He trained his eyes on the truck again and opened his mouth, clicking his firestarter. This is where it ended.
Just get Tory out of here.
Trina dove for the truck and spread her wings out, covering the dragon’s view of it just as the first trail of lava spewed out of him. The heat made her gasp, and she prepared for death, prepared for agony, but the blistering heat lifted.
Behind her, piles of lava were burning through the road, and above her, the dragon had pulled up, aiming for the clouds.
So did she.
He did a wide loop and landed in the middle of the burning clearing. She landed right in front of his face. Don’t hurt me. I’m yours to protect.
And there was this moment where she looked right into the eyes of the scarred dark dragon, and she wasn’t afraid. He was hers, token or not.
She tucked her wings and swished her tail. Come back.
And he did. After a couple more moments, he disappeared into a thick veil of black smoke.
She’d never liked touch in this form, but when Nuke walked out of that smoke, his eyes trained on her, she wanted nothing else.
His skin was covered in ash and soot, and hers would take a few more days to heal from what the war had done, but they were here. They were okay.
He hesitated in front of her, then placed his hand on her neck and in a deep, rumbling voice, he said, “You never had to apologize for what happened in the first place, but if you still need to hear it…you’re forgiven.”
She was already crying when she changed back. He caught her hug and wrapped his arms tightly around her, putting back together all the pieces she’d thought had shattered. She hadn’t shattered. Not really. She’d just had to break to evolve into something stronger.
Manning was gone.
The Murder was gone.
Her father would never make another decision for her, because she was strong enough to move on and make her new life now—with Nuke.
“I’m sorry I didn’t ask why,” he said thickly.
Trina buried her face against his sooty neck and made tracks in the ashes with her tears.
She was free to be happy again.
“Forgiven,” she whispered.
Epilogue
“Did you talk to Tory today?” Nuke asked as he dragged his fingertip down her jawline.
This was her favorite part of the evening, when they laid in their new bed and talked about the goings-on in the trailer park, and in their lives.
“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.”