Inheritance of Obsession

Jaiden Mitchell and Zara Kane have hated each other for as long as either of them can remember

Not rivalry people mistake for flirting, not some cute childhood competition they eventually grew out of

Real fucking hatred

The kind built across rival high schools, cheer mats, bloodied knuckles, suspensions, parents getting called, and years of people learning not to stand between them when one finally swings

Freshman year at UNC is supposed to be Jaiden's chance to start over, living with her sister, finally having some freedom, and throwing herself into cheer, the one thing she refuses to fuck up and the same sport her mother once built a legacy in at Texas

Zara Kane was never supposed to be part of that

Then the redhead walks onto Jaiden's fucking mat

For the first time in their lives, there is no rival school keeping them apart, no separate teams, no walking away after competition and pretending the other one stops existing

Now Zara is everywhere

Same campus

Same team

Same fucking uniform

Jaiden already knows Zara better than she should, her habits, her tells, the people she talks to, the exact look she gets before she loses control

She tells herself it is because Zara is her enemy

Because you should know your enemy

Because watching someone is different from wanting them

Until beating Zara stops being enough

Jaiden wants inside her head, under her skin, everywhere Zara has spent years refusing to let her be, and Zara is about to learn that hatred is a dangerous thing to feed when the person hating you has never known how to want anything halfway

Zara thinks walking away means she escaped

Jaiden knows better

She never escaped a fucking thing

Jaiden just hadn't decided it was time yet