Protector (Kings of the First District Book 3)

Prologue - Bonnie

Inever really gave much thought to how my life would end.

Would I get lost in the forest behind the mansion I call home, and no one would be able to find me in time before I starve?

Would King, my big brother, unintentionally shoot me, now that he’s been trained with guns?

Would it be a total accident? I am clumsy, after all. Maybe I’d fall down the stairs or drown in the pool.

But what I never thought, nor ever anticipated, is that after only sixteen years of life, it would be love that killed me.

Okay, that sounds like a cheesy line from a romance book, and I suppose it wasn’t actually love that killed me.

But it was because of love.

I know what you’re thinking, sixteen years old and talking about love... How could a girl that young ever know what love is?

But I did.

My brother loved me. Sure, he got grumpy with me like all big brothers do, but I know he loved me. My cousin Dax loved me. He would always tuck me under his shoulder or plait my hair when it got in the way.

Once upon a time, my mother loved me, before her untimely death when I was just a baby.

But the way Puck loved me was unlike anything I ever knew existed. A feeling so powerful, it wrecked my entire being.

I love Puck more than I love the purple flowers in the forest. I love Puck with more fierceness than my love for fairy tales. My love for Puck is stronger than the love I have for my family.

And I know he loves me too.

At least, he loved me, past tense.

I also know what being unloved feels like, no thanks to the man I called Daddy.

For all my father is, a notorious leader, a criminal, a murderer, a man incapable of loving his own daughter, did I ever think he would go this far?

I never really gave much thought to how my life would end.

But my father shooting me, for falling in love and carrying that same man”s child, wasn’t how I thought it would be.