Page 30 of Fallen Princess: Shadow Stalker

Her physique is similar to how she was, just filled out a little with more womanly curves. Ones, I’d fucking love to reintroduce myself too.

Oh, for the love of humanity!

I need to stop.

“Eden,” one of the guys says. I’m unsure who spoke because I’m focused on the dark-haired beauty before me.

Her once long blonde hair is still the same length, if not longer, but the color’s a dark brown, almost black, contrasting sharply with those mesmerizing bright green eyes. Her fair skin is now honey-tanned as if she’s spent a lot of time outdoors in the desert.

“Boys,” she acknowledges us with that familiar voice I remember so well. I wonder if she’s kept that strong Brooklyn accent she used to have. The one our publicist told her was revolting and even forced her to have speech classes so she would drop it when she spoke in public.

“Your hair’s so much different,” Jagger says, his voice softer than usual. “You look good, Eden.”

She remains poker-faced. She’s not about to reveal anything about herself.

“It’s her natural color,” I say. We all knew blonde was a color they insisted she keep. I remember how she once suffered a scalp burn. One can only imagine the amount of chemicals needed to get her dark roots to the blonde shade they wanted her in.

She strolls closer to us, eyeing each one carefully, silently scrutinizing us.

There’s no missing the black ink on her tanned skin, either. I don’t want to stare, but I can’t help noticing the different-sized stars that playfully grace her right shoulder and dip into a design into her back neck, while in the front, it falls into some florals that peak out from the neckline of her sleeveless top.

She’s wearing a fitted black vest, and her round breasts look impressive against her tiny waist, making them look larger than they are. My eyes quickly travel south as I don’t want to be caught gaping at her. Her curves are accentuated by the fitted, faded black denim jeans that sit low on her waist while a black belt with an antique silver skull decorates the buckle.

Fucking phenomenal.

“You’re not here to discuss my hair color,” she retorts. “I already know why you’re here. I want to know what possessed you to think you could just come and invade my lifeafter so long.”

“Why did you disappear, Eddie?” Asher asks. Just like my thoughts earlier, Asher let our affectionate name slip for her.

She recoils, and I’m not sure if it’s the question or the name he just used.

“You threatened my best friend, then come here to invade my life after ten years to ask why I left?”

Her eyes are wide, and her lips pout angrily. I can see that she has never lost that fiery side of herself. It was always cute and sexy, but now there’s a tinge of lethal danger in it. Maybe it’s this dark look she’s sporting, but I fucking love it.

“We weren’t in LA when news broke out. Trust me, Eden, we would have immediately been by your side.”

A mixture of skepticism and suspicion is etched across her face. Her emerald green eyes, always warm and inviting, now harbor a glint of doubt as they narrow ever so slightly.

“Jagger’s right,” I blurt out before she can rebuke him. “We were called back to London and told you’d be joining us after an interview appointment you had with some teenage fashion magazine. The place we were taken to was one of those retreats that had no wifi or phone service. We had no contact with the outside world. Oliver wanted us to focus on the next album without distractions, but by day three, we became suspicious when you never showed.”

“That’s when we started to worry that something may have happened to you,” Asher adds. “Days had passed when the story about all five of us broke out to the media, but we didn’t have access to our mobiles or the outside world until after we quit the property.”

“As soon as we got cell service, our mobiles blew up,” Jagger takes over. “Only then did we see your messages among the hundreds of others. Haze and I were on the next flight to LA when you didn’t respond to our calls, and your service provider informed us that you had canceled your mobile account. We assumed you were bombarded by the press, so you closed the line. Never did we expect that you’d disappear into thin air. Callum and Ash flew over a day after us. We hounded the Vixens for info about your whereabouts but were met with so much vengeful hate. Lea even had a court order thrown at us so that we wouldn’t approach her again because we threatened to harm her.”

“But you did threaten to harm her, asshole,” Eden mutters, furrowing her brows at Jagger, reminding me of the sort of cunts we were to her friends. But we were so desperate to find her, and our frustration got the betterof us.

“We had no choice, princess,” I assert, not just in defense of Jagger but for all of us, the unintended endearment escaping my lips. “You severely underestimated the feelings we had for you. The only mistake we made was when it became clear you were determined to remain hidden; we gave up too fast. But we were young, maybe immature, and confused about what was happening back then. Being older and some of us a little wiser…”

I avoid looking at my brother, “We should have made more of an effort, but we were scared to, just like you—”

“Except, we didn’t fuck off like you did,” Callum interjects. “We stayed, weathered the storm. Some of us emerged unscathed; others didn’t fare too well from the damage.”

My gaze shifts to my brother, and a pang of remorse stirs within. Regardless of the shit he threw at me back then and the number of times he lied about getting clean, I should have been there for him. He’s an angry lad but also prone to self-destruct when his emotions get the best of him.

It dawns on me that as much as I won’t succumb to self-blame for what happened to Callum, acknowledging that he bears sole responsibility for his actions, I also recognize that I should have remained by his side. Offering a supportive shoulder might not have changed his choices, but I should have been there nonetheless.

But would he have cleaned up his act had I made it easy for him?

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