Dynasty (Boys of Winter 1)

Ember’s eyes go wide. “Oh, no, no, no, no. Tell me you didn’t?” she begs of me. “Please, tell me that this is just some bullshit mix up and you didn’t just declare some ridiculous war against the guys who could destroy me just for being nice to you?”

My face twists into a guilty cringe. “Well, I certainly declared something.”

“Fuck.”

“Chill out, it’s fine,” I tell her, briefly wondering if I should let her in on the finer details of my night before deciding better of it and keeping my late-night workout to myself. For some reason, I feel like that little snippet of information would fly around this school in a matter of seconds, and right now, I don’t know if it’s something that I want to use against Carver or just something that I don’t want to fuck up in case I plan on doing it again, which is more than likely. “Carver and I definitely have our differences, but it’s not as though I told him I was going to destroy him, just fuck with him a little.”

“You’re asking for trouble,” she tells me as we reach the front doors of the massive school. “He’s going to take that as the worst kind of threat and come at you hard.”

I can’t help the wicked smile that pulls at my lips. “I hope he does.”

Ember shakes her head as we make our way down to her locker. “You, Miss Winter with No Last Name are the most confusing creature I’ve ever met.”

“You’re damn right,” I laugh as she dumps the rest of her books into my hands so she can hash in the code for her locker.

She gets the door open and grabs them all before shoving them to the very back and closing the door once again. “So, tell me this,” she says, looking back at me, hooking her arm through mine and leading me over to my own locker. “Why do I get the feeling that being your friend is going to be the stupidest, but most exciting ride of my life?”

I shrug my shoulders, unable to tell why I like this girl so much. Maybe it’s her raw honesty or the way that she doesn’t hold back with what she needs to say. She doesn’t sugarcoat, just says exactly what’s on her mind, and for some reason, when I look at her, I see nothing but loyalty. “Who knows?” I tell her. “But I hope you’re right. We all need a little stupidity in our lives. Otherwise, we’d all be bored.”

“I’ve never heard truer words.”

We stop at my locker, shove my helmet in, and am just sorting out which books I need when a body slams heavily into the lockers beside us. “Hey, Winter,” Knox says with a cheesy grin. “Where’d you disappear to yesterday? I thought we could have chilled out for a bit, but one second you were sitting beside me in math class, and the next you were gone.”

“Yeah, sorry. I kinda ran out of there like my ass was on fire,” I tell him, glancing over at him and instantly deciding that King was wrong. There’s nothing bad about this guy to watch out for. He’s just that goofy friend who secretly wants to fuck, but doesn’t have the balls to admit it. Every school has one. Maybe King was just jealous.

“You good?” he asks, feigning concern when it’s obvious he’s just digging for information, making me wish that I wasn’t so good at reading people. “Did Cruz say something when he was leaving? I can say something if they’re bothering you. Make them back off.”

Ember scoffs beside me and throws her arm out, gently knocking Knox’s shoulder. “Oh, yeah right,” she laughs. “Stop trying to act all tough. Even if they were bothering her, you know just as well as everyone else around here that you can’t do shit. If Winter has an issue with them, then it’s up to her to solve it. That’s just the way those guys are, and you know it. Besides, I get the feeling that Winter isn’t the kind of chick who’s going to allow some random guy to fight her battles for her. She’s the kind who will go out for blood and make sure she looks good doing it.”

A proud smile rests on my lips as I look at my new friend. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything so sweet. I think I’ll keep her.

Knox rolls his eyes. “Whatever you say,” he tells her, throwing attitude at my new friend and instantly pissing me off. Why does she deserve to get shit for saying it how it is? “But one day all you people are going to realize that Carver and his boys ain’t shit. They’re just regular people. You all act like they have fucking crowns on their heads, which is the only reason they have such big egos in the first place. If everyone just treated them like nobodies, then that’s all they’d be.”