Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
Naturally breaking the tension, Sam shoved a bag in my face. “These should help Little Bit” His Cheshire Cat smile made me a bit nervous to open this in front of the adults for some reason. “Should I be afraid?” I opened the bag slowly. It was heavy. When I got through the tissue paper I found a pair of black platform converse high tops. “Awe, Thank you. I was actually expecting something to embarrass me. “Nope, but now you will at least be taller than our elbows.”
He laughs with everyone else, me included. Cam and Kota got me black skinny jeans with a few tears in them to look worn, but not trashy and a black belt with metallic thread woven into it. Oliver got me a cornflower blue cropped peasant top, that goes off the shoulder and has puffy long sleeves. Mateo got me a delicate white gold chain with a crescent moon pendant that had 2 little stars on the end. “Mine comes later, so you just have to be patient.”
Sierra wiggles her eyebrows at me and I am instantly afraid. “This is all great guys, Thank you! I really am going to go shower and change now. I’ll be right back.”
I grab all my stuff and turn to race out of the room. I am becoming uncomfortable with all of the attention on me. “If you didn’t catch on, that’s the outfit you are wearing today.”
Sierra yells at my back. Followed by a boom of laughter. I just roll my eyes, of course she picked this out and not wear what the guys gave me. I have to watch out for her sneaky tactics. I have never showered so quickly in my life. I debated on having Sierra come up and help me do my hair and make up. I’ve never cared before, but for some reason having my birthday recognized by all of them made me want to care a little bit, at least today, Wrapped in my towel raced out to my room to grab my phone, just to get a shock from seeing her on my bed. “Oh Shit! Stop doing that.”
I place a hand on my forehead. The other is still keeping my towel secure. She just laughs. Will you help me do my hair and make- up please?” I’m still trying to steady my racing heart. “Oh, girl! I thought you would never ask! Let’s do this!” Way too excited, she looks way too excited about something as simple as hair and make-up. 30 minutes later I have been brushed, curled, styled, mascaraed, and lip glossed. She didn’t actually put a ton of makeup on my face, but what she did brought out the blue gray of my eyes and made them stand out and my lips were just average in size , but now they look full and fit my face better. My hair is up in a high ponytail with big beach waves.BONUS I actually feel confident like this. “Do you like it?” She sounds unsure. Yes! I’m sorry. This is great. I’ve never really worn make-up before. I train too much to put the effort in and have it all sweat off. But, this is just right, Thank you. this really means a lot to me.”
I hug her tightly, hoping to put all of the emotions I am feeling into the hug. I can’t explain why to her now, I will just get sad and cry. But she needs to know, this was not some little thing she did for me today. “Okay, okay. Get dressed before these boys kill us. And I told you they would all go shopping with us.”
She giggled as she shooed me out of the bathroom. “Now for your brother to hit one of them.”
I put the outfit on and did a ittle twirl in my full length mirror. The outfit she picked was perfect. The pants hugged me in all the right places, but I didn’t feel restricted and even though the top was cropped it still skimmed the waistband of my high waisted jeans and covered the worst of the bruises and scars on my torso. What wasn’t covered she applied a layer of tattoo concealer. She really did think of everything. She was trying to push me out of my comfort zone, but knew what I needed to do that. I don’t know what I did to deserve a friend like her. “Oh, my necklace! I must have left it down in the kitchen. I think we are ready, right?” I did one more twlrl for her approval.
“Seriously, I need to make a bet on who says something first They won’t last ten seconds.”
She mumbles to herself. “What are you talking about? Let’s go get this over with.”
I open the door and we both head back down following the voices still in the kitchen, although it sounds like less than earlier. “Oh perfect, I wanted to see you before you all head off. You look beautiful, sweetheart. Have a fun day.”
Luna Ava stops us in the hallway and hugs me once more and then winks at us as she heads out the front door. The rest of the adults must have cleaned up and left while I was getting ready. Sierra and I headed back into the kitchen so I could find my necklace and we could get going. “Damn, Little Bit, you clean up good. We are going to have our hands full today looking out for both of you beauties.”
“l knew it was going to be you.”
Sierra rolled her eyes at Sam. I just tried to ignore it _ He was always telling us we looked good in some way or another. Sometimes it came out creepy, sometimes s*xual to make me blush and other times it was sweet like now. “Did I leave my necklace on the island?’ asked the room at large.
“l have it here.”
Oliver dangled the thin chain from one finger to show me and smiled. “Oh thank you.”
I reach for it, but before I can get it Dakota has it in his hands. “Let me help.”
“Okay.”
Why did that come out as a whisper? These guys are acting strange and it’s starting to rub off on me. I hope something isn’t wrong. am finally starting to let them in, don t think I could handle losing friendships with any of them. I turn my back to him and pull the end of my ponytail out of the way. His hands are very gentle as they clasp the chain. “Perfect, Smalls.”
Kota says quietly close to my ear and he lets a finger tip graze down the exposed part of my spine from my shoulder to the hem of my shirt before dropping his hand. My whole body breaks out in goosebumps at the sensation. “Alright, alright. She’s hot, we all just figured it out, let’s go before throw up.”
Mateo grumbles out and Sam starts laughing loudly as we all head to the packhouse driveway, but we don’t stop at the truck like I thought we were. aren’t taking the truck?” “Nope, the mall is a little too far for Sierra to sit on Sam’s lap or for you to be front and center. It’s not safe and we can’t have that We are taking Dad’s Denali. It has the third row.”
