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As soon as Sam carried me back into the house, I woke up again, still in his arms. I shivered slightly, but Sam provided enough warmth to stop me from shivering. Emily's worried eyes were on me, which somehow made me feel guilty. The other boys also gradually came back from the forest; they had apparently all been looking for me.

Sam carefully laid me down on the sofa. As he pulled his hands from under my body, he briefly brushed my back. I immediately jumped together, but tried not to let it show. And since Sam ran up the stairs the next moment, no one noticed.

“Where were you, Aurora? I thought something had happened to you." Emily said worriedly and crouched down in front of the couch. She reached for my hand and squeezed it lightly. It almost felt as if she thought I could break at any moment or disappear again. She seemed really afraid for me.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled. A moment later, Sam came back to us armed with two cozy blankets. He handed them to Emily, whereupon she wrapped me in them. They also brushed against my back, only this time I couldn't suppress a groan .It hurt so much.

Emily immediately jumped back. I seemed to have scared her because she fell over backwards and landed with her bottom on the ground. She barely caught herself with her hands, otherwise she would have ended up on her back.

Damn! Their questioning looks almost pierced me. I had to think of something quickly, otherwise they would ask me about it. Any excuse...

"I... I moved my ankle wrong," I lied as best I could, but I noticed that they didn't believe me. However, in the next moment, everyone's attention was captured by another person. Another Boy from this gang came into the house, but I didn't know him yet. I couldn't see him either because the back of the sofa was in the way. So I just listened to his voice.

"Sorry I'm late," he said in a deep, rough voice. He sounded depressed, but maybe I only imagined that.

I carefully sat up and peered over the backrest at him. At that exact moment our eyes met. I looked at him skeptically; he was also a huge muscle man with dark hair and that tanned Indian skin. The stranger suddenly seemed so tense and didn't move an inch. His deep gaze gave me a pleasant shiver that slowly spread down my spine.

"Oh shit!" Jared suddenly laughed and almost fell off his chair. Eye contact with the stranger broke and I looked at Jared, irritated.

"Paul, you're not serious, are you?!" Sam asked now. He didn't sound particularly happy, but I don't care. The more important thing was that he had told me the name of the stranger. Paul. This guy was just like a closet like the others, but there was something about him. He didn't seem like that. How should I explain it?

“Emily, take Aurora upstairs to her room. I need to have a word with Paul," Sam almost growled. Emily just nodded and then helped me get up. But as soon as my foot touched the floor, I jumped. A painful electric shock ran through my body. My legs were threatening to give in under my body, even Emily couldn't hold me anymore at that moment.

I could still hear how everyone gasped in shock. I was probably going to land unceremoniously on the ground, that's all I thought. But things turned out differently. Paul rushed towards me and caught me just in time. He had his strong arms wrapped around my middle and was holding me carefully against him.

"Th-thank you," I stuttered, relieved

and looked up at him. Our eyes magically attracted each other again, but this time too we were interrupted. Because after I was standing securely and Paul had let go of me, Sam picked me up without further ado and carried me to my room.

"I'd better bring her up myself and then we'll have a chat Paul!" Sam still sounded a bit angry. Emily followed us and put her hand reassuringly on Sam's shoulder. And it actually worked.

Once upstairs he sat me down on my bed and then left me alone with Emily. She looked at me apologetically. Somehow I started to feel like she was treating me like a fragile porcelain doll.

"What does Sam have against Paul?" I asked bluntly, unable to stand the silence between us anymore. Besides, he belonged apparently to the group and yet Sam snapped at him angrily.

“He has nothing against Paul, just...well, that's hard to explain. I'll just put it this way: Paul did something that wasn't actually bad, but Sam doesn't really like it," she explained in a gentle and calm tone. I nodded in understanding, even though I didn't know the exact reason yet.

“Oh and about your ankle, I’m going to quickly go get an ice pack. It doesn't look that bad, it's just a little swollen." Before she had even finished her sentence, she jumped up and left my room. She left my room door ajar.

I heard quiet voices from below, which was a good sign. It was so unbearably loud here yesterday that I woke up a few times during the night. But now, when I thought Sam was yelling at Paul, the volume was normal.A few minutes later, Emily reappeared with an ice pack and a small pillow in her hands. By now I had already laid down. She placed the pillow on my bed and then carefully lifted my foot onto it. Then she put the ice-cold bag on top.

