Grandma Sidney didn’t say anything about me leaving Deception behind, which was actually Adriel. I had promised to call her every day, and we said goodbye. I took Toryn up on his offer to drive, and I started looking through the file for a picture of my birth mother so that I might recognize her this time.
“Have you ever done anything you truly regretted doing?”
“Everyone has,” I answered Toryn absently.
He paused, and I don’t know what he was doing because I was still looking for a picture, and then he continued. “I mean really deeply regretted. Something that eats you up inside and you almost can’t bare it. Have you ever done something like that?”
I looked up from the text pages and closed the file. “Well for heaven’s sake, Toryn, what’d you do?” He started laughing, and it was completely contagious. Toryn didn’t tell me what it was that he did, but I figured it was probably whatever he got put on probation with the clan for.
“Thanks for helping me out last night. I couldn’t think of a song to save my life.”
“I’m just glad you knew that one enough to pull it off.” He grinned at me and then at the road in front of us. “Feel any different since last night?”
I touched my hair wrinkling my nose. “I look different.”
Do I feel different?
I thought about that for a bit until Toryn started talking again. “Nicholas is going to hate it anytime you talk to me, but I think you should do it anyway.”
“We’ll see.”
“If you ever need anything at all just let me know. Okay? Even if it’s ten years from now and you need help dumping a very heavy no questions asked black body bag into the ocean.” I laughed and told him he would be the first person I’d call if ever that need arose. I was still laughing when we pulled up to the huge white pillared house.
The door on my side pulled open and Nicholas plucked me from the seat and set me on the concrete. “Stay away from her, Toryn.” I still had a hold of the pillow I’d redeposited the folder into and was hugging it when Nicholas turned toward me. “Are you okay?” His tone of voice had completely changed.
“Yeah.” Nicholas grabbed my suitcase from out of the bed of the truck. Toryn gave me a kind of sad smile as I followed Nicholas. “So, what’s your beef with Toryn anyway?”
“That’s a long story.” He opened the front door. “Most of the clan lives in the other homes on this property or very nearby. You’ll be in the same room you woke up in.”
It wasn’t until he opened the bedroom that was to be mine while I stayed, that I finally got up the courage to ask, “Why were you in solitary?” Nicholas set my bag down and took the pillow from my hands and set it on the bed.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up. I wanted to be.” He took my hands in his. “I attacked Toryn for trying to take something that was mine.”
“He was stealing from you?”
Nicholas sighed and looked down at our connected hands. “Not exactly, it was more like he was asking permission to steal.”
This gypsy culture is just straight up bizarre. Who asks to steal?
“Unpack your things. I will go and get something for you to eat.” He turned back when he reached the door. “You look good as a gypsy, Piper.” I touched my hair again and shrugged. It wasn’t like I could say thank you when only recently I had agreed that gypsies were beneath me. “I am the only male allowed in your room so there is no need to lock your door.”
“Okay.” I was totally locking my door. If Brynn could chuck a rock at me, she could sneak into my room. Nicholas closed the door, and I wondered as I began to unpack how I was going to deal with Brynn. If I was being honest with myself, I knew she could tear me up in a fight.
My bedroom door opened and a young woman about my age stepped inside and quietly closed the door. She had chocolate brown hair that was braided back. Her eyes were the same color, set in a heart-shaped face. They grew huge when she saw me and I wished I had locked the door.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t know you were back yet. I’ll leave in just a sec okay?” She lay down on the floor and looked beneath the door. I continued to unfold the same white blouse I’d picked up when Nicholas had first left. When she stood up she came over and sat on my bed. “I’m Isabeau. Do you want to go by Pipey or Kellan?”
“It’s Piper.”
“Right.” She was looking inside my suitcase. “I couldn’t believe you said no last night to finding out who your mom is.” She blushed when I looked at her. “You’ve got all the girls talking about the thing between Nicholas and Toryn too.”
“I’m sorry. Why are you in here?”
She looked at my closed door and then back at me. “Duncan is trying to catch me for a harmless practical joke.”
It occurred to me that Isabeau might be the friend I needed in this place. “What thing between Nicholas and Toryn?”
Her eyes lit up and she leaned toward me. “Well, for the longest time all the girls have been crazy about Toryn because he was prearranged and you know how women are with forbidden stuff. He lost his arrangement and-”
“Isabeau, I can hear you in there. Come out.” Duncan sounded furious. “Right now.”
Isabeau looked at my door. Her long chocolate brown braid fell over her shoulder as she grinned at the door. “You can’t come in here,” she said pointing at the closed door. “Piper and I are bonding so get lost.”
“Stop telling her all that junk. Nicholas will tell her.”
“She asked me.”
I could see the shadow of his feet on the other side of the door. “Stop telling her.”
“She’s my cousin. I’ll tell her whatever I want to tell her.”
She’s my cousin? How many relatives do I have here?
Isabeau looked at me with her teeth chewing her lower lip. She probably realized too late what she had spilled.
“You are overwhelming her. Come out.”
“He just wants to get me back,” she told me. “I’m not coming out.” Isabeau stretched out on my bed. “I could be in here for a while.”
“So, Toryn lost his arrangement? As in arranged marriage?”
What a truly archaic idea.
I thought I was misunderstanding until she nodded. “How did he lose it?”
“Well… I really shouldn’t say.” She glanced toward the door. “Nicholas is now going to be the groom of Toryn’s would have been bride.” I froze staring at her. Pieces of the puzzle I didn’t know I had were falling into place.
