Brutal Heir (Court University 1)

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Blurb:

In Maywood Heights, stars burn bright. They fall even harder.

They call them the Court, an elite boys club who rule Windsor Preparatory Academy like gods among men. And, of course, they're led by Hercules himself.

Royal Prinze--yes, that's actually his name--walks around both the school and the town like he owns them. His affiliation to the prestigious Court only gives him more clout. These boys do anything they want. They take anything they want, and they f*ck anything they want... in that order.

Then there's me.

I came to Maywood Heights to live with my virtually indifferent father because my sister went AWOL. She chose to stay with him after our parents' divorce when we were kids, and I haven't seen or heard from her since summer began. The last thing I imagined when enrolling at her school was that she'd be connected to a group like the Court, and boys like Royal. She's nothing like them and so much better than Royal and his elitist attitude...

So, why then are they saying he's her best friend?

Warning: This enemies-to-lovers, high school romance contains some dark themes and light bullying. The book is not a standalone and is book one in a four-part series of full-length novels. Royal Prinze is the only hero of this tale... good luck getting him to share.

One

The air tasted stale here, tasted cold. It wasn’t like California. It wasn’t like home. Contrary to popular belief, my name being December didn’t automatically adjust me to the colder-than-balls Midwestern chill.

I’m going to die when fucking winter hits.

I groaned, seriously questioning my sister’s sanity. She’d somehow managed to live here most of her whole life.

You need to get up.

I closed my eyes instead, delaying the inevitable and my father, who no doubt was moving around downstairs. I hadn’t heard the door click shut yet, my room directly above.

You need to get up. Get up, Em.

My sister’s voice haunted as I pulled myself from warm sheets. They’d been the words she said to me when she left me, left me to move halfway across the country to live with our dad. She left with him after our mom passed, cancer a son of a bitch. I stayed in Cali because that’s where we all had lived, our aunt taking me in to live with her. I’d been eight and Paige had been nine, and I didn’t need any more damn changes in my life at the time, which had been the reason I stayed. Paige hadn’t, though, and it’d been the first time she left me.

This last summer was the second.

I dragged my head up, working my shoulders in an attempt to work the kinks out from an unfamiliar bed. Dad had given me the pick of the house, but I still hadn’t gotten used to the sleeping situation yet. With a lazy reach, I grabbed my phone, pressing a button to check for texts. As predicted, Aunt Celeste had checked in on me.

Aunt Celeste: Just wanted to wish you luck on your first day. Let me know if you hear any changes about your sister, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up.

As I heard all this before I left, I simply texted back, I’ll be cool and thanks. I will.

After doing a quick scan of my social media accounts, I stood to hard and creaking floorboards. Aunt Celeste’s and my place never creaked, never any give on cheap tiles and dingy carpet. It always worked for us, and lights always stayed on, my stomach fed. Bearing cold creaks with naked feet, I stretched and moved into the bathroom.

Yeah, I have my own bathroom… never getting used to that.

I checked more social media inside, then peeled myself away long enough to get washed up for my first day at a new school in the middle of a term. I supposed that decision had ultimately been mine, but not made because I actually wanted to uproot myself from my aunt, my friends, and everything I loved about my life. If I had things my way, I’d be back in LA on a bus to my own school with a Pop-Tart in my hand.

Paige saw fit to ruin all that.

My older sister better be okay because, if she wasn’t, I wouldn’t be—this I knew and the reason I made myself put some clothes on and trek downstairs in a house familiar to her and not to me. When Dad had been offered a job that took him almost as far away as he could possibly get from our old lives and Paige chose to live with him, I’d been pretty damn shattered for a long time. Paige and I had been more than sisters. We were friends, so yeah, I’d been hella hurt. In the end, I’d been a big girl and eventually gotten over it. There were more opportunities for her with our dad and I got that. She got stuff here with Dad, cars and fancy schools like the one I got to go to today.

“You miss your uniform or something?”

It also got her dad, Dad’s eye, and consequently, his scrutiny. I’d naively hoped he’d take his breakfast in the actual nook designated for that. He had all week since I arrived.

My presence known, I eased into the kitchen, my dad taking inventory of my acid-washed jean shorts and oversize top. He snapped his paper over the breakfast bar. “I had Rosanna leave it out for you.”