Pine River Read Online Tijan

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Contemporary, New Adult, Sports Tags Authors: Tijan Advertisement

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Pine River was supposed to be a new start for me.
And it was, especially attending school with my three overprotective cousins, who were the triplets at the top of the social hierarchy.
Except they weren't alone there, and the first day when I came to school, I saw him.

Scout Raiden.
Tall. Lean. Tattooed. Mesmerizing.
He was a golden god with dark and piercing eyes-looking like he wanted to eat me up.

The feeling was mutual, and that was a problem.
It was lust-want-must have-loathing-hate all at once. I was affected.
And I couldn't have that. No way.
Not after what I'd just left in Cedra Valley.

I didn't care how much money his uncle had.
I didn't care that it seemed every girl wanted him.
I didn't care about his reputation as an up-and-coming fighter.
Or the promise of how those hands would make me feel.

What I did care about was staying as far away from Scout as possible.
Because the promise of his presence, the heat that was going to turn the light back on in my world wasn't a promise at all.
It was a threat.

I wasn't going to survive Scout Raiden.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

1

RAMSAY

Creak!

I opened my eyes to the sound of someone sneaking into the house.

I rolled over and checked the clock. Seven twenty-eight in the morning.

I knew who was sneaking in. It usually wasn’t the parent creeping in at this time of day. I sighed and sat up. My mom was coming home from a double shift at Pine River Nursing Center. She was being the adult, doing all sorts of adult things the way she always did. She’d made the hard decision that what we’d had back in Cedra Valley was dunzo, and since we were in a situation where we needed family, off we went to Pine River. The population here was barely three thousand, which was the opposite of everything we were used to. My last school had that number of people just in my grade.

I got up, not fighting a yawn, and headed to the bathroom.

Washing. Putting on makeup—the whole ordeal.

Then came choosing my clothes, and since it was my first day at Pine River High School, I knew I needed to be smart about it. Clothes were important. Clothes made the first impression, and I didn’t want too flashy. That was another lesson learned from this last year: Don’t be flashy. Don’t stick out. Don’t be a target. But I wasn’t a wallflower either. I wasn’t a pushover.

Hmmm . . .

I went with tight black jeans, a textured gray short-sleeve tank that tied in the front with a red flannel shirt over it to cover my arms. My light gray high tops rounded out the outfit—oh, and long, black feather earrings.

There.

I was preppy, edgy, and cutesy, but also nothing on me stood out to put me in the pretty-girl clique. I was pushing toward fashionable tomboy, and that was more me than I’d ever been back in Cedra Valley.

It felt good.

It felt right.

I could pull this uniform off for a year—my last year, then it was off to college and WTFK (who the fuck knew).

I sighed and took one last look in the mirror.

I had dark brown hair, but my highlights gave me a tawny brown look. I kept it shoulder length so I could sweep it back and not worry about it.

Not that I had to since it never got flat. It never got frizzy. There was always a slight curl to it, and when it dried, it looked healthy and shiny. I had fan-fucking-tastic hair. That also meant I stayed away from product. I wasn’t a dummy. I splurged with what money I had and bought the good stuff for shampoo. No conditioner. That was it. I kept it simple, but it worked for me.

I had almond-shaped dark eyes and a heart-shaped face—symmetrical. I’d been told that meant it was appealing to the eye. No bullshit, I had a face I could do almost anything with. Being confident in my looks wasn’t my problem. I was confident, but not arrogant. There was a difference. My mama taught me to love my body, love my mind, and love my soul. I did all three, but that didn’t mean everyone else did. Because of that, I was on a mission for no drama, no fighting, no targeting, no jealousy. Blend but not let anyone target me either.

Okay. My pep talk done, I nabbed my backpack and headed to the kitchen.

“Hey, sweetie,” my mom called.

I left my bag in the hallway and rounded the corner. She was at the toaster, and I stopped for a moment and took her in. She was tired. She had the same hair as me, but she’d put hers up into a clip. She also didn’t believe in makeup because, what was the purpose anymore? Her scrubs were baggy on her because she’d gone to the thrift store for those. She had good sneakers, though. She needed them since she was on her feet for sixteen hour shifts.

“Morning. Did you eat?” I asked as I helped myself to the coffee, knowing she’d brewed this pot for me.

“I did on my last break.” She set my toast on a plate and put it on the counter.

After grabbing some creamer, I went over and sat, but I didn’t stop eyeing my mom.

We were in an odd situation.

We had money, or we were supposed to have money. My dad’s family was fighting for what he’d left us, so what money we had, we might just lose to the lawyers. Mom and I understood that, while we might have some nice things from our previous life, those could be the only nice things we’d have for the foreseeable future.

My mom had gotten an education, but she had never used her degree. She married my dad and did whatever housewives did. Back in Cedra Valley, that was a lot of volunteering, a lot of luncheons, a lot of shindig parties in the evening, and a lot of gossiping. To Mom’s credit, she didn’t partake in the gossip, but she was friends with those ladies because usually the bigger the gossip, the bigger the purse. My mom cared about giving back, so being friends with those types was a requirement.

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