Child of a King

Chapter four - Welcome home + Characters

(A/N): OMG! People have actually looked at my story! Thank you so much. It means a lot to me <3

A social worker.

That was the last thing I wanted to stumble upon right now. Luca had warned me about those kinds of people. They put children without a guardian in foster care.

It felt like a cannonball landed in my chest, weighing me down as my legs moved without my consent. I trailed along with the others down the hallway to the lady's office, my mind racing a thousand miles per hour.

I didn't even notice I was sitting down, waiting outside for the adults to finish their meeting, until a firing anger burned through me. I was angry at myself for being hurt that my new brothers brought me here. I wasn't the sister they had longed for. I was nobody. Just a piece of trash they could throw away after they had gotten all of the information they needed.

My anger was also caused by the enormous amount of self-consciousness I felt around them. I wasn't good enough. A part of me knew that I never could be. I would be a burden to them. It had already been proved that some of them didn't like me. Maybe they just pitied me until they could find someone else to push my problematic life on. The anger that raged inside me turned to pain when I finally understood that.

When my empty eyes caught the sight of Nate stepping out of the office, shaking the social worker's hand, my chaotic thoughts were swiped away as my heart picked up. If they left me here, I could be sent to a new foster home that could be much worse than the one we fled from and this time I would be on my own.

What would Luca do?

My body reacted before my mind, already knowing the answer as I saw all of the guys and the lady walk towards me. It was like a switch was turned on, starting a different kind of fire within me. A fire so great that I leapt out of my chair, my legs going for a full sprint down the hallway.

By the sound of loud footsteps running behind me, I continued as fast as I could down the staircase, almost tripping over my own feet. I had only gotten out of the door and down a few steps when I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist in an iron grip, lifting me off the ground as I fought against it.

"Let go", I groaned, still struggling without any success.

"Easy now". Embry appeared in my vision from the doorway as he held out a hand in front of him.

"No!" I protested, as my captor brought me over to where the others stood. My lips trembled as pure panic started to boil in my tissues as my scared eyes bounced from one brother to the other, lastly landing on the social worker who accompanied them. God, I really didn't like her.

"Calm down. You're making a scene", a harsh voice growled in my ear, belonging to the one holding me tightly in his arms.

I shook my head violently from side to side. I wasn't going to calm down. It was too late. My anxiety was so close to reaching its peak that I feared I might not be able to stop it. The sting that prickled in the back of my eyes only made it much worse as my sight became blurry.

"Slade, put her down please", Nate sounded from somewhere close by.

I felt myself being lowered to the ground, but I didn't have a chance to do anything as the touch of someone's gentle but firm fingers enclosed around my wrist, their tall frame squatting down in front of me.

"Hey, it's okay", Nathaniel tried to soothe me, his fingers brushing my arms in an effort to calm me down. His presence was the reason for the water works to spill out of me as it was him who hurt me the most. He made me feel a fake sense of safety that had been ripped away from me in a blink of an eye.