The Wild Mustang & The Dancing Fairy: A Gorgeous Villain Prequel Novella by Saffron Kent (ereader for textbooks .txt) 📗

I shake my head. “No, he didn’t –”

“Or what?” Reed says from behind me, his voice a mixture of amused and provoking.

“Or we can turn this into one of the more fun nights than we’ve had in a while.” That’s Shepard, who stops right beside Ledger and shrugs casually.

“Fun for us. Just FYI. Not sure if it would be fun for you but still.” This comes from Stellan — he’s the more serious twin — who comes to stand right beside Shepard.

I can’t believe they’re here, Stellan and Shep.

They’re supposed to be in New York. In college. Nobody told me that they were coming home this weekend.

God, what are they doing here?

Even though they’re all standing right in front of me, I still can’t believe that my four overprotective older brothers somehow figured out that I’m here.

Instead of where I told them I’d be.

See, this is what happens when you lie, Callie.

Not to mention, they all look intimidating like this, making a wall of muscles and dark glares.

They’re all almost the same height and build and they all have thick, dark hair and brown eyes except for Conrad.

His hair’s dirty blond with a few golden strands and his eyes are dark blue.

He’s the brother I’m closest to in appearance and he’s the brother I’m most afraid of. Maybe because he’s more like a father figure than an older brother.

Although right now, I’m afraid of every single one of them.

Not Reed, apparently.

Because he walks closer to them, thereby rendering the meager protection I was giving him moot. “Well then, you’ve come to the right place. Let the fun begin.”

And from the looks of it, the fun is definitely going to begin because a crowd has gathered around us.

Someone has turned off the music and most of the people have made sort of a semi-circle around us. They’re still at a distance, but they’re definitely watching.

Great. Just great.

My brothers don’t care about that though.

Reed’s cavalier words have made them frown and they each take a threatening step toward him.

Except Conrad.

Conrad, who stands a little farther away from the rest of my brothers, says, “Callie, come here.”

I breathe heavily, glancing from my three ready-to-fight brothers to my oldest one. “Con, please. He didn’t do anything.”

“Callie.”

“He didn’t –”

“Get over here.”

I wince and start walking toward him. And as soon as I do, the rest of my brothers shift and sort of make a boundary out of their bodies, a line between me and the rest of the world, him more specifically, in a very obvious display of protectiveness.

As soon as I reach Conrad, I tell him, “Please, Con. He didn’t do anything. I promise and –”

“You lied,” he says.

Not loudly or bitterly or in anger.

He says it in a matter-of-fact way and my heart twists.

It’s not as if I’ve never lied to my brothers. Of course I have, but this is something big. Something serious. I know that.

As I said, they only have one rule: they need to know where I am at all times. So they know that I’m safe.

They give me everything that I ask for.

Even though they can be controlling and dominating – as evidenced by this display – they try to be reasonable. They try to understand where I’m coming from. They respect my freedom.

So I’m at fault here.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

Conrad’s chest pushes out on a breath and instead of anger, there’s disappointment. “Let’s go home.”

I look at my three angry brothers, who still appear ready to fight, and turn to Conrad. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I lied. Just please tell them not to fight. H-he didn’t do anything.”

At this, I see anger though.

I do see his broad features going tight. “Come on.”

“But Con –”

“Not a word right now.”

I snap my mouth shut.

Then glancing over my shoulders, Conrad calls out, “Just one. No more.”

I don’t know what that means or which brother he’s talking to.

Until I hear a thump and a crunch. And loud gasps and murmurs from the crowd.

At which point, I spin around and see that Ledger has punched Reed in the face, and Reed’s wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, somehow with his smirk still in place.

And he’s bleeding.

Oh God.

Despite everything I try to go to him, but Con grabs my arm, stopping me.

Thankfully though, there’s someone else out here who cares about him.

His sister, Tempest.

She breaks away from the crowd and dashes over to her brother who in turn does the same thing my brothers are doing to me: he frowns at her first before sort of stepping in front of her as if to say that the world will have to go through him in order to get to her.

My heart squeezes again at this brotherly display of protectiveness, this whole other side of Reed Roman Jackson.

And I’m embarrassed that his sister is witnessing all this hatred, but at least she’s here for him. Also now she really knows how bad the blood is between my brothers and hers.

When our eyes clash, I mouth, sorry.

She smiles sadly and mouths, my fault.

Well, not really.

I mean she didn’t put a gun to my head to bring me here. She insisted and I agreed. I could’ve said no and avoided this whole debacle.

But apparently not.

Anyway my brothers aren’t satisfied with one punch. Because all three of them take a step toward him, but Con puts a stop to that.

“Enough. Let’s go.”

They hate it, of course.

But they don’t disobey him.

Out of habit, I guess.

He’s not only my father figure, he’s theirs too.

He’s the one person who’s stayed for us. Who’s protected us and loved us, fought to keep us together and be our guardian.

He’s the reason we’re still a family.

So they back off and I breathe out a sigh of relief.

But when the time comes to walk away, I look at him.

I look at Reed.

I’ve been avoiding looking at him directly. I’ve only thrown him passing glances ever since my brothers got here – I still don’t know how – and