Cam places his hand on the small of my back and guides me to the third garage door and types the code in to open it up, not once taking his hand off of me. A sleek black monster sized truck is what I see. I know nothing about cars or trucks, but this thing is beautiful. Super shiny, no dirt anywhere, even the tires and the rims are shiny. The Alpha is particular about his truck. We all walk up to open doors, the twins get in the driver and passenger seats. Mateo and Sam climb back to the third row, this thing must be custom sized, because they didn’t seem to struggle at all. Sierra goes back to sandwich herself in between them and Oliver and I take the second row seats. Once everyone was in we were off. So far 1 5 is looking pretty good. Walking the mall was the worst possible torture that anyone could have ever designed, ever! I would rather condition for ten hours straight than spend the whole day shopping. We got here when the place opened and have been slowly making our way to each and every store. I will admit though, Sierra has good taste. I now have several outfits that fit me better and really make me feel good, without pushing too far out of my comfort zone. We stopped at a couple places where the guys insisted on buying me little things. did have to stop them when we got to the lingerie store. I was not modeling anything for Sierra, let alone the guys. Mateo quickly seconded my opinion and ushered us away. My feet were killing me and I was dying to go outside. The stuffy mall air and fluorescent lights made me feel kind of claustrophobic.
I don’t know what Mateo told them about my birthday, but it feels like he is personally trying to make up for the last 15 years all in one shot. I discovered quickly that I had to watch what I showed interest in. If he thought for even a second I liked something, he would ask if I wanted him to buy it for me. I was actually worried our father was going to be mad at him for spending unnecessary money on me. He actually found a little kiosk that sold customizable bracelets. He found one that had several layered straps, some leather, some chain links, some thread. He chose one with black leather and stainless steel and paired it with a tiny charm that the lady engraved with ‘sis.’ Not to be outdone, Cam chose one that had sea glass green leather, like his eyes. His charm said ‘Tiny.’ Kota’s was sky blue, his charm saying ‘Smalls.’ Oliver’s was orange, which I thought was odd at first, because he always just seems to be in varying shades of black like a biker, but the more I thought about it, when he does wear a color, it is orange. like construction worker neon. His charm says ‘Bite Size.’ Sam makes a big show of choosing his, but by this point have figured out they are all choosing their favorite color and adding the nickname they gave me. Almost like they are marking me, without marking me. It made me smile at the thought. He brought me the red leather bracelet and dropped to one knee holding his hands out in front of him displaying the bracelet in his upturned palms, really causing a scene. “Little Bit, will you accept this humble gift and wear my friendship bracelet for ever and ever.”
I think he was going for Romeo, but he’s not subtle enough for that. I just laughed and replied, “l would love to, good sir.”
With a curtsy for added effect and held out my wrist to him. He jumped up and squealed like a girl, clapping his hands before finally placing it on my wrist. “Show off.”
I heard someone grumble behind me. Making all of us laugh. “You’re just jealous, you didn’t think of it.”
Sam responds. Then Sierra walked up, ‘Let’s finish your arm rainbow.”
She wraps her own yellow bracelet around my wrist, the charm having runes inscribed. One for warrior that looked like an arrow pointing up and next to it a three pronged pitchfork with a small circle just above the hilt, two squiggly lines across the handle and a semicircle at the top of the handle looking like a bowl. “It means warrior friend.”
She said before hugging me. I looked at my arm and a sense of warmth washed over me as I looked at the six inches of multicolored leather and metal wrapped halfway up my forearm. I realized I wasn’t lying when I told Sam I would wear them ‘forever and ever.’ don’t think I could part with them.
“Okay, sentimental stuff is all over, let’s feed the birthday girl so she cooperates while dress her up like my own personal doll. Sam, go find your Little Bit some food.”
She commands like a dog trainer. He doesn’t even look offended, just turns and walks off, with all of us trailing behind laughing. Once we are all good and fed, we start our second round of shopping. We hit the formal section of a trendy shop. All of my bags are collected and stored next to the five chairs the guys are posted in in front of the three way viewing mirror set up on a little platforrn. They each pulled out their phones settling in for the long wait. Sierra is rushing around the store grabbing things off the rack. without even seeming to look at them properly. I don’t even know if she is grabbing the right size, but, with clothes, I have come to trust her judgment today, so whatever, this is her show right now. I just stand patiently next to the guys and watch the tornado that is my friend running around the store. When her hands were full she ushered me, followed by a sales lady with equally full arms to the dressing room. She went all out for the first dress. It was full length and huge, have never seen so much material before. The top was strapless and cut straight across, it also had a bunch of sparkles on it and the skirt was miles and miles of layered sheer fabric. It was a pretty gray/blue color that matched my eyes, not too deep or too bright but I wasn’t sure about it. This one was guaranteed to make me trip or get caught on something and I had to put my platform converse back on just to be able to not get caught up in the skirt
I walked out, stepped up onto the platform and all the guys looked up from their phones and just stared at me, frozen in their movements. “Yes!” This is a great color on you. Sierra cries. “Spin, slowly, please.”
She indicates by twirling her finger. “l like it, but you don’t look super excited. Next!” She didn’t even hesitate to move on. I would have felt bad for not liking something someone else spent so much time designing, even if they had no idea I rejected it. Sierra had no such qualms. I jump at her exclamation to ‘GO!’ and head back. She throws another dress at me when I give her the poofy one. This one is a bit more reserved on the excess skirt material. It has the same straight cut along my chest that extends to one inch wide straps hanging at the ends of my shoulders. have a feeling they are more for fashion than for actually holding up the dress. This one is a deep teal color and the satiny fabric feels great on my skim The slightly less poofy skirt also drags on the ground. I step out to the mirror and my waiting audience. “The Luna was right, jewel tones are great on you. Spin.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.