by T. S. Joyce
“She’s doing okay. Just ready to find out what happened to her mate. Logan would’ve come for her, Nuke. He loves her. If he was okay, he would’ve come for her. Like you came to protect me.”
“She’s okay other than that though?”
Tory snuggled closer to Nuke and looked up at the slowly-spinning ceiling fan. He’d just installed it today. “She’s tough. Cora has her wing almost completely healed. Tory likes it well enough in Tommy’s old trailer.”
“Yeah? Tell her if she needs anything, let me and the boys know.”
Trina giggled and eased back so she could see him without crossing her eyes. “She complimented your porch.”
A smile drifted across Nuke’s handsome face. “We can build a deck for her.”
“She also likes the hanging baskets of purple flowers you put on our porch.”
Nuke nodded seriously. “We’ll make it a comfortable place for her to land while she figures out her next move.”
He meant until she figured out what had happened to Logan, but they tried not to think the worst, so they didn’t say that stuff out loud.
There was rustling outside and she and Nuke leaned up far enough to look at the front window. The blinds were closed, but they could see someone walking across the front. It was dark out already, so it was just a shadow.
“Amos?” Trina called.
“I bought you suckers tiki torches for your stupidly big porch. There is seriously no point to a porch if you don’t have tiki torches.”
“Oh, geez,” Nuke grumbled as he laid his head back down.
Trina laughed. “He’s so obsessed with stupid tiki torches.”
“One,” Amos called out as his shadow stabbed a tiki torch into the earth, “I can hear you and two, you’ll thank me when you’re sitting out here having a romantic mushy dumb conversation about, I don’t know, how to compliment each other’s hair or some shit, and you’re going to appreciate the ambiance I’m creating, so you’re welcome in advance.”
Nuke rolled his eyes.
“You could just eat him,” she whispered. “I’ve seen you eat birds before.”
Nuke scrunched up his face. “Let’s not talk about the decisions the dragon makes.”
“You ate Manning for me. That’s true like.”
“Mmmm. I would eat all of your exes if you asked me to.” He brushed his thumb across her cheek and his dark eyes grew serious. “No one will ever hurt you again.” There was promise in his voice.
She pulled his fingertips to her lips and kissed them softly. “I know.”
“Are you happy?” he asked. He did that a lot—asked that question, just to check in. That was love, right? Even if they hadn’t said the words. Caring so deeply about another person’s happiness came from a place of love.
“I’m silly amounts of happy.”
Nuke swallowed hard and leaned forward, pressed his lips to hers. When he inched back, he told her, “Ren told me how important tokens were.”
This was the subject they hadn’t talked about in the past two weeks. They’d been so busy building their bond, fixing their trailer, easing into their new life together, and starting their deck building company, there hadn’t been a spare second to overthink tokens. And honestly? She’d flinched away from the conversation after she’d betrayed him.
“I know I need to earn your trust again,” she murmured. “You deserve to have faith in someone, and know you’re safe. When you break trust, it takes time to earn it back, but that’s why it’s so important in the first place. It’s not an easy thing to gain, so you’re supposed to take care of it.” She inhaled deeply, and smiled. “I’m here. I’ll earn it, no matter how long it takes.”
Nuke searched her eyes and took her hand. Something smooth and cold touched her palm. “You already have. If I had a way to save my brothers, I would’ve done just about anything. I think I would’ve been disappointed in you if you didn’t do everything in your power to save Tory.” He released her hand, and she pulled up a smooth green rock that he’d pressed into her palm. “Tovlin gave me that when he was six. When it was all done, and my family was gone, I went through the burned wreckage of our house to salvage anything I could. I found this in a drawer. Ren told me about tokens, and I wanted yours to be special. This was my most prized possession, but now?” He kissed her forehead and eased back, cupped her cheeks. “It’s you.”
Her eyes burned with emotion and she clenched a fist around the treasure and rested it against her heart, covered her mouth with her other hand as she tried to avoid falling apart. “Nuke,” she croaked out.
“I want you to have it. If you want it,” he said. “And before you question if I know what it means…I do.”
Trina buried her face against his chest and hugged him tight. “It’s not fair that one person can be this happy,” she gasped out.
“We’ve both paid our dues,” he said, the dragon’s rumble in his chest. “It’s more than fair.”
