Savage Royals: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance(33)

I stared after him in shock as he walked away. The locker room door banged closed, and I jumped before tears burned my eyes. My heart felt like a dead thing in my chest, useless and rotten.

Is he right? An hour ago, I was thinking of Finn.

Will I just take any of them?

Cole’s words echoed in my head as I fled the locker room. Seventh period had already started, but it hardly mattered because I wasn’t going. I didn’t care if they called my grandmother.

I couldn’t stand another face, another class… another Prince.





Chapter 13





I felt sick. My stomach pitched and rolled as I laid my head on the wall of my dorm bathroom and tried not to vomit.

I hate this fucking place.

It was worse than being back home. At least there, my father had never pretended to be anything he wasn’t. He’d been a crude, cruel man who’d hated my guts, but he’d never smiled in my face and twisted my emotions like this.

My hand fumbled with the toilet paper as I rolled off a wad of it. I quickly wiped at my eyes and my nose, willing myself to stop crying. Something had snapped in me as I’d run from the locker room, still wearing my leotard and sneakers and clutching my bag and rumpled uniform in my arms. Halfway across campus, the tears had started to fall, and even though I’d put my head down and walked faster, I knew everyone on the quad had seen them.

They hadn’t stopped when I’d reached my room either, building into harsh, painful sobs that ripped from my lungs and tore at my throat. Every painful emotion I hadn’t let myself fully experience over the past decade seemed to rear up all at once, forming a tidal wave so strong it’d pulled me under. I’d never cried so much in my life.

With a grunt of irritation, I quickly tossed the toilet paper away and forced myself to my feet. Resting my hands on the sink, I stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes were lined with red, and I looked tired and defeated.

Who the hell is that?

I’d always been determined, strong. My dad had put me through hell, but despite everything he’d done, I’d come out the other side. Now I felt like I was falling apart at the seams. I turned on the tap and splashed cold water on my face, ignoring the way Cole’s words kept trying to worm their way into my brain.

“Get it together Talia,” I hissed at my reflection. “Are you really going to let these rich assholes drive you out of this school?”

I had the opportunity of a lifetime here. Having a school like Oak Park on my application would put me in the running at colleges I’d never even dreamed of. It would give me the opportunity to take charge of my own destiny so no one could tell me what to do. No one could crack a whip or dangle a carrot and make me play along.

Not my grandparents. Not the Princes. Nobody.

I’m not going to give up because those fuckwads want me to.

I snatched up a towel and dried my eyes and hair. Once I’d scrubbed what felt like half my face off, I hung it up and walked back into my room. I’d ditched my last two classes of the day, but if I got a jump on the next sections we’d be covering, I wouldn’t get too far behind.

“Fuck you, Cole,” I muttered. “Eat a fucking dick.”

The crippling sadness that had gripped me was fading, changing into what always lay underneath.

Determination. Discipline. Survival.

That was all I’d had to go on for most of my life, and it wasn’t going to change just because I’d been enrolled in a fancy prep academy. The Princes might think they were better than me in every way possible, but I knew something they didn’t. I knew how to survive without money, notoriety, or Mommy and Daddy.

I only had myself in the world.

And that would be enough.





Over the next few weeks, I threw myself into my studies.

We had four days off for Thanksgiving, and I spent it with my grandparents, but other than that, I didn’t go off campus much. I also did everything I could to avoid the Princes, or at least to avoid being anywhere alone with any of them.

When I wasn’t in class, I had my face buried in a textbook. The small amount of sleep I got during the week propelled me forward, and on the weekends, I hung out with Leah, Maggie, and a new transfer student named Dan. Because he’d arrived so late in the semester, he’d been relegated to the Wastelands too. He was sweet and geeky and didn’t judge anyone. I liked that about him. It was clear his family had money, but not as much as the Princes—and I loved that about him.

“What are we doing this weekend?” he asked as we walked across campus on the first Friday of December. It was weird to live in a place where the weather changed only moderately with the seasons, but I didn’t hate it.

Dan didn’t care about my trash status either. Or the fact that the Princes could make his life hell if they wanted to, just for associating with me. I tried to warn him, but all he did was shrug, adjust his glasses, and follow me and Leah around anyway.

His level of apathy about the whole thing was inspirational, actually.

“I need to study, that’s first.” I kicked a small pebble off the path. “Finals are gonna kick my ass. And then I thought we could download a bunch of horrible movies and watch them.”

“Horror movies?” Leah piped up.

I wrinkled my nose. “What is it with you and your horror obsession?”