The moment they broke the surface, she gasped and choked, rolling to her side and hacking against the pavement. Hanks of wet hair clung to her face like seaweed as she spit out gulps of water from her convulsing lungs.
“Wendy, can you breathe?”
A heavy hand walloped her back, and water gushed from her mouth. She sputtered and coughed, swatting him away.
“Can’t you swim?”
A gasping, painful inhalation was all she could manage to answer. Never before had she felt so close to death.
Peter’s fury erupted when he turned on his friends. “What the hell were you thinking? This is how you greet a guest I bring you?”
“We didn’t know she couldn’t swim!”
“Why would you greet anyone like that?” Peter stormed with great anger. “Answer me!”
“Belle told us to. She said you brought a woman who thinks she’s a bird, and you wanted to see if she could really fly. We thought it was your idea, Peter.”
Peter’s eyes burned a deep emerald green as he turned his rage on the others. “Is that true? Did you cause this, Belle?”
The men stepped back, exposing the arrogant female as she lifted her chin in defiance. Wendy stopped sputtering to hear what she had to say, but no excuse or apology came.
Belle crossed her arms and glared at Peter. “So what if I did? Who is she to you anyway?”
Water dripped from Wendy’s drenched clothing as she stood, shivering. “What I am, or am not, to Peter makes no difference. I’m a human be?—”
“I wasn’t talking to you, bitch.”
Wendy drew back, never as enraged as she was at that moment. “Who the hell do you?—”
“Fuck off.”
“All right, that’s enough!” Peter shouted. “Belle, apologize.”
Wendy’s nightgown and robe clung to her body, exposing every curve as she panted and scowled at the little viper. It was clear that no apology was coming from the little terrorist.
The Lost Boys sidled behind Peter, showing their alliance. Wendy shivered and waited for Peter to do something. There had to be a consequence.
But when Belle refused to apologize, he only turned and yelled at the boys, “Use your heads! There are other ways to get a beautiful woman wet, you imbeciles!”
Her chattering jaw fell open. He was making a joke of the matter? She nearly died!
The men laughed as if paid to do so. Wendy understood then that Peter wasn’t their equal. He was their leader.
She hardened her brow and stepped forward, making it clear that this was a serious situation. Arms crossed her chest, she shivered and looked up at him like a wet rat. “Peter,” she used his name the way her mother sometimes called out her father, making a statement by only speaking one word.
He read the look in Wendy’s eyes and understood that jokes would not resolve this level of nastiness and all humor left his expression. The air chilled as he turned his authority back to Belle. “Talia Bellfrey, I hereby banish you from the Never Lands.”
A collective gasp hissed behind Peter.
“Peter,” Belle rasped in utter shock. “You don’t?—”
He held up a silencing hand. “This is my home, and Wendy is my guest. You betrayed me.”
Malice blazed in her cruel stare as she glared at Wendy, vengeance radiating from her tiny form. Belle sprung, lunging at Wendy.
Peter yanked her back and shook her roughly. “Still, you disobey me? Get out of here, and don’t come back!”
He flung her away with such disgust that Wendy almost felt sorry for the girl. “Peter, maybe we just need to cool?—”
