Chapter 1 - Entitled Brat

"You two did what?!"

Natalia looked away.

Charles lowered his gaze.

"You stole a hundred kilograms worth of drugs from them?"

Neither of them responded.

"Answer me!"

"Alright!" Natalia shrieked, which startled Sarah who was applying ointment to the small bruises and cuts on her face, along with the busted lip that was going to take much longer time to heal. Natalia, enwrapped in a small blanket, narrowed her eyes towards her screaming uncle; sometimes she hated having that many of them. "We did, Uncle Dante. But it wasn't—"

"And you went with her?"

Charles squirmed in his seat. In contrary to Natalia, Charles was frightened of them.

They were all there, standing around them as though they were going to beat both of them in a few seconds. The worst part was that they had all been in this lifestyle before, hence their tightened faces with glares and broadened shoulders was way too intimidating for him. Sweat dripped from the corner of his forehead as he glanced towards Natalia who kept her brows furrowed.

Natalia had been having these random dangerous missions lately, and it had gotten progressively worst. Every single time, her father, Lucius Hercules, saved them from being killed, but they had been getting much more injured. Luckily, the injuries hadn't been too severe, but they would have been killed if Lucius didn't show up when he did.

But he didn't want her to get in trouble.

"It was my idea," he whimpered, lowering his gaze again.

"Don't fucking lie," Lucius growled as he exhaled from his cigarette, seated on the couch directly in front of them. "I know it was her because she's so fucking stupid."

"I got it from you so what does that make you?" Natalia retorted, leaning forward in her seat.

From the moment he was born, there was only a handful of times he had been spoken to that way. Thankfully, she was his daughter and he would never lay a hand on her, but if it had been anyone else, they would have definitely been blood.

"This isn't a joke, Nat." The clank from the metallic foot made Natalia roll her eyes; nothing worst than an unrelated fake dad to tell her what to do. Jake folded his arms over his chest and snapped, "The next time, Lu won't be there to protect you."

"There won't be a next time," Charles promised, rapidly shaking his head. "I promise, I'll make sure of it." None of them looked convinced, especially his own father who folded his metallic arm over his other arm. From all of them, his disappointed look made him feel the worse.

Nate tilted his head to the side, staring at blue eyes of his son that reminded him so much of himself. This was not the life he had wanted for him, but it was tough, considering Lucius decided to take the reins on a new Hercules troop and Natalia wanted to be involved in it.

"Don't look at him." Charles flinched when Dante stepped in front of him, blocking his view from Nate. "The next time this happens, I'm shipping you off to some boarding school overseas and you're not seeing any of us for a whole year, do you understand me?"

"You're not going to do shit," Natalia snapped.

Sarah's eyes widened in horror as she gasped, "Nat..." Her daughter had been acting very strangely and with such vulgar lately, and she wasn't a fan of it.

"I told you," Lucius growled as he threw his hands in the air, standing to his feet, "she doesn't fucking listen, she's been such a brat lately."

"Because I'm seventeen years old but you all treat me like I'm a fucking kid—!"

"You are a kid!" Jake shouted. "And you're dragging another sixteen year old kid," he pointed to Charles who squirmed again, "into your fucking mess!"

"He is old enough and smart enough to make his own goddamn decisions!"

"No, you both aren't, that's why you're not legal adults yet," Jake continued, leaning closer to her. "You're supposed to go to school and get into drama there with your friends, not skip class to go rob an upcoming troop that fucking hates us already."

"You all know that I hate school," Natalia grumbled. "And you all didn't go to high school either."

"Actually, we did," Nate finally intervened, his arms folded over his chest with his eyes narrowed. "I was in high school and Jake graduated high school. Besides, we all completed our high school credits."

"Really?" Natalia gasped sarcastically. "Then how come you're all still idiots?" Nate turned to Lucius who was fuming, turning around and storming away from the living room. This girl was so mouthy that it shocked all of them. "I don't know why you're all so mad all the time! I won't get myself killed, alright?"

"You're fucking grounded."

"You can't ground me," she spat to Dante who had approached her, their faces near one another. "You don't even live here and dad doesn't even like you."

Dante froze for a moment, furrowing his brows. "What do you mean he doesn't like me?"

"That's not important, Dante," Nate exhaled behind him, rolling his eye. "She's baiting you to change the focus."

"Dad doesn't like you either—"

"Nat, please!" Charles shrieked, gripping onto her shoulder to stop her. "Stop talking, you're making it worse!"

