Damaged Like Us (Like Us 1)

“Fuck you,” I growl. “You’re a guest here.”

Brad smirks, but his tone changes—hostility mounting. “No, we won a raffle that we paid for.”

I grind my teeth. Calm. Be calm. I breathe out before I ask calmly, “Why even enter the raffle if you hate us? Why come here and take the opportunity away from other people who would’ve loved to be where you are?”

Brad extends his arms. “Free camping trip.”

I have no words. Full disclosure: I don’t understand them. I can’t relate. I can’t empathize. I don’t know if it’s because I stand on a platform, a pedestal too high to see from their perspective. I don’t know if it’s because as I try to jump down, into their shoes, I’m just flooded with rage.

My gaze daggers. Burning and churning, and my face is all blades. All sharp, brutal edges.

Tyler snickers. “Did you all really just pull us aside to lecture us?”

Brad snorts. “They did.” He smacks his friend’s chest, and they chuckle again.

Tyler shakes his head. “It’s almost like they think they’re so much better than us. The entitlement that you two have is honestly disgusting.”

In my peripheral, I notice people filming the interaction. Phones whipping out and pointed at us. This has traveled in a direction I never thought it’d actually go.

Sometimes I can’t predict what people will think. What the public thinks. Where’s Jack Highland when you need him?

Jane raises her chin. “We just believe that you should be kinder. Don’t tell a girl that she should be hogtied, even if it’s someone you see on TV. Even if they say they like it—they’re not saying they want to be hogtied by you.” She takes a deep breath. “If you consider that entitled, then…okay. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t fucking apologize,” I tell her. They’ve been beating her down for three days. I’m not going to let that stand.

“Oohh,” Brad says. “We’ve struck a cord.”

I growl, “You’ve struck nothing, asshole.”

“Maximoff,” Farrow warns in the pit of my ear.

I point at these guys. “I sincerely hope that you don’t ever talk to women like that in your everyday life,” I growl. “Fuck it, you shouldn’t talk to anyone like that. And if you can’t see right from wrong, then remove your heads from your asses.”

As soon as the words escape my mouth, phones buzz and chime and ring all around us. People whisper, casting glances our direction. Even my cell vibrates madly in my pocket. It’s like someone flipped a switched and shrouded us in darkness.

What the fuck is going on?

Eyes begin to zero in on Janie and me. Like we’ve just undressed in the middle of the field. Naked. Bare. My pulse speeds.

Brad practically cackles, glancing from his phone, then to me, back to his phone. Then to me. “No wonder you’re so defensive of Jane Cobalt,” he says. “You’re fucking her.”

I lunge.

“Nope.” Farrow grabs me around the waist. I’m all boiling wrath. I point at Brad, my feet dragging in the dirt as Farrow restrains me.

“You’re a piece of shit,” I sneer.

“You think I’m a piece of shit?” He laughs. “Dude, I’m not fucking my cousin.”

“I’m not fucking her!” I scream, my lungs on fire.

“Moffy,” Jane says in warning, her voice trailing ominously. She’s staring haunted at her phone.

What the fuck happened?

40

MAXIMOFF HALE

JANE, Farrow, and I only have about ten minutes to talk before my parents, her parents, and our aunt and uncle show up at the camp. All six of them drove over as soon as they saw the article.

Maximoff Hale and Jane Cobalt: The Secret Love Affair!

It’s fake.

You shouldn’t believe it either.

Fake articles always pop up online. We process. We put out a public statement. And we deal with it. This isn’t any different as far as I’m concerned.

Alright, it’s a little damn different.

I’ve never been accused of incest. Never even thought that could be swung my way, but as soon as we tell our side of the story—everything will be as it was.

“They’re waiting in there for us?” Janie asks an Alpha bodyguard who exits a camp cabin named Green Willow. He nods tensely, face stoic.

I climb up the short stairs with Jane, and we pause on the porch.

“Everything’s fine,” I remind her. “We’ll deal with it like we always do. My publicist is on speed dial, and I’m sure your dad wants us to coordinate with his people.”

