“What do you remember?” My question blows over her skin, as I flick her hair off her neck so I can nibble and kiss along her spine. Incredibly vulnerable position for her to be in but it’s necessary for her to know how powerful she is. Her whole body shudders in relief, but at the same time she pushes back, asking for space while squeezing my arm, telling me she needs me close. I rest my head on her shoulders and wait.
“I remember what happened with Steel because… I was there. But it was kind of like the way we are too, King. I felt him inside my thoughts. I am nearly one hundred percent sure wehad an argument because he wouldn’t force himself on me. But you were there telling us it would be okay.”
I slam my eyes shut, desperate not to see the horror on her face again, but I face the demons in my head as she does hers. “And that’s exactly how I remember it too. Steel?”
He takes a couple of deep breaths before he answers. “Pretty much. I remember thinking if you saw both King and me, it would be better.”
“It was,” she says in an instant. “I knew you’d probably be more worried…”
“Definitely worried about you,” Steel answers her.
“Knew it,” she says lightly, despite the heavy conversation and its weighted implications.
I kiss her, my hands holding her tighter because like she said, even though we don’t speak, we have an uncanny ability to talk and I know the words that are coming up next. “What scares me the most is what if it wasn’t Steel?”
“But it was.” I jump in and answer quickly. “We were fucking lucky it was him. We were lucky Rex didn’t know it was my claim on your throat, Tris. We were lucky on so many fronts but so fucking unlucky on a few.”
“Yeah?” She asks reluctantly, her muscles contracting under my hand as she relives a few moments in her head.
Her pack respond scenting up the air, I feel the rush of presence through the bond we all share, and I flood the one I have with her with my strength, and endless fucking love. “You were so adamant about Steel having time. I’m sorry that was taken from you both, but relieved too.”
“Tristan.” Steel interrupts quietly, and you can still hear he’s not himself; he sounds like a man who had a knife in his side after being forced to take a woman. His spirit is broken but he’s got that same fight Tristan does.
He waits until she looks at him, and then he crawls closer, until they’re sharing the same pillow, his nose nearly touching hers.
“I was fighting our connection, delaying the inevitable because of Rex. Since the day my mom, Sallyanne introduced him, he’s made our life a living hell and he has used my relationships against me. I was scared of him because he’s never had anything to lose. Me? I had Sallyanne and Harley for starters. With Tyson and Maverick’s help we got them out of there but it took a fucking long time. But there was no way I could ever tell him about Mav, and that tore me up every fucking day because I needed him differently to how I needed Tyson but the same too. And yeah, I fucking knew the instant I scented you who you were, but I couldn’t keep my brother or Mav safe so how was I gonna protect you?”
He doesn’t stop until he’s said his piece. His little speech is messy and all over the place, but it’s unfiltered and full of truth which is what Tristan needs. No matter how hard it is to hear, the absolute truth is what she needs—in terms of what happened but how people feel too.
Steel keeps going, “I can’t do anything about the claim I put on you, Trissy. Looking back, I was a fucking idiot for not telling you how much I wanted to claim you. At the lake I kind of talked about my family but not enough. Putting all the reasons aside though I’m glad we’re packed, because I need you with me as much as I need Maverick. My pack is my pack and we’ve got you to complete us. Still, not sure about King though.” He jokes softly. I get they’re having an intimate and very personal conversation, but we’re pack and right now the both of them need the reassurance they are not alone.
And there’s a long pause in the conversation, the two of them start breathing deeper but neither of them sleep.
“I don’t know if anyone else touched me,” she says in the smallest fucking voice I have ever heard in my life, and a part of my heart fractures off for her. I knew this would be something that would have her worried, it’s had me locked up in fucking fear ever since the video cut off with Steel being stabbed.
She goes on in the same voice. “And you get why it freaks me out, right? Because from what you’ve both said about him, Rex not forcing himself on me, or letting one of his buddies do it doesn’t make sense at all. I fucking hope he didn’t, but I don’t know.”
Steel beats me to answering her. “You are right. Something doesn’t add up because he would have, or he would have let the others try. I think it was because of me he didn’t though.”
“Hey?”
“He wanted me to be the one to do it again. The ultimate test in a way. Building you up to being a person no one else in the club could touch would make it hurt me more if I stepped out of line.”
“There were women there. I heard them all together,” Tristan says.
Tyson clears his throat before the bed moves as he sits up, crowding around her closer. Maverick moves too, his arm around Steel reaches over for her. “We might never know why he didn’t do anything or let any of his men, but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that they didn’t penetrate or even touch you down below.”
Tyson says and he leaves no doubt in the clinical tone he uses. “When we found you, you were dressed from the waist down. I changed you and there was only Steel’s scent on your body. It might sound harsh?—”
“No!” She interrupts quickly, her voice louder than needs to be. “I need harsh, Tyson. On some level I knew because I wasn’tsore, but I guess I was talking myself out of believing they didn’t because it doesn’t make sense. Does that make sense?”
“Course it does,” Steel says softly, and he gets so close to her their noses touch again.
Maverick hops up off the bed, goes through the suite, flicking off all the lights and grabbing everyone’s phones. “Come on, we need sleep. None of us have had more than twenty minutes or so. Check out is in five hours. I’m pulling rank here.”
There’s a soft laugh of agreement from all of us, and within minutes she’s out cold. Sleeping like she needs, surrounded by her pack. I reach over and get Tyson’s attention. He swaps places with me, holding her exactly like I was and I close the door gently after me.
The phone picks up on the first ring. “I need to talk to Raney, Siderno.”
