Locked Away #1 in Rejected Series (Posting weekly on Ream)

Chapter 1 - Sarai

Chapter 1 - Sarai

Sighing, I drop down upon the ground, my hiking bed barely giving me any give against the hardness. "Have I told you that I hate you, yet?" I grumble, feeling every ache and sore muscle in my body after the eight-hour-long hike.

Laughter echoes around me. "It's not that bad, Sarai, and you know it. We have been at this for two weeks now, only three and a half more months to go," Jaxx snorts next to me on his own hiking mat. His eyes sparkle with mirth as he taunts me, knowing full well I wasn't prepared for this four-month trip like they were.

Hurphing, I punch him in the shoulder. "I don't have extra abilities like the ten of you do to keep me moving at such a pace. Did you not see how I nearly died while climbing those rocks?"

I'm not being dramatic in the least bit. My ten best friends have been preparing for this northern tier trail hike for months now. I wasn't planning on going. Instead, I'd been giddy about relaxing at the beach sunbathing.

That plan went to hell two nights before they were set to leave.

At the age of twenty-five, I think I have a pretty great life. My love life sucks, but there's nothing I can do about that right now out here in the wilderness.

I've grown up with a clear head from a dark past with an abusive stepmother, a neglected father and two stepbrothers. Sean loathed me. If I could have died the year his mother married my father, life would have been peachy for him. Patrick, the sweetheart saved me on more counts than I can remember from his brother and mom's brutal hits and kicks.

I was seven when I went to school for the first time with cracked ribs, a black eye, and a broken wrist. Since Sean is my age, he had his friends yank my book bag off my shoulders, ripping it open and dispensing all my school work all over the ground. It was a windy day in fall and all my papers began to fly away.

That is until a group of males stepped up to help me.

I don't know what they saw in me, on my knees, heaving and trying to snatch my homework up before it all blew away, but to this day, I'm thankful they stopped. My little eyes couldn't believe they'd captured all the pieces of papers and fixed my book bag. Back then, I didn't question it. All I was happy for was friends that weren't trying to get to Sean through me.

Blaze helped me up off the ground, an arm around my waist. It was then I whimpered in pain with the sudden pressure on my broken ribs.

That was the start of their protectiveness. Drake lifted me up into his arms and carried me to a vehicle that had been idling by the sidewalk. Without so much as speaking to the person in the front seat, Logan opened the door and crawled in with Drake right behind him.

The driver drove us to a mansion high up on the hill in a secluded area where only the rich live. I, of course, freaked out and said I couldn't be here. I'm a nobody.

Pavan, I wouldn't learn until years later what his name actually means, told me I was more important than anyone could ever imagine. I didn't believe him, but at seven, I went along with it as all I wanted were friends. It's not like my father or step-mother would care if I up and disappeared from their lives.

If this group of guys was my chance to feel loved and cherished, I wanted to follow them. In reality, I wasn't a smart seven-year-old. Thankfully, they weren't pretending to care about me.

Pavan wasn't lying, the man had actually seen how important my life would be to theirs.

Once inside the house, Drake's mother–one of the top resident doctors of our small town of Port Orchard–rushed to my side.