Author's Note:

This story has a very twisted hero. If you have read my previous novel of Tyler Lockhart then  you should know that Dominic probably worse than Tyler so you have been warned. If you're a hardcore feminist, this is not the story for you. While I do not condone any of the hero's actions in this story in real life, this is fiction and is only written for the main purpose of entertainment. The story will have dubious consent, murder, stalking, bullying, elements of bdsm, dark and steamy scenes with twists. 

If all this doesn't bother you, buckle up ;)

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 MAEVE 

"You look great in this dress, Maeve. It suits you, trust me." That was my half-sister Harmony. She gave me one of her fake smiles, the one that she's been giving me ever since I arrived at her house. "I'm so glad you came to live with us. We're going to have so much fun!"

Contrary to what Harmony was saying, I didn't trust her at all.

My step-mom and sisters were nice, well on the surface at least, but inside they were ugly beyond imaginable. I also had an older step-brother Win. Well, he wasn't exactly blood-related because he was my brother through our parent's marriage only. He was my step-mom, Bridget's son from her first marriage. Win didn't live in the house and I hardly saw him except for when he came over to collect stuff from his bedroom. The last time I saw him was during the family dinner, when I was getting introduced.

To be honest, I liked Win more than I did the others. He seemed broody but nice under the surface.

I used to live with my mother until she passed away, and the only family I had left was my father, who had cheated on my mom and was leading a different life, and had two daughters. When I first arrived in this small town, I thought I was going to have a fresh start. Life would be good if not better, but it ended up being worse than what it used to be. I just had to accept my fate.

Until I could save enough money to move out, I'd have to endure this.

Harmony drove an old Porsche convertible, and from what I'd heard, it seemed that dad had gifted her that on her sixteenth birthday. It was both hilarious and sad because in the years that dad visited us, he always complained about how little money he made. Obviously, he favored my half-sisters Harmony and Melody over me.

Melody had done my makeup today, and she'd also given me hand-me-downs because I didn't bring many clothes from back where I lived. If it weren't for my father allowing me to stay with his new family, I'd be on the streets, so I was thankful for that.

They wouldn't show it to me, but I knew they wished I never existed.

As we started making our way from the parking lot to the ice-skating rink, I noticed a guy pummeling another guy on the floor. The guy seated on top of him had his fists covered in blood and a murderous expression etched over his face. His thick hair was a dark shade of raven. It's as if he sensed I was looking at him when he glanced up and his eyes met mine.

At that moment, he looked like the human equivalent of a crow, the type that would prey on people.

"Don't look at him, Maeve. Let's go!" Harmony whispered in my ear as she steered me away from the scene.

As she led me inside, I asked her. "Who was that guy?"

"He's bad news." She said, "If you want your senior year to go smoothly, steer clear of him."

"What did he do?" Curiosity wasn't my strongest pursuit.

"Really bad things. His family basically owns this town, so you see Mr. Troublemaker takes advantage of that, and whenever there's a screwup, his family sweeps it under the rug! He was almost saved from going to Juvie a few years back, but now that he's an adult, I doubt they can do much." She explained, "You would do better if you stayed away from him."

"I will. Thanks for the heads up, Harmony."

She smiled at me. "You're welcome! That's what sisters do."

We went to the ice rink together. I wasn't as good at it as Harmony was, but it was still fun. The place was packed with a lot of people, mostly kids from school. Since I'd arrived two weeks before, I didn't know anybody. I was starting school on Monday.

I couldn't say that I was excited. I just wanted to be done with high school so that I could move out to the university and get a job that could pay me well. Those were some of my dreams.

The boy from earlier skated past us smoothly and, with the way his legs moved, you would think he was a pro skater.

Harmony rolled her eyes, "What a showoff."

I skated for an hour before my knees started giving up and Harmony was catching up with someone from school. I just noticed that whenever her friends were around, she would act like I didn't exist.

I felt a bit hurt, but I wasn't going to let that bother me.

After I'd gotten rid of the skates, I decided to get a slushie.

I was shy around people. It was difficult for me to start conversations with people and I hated crowds. They gave me serious anxiety, but I'd made up my mind that I would try my best to make friends at my new school. Trying things out of my comfort zone was something I needed to do.

When my mother was alive, she coddled me as much as she could and she was really strict. She would get mad if I even talked to a boy from my class, which turned worse as I grew older. I didn't even remember talking to a young guy that was my age. The only man in my life that whom I had a decent relationship with was my father.

"That would be three dollars." The lady pushed the rainbow slushie towards me.

I opened my purse to look into it but found only two dollars in it. I'd forgotten to take extra money from my dad when I'd gotten here.

"I'm sorry, is it okay if I came back for the drink later? I have to get a dollar from my sister." I told her.

The lady grumbled under her breath and I was about to leave when another hand with a ten-dollar bill waved at her.

"Keep the change." He said.

She took the money without a word and handed me the slushie.

It's like my legs turned to Jell-O.

I was looking at the boy from earlier, the one that Harmony had warned me about.

I gripped the slushie in my hand. "I...I can't accept this."

"Sure, you can." He gave me a friendly smile.

The neon lights illuminated over his handsome face and I could properly see how well-defined his cheekbones were, and his dark eyes held something that I wasn't familiar with. If I could develop a crush on someone in this town, it would be him. Too bad that he was off-limits because of his shenanigans.

His smile turned into a wicked grin. "Something wrong?"

"I don't know you," I explained.

"We can remedy that. I'm Dominic . What's your name?" He raised his hand out for me to take.

I stared at his hand suspiciously. Just an hour ago, that hand was covered in blood, now it almost seemed non-existent like that particular scene outside never happened. That murderous look was gone, replaced by a friendly smile.

I accepted the handshake, "My name's Maeve."

"Adorable name for an adorable girl." He complimented me, his eyes moving over me in a cursory glance.

I wondered if he was teasing me because of the way I was dressed. It wasn't what girls usually preferred. I mostly wore dresses or skirts with matching hair accessories that held my curls together. It might have seemed old-fashioned for someone, but this is what I'd been provided with. My mother had drilled it into my head that girls shouldn't be showing a lot of skin and jeans made you look attractive because of how nice my butt would look in it which was ridiculous because I would still find boys staring at me.

"Are you making fun of me?" I asked him outright.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Making fun of you? And why would I do that? I think your dress is cute. For real. Your hair, too."

My heart was beating wildly against my chest. I'd never experienced getting complimented by boys.

"Thanks for the drink," I said before turning and walking away from there.

I could feel his eyes boring into my back.

My phone buzzed in my bag. When I pulled out it out, I realized it was a text from Harmony.

Harmony: Hey sis, my friend invited me over to her place, so I gotta split. Sorry for leaving you there. The plan was sudden. You can manage to get home alone, right? x

Me: Okay. No problem.

Harmony knew that I was new to this town and I didn't know anybody, and yet she'd pulled this at the last minute.

It's something the girls usually did. Leave me in these situations like some kind of twisted revenge for being included in their family. Maybe they wished something bad happened to me so that I would be out of the way and they didn't have to feel guilty.

I didn't know anyone in this town, so asking someone for a ride home would be useless.

I walked out of the ice rink into the crisp night and made my way towards the main road where cars zoomed past me. I could feel the bite of the frigid air. It was cold even though it was the middle of summer and the worst part was that I'd forgotten my jacket home.

It was a twenty-minute walk home from the skating rink. I could manage that. The only problem was the long walk through the deserted road. There were hardly any houses here, and the fact that I was new here made things even worse.

As I continued to walk down the road, I felt a sudden presence behind me, like I was being watched.

Don't look back. Keep walking, Maeve!

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