He was quivering in his seat because even as Lucius walked away, there was still six of them left—not including Sarah—that were much more frightening than any other troop leader out there. The worst part was that although his own fathers—Nate and Dante—had refrained from telling him anything from their past, Natalia's father—Lucius—had told her much more than he should have, and all the gruesome details had been shared to the innocent ears of Charles.

"One time, he stabbed someone in the stomach so many times that their insides started leaking out."

"Apparently our grandpa was crazy, and Lucius was going to kill him so he strapped himself with over thirty explosives!"

"Uncle Jake lost his leg in that fight, and your dad got his arm ripped off when he was being tortured by Cesar's troop, which turned out to be his own dad's troop!"

All these endless stories, all the more gory and gruesome, and all making Charles' fingers tremble as he stared at all of them that had been apart of those stories.

On the far left was a man wearing a white elegant bucket hat and white cloak, boots with heels and holding a cane for style. His long silvery hair reached the back of his knees, and it was uncanny how young he looked, as though he was still in his twenties. Still the leader of an infamous troop, with the strongest combat style ever witnessed, Cesar Dayne was as strong and powerful as he was when Draco had the reins.

Beside Cesar was his other son, Jules Dayne, who hadn't said a word since he got there, but the narrowed dark eyes that continuously sharpened the more Natalia spoke, was enough to show how dangerous he could be. Behind him, leaning against a wall without any care for the situation, was Bronsted Hercules. He really had distanced himself from the dangerous lifestyle that all he was worried about was heading to work on time in the morning.

Beside Jules was his half-brother, Nathan Kennedy, who didn't look angry, but the disappointment made Charles feel as though his heart had fingers around it that continuously squeezed harder and harder. On a side note, Charles thought his dad was unbelievable cool, notably because of the metal arm and eye; he practically resembled a super hero with all those gadgets.

Next was furious Dante Kennedy who was doing everything he could not to land a series on punches on the both of them—Natalia could handle it. And finally was the enraged Jake Treasure who had been continuously mistreated by his own daughter the moment she found out that he wasn't blood-related to her.

All of them always showed for any moment of panic, and Charles hated when that happened because they were way too scary. His blue eyes quivered as they shifted from side to side, meeting the gaze of all the intimidating—and horrendously tall—hoard of people. The only gentle aura around was of Sarah who had shifted her focus onto Charles, applying ointment on bruises and cuts and stitching whichever wound needed it.

But even Sarah didn't look at all happy, and it was the first time she had allowed all of them to shout at them without intervening once to tell them to calm down.

Unfortunately, Lucius, who had walked away to calm himself down, heard what Natalia had said and rushed back inside the living room to snap, "You're grounded for three months."

"You can't ground me for that long."

"I can," Lucius leaned forward, "and I fucking will. Daily chores, all your electronics and gadgets are gone, you're back home by four fucking p.m."

Natalia stormed to her feet, wrinkling her nose as this made no sense to her. "School finishes at three thirty and I have to walk for half an hour before I even reach the forest entrance to the base, then it takes another half an hour—"

"I don't give a fuck Natalia!" That made her flinch, her father's voice climbing so high that it boomed through her eardrums. "You should have thought about that before you decided to go rob another troop for fucking drugs!" He raised his fingers and started counting on them as he spat, "If you miss one class, just one, in those three months, I'm pulling you out of school and you're homeschooled."

"Dad, what the fuck?!"

"And," he shouted louder to tune out her shrieks, counting on another finger as he spat, "you're not allowed to hang out with Charles during that time. Matter of fact, you can't hang out with any of your friends. And no more training, no more martial arts, no more hanging out at Cesar's house so he can let you do whatever the fuck you want!"

"W-What?" Cesar gasped, although it was evident through his shifting eyes that he knew exactly what Lucius was referring to. "That...T-That's not t-true."

"Mom!" Sarah flinched at that shriek. "A little help or are you going to sit there like a dumb statue and fucking say nothing—?!"

"You better watch your fucking tone when you speak to my wife. Don't you dare talk to her like that." Without any thought to it, Lucius reached forward and gripping onto both sides of Natalia's face with one hand, her mouth muffled shut. "It's time you learn a little respect. I don't know what's got into you but that's enough."

Natalia's eyes filled with tears, and after a few seconds, she shoved her father's hand away and screamed, "Whatever!" before bolting towards the door and barricading herself in her bedroom.