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His hand ski the tense hteningly intelligent, and that you dislike being the center of attention," he pro he hadn’t spent the past six weeks spying on her like some creepy stalker "I also know that you rarely allow people close to you, but you’re fiercely loyal to the few friends that you trust And that you’re lonely and you’ve never felt like you belong"

She stiffened, clearly disturbed by the realization of just how much she’d unconsciously revealed

"You can’t know that," she breathed

"I can because I felt the same"

Her eyes narrowed in disbelief "You?"

"Sentinels aren’t always recognized until they hit puberty," he explained, revealing the sort of inforh-bloods She would soon be a part of his world Whether she liked it or not "When I was a child I went to public school, but even at a very young age I knew that there was soher, see better, and hear things no one else could"

She frowned "And that was a bad thing?"

His jaw clenched at the ed his early years

"Boys can be extremely competitive and no one wants to play with the kid who alins"

Her expression softened with syth kicked in"

Her fingers spread across his chest "What happened?"

"I nearly killed a neighborhood boy when he threw a rock and hiton the ground with his face beaten bloody was one that had haunted him for years "That’s when my mom called Valhalla"

"Did they come and take you away?"

"Yes"

Her hand lifted to cup his face, her heart far too tender for her own good

"Were you unhappy?"

"At first," he admitted "My mother came to visit when she could, but I’d become too wary to ant kid with a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Rushmore In no way did he want to admit he was one of the mutants "Especially when they were all freaks"

Her thu a blast of heat through hi her in his rooms Their rooms At least for the next month or so

"What happened?"

"Wolfe, a boy a few years older than me, walked up and punched rowled in outrage "What did you do?"

His lips parted into a wide smile "Exactly what you’d expect me to do I picked myself off the floor and did my best to kill the son of a bitch"

Her frown deepened "Why are you s?"

"Because I discovered that I’d finally encountered soth, but could kick my ass"

"I don’t understand"

Of course she didn’t

Only two males could appreciate the nuanced diploht

"For the first time ever I didn’t have to hold back I didn’t have to pretend I was ‘less’ than what I was" He deliberately caught and held her gaze "I found the place where I belonged"

"And Wolfe?"

"He’s the current leader of the Sentinels and ers up and down the line of his jaw, seely fascinated by the feel of his five o’clock shadow

"You never mentioned your father"

He lifted his hand to press her palainst his cheek "He died when I was just a baby"

"Oh, I’m sorry"

"What about your parents?"

Her lashes instantly lowered to hide her eyes

"I was the product of a one-night stand," she said, her voice stripped of emotion "I never knew my father, not even his nah as he felt the barriers rising between theoing to be enough to convince her to lower the barriers surrounding her heart