Life was not so perfect right now and I could feel it all too acutely. It was as as if a massive bouncy ball had taken up residence in my brain, bouncing around, unrelenting, even when I tried to be still. Every shift, every movement only made it worse, its frantic energy matching the turmoil inside me. It wasn’t just my head that was a battlefield—the younger, more energetic cousins of that ball had taken up residence in my stomach, too, causing waves of discomfort.
The six of us had awoken in my room, a chaotic pile of limbs and tangled sheets, like discarded laundry. Around the edges, my five protectors stood, trying to hide the amusement flickering in their eyes as they looked at the sorry state we were in. Just when I thought things might settle, Dominic appeared—his thunderous expr
