Daughter of the Wolf Queen - Royals series book one

Prologue

I'm sitting on my porch, reading, when I  hear raucous, playful laughter. I look up - and catch a soccer ball to the nose. A girl , Mei Lin, steps forward and laughs. "Sorry freak, " she says. "I didn't see you there!" The other kids laugh along with her. Blood drips from my nose as I move my book, and head inside. 

When I get into the bathroom, I realize my nose is bleeding heavier then I thought, but it doesn't look to be broken. I'm fighting back tears as I clean my nose. And then I realize my dress is covered in droplets of blood. Now the real tears come. My mother - my birth mother -  sent me this for my fifteenth birthday last year. I don't get to talk to her, or see her, or even meet her. I have never met her, yet she still sends me birthday and Christmas gifts. I start sobbing, and within seconds, there's a knock on the door. "Come in," I say, in a choked, tear-filled voice. The door opens, and my sister, Chloe, walks in, wrapping her long, fair arms around me in a hug. "What happened, Des?" she asks, her voice muffled in my shoulder.  Teardrops seep into her shirt. I sob heavier, and tell her what happened. "Oh, Des. I am so sorry she did that to you.." Chloe says, pulling back from the hug to look at me. "Stay here, I'll be back in a bit," Chloe finishes, pulling me into another quick hug, and then she leaves the bathroom, and I hear the rattle of her keys being pulled from the hook, the door opening and clicking shut. I sigh, and clean my face of the blood and tears. 

I spend the night in quiet, but I don't sleep. I can't. I can hardly breathe. I listen to the contented chirping of the crickets, and the occasional hoot of the owls. Somewhere, a mockingbird trills loudly. I stay up until I can't hold my eyes open any longer. When I finally fall asleep, I don't sleep very well. I wake up to weak dawn sunlight trailing in through the window, and the sing-song chirruping of wrens and chaffinches greets me. I roll out of bed, and my naturally wavy hair sticks up in weird places. I walk into the kitchen and realize I'm the only one awake. I shrug to myself and get my clothes together for a six A.M. shower. I let the warm, soothing water roll over my back, my shoulders, my chest. The sound of the water pattering against the glass shower door lulls my buzzing mind, and the steam calms my throbbing nose. When I step out of the shower, the bathroom is freezing. I quickly cover myself, even though I'm the only one awake. My phone chimes with a reminder -  early school today -  and I sigh. "Time to get dressed," I murmur to myself. My bra takes a Herculean effort today, and I struggle with it. Once I'm dressed, I go back to the kitchen. I'm surprised to find not only Chloe, but also James, our other triplet and only brother. "Chloe told me what happened, Destiny.  I'm sorry Mei did that stupid crap to you. I talked to her brother, you know, the one who takes care of her? He said he'll make sure she doesn't upset you anymore." James says, a compassionate look on his face. His skin was more of a porcelain color, where as Chloe's was more cream. They had more fair skin then me. Mine was more olive, kind of dark. But I got the normal hair color. James has black hair, as dark as ink, and Chloe's is a fiery red-orange. Kind of like a fox. But the one thing we share is our amber-colored eyes. More yellow around the edges, and more burnt orange closer to the pupil. "You shouldn't have done that," I say, a tremor in my voice. This is going to make everything worse. "She won't stop, and you both know that." I finish, and Chloe shakes her head, her fox-colored hair shifting into her face. "Trust in us, sister. We know just what to say." she adds, and my dread climbs just a bit. With Chloe's gambling habits, there's really no telling what she said.