She slunk out of his arms and off the bed, made her way to the top drawer of the dresser and dug out the token she’d bought him last week. “It’s new,” she said. “I had it made.” She handed the pocket knife to him and he opened the blade to read the engraving. I love you forever and a day.
“My mom used to say that,” she explained. “Never thought I would feel it for anyone but her and Tory. And then you came along, and now everything is different.”
He swallowed over and over as he read it. She hadn’t a guess how many times he read it. Only knew that he stared at it for a full minute before he tucked the blade back and clipped the knife into his pocket. He nodded at her. He said a hundred things to her with his eyes.
He loved her, too. Even if he wasn’t saying the words right now because he was too choked up, he did.
“Hey Trina?” Ren called from outside.
She sat up. “I’m so sorry,” she explained to Nuke, for the moment being ruined, but he was smiling. Smiling?
“Yeah?” she called out.
“Can you come out here?” Ren asked.
“Uuuuuh, kind of busy right now.” Accepting a token from the crush of a lifetime. Anything Ren needed to say could wait.
Nuke, however, rolled out of bed and offered his hand to her. “Come on.”
And dangit if her animal didn’t want to obey. Such was the way with dragon crushes…who wouldn’t want to obey this fine specimen of a shifter? She wanted to have like fourteen of his eggs. Babies? Baby dragons? She parted her lips to ask if she was going to have to lay a dragon egg, but he led her out the front door at that moment, and what she saw there froze that dumb question right in her throat.
The Crew was gathered on the porch. The Bane Brothers and their mates, Krome and Cora, Bron and Ren, Amos, and Divar. And not just the Crew…
Logan was there, standing beside Tory, and Tory was crying. Happy crying.
“Logan?” Trina asked, shoving her token deep into her jeans pocket. She ran to him and repeated his name as she threw her arms around his neck. “Where were you?”
“Careful,” Tory said softly. “He’s sore.”
“Oh my gosh,” Trina said, releasing her sister’s mate from her death grip. She gripped his shoulders gently and took a real look at him. Bruises. Bruises covered his face. “What happened to you?”
There were ghosts in Logan’s eyes as he shook his head, denying her an awful truth he was protecting. “All that matters is that I’m here.” He twitched his head toward Nuke. “He showed up to where I was being held by the council today. Him and the boys. I owe them.” He pulled Tory closer, and she melted against him. “I couldn’t get to her, but you guys did. You protected the only thing that matters to me.” Tears rimmed his eyes and Trina broke down. Just…fell apart. He was okay. Tory’s everything was okay, and Tory was okay, and Nuke had given her a token and nothing could make this moment more important.
“Are you ready?” Krome asked.
“Ready for what?”
“To be one of us?” Cora
asked. She handed Trina a paper.
Why was Ren crying?
Trina had to blink a couple times to clear the tears enough to read the page. “Warburn Crew Pledge. I swear by an oath of blood to protect this Crew. To fight for this Crew and all the members in it. To stay loyal and true, and in return to be protected by this Crew. I pledge to try, and continue trying. To listen. To befriend. To understand. I pledge to put the Crew first, and the rest of the world second. I pledge to grow my roots deep in this Crew, to follow when I need to, and fight when I’m called to. I pledge to grow with this Crew.” Her voice broke on the last words of the pledge. There was an X where she could sign at the bottom. Shocked to her very bones, she jerked her attention to Krome. “But…I betrayed you all.”
“For your sister, and you weren’t pledged here yet. Those ties are cut now. You can take time if you want to think about this. There is no Murder here. It’s different. You have a choice. You have a voice.”
“Just sign the damn paperwork,” Amos said. “I’m cooking steaks to celebrate, but since you’re a horse I made you a stupid salad because horses like salad.”
“Dude, I’ve never seen a horse eat salad,” Divar muttered. “They graze on grass.”
“Do you want me to put some grass on a plate?” Amos asked Trina.
“Remember what we talked about last week?” Bron asked him. “About how not to ruin every meaningful moment with your Amos-ness?”
“I remember, but I just thought it was a really rude conversation,” Amos muttered.
In disbelief, Trina held up the pledge to Nuke. “I don’t need time to think. I would be honored to be a part of the Crew.”
“I helped choose the name,” Amos bragged.
“Shut uuuuup,” Bron and Divar drawled out.