Emily lay down next to me and just looked at me for a while. It felt like she was trying to look into my soul, but she couldn't. I had built thousands of walls inside myself so that I could never be hurt or taken advantage of again. And these walls could withstand a lot.

"Even though it might be a little too early to ask you this now, I just can't resist it," she began suddenly and then said quite excitedly, "How do you like it here? Are you glad that we have you adopted?"What was that supposed to mean now? These questions overwhelmed me again. Until now I had always had to lie. Every family asked this question at some point. And every time I lied and said how happy I was to be with them, but now for the first time I could really be serious. I liked it here so far. I didn't really feel at home yet, but it was nice to have a place where I was treated like a normal person and not like dirt.

“Um, yeah. So far I don't really have anything to complain about. Except maybe that Jared's wake-up methods are totally against the grain for me." I answered easily. After my last sentence, Emily giggled slightly and nodded in understanding.

“Don’t worry, he won’t dare to do that so quickly anymore. Otherwise he'll get in a lot of trouble from... Oh, not that important. What do you think,if I get us some hot chocolate and then we chat a bit. The boys will definitely need a while," suggested Emily. I nodded hastily. Chocolate, that's how she would always get me. If she were to serve Nutella for breakfast now, then she would really be my very own angel.

Emily disappeared again and returned some time later with her hands full. We spent the rest of the evening chatting happily about unimportant things, but it was still pleasant. At some point Sam disturbed us because the boys had apparently gone home. But Emily immediately threw him out so we could have some peace and quiet again. I just watched this scene with joy. Sam's horrified and suffering look in particular made me laugh.

Emily and I ended up falling asleep in my bed together.

The next morning I discovered that Emily had disappeared again. She really must be an early riser. I really couldn't understand that. How could a person survive on so little sleep? I always needed at least ten hours of sleep to feel well rested. That was also my problem at school, getting up early. It was always torture, I often overslept and then didn't get any food in the orphanage for the day. Those were the rules, but it still happened to me often enough to say that you can survive two days without this dirty food.

I finally stood up and noticed that my ankle no longer hurt. It was no longer swollen, just a little blue. But then I noticed that I had apparently slept in the same clothes that I had worn in the forest. I must have completely forgotten to change yesterday.

The next thing I noticed was my travel bag. It was still packed, but I could probably change that now because I suspected that my stay here would be permanent. So I could start filling the large wardrobe.

It didn't take very long to unpack everything since I didn't own much. I had also stored my stuff in the bathroom, my make-up, shower stuff and things like that. Once I was happy with my work, I changed into a burgundy top and black leggings. I quickly threw on a black cardigan and then went down to breakfast.

When I came downstairs everyone was already sitting at the table eating their toast in peace. So by everyone I meant Sam and Emily, Jared, Embry, Jacob, Seth and Paul. And you won't believe it, there was a fat Nutella Glass in the middle of the table.

"Morning," I called attention to myself. Immediately everyone's heads snapped around to me.

"Hello," the boys said wittily, but in the next moment they concentrated on their food again. Only Emily gave me a friendly smile and quickly got me my portion. Apparently she had saved one for me so that the guys wouldn't eat everything. I thanked her and then started to eat, of course the jar of Nutella was always close to me.

“How is your ankle?” Sam, who was sitting next to me, asked worriedly and briefly looked at my leg under the table.

"Everything's fine again, just a little blue," I explained to him. He nodded at me and left it at that. After that there was silence again, but this time it wasn't unpleasant. It was more calming and relaxing.

I slowly noticed how warm the living room was. Because there were so many people, it seemed to have heated up quicker. So I decided to quickly take off my cardigan and then continue eating because Jared once again cast hungry glances at my plate. And obviously I wasn't the only one who noticed.

“Don’t even think about it, Jared! You've already eaten more than enough," Paul reprimanded him, protecting my food from this insatiable person. He hung his head in disappointment and obviously listened to Paul. I looked gratefully at Paul, who was also sitting next to me. It would be the best thing to always sit next to Paul when there was food.

When we had all eaten, Emily stacked the dishes so that they could be easily transported to the kitchen. I grabbed the first stack of plates and made my way out of the living room. I didn't get far, however, because suddenly there was a loud clatter behind me, which made me jump. In a flash I turned around and saw everyone looking at me in shock. For whatever reason, Emily seemed to have been frightened and then dropped all the plates from her hand, because you could see all the broken pieces lying on the floor.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, not understanding what was suddenly going on with the others.

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