Chapter 41-50

Chapter 0041 Naturally breaking the tension, Sam shoved a bag in my face. “These should help Little Bit” His Cheshire Cat smile made me a bit nervous to open this in front of the adults for some reason. “Should I be afraid?” I opened the bag slowly. It was heavy. When I got through the tissue paper I found a pair of black platform converse high tops. “Awe, Thank you. I was actually expecting something to embarrass me. “Nope, but now you will at least be taller than our elbows.” He laughs with everyone else, me included. Cam and Kota got me black skinny jeans with a few tears in them to look worn, but not trashy and a black belt with metallic thread woven into it. Oliver got me a cornflower blue cropped peasant top, that goes off the shoulder and has puffy long sleeves. Mateo got me a delicate white gold chain with a crescent moon pendant that had 2 little stars on the end. “Mine comes later, so you just have to be patient.” Sierra wiggles her eyebrows at me and I am instantly afraid. “This is all great guys, Thank you! I really am going to go shower and change now. I’ll be right back.” I grab all my stuff and turn to race out of the room. I am becoming

uncomfortable with all of the attention on me. “If you didn’t catch on, that’s the outfit you are wearing today.” Sierra yells at my back. Followed by a boom of laughter. I just roll my eyes, of course she picked this out and not wear what the guys gave me. I have to watch out for her sneaky tactics. I have never showered so quickly in my life. I debated on having Sierra come up and help me do my hair and make up. I’ve never cared before, but for some reason having my birthday recognized by all of them made me want to care a little bit, at least today, Wrapped in my towel raced out to my

room to grab my phone, just to get a shock from seeing her on my bed. “Oh Shit! Stop doing that.” I place a hand on my forehead. The other is still keeping my towel secure. She just laughs. Will you help me do my hair and make- up please?” I’m still trying to steady my racing heart. “Oh, girl! I thought you would never ask! Let’s do this!” Way too excited, she looks way too excited about something as simple as hair and make-up. 30 minutes later I have been brushed, curled, styled, mascaraed, and lip glossed. She didn’t actually put a ton of makeup on my face, but what she did brought out the blue gray of my eyes and made them stand out and my lips were just average in size , but now they look full and fit my face better. My hair is up in a high ponytail with big beach waves.BONUS I actually feel confident like this. “Do you like it?” She sounds unsure. Yes! I’m sorry. This is great. I’ve never really worn make-up before. I train too much to put the effort in and have it all sweat off. But, this is just right, Thank you. this really means a lot to me.” I hug her tightly, hoping to put all of the emotions I am feeling into the hug. I can’t explain why to her now, I will just get sad and cry. But she needs to know, this was not some little thing she did for me today. “Okay, okay. Get dressed before these boys kill us. And I told you they would all go shopping with us.” She giggled as she shooed me out of the bathroom. “Now for your brother to hit one of them.” I put the outfit on and did a ittle twirl in my full length mirror. The outfit she picked was perfect. The pants hugged me in all the right places, but I didn’t feel restricted and even though the top was cropped it still skimmed the waistband of my high waisted jeans and covered the worst of the bruises and scars on my torso. What wasn’t covered she applied a layer of tattoo concealer. She really did think of everything. She was trying to push me out of my comfort zone, but knew what I needed to do that. I don’t know what I did to deserve a friend like her. “Oh, my necklace! I must have left it down in the kitchen. I think we are ready, right?” I did one more twlrl for her approval.

Chapter 0042 “Seriously, I need to make a bet on who says something first They won’t last ten seconds.” She mumbles to herself. “What are you talking about? Let’s go get this over with.” I open the door and we both head back down following the voices still in the kitchen, although it sounds like less than earlier. “Oh perfect, I wanted to see you before you all head off. You look beautiful, sweetheart. Have a fun day.” Luna Ava stops us in the hallway and hugs me once more and then winks at us as she heads out the front door. The rest of the adults must have cleaned up and left while I was getting ready. Sierra and I headed back into the kitchen so I could find my necklace and we could get going. “Damn, Little Bit, you clean up good. We are going to have our hands full today looking out for both of you beauties.” “l knew it was going to be you.” Sierra rolled her eyes at Sam. I just tried to ignore it _ He was always telling us we looked good in some way or another. Sometimes it came out creepy, sometimes s*xual to make me blush and other times it was sweet like now. “Did I leave my necklace on the island?’ asked the room at large.

