She rolled her eyes, and the spell broke as she held her other hand out to introduce herself. “Hi, I’m Noinin.” She broke her name down into syllables—No-neen.
She clearly thought I was an idiot, talking to me like that, or thought I looked like a tourist. Still, I was older than her so I acted it, glaring at her.
“Shoulda just called you Daisy. Would have been easier for everyone,” I smarted back, trying to shut her down, and/or scare her off.
My ploy for scaring her off by being a bitch didn’t work.
“Aye, they probably shoulda.” She nodded her head to agree with me before doing a complete one-eighty, turning into an intelligent-sounding kid right before me. “But it goes with my parents' balmy tradition of their firstborn and last born sharing letters.”
“Huh?” I seriously couldn’t keep up with her. Her accent was thick, and when she got some speed to her speech, it was hard to understand.
She shrugged, passing my phone back before explaining herself more. Slowly. “Ronin was their first born, and me, fingers crossed, will be the last child they’ll be having. So, they had to work with Ronin, which is why I got Noinin. You get it yet? The last three letters of our names match. Now the family is a finished circle.”
That made no sense to me, but I wasn’t about to argue with her. “Are you going to be a teacher when you get older? You’re good at explaining things,” I said, hoping to distract her enough for her to run off and play with someone else.
It didn’t work.
She smiled with a big, cheesy grin. “Dunno.”
I changed tactics and flicked my chin at her. “You purposely dressed like that to scare everyone?”
“Nah. But I do need to marry my brother and his friends off to keep the spirits at bay.” And then she looked at me like a cat does a mouse. “I knew you’d come. I’ve been waiting for you.”
The bad feeling pulling at my chest only intensified at the way she started sizing me up. “What? Why? I’m not marrying them, by the way. I’ll help you come up with another idea to keep the spirits happy, hey?”
She rolled her eyes and dropped her hand on her popped hip, basically glaring at me in challenge. “What if I am a real-life banshee, and I’m offering you the chance of a lifetime?” Her voice became all willowy again, her small, spindly arm lifted,and the sleeve of her dress swallowed her whole arm, except for the gnarled stick she used to point.
Of course, my eyes followed what she was pointing out. Although it wasn’t a what—it was a whom.
It wasn’t hard to see the similarity between Noinin and her brother. While she had a crown of fiery red curls, his hair was darker overall, but in the afternoon sun, you could see he had the same red hair gene. His hair sparked like rubies. And they definitely shared the same vibrant green eyes, almost the exact color of shamrock.
He was crazy tall. And I was pretty sure no amount of growing was ever going to get Noinin up to his height. Same for me, though. I’d never be his height.
She moved closer while I was staring, her hand curling around mine. “That’s Ronin, my brother.”
Just from that look, I was a little intimidated, without even properly meeting him. He and his three friends were obviously older, and they were drop-dead gorgeous. I don’t want to say they were arseholes, but they certainly knew they were good-looking, strong too. Four of them would be Alphas, for sure. It was in their energy, and it nipped against my skin, making me shiver.
“Don’t worry about anything. They’ll treat you better than a queen, because Omegas are precious.”
“What? I’m not an Omega.” I spluttered.
She ignored me and started on the introductions. “So, that’s Keegan, Tynan, and Rafferty. For the record, they all think the sun shines out of their arse.”
“Noinin!” I scold. The Irish have a thing for kids swearing, despite swearing basically being a second language in Ireland.
“What? They swear. Besides, I have to let you know what you’re getting yourself into. And you know who my da is, right?”
“Not really. I’m only here for the summer.”
“How’d you end up here, then?” Her lips pulled together while she waited for me to answer, but she was impatient and acting like whatever I would say was irrelevant, anyway.
“In a car,” I clipped, my uncle’s warning of keeping my mouth shut ringing in my ears as I took a step back. “I think I’m going to go sit in the car and wait, actually.”
She proved she’s someone to be wary of when she snatched a hold of my wrist with an unworldly strength. “Keegan—he’s the one right next to Ronin—is a tough guy. Tynan’s got the shaved head, ’cause he got nits, but don’t tell him I told you. Their ma is a bit…” She circles her finger and crosses her eyes. “Anyway, he’s the sulky one in the bunch and spends way too much time training to be a boxer.”
“Sulky? Boxer?”
“He doesn’t like to talk. He watches, though. And never misses a thing, just saying.” She takes a big, showy inhale before going on, her stick mysteriously appearing in her hand as she moves to the last person in their group. “Rafferty is different again. Smart as a whip and is definitely the brains of the pack.”
