herup.
She scrambled to sit on the seat, suddenly all dignified. Her lush pink lips pressed together tightly, her chin rising haughtily.
Rhett was already in the driver’s seat, and he already had the car moving.
She lunged suddenly for the opposite door, trying to throw the car dooropen.
“I don’t think so,” I said, grabbing her and dragging her back. I pulled her across my lap, and she struggled to sit up, onto her side. It made for a tempting target. I was tempted to smack her again, see if a good spanking could bring her back to her senses.
Rhett turned the car hard, and the door slammed shut. Then he straightened out, and we bounced from the alpha’s driveway onto theroad.
But before I could say anything else, Rhett said from the front seat, “I thought you were going to be brave. Show them how much they fucked up by sending you away. Or start to, anyway.”
She went stiff at his words, then scrambled off my lap. Her cheeks were blazing.
She settled into the seat beside me and, although she didn’t look at us again, she didn’t fight anymore either.
At least, not for rightnow.
This was going to be a longtrip.