Damage control. We’re all seasoned pros.

Jane inhales a tight breath, and nods reassuringly. I glance back.

Farrow has one foot on the step and looks between us. “If you two need anything, I’ll be right here.” Chatter in his earpiece distracts him. His jaw tics before he touches his mic on his collar.

I can’t distinguish his hushed words.

I move forward, grabbing Jane’s hand.

Right when Jane and I enter the cabin, hand-in-hand, the energy shifts. Our parents and aunt and uncle grow eerily quiet all of a sudden.

We take seats on two wooden chairs. Facing a wall of bunks and some of the people we love most in our lives. The six people who’ve influenced us. Raised us.

Who shaped us.

And protected us.

On a top bunk bed, Uncle Ryke sits beside his wife—my Aunt Daisy, the owner of Camp Calloway and Sulli’s mom: blonde hair chopped unevenly and a long scar down her cheek. She swings her legs over the side of the bunk, and her bright eyes flit to Ryke’s darkened ones.

He looks pissed. But I don’t know…that’s his usual expression.

Below him, on the ground, my mom rests on a black trunk. Plastic baggie of trail mix on her lap, she shovels a handful in her mouth. Nervous. She’s nervous.

My mom tugs at my dad’s crew-neck shirt. Like she wants him to sit, too. He shakes his head, leaning against the post of another bunk bed. Arms crossed.

Eyes daggered.

I look to Jane’s parents. Uncle Connor and Aunt Rose stand all-powerful. Side-by-side, hand-in-hand, armored for battle like a king and queen.

Only, I can’t tell who they prepare to fight. I glance at each of them again. About how they positioned two chairs for us to face them.

Is this an interrogation?

“I’m glad all of you are here,” I say, giving them the benefit of the doubt. “We should talk about how to deal with the article.” I pause when they remain quiet.

My mom shoots her sister Rose a cagey look. Jesus.

Ryke is staring hard at my hand in Jane’s—Jane shakes her hand out of mine. What.

I whip my head to each of them. Not able to glare at all six fast enough. “It’s false. Christ, I shouldn’t even have to say that.”

Connor takes the r

eins. “We just have some questions.” Jane’s dad is the voice of reason. He’ll be the first one to understand. Everyone else is dramatic—but still, how the fuck could they believe this, even for a second?

Or maybe they don’t believe it.

Maybe their doubt is just my paranoia leaking into common sense. They’re family. They’d never combat us.

Jane straightens, her chair creaking. “What kind of questions?”

“Nous avons besoin d'explications, mon coeur.” We need explanations, my heart.

“No French,” my dad tells him.

Rose speaks, voice icy. “We all need to be on the same page. We can’t let this divide us.” Her piercing yellow-green eyes drill holes into pretty much everyone. Even her husband.

“That’s what we want,” I say, my shoulders squared. I’m ready to resolve this and move on.

“Good.” Connor nods. “Let’s start with the night the cats escaped. Why were you in your underwear?”

Why the fuck would that need clarification? “We were playing a drinking game.”

Jane adds, “Sober participants had to strip instead of take a sip.”

“And we were using your rules.” My gaze swings up to Uncle Ryke.

Ryke rocks back like I sucker-punched him. “My rules? No fucking way. You can thank Cobalt for that one.”

I grimace at Uncle Connor. “You came up with the stripping rule?” He’s the polished one—and he drinks. I always thought it had to be either my dad or Ryke.

“We’re one question in and this is already being derailed,” he says, “and yes, I did. Back to that same night—”

“Hallow Friends Eve,” Lily clarifies.

“Such a cute name,” her little sister Daisy smiles.

“You’re only saying that because your daughter coined it,” Rose rebuts.

Daisy mock gasps.

Connor ignores the sisters, and he asks me point-blank, “Why did you have bite marks?”

My mom’s eyes dart to Jane. I start shaking my head. No. She can’t actually believe that Jane is the one who bit me. Aunt Daisy eyes us both. So does Aunt Rose.