“No,” I growl, angry that he’s suggesting I delay claiming her even a moment longer.

Evan sighs. “We’ll come with you, just in case you lose your shit.”

“I don’t need a fucking babysitter,” I snarl, shifting gear and accelerating down the street, passing the bus my girl is sitting on and barely managing to suppress the urge to force it to stop so I can drag her ass off it.

“Dude, you’re doing nearly ninety miles an hour in a thirty zone, you definitely need us to come and keep you calm.” Clay laughs.

Exhaling, I glance down at the speedometer and immediately lift my foot from the accelerator, watching the needle drop down to a more acceptable fifty miles an hour. Forcing myself to calm, I drive through North Acres and toward the no-man’s-land where Starling’s home is situated. The modest house is either the destitute relative of North Acres or The Elite of South Acres and I’m not sure which it is.

Not that it really matters, she won’t be spending much time here once she’s mine. My home is big enough to fit her whole house in just the kitchen and dining rooms. Her mom might not be okay with her moving in with me, but I’m sure I can make her understand I’m not really giving either of them much of a choice.

If I need to, I’ll marry my little bird right now, then she’ll be mine legally and her mother won’t be able to stop me doing whatever I want to my wife. I like the way that sounds. My wife. I’m only seventeen, far too young to be thinking about getting married, but I’ll do whatever I have to do to get my way, and if that means putting a ring on Starling’s finger, then that’s what I’ll do.

Reaching her house, I pull up at the curb outside. There’s no way that the bus made it back here before we did, so I don’t bother getting out and going to the door. Now that I’m here, I might as well tell my little bird that she’s mine before she goes inside and informs her mother, then she can pack a bag for tonight and we can go back to my place.

“Dude, you have that scary look on your face again, what the hell is going on in that psycho head of yours?” Hunter asks with a smirk.

“I’m just considering what I’ll do if her mother decides to be a problem.”

“Starling’s sixteen, I think we can all agree that her mom is probably going to have a problem with you basically wanting to kidnap her daughter and keep her prisoner on your dick,” Evan laughs.

“She’s mine and I don’t plan to get her pregnant yet, what we do is none of her mother’s business.”

“Jesus, Bastian, please don’t say that to the girl or her mother, you really do sound like a fucking psycho,” Evan laughs.

The scary thing is that I feel psychotic, I have since the moment I laid eyes on her. I don’t know what it is about Starling that drives this urge to own, control and consume her, but the longer I’ve waited the more intense it’s become. I don’t just want to date her, I want to lock her in a gilded cage and keep her all to myself, my perfect little bird.