“l have it here.” Oliver dangled the thin chain from one finger to show me and smiled. “Oh thank you.” I reach for it, but before I can get it Dakota has it in his hands. “Let me help.” “Okay.” Why did that come out as a whisper? These guys are acting strange and it’s starting to rub off on me. I hope something isn’t wrong. am finally starting to let them in, don t think I could handle losing friendships with any of them. I turn my back to him and pull the end of my ponytail out of the way. His hands are very gentle as they clasp the chain. “Perfect, Smalls.” Kota says quietly close to my ear and he lets a finger tip graze down the exposed part of my spine from my shoulder to the hem of my shirt before dropping his hand. My whole body

breaks out in goosebumps at the sensation. “Alright, alright. She’s hot, we all just figured it out, let’s go before throw up.” Mateo grumbles out and Sam starts laughing loudly as we all head to the packhouse driveway, but we don’t stop at the truck like I thought we were. aren’t taking the truck?” “Nope, the mall is a little too far for Sierra to sit on Sam’s lap or for you to be front and center. It’s not safe and we can’t have that We are taking Dad’s Denali. It has the third row.” Cam places his hand on the small of my back and guides me to the third garage door and types the code in to open it up, not once taking his hand off of me. A sleek black monster sized truck is what I see. I know nothing about cars or trucks, but this thing is beautiful. Super shiny, no dirt anywhere, even the tires and the rims are shiny. The Alpha is particular about his truck. We all walk up to open doors, the twins get in the driver and passenger seats. Mateo and Sam climb back to the third row, this thing must be custom sized, because they didn’t seem to struggle at all. Sierra goes back to sandwich herself in between them and Oliver and I take the second row seats. Once everyone was in we were off. So far 1 5 is looking pretty good. Walking the mall was the worst possible torture that anyone could have ever designed, ever! I would rather condition for ten hours straight than spend the whole day shopping. We got here when the place opened and have been slowly making our way to each and every store. I will admit though, Sierra has good taste. I now have several outfits that fit me better and really make me feel good, without pushing too far out of my comfort zone. We stopped at a couple places where the guys insisted on buying me little things. did have to stop them when we got to the lingerie store. I was not modeling anything for Sierra, let alone the guys. Mateo quickly seconded my opinion and ushered us away. My feet were killing me and I was dying to go outside. The stuffy mall air and fluorescent lights made me feel kind of claustrophobic.

Chapter 0043 I don’t know what Mateo told them about my birthday, but it feels like he is personally trying to make up for the last 15 years all in one shot. I discovered quickly that I had to watch what I showed interest in. If he thought for even a second I liked something, he would ask if I wanted him to buy it for me. I was actually worried our father was going to be mad at him for spending unnecessary money on me. He actually found a little kiosk that sold customizable bracelets. He found one that had several layered straps, some leather, some chain links, some thread. He chose one with black leather and stainless steel and paired it with a tiny charm that the lady engraved with ‘sis.’ Not to be outdone, Cam chose one that had sea glass green leather, like his eyes. His charm said ‘Tiny.’ Kota’s was sky blue, his charm saying ‘Smalls.’ Oliver’s was orange, which I thought was odd at first, because he always just seems to be in varying shades of black like a biker, but the more I thought about it, when he does wear a color, it is orange. like construction worker neon. His charm says ‘Bite Size.’ Sam makes a big show of choosing his, but by this point have figured out they are all choosing their favorite color and adding the nickname they gave me. Almost like they are marking me, without marking me. It made me smile at the thought. He brought me the red leather bracelet and dropped to one knee holding his hands out in front of him