Page 40 of His To Claim

“Unfortunately, it’s not, but it’s not like anything you’d wear would hide the fact that you’re poor, dirty whores,” Carrington sneers, and the other three laugh on cue. Sure, the girls are all beautiful, none more impressive than the “queen bee” herself, but something about Kinsley makes her stand out from the four. Her bright blonde hair, frighteningly symmetrical facial features, and bright green doll-like eyes almost sparkle.

It’s kind of scary how picture-perfect she is. Carrington is more model-like with blue almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, and naturally tanned skin, paired with an unnatural everything else. Drea is just a clone of her twin brother, Alek, with the same blonde hair and blue eyes but where his hair is more of a dirty blond, hers is golden with a slight yellowish tint.

They do, however, share the same wonderful personality.

Finally, there’s Wynter Servite, Ace’s twin sister and to me, the most beautiful of the four. Wynter’s platinum, almost white, hairfalls along her back in sleek waves and she holds the same intense ocean blue eyes as her brother. Their resemblance to one another is uncanny. Wynter also has a slight edge to her that seems like she’s hiding more demons that she cares to show. Uncommon for a spoiled heiress like herself, but it’s there.

I’d recognize the look of wariness anywhere.

But she’s also the quietest and most reserved of the four. Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard her speak, and she seems less than impressed by Carrington’s snide insults. It’s almost like she’s annoyed by them.

“Oh, Stella, I hope you don’t think you can actually pull that wig off. It’s a little too sultry for your virgin self,” Kinsley mocks and Stella instantly sets the wig down, embarrassed.

“She can definitely pull the wig off, virgin or not. Hell, maybe I’ll be the one doing the pulling,” Kai blurts out, coming around and draping an arm around a clearly shaken up Stella.

The girls scoff at his comment, ignoring as they turn to me.

“Just don’t ruin the party tonight. I mean just the fact that you’re all going is bound to ruin a fun night, but tonight is a special night, and I’ll personally make your life hell if you cause another one of your scenes with Ace,” Carrington scowls, and they all turn and walk away.

“Well, she’s a total bitch,” Ruby says, holding up a sleek silver-haired wig.

“Change of plans,” Jade squeals, turning toward us with a wicked grin. “I’m fairly sure those basic bitches are gonna show up in the exact matching basic bitch angel costume tonight. So instead, we’re all going as sinners and you, Stella, are going to be our angel.”

I turn to Ruby who’s holding out the long, sleek straight, silver wig to Stella.

“How about we switch, Silver?” Ruby says, taking the red wig in her hands. “Red’s more my color anyway,” she says with a wink.

Stella’s eyes widen at Ruby’s remark as she laughs nervously. “I can’t pull off this wig, it's too…”

“Sexy, that’s what it is,” Kai answers from beside her, his arms still draped along her shoulders.

“Kinsley’s right, everyone’s gonna see right through me,” Stella says, looking away shyly.

“Look, Silver,” I tell her, turning her to face me. “One of the first things I learned when I arrived at the foster house was that people are going to see what you decide to show them. When we got there, Ruby had a giant chip on her shoulder.” I turn toward her and hear her scoff. “Yeah, an even bigger one. Anyway, she thought she could push me around, and I almost let her. But I soon realized that she didn’t know me, none of them did. And if I showed her, showed them,” I say looking at Drake. “That I wasn’t to be messed with, then they’d back off. So, I did just that. I wrote in red sharpie all across Drake’s bedroom wall and I got this.” I pull up my sweater revealing the tattoo on my rib cage.

Long Live the Queen.

“And here you are,” Stella murmurs under her breath.

“And here she is,” Drake says, winking at me.

“But I’m not you, Scarlett. I’m not Jade or Ruby. I’m…”

“You’re Stella Freaking Silver. If your cousin is a self-proclaimed Horseman, then you can be a self-proclaimed queen.”

“Ivy,” she whispers, and we all turn to her confused. “It’s Stella Ivy Silver.”

After another twohours of shopping, we make it back to the apartment with three bags each, while the guys have gone back to their place and will be returning to pick us up around eight. It looks like it might rain, yeah plot twist, so the party’s been moved into Ace’s beach house.

We lay out all the items we bought from the various stores wewent to and plan our outfits, while Ruby heads to the kitchen and grabs us the sodas and snacks we bought for the occasion. After considering our options, we’ve come to the consensus that all of us, including the guys, must go dressed as sinners making Stella our little virginal angel, which we found out is true after all.

After the Halloween store, we stopped by a boutique that had the cutest yet most expensive pieces of clothing. However, Stella reminded us about our school issued debit cards, so we went a little crazy. Now it’s finally time. Time to assemble our costumes.

“What’s the deal with all this obsessing over Halloween?” Jade asks as she glues some jewels on her horned headband.

“Seriously, does all that stuff about the school being cursed because of the huge fire have any truth behind it?” I ask curious to know more.

“Well, according to my uncle and all our parents, the original founders of the academy were in fact direct descendants of the five original founding families of Hillcrest Hills. The Servites, the Silvers, the Smoaks, the Prescotts and a fifth unknown member. The fire was ruled an accident, but there’s always been a rumor it was started by a secret member of the fifth family. They say that’s why they were exiled from the town and not brought in when the school was rebuilt, therefore erased from its history. No one, except of course for the founders, even knows their surname.”

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