Krome lifted his chin higher into the air. “All of those pledging tonight, please step forward.”
Stunned, Trina watched Tory and Logan move to a space in front of Krome. Tory held Trina’s eyes the entire time. Tears were streaking down her cheeks, and she was glowing with her smile.
“What?” Trina asked. Nuke was smiling like he knew this would happen. Everyone was watching her.
Logan and Tory would be a part of this Crew? With her? “I wanted something like this my whole life,” Trina rasped out. “I wanted a family like this. I wanted a safe spot for me and Tory.” She couldn’t talk anymore. She was so overcome, all she could do was look at Nuke and shake her head, because he was the only one who would understand what she meant right now. He was the only one who knew her whole story and the long journey it had been to get here.
He closed the distance between them and brushed his fingertips on her lower back. “You deserve this,” he whispered.
The token was heavy in her pocket, and the paper pledge soft against her fingertips. How could one person be so happy in one single moment and bear it?
She came to stand beside her sister, with Ren and Cora all teared up near them. Krome pulled a pocket knife and nicked Logan and Tory’s fingertips, and together they pressed them on their pledge papers. They were hugging tightly when Krome turned to Trina. “Ready?” he asked.
All she could do was nod. Her words were too thick in her throat.
“I’ve got this,” Nuke rumbled, and pulled out the pocket knife she’d just given him as her token. He offered her a handsome, crooked smile as he opened the blade.
Slowly, he leaned in and against her ear he said, “I love you, too.” And then he nicked her fingertip and stepped back.
The easiest thing she’d ever done was press her fingertip to that paper and bind herself to these people. To a good king, and to her sister. To her friends, Cora and Ren. To the boys.
And most importantly…ooooh most importantly…to her Nuke. Her dragon. Her mate. Her best friend. Her everything.
From this moment on, she and Nuke would never be alone again.
Up Next in this Series
Amos gets his story in
How It Started
Coming September 2021
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More Series from this Author
Battle of the Bulls
Two Shots Down (Book 1)
Dead of Winter (Book 2)
Quickdraw Slow Burn (Book 3)
First Time Train Wreck (Book 4)
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Make Her New (Book 2)
Lift Her Up (Book 3)
Love Her Better (Book 4)
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Bite Deeper (Book 3)
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Sons of Beasts
Son of the Cursed Bear (Book 1)
Son of Kong (Book 2)
Son of the Dragon (Book 3)
Red Havoc Panthers
Red Havoc Rogue (Book 1)
Red Havoc Rebel (Book 2)
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Red Havoc Guardian (Book 4)
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Bloodrunner Dragon (Book 1)
Bloodrunner Bear (Book 2)
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Blackwing Beast (Book 3)
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Husband Fur Hire (Book 1)
Bear Fur Hire (Book 2)
Mate Fur Hire (Book 3)
Wolf Fur Hire (Book 4)
Dawson Fur Hire (Book 5)
Chance Fur Hire (Book 6)
Saw Bears
Lumberjack Werebear (Book 1)
Woodcutter Werebear (Book 2)
Timberman Werebear (Book 3)
Sawman Werebear (Book 4)
Axman Werebear (Book 5)
Woodsman Werebear (Book 6)
Lumberman Werebear (Book 7)
Fire Bears
Bear My Soul (Book 1)
Bear the Burn (Book 2)
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For More from this Author
Check out her The Official Reading List of T. S. Joyce
Or visit
www.tsjoyce.com
or
T. S. Joyce’s Amazon US page
About the Author
T.S. Joyce is devoted to bringing hot shifter romances to readers. Hungry alpha males are her calling card, and the wilder the men, the more she'll make them pour their hearts out. She lives in the PNW with a mysterious hunkyman, a make-shift family, a herd of awesome kiddos, plenty of farm animals, and devotes her life to writing big stories. Foodie, bear whisperer, chicken-momma, thief of tiny bottles of awesome smelling hotel shampoo, nap connoisseur, romantic comedy fanatic, zombie slayer, and bite-sized cattle rancher.
Bear Shifters? Check
Smoldering Alpha Hotness? Double Check
Sexy Scenes? Fasten up your girdles, ladies and gents, it’s gonna to be a wild ride.
For more information about T. S. Joyce and her work, visit her website here.
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