“Nothing,” I say, wiping the tears that’ve started spilling down my cheeks away with the back of my hand.
“Not nothing if you’re laughing like that, Sweetheart,” Griffin says.
“I’m just glad we’re all getting along. I was a little worried about that, you know? We feel...”
Rage taps my ankle and holds up his notepad.
Like a pack?
“Yes! Exactly!” I say, reaching down and shaking Rage’s shoulder in excitement. He doesn’t budge at all.
“When we get a little bit more cash, we’ll get you a phone, okay big guy?” Griffin says, reaching for another slice of pizza. “That way you can text us instead of writing.”
“Should... talk... too...” Rage says, making all of us fall silent. His voice is quiet, barely above a whisper, really, but it’s there.
“You’re talking!” I say, practically bouncing up and down in the armchair. I know he’s done it before, but every time he does, I can’t help but get excited. “That’s so awesome! Good job, I’m so proud of you!”
He stares up at me with wide eyes. The brow above his good eye draws down as he does so, almost like he’s trying to take in the sight of me and memorize it.
“Good job talking, man, but the new guy’s got a good idea. We should all get phones. It’ll cost a pretty penny though,” Ash says.
“When will I stop being the new guy?” Griffin huffs, rolling his eyes.
“Never. Get used to it.”
“What’re we going to do for money?” I ask softly, leaning my head on top of Rage’s. “Rowan’s money is probably going to run out, right?”
“Ash and I are going to fight,” Griffin says, holding up the phone he got back from his parents. “Got all the old fight contacts my dad used to use, so we’ll just work my old circuit. Should be easy enough with my reputation. I don’t think it’s been long enough for people to forget about me completely. And then with Ash, we get to take home double the prize money.”
A wave of uneasiness sits low in my belly.
“Are you guys sure you want to do this?” A wave of uneasiness sits low in my belly. “You don’t have to fight anymore, we’re not stuck at the farm anymore.”
“Sure, we don’t have to fight,” Ash shrugs. “But we do have to earn money, or else things are gonna get tough real fucking fast. And fighting’s something we’re good at.”
“So it’s not forever?”
“No, Sweetheart, it’s not forever,” Griffin says, sending a wave of reassurance through the bond. The warm feeling settles in my chest. “Just until we can get our feet underneath us and figure out what we want to do, you know?”
I nod slowly.
What do I want to do now?
I have no idea. At the facility, we never really thought about our futures because every day was the same. At the farm, the future was always so scary because I didn’t know whether the guys and I would ever escape.
“I don’t know what I want to do,” I say, curling in on myself.
Rage stands, moving faster than my brain can really process. Before I know it, I’m in his arms and he’s the one sitting in the armchair with me in his lap. He dwarfs a chair that looked big when I was sitting in it.
I rest my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat and soaking in his thick leather scent.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
His answering kiss to the top of my head has me curling into his chest even more.
“I think it’s okay that you don’t know what you wanna do, Sugar,” Rowan says. “I honestly don’t know if any of us really know what we want to do. Plus, I think the last thing any of us expected was to be part of a pack and now that’s a huge part of our lives.”
“You’re learning about the real world for basically the first time, Sweetheart,” Griffin says, running a hand through his dark hair. “Give yourself some time. You’ve got plenty of it.”
