“I don’t even think it’s legal to do that,” said a muscled-up titan with short dark hair, a thick beard, and bright blue eyes.
“Protected by law, motherfucker,” Amos said. “Plus, I’m beloved. I would be missed by the entire shifter community.”
“His mother wouldn’t even miss him,” Barrel Chest deadpanned.
Trina belted out a laugh. “I’m Trina,” she introduced herself to the newcomer.
“Tommy Lang. I’m moving into that trailer down there.” He pointed to one a few away from hers…errr…not hers. She was only keeping it warm for a Crew member who was moving in on Friday.
As he walked past Trina, she caught the faint scent of fur. She would bet he was a wolf. “I can help,” Tommy told the boys.
“Great, because that one is useless,” Nuke muttered with a quick gesture to Amos.
“I’m just saying, you’re making a deck and you don’t even have any tiki torches,” Amos muttered as he and his Slurpee made his way to the wood piled in the back of Nuke’s truck.
They all hit a smooth rhythm, and ten minutes in, Ren and Bron showed up. Krome and his mate Cora came a few minutes after that, and everyone was chipping in. Krome was a strange Crow Blooded king. He helped and bantered like he was one of the boys, but he felt so heavy. He was clearly King, but he didn’t rule with an iron fist like Manning did. Perhaps he wasn’t a strange king. Perhaps he was a good king. Ren even flew back to her cabin and returned with a pile of sandwiches and bottled waters, and Cora was very easy to talk to.
Trina’s insecurities faded away slowly. It was impossible to feel small when she was surrounded by badass shifters who treated her as an equal. How long had it been since she felt like an equal to anyone?
And time and time again, while they were all talking and laughing and working and joking, Nuke’s attention had landed on her. How many times had he drawn an automatic and genuine smile from her lips just because she was happy that he was paying attention to her, like she was paying attention to him?
Come here, he mouthed, and oooooh she did. If Manning would’ve demanded the same, her stomach would’ve dropped to the floor, but when Nuke spoke to her? Her body wanted to do whatever he needed.
She excused herself from Cora and Ren and carried her plate with her half-eaten lunch to Nuke. As he stood up from the last board he’d just nailed in, she asked, “Want a bite, big eater?” She held out her sandwich for him.
“Yeah, I’m starving.” Without any hesitation, he leaned in and took a bite of her offered snack, gave her a sexyboy wink that launched every coherent thought straight out of her brain, and then he bumped her hip with his hand. “You’re doing really good here,” he said around the bite.
And then he went back to work, and left her standing there with a half a sandwich in her hand and a heart that felt like it had just lost fifty pounds of weight with that simple compliment.
He was right.
She was doing good here. She felt at ease, and liked building with the boys, and was excited every time they talked about what deck they were building next, because she knew they would invite her to help.
Here, with Nuke, and with this ragtag Crew…she felt valuable.
Ren was smiling at her when she turned around, and her eyes were full of emotion and mushy. “You’re gonna be all right.”
God, it was so nice to hear that. Ren didn’t understand though, and neither did Nuke. Nothing was all right outside of this dilapidated trailer park.
But here?
For today?
For just one tiny little day?
Trina wanted to pretend it was.
Chapter Eight
Today had been perfect.
Well, if she ignored the thirty-two notifications on her phone she’d gotten from not only Manning, but from the rest of his Murder, and even two council members.
The only text that really and truly mattered was one from Tory though. Manning must’ve let her use her phone. All it said was, hurry.
How could one day be filled with such highs and lows?
Caw, caw, caw!
Startled, Trina looked up from the glowing screen of her phone to the trees that lined the edge of the trailer park. A crow with blue eyes sat on a low-hanging pine branch. Ren.
Feeling like she’d been busted, Trina set the phone face-down on the porch stair beside her and waved.
Ren spread her big black wings and dove for her, changing just before she reached Trina. She landed with both feet on the ground in a plume of dark blue smoke.
“You always made that look easy,” Trina said, snuggling deeper into her hoodie.
Ren sat beside her on the stairs and straightened the red tank top that had magically appeared to cover her skin.
“Yeah well, I probably should’ve poofed myself some warmer clothes.” Ren crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the woods beyond. “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to, Trina.”
“What?”
“Krome and Bron were talking about it earlier. They asked me what I think of you.” Ren nudged her arm with hers. “I told them you are a good one, of course.”
“I…” Words had completely left Trina’s stumbling brain. She wasn’t one of the good ones. She’d tricked Ren. She hadn’t meant to, but she’d tricked her into thinking she was good. Guilt was a canyon, long and wide, and it consumed Trina’s insides.
“I mean, you can’t stay for free. None of the new Crew does. They rent the trailers and have to pay the community bill on water and electricity. You would have to track down a job in town. Krome said this trailer is four hundred and fifteen dollars a month. It’s kind of rough around the edges, but it’s a place you can call home. If you want. You don’t even have to take on a roommate. You can just have your own space. I told them about Manning. About how he treated you. I think it would be good for you to have some space, you know? You could do some healing in this place.”
Trina looked behind her at the cream-colored trailer with the plywood front door that had mold creeping up from the bottom. One of the green shutters was lopsided, and she knew from fifteen minutes of effort last night that the main window beside the front door was painted open, and would let a mighty stiff breeze in when the weather got cold. There had been a house number on it a long time ago, but now only the last two numbers of it remained. 10.
“Anyway. I know you get scared off easy, so I figured I would fly out here and put that little grenade in your brain, and then back away slowly. You’re someone who needs to process, Trina. Maybe come find me when you figure out what a good idea this place is.” Ren grinned and twitched her pink bangs out of her face, then stood and sauntered toward the tree line.
“Krome and Bron weren’t the only ones who asked about you, by the way.” She tossed a grin over her shoulder. “Nuke did, too.” And then in the snap of a finger, Ren’s crow lifted off the ground, beating her wings against the cool evening air. She disappeared into the sky, leaving the blue-hued smoke cloud of her change to dissipate behind her.
Nuke had asked about her?
Trina swallowed hard and looked over toward Nuke’s trailer at the opposite end of the park. All she could see from here was his deck.