Mated Girl (Wolf Girl #4)(36)

“I love him,” Sawyer mused, as Creek reached up and played with the scruff of his beard. “I’ve only known about him for a week, and met him for half a day, and I utterly and truly would die for him.”
I beamed, raking my fingers through Sawyer’s hair. “Welcome to parenting.”
Sawyer looked over at me with one of those panty-dropping smiles, the ones he used to give me at Sterling Hill, but then his face fell. “You must have been so scared, so alone out there. I—I can’t imagine it, Demi.”
I nodded. “I was. But those woods made me into the strong woman I am today. Without them, I’m not sure I would have what it takes to do what we will need to in order to defeat the vampires.”
Sawyer inclined his head. “You have ideas?”
I did. “You?”
“Yep,” Sawyer said. “I think it’s time we called a meeting and made a plan. Every day those vampires sit there and get more comfortable in our city, they increase their hold on our land.”
My heart flipped over in my chest. “Our land?”
The Paladin lands were mine. City was his. Did he expect me to go there and live with him full time after we expelled the vampires? To leave the Paladin people behind? He seemed to guess my thinking and shook his head.
“Our land. Our pack. Paladin and city, as one.” His voice was thick with emotion, and I knew it was one of the hardest things he’d probably ever said in his life. This pack, my pack, cursed his family for years, causing them to take wives for all the wrong reasons. Forgetting all that, starting fresh, it was a big deal, one I did not take lightly.
I gestured around the small cottage. “I know it’s not a fancy glass mansion with solar panels and a Range Rover in the garage, but I was thinking when we get Wolf City back, we could spend half the time here.”
Sawyer grinned. “Honey, I just spent the last year in prison with a vampire prince as a roommate. This is amazing.”
My skin prickled at the words “vampire prince.” “Luka?”
Sawyer’s brow furrowed, and he seemed like he was cursing himself for telling me.
“Luka is a prince?” My mind reeled at that. “That means … he’s the queen’s son! He’s Vicon’s brother?” My jaw dropped open as shock slammed into me. How could Sawyer become best friends with the brother of the man who raped me, the entire reason he went to jail!
Sawyer’s eyes widened in horror. “No. He’s the queen’s nephew. She jailed him so that he couldn’t take over the monarchy. He hates her.”
I relaxed a little, but only just a little. Luka was a Drake! He shared DNA with the evilest woman alive.
Sawyer stood, set Creek down on his little handmade playmat, and faced me. “Demi, when Walsh and I first arrived, every inmate on the eightieth floor had it out for us. It was only later we found out that the queen had said that anyone who killed us in prison would be released from their sentence early, no questions asked.”
I gasped. That was a low blow.
He nodded. “We were ganged up on daily, beaten within an inch of our lives. The only reason I’m alive today is because Luka jumped in one day and fought back with us. Then the next day Bennett, and the next day Talon.”
Tears filled my eyes at that, and my gaze fell to the tattoo on his collarbone. “Five Crew.”
He nodded. “Once there were five of us, people realized it wasn’t worth it. They backed off or they got broken bones,” he growled.
Holy shit, I’d had no idea what he’d been through. It was time to put away my prejudice and accept Sawyer’s new friends as family. Even if one of them was a rotten Drake.
“They’re welcome here as long as they like,” I managed to croak out.
Reaching up, Sawyer cupped my face in his hands. “I know this past year apart has been hard, but I think it’s only made us stronger.”
I smiled, leaning forward to capture his mouth in a kiss.
When he pulled back, he took my hands in his and looked down at them. “Where’s your wedding ring?”
I winced. “I gave it to Seam for insider knowledge on how to break you out of prison. Sorry…”
Sawyer grinned. “I mean, if you had to trade your wedding ring, that’s a pretty good excuse.”
“Yeah, I had to bail my felon out of jail.” I lightly punched his arm.
Sawyer chuckled, a full belly chuckle, and it warmed my heart. We were together, out of the Dark Woods, out of prison, and with our son. It was almost perfect.
Almost.
“They’ll be looking for you,” I told Sawyer. By now the jailbreak was all over the supernatural news. It was only a matter of time before they started looking here.
Sawyer sighed. “And you.”
Wasn’t that depressing? The two leaders, the people our pack needed the most, and we were the biggest danger to them.
There was a knock at the door and Sawyer crossed the room to open it. Luka, Bennett, and Talon stood there, and Sawyer invited them inside. Creek had fallen asleep, passed out on his little rabbit fur playmat that Sage had made him.
Luka’s eyes were nearly black, and there were dark circles under them. A vampire’s natural sleep time was just about now, as the morning sun was coming up. They could go out in the sunlight, but didn’t do well. It looked like Luka wasn’t feeling so hot.
“What’s up?” Sawyer’s voice held concern as he looked over his friend.
Luka reached behind his neck and scratched it, a sliver of his tan abdomen peeking out of his black t-shirt. “I need to feed. Missed last night and this morning.”