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.