Toryn saying he had regrets. Nicholas was the only male allowed in my room. Toryn’s instant affection upon our meeting, and Nicholas’ simultaneous anger and jealousy. “Me?”
“See?” She called toward the closed door. “She can handle it.”
I have an arranged marriage? Me?
I wanted to run screaming from the house but instead I locked my bedroom door and put a chair under the door handle.
“Uh oh,” Isabeau sat up on the bed. “Are you going to freak out?”
“Yes.” I knew yelling wasn’t going to help but I was doing it anyway. “My hair is the wrong color, I am not this person. I am not a girl with a Sith as a father. I am not someone in a prearranged marriage.” I sat down on the floor.
Isabeau scooted off the bed and sat across from me. “You are in a tough spot. Do you love someone else?”
“No, but I might one day.”
“Nicholas is a major catch, Piper. He’s alpha.” She grew up in this culture. Isabeau couldn’t possibly understand but I was grateful she was trying to be understanding.
How could Nicholas have left this out?
“Piper?” Nicholas’ strong voice was only slightly muffled through the door. “I’ve brought you something to eat.” I got up and dislodged the chair and unlocked the door.
“Come on in, bread winner.” I glared at him.
His dark eyes went to Isabeau. “What have you done?”
/> “Bond?”
“Why didn’t you tell me we are supposed to be in an arranged marriage together?”
Nicholas set the tray of food down and then turned back toward me. “We are arranged. I didn’t tell you because you said I’m not good enough for you.”
“So what were you going to do? Tell me on our prearranged wedding day?”
“No. I was going to prove you wrong and then ask you to marry me.”
“That is so romantic,” Isabeau said grinning and hugging her knees.
I pushed Nicholas so he would look at me. “I was supposed to be marrying Toryn?”
Nicholas’ head turned toward Isabeau and his dark hair fell forward as he looked down at her. “What else did you tell her?” His voice boomed and Isabeau hopped up onto her feet.
“See you later, Pipey.” Duncan intercepted her in the hallway and was lecturing her.
“I’ll decide who I will marry. Not my birth mother or anybody else. You got it?”
His face was stern but his body remained relaxed telling me that this was not getting through to him. “No one will make you do anything you don’t want to do.” He closed the door. “Are you upset that Toryn isn’t the one you’re arranged with?”
For a guy his size he sure was ready to be rejected. “To look at you I’d never guess you’d be the jealous type.”
“If you prefer Toryn, I’d rather you tell me than go behind my back.”
I felt like I did when my mom was calling my birth mother all those names. I just wasn’t going to escape that stigmatism. I squared my shoulders and forced my breathing to slow down. My coolest expression I set in place. “I couldn’t say since I don’t know him. Though he didn’t have his eyes glued to Brynn last night like you did.”
“I don’t want Brynn.” I rolled my eyes at him. “I think now is a good time to remind you that I cannot lie to you.” I had seen the way he had concentrated on Brynn. Perhaps he didn’t realize he wanted her.
“Why would you want to marry me? You don’t even know me.”
“I didn’t know if I would want to marry you when I took alpha. I went to your grandma’s house and a scout for the Siths followed me. He was the man at your window. I chased him away and then I saw you.” My stomach clenched. I had never been so excited and terrified in the same moment. “I knew then.”
“I know who I want, Piper. It’s you and that’s too bad if it scares you.” Nicholas led me over to a small table and set of chairs situated by the huge loveseat window. “Eat something. You still need to recover from last night.” He set the tray of food down, looking at me like there was more he had to say but he left instead.
I fell into the chair smiling.
Nicholas wanted me.
Those words meant so much more to me than any others ever could. The man brought me what must have been his personal favorites, beef steak and ham. I was hungry so I started eating the steak.
“Welcome back,” Zorrin, the woman who looked just like me and had led me out of the house this morning, stood in my doorway.
“Thank you,” I said around a mouthful of meat.
“May I come in?”
When someone asks something like that it’s almost impossible to say no, especially when they smile so politely. “Please.” She took the seat across from me. Her company was far from comforting. With my luck this would be my birth mother.
“You seem quite happy with your intended.” The bib shirt jingled like change in a pocket when she moved. “I was confident like you. I always have been.” Zorrin had a way of sitting that made me feel as though she were posing for pictures I was supposed to be taking. “Brynn is newly hurt about losing him to you. They were engaged to be married only last month, the poor dear.”
“Last month?” I put the fork down.
“Yes, you are promised to the alpha, dear. Nicholas took that position from Toryn after he had his moment of indiscretion.” She sighed making a show of looking disappointed. “Toryn kissed Brynn and Nicholas just lost it. He could have killed Toryn for his going after his beloved if the fight had not been stopped.”
Another long sigh blew from her red painted lips. “We didn’t think he would ever heal from such heartbreak as his first true love.” She smiled at me. “I guess only you could make him forget how crazy he is over Brynn. Or maybe it’s just the chance at revenge that has him smiling at you.”
I felt like vomiting. This woman was revolting and basking in my misery. “Are you the wicked witch of gypsy land or what?” Her smile grew dark and evil. I stood up.
Please don’t let this nasty woman be the one who birthed me. I prayed in my mind.
“You are vile, get out of my room.” She laughed at me rising up from the seat.
“Exactly like me.” She tilted her head to the side looking at me. “Except you’re helpless.” I watched her slither toward my door. “And I’d never settle for Brynn’s leftovers,” she added as she entered the hallway.
My face burned.
Zorrin despised me and I felt the same way about her, especially since I knew her story about Nicholas and Toryn was true.