Page 24 of Cold Foot Sentry (Wreck’s Mountains #6)

“Tawk, I messed up. And worse, I didn’t see anything wrong with the mess-up until you reminded me there is someone on the other side.

Yesterday you said something that sat with me.

You said you don’t do friends, but Kade and I are close, and to me, that’s the same as calling me a friend.

I didn’t know it was like that. And now I have to live with using a friend.

” Jess shrugged her shoulders up to her ears and her eyes were filled with such raw emotion.

“You are my friend, and I will never do that to you again. No matter what. I promise.”

Tammy didn’t have the gift of hearing lies, like the shifters, but the conviction in Jess’s tone was convincing.

Tawk was here.

Tawk was really here.

Tammy had tensed, and she was having trouble looking away from him.

He looked so handsome, glowing red eyes and all.

Every curve of his strong muscles was pressed against the wet, white fabric of his T-shirt, his face was so chiseled, his jawline strong.

Tawk dragged his attention from Jess to Tammy, and back again.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured as she stood and made her way around the others sitting in their chairs. Sorry for what? She didn’t know. Interrupting the intense moment?

She came to stand five feet away from Tawk, just needing to be close to him.

She didn’t know where they stood after everything, but she did know he had fixed her truck again, just to make her life easier, and that had to count for something.

He felt something for her. His face was angled toward her, eyes on her.

She scooted closer by a foot and offered a tremulous smile.

“I wanted to ask a favor of Cold Foot,” Jess said, lifting her voice.

“I’ve thought about it so much since Tawk showed up here.

I’ve done the research, I’ve had the open conversations.

A Sentry Dragon’s purpose is to protect the witch or the coven he feeds power from.

And while he has made it clear that I don’t need protection, and that I am enough on my own, and that my Crew is full of monsters, I do still think I need the protection from a Sentry Dragon.

Protection from myself. I need the callouts if I start pushing my powers.

If I lose my way. If my magic starts tasting too dark, he can tell me and steer me back to good.

I need him to keep me being…me. For my mate, for my friends, for my quality of life, and someday for my children.

I don’t know if I would’ve been able to stop the path I was on without him flinching so hard at what I was doing.

I want to stay good.” Jess swung her gaze to Tawk.

“I might not like the callouts, but he can keep me good.”

“What are you asking of us?” Wreck asked.

“A vote. I want Tawk to stay here with Tammy. I want him to grow that beautiful bond with her. I want him to be part of Cold Foot. Part of Wreck’s Mountains.

Part of Damon’s Mountains. I want us both to move on from Sister’s Edge with no villain origin story.

I want us to stay fucking steady. Here.”

“I vote yes,” Cash said, hand in the air.

“Yes,” Timber and Sasha said at the same time.

“Yep,” Reed said, followed by, “I say yes,” from Harley.

“Yes,” King and Katrina said.

Kade nodded yes, and raised his hand.

Jess raised her hand, and her eyes were so full as she said, “I vote for you to stay.”

Wreck swung his attention to Tammy. “You?”

Tammy’s throat had thickened with emotion, and she couldn’t squeak a word past her tightening vocal cords, so she nodded instead. The movement loosed twin tears that streaked down her cheeks.

Tawk caught her up in his arms, and in a gravelly demon’s voice, he said, “I need a minute.”

Instinctively, Tammy wrapped her legs around him and clung to him as tight as she could while he walked them toward the trees.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he gritted out as he hugged her up tight. His hand was cupping the back of her head, but he allowed her to ease back just enough so he could reach her lips.

He kissed all of her worries from her mind. God, the taste of him. The feel of him. His powerful body was a warm and comforting blanket. She barely even noticed the rain pelting down on them.

It wasn’t until they were under the shelter of the thick trees that he settled her onto her feet and cupped her cheeks, searched her eyes. “What do we do?”

“We?” she squeaked out.

“I can’t leave. I can’t. I tried. Fuck I tried a dozen times today, but my dragon won’t let me leave.”

“The territory?”

“You.”

She grabbed his wrists and lost herself in that glowing red gaze. “I think…I think I want you to take me on a date.”

He chuckled, and there it was—that stunning smile. His teeth were so white against the shadows of these night woods. “I want that too.”

“I have other wants.”

The smile slipped from his lips. “List them.”

“I don’t want to talk about what happened to your parents like that will happen to us. You aren’t your father. We learn from what they went through, and we do it better.”

His shoulders lifted and fell with his fast breath, and she pressed her palm against his chest. His heart was pounding so hard and so fast.

He nodded. “I won’t do that to you. I don’t think I could if I tried. My dragon attached.”

“Yeah, boy, we got a purple bond,” she whispered. “Jess said she could see it. I’m pretty sure that’s the best color. I’m probably biased, but I don’t care.”

He laughed again and straightened up, pulled her against his chest and held her.

“Tawk?” she asked suddenly.

“Yeah?”

She needed him to really hear this. Really absorb it and understand what she was saying. “I’m okay if we need to leave. I’ll go with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just graduated. I’m wanting to start my own company but it doesn’t have to be in Darby. If you can’t be near Jess, I can go with you.” She eased back and looked up at him. Rain caressed her cheeks. “I just want to be with you and see what this is. It feels big.”

His fingers were tender against her cheek, and his eyes had changed color to a deep bronze. “It is big. You would leave with me?”

She smiled and nodded. “I thought about it a lot over the last couple days. I was really sad when you weren’t at my graduation.

I never felt like this before.” And she hoped he understood.

Aaron had never touched her heart in all their years together as much as Tawk had touched her heart in such a short amount of time.

“I was there. I went to your graduation. I saw you walk the stage.”

“Wait, what?”

He grinned and pulled something from his pocket. It was some kind of lavender crystal. “There’s a gem store in town. I thought about getting you a rock shaped just like the one you gave me, but then I thought you needed sparkles for your graduation present.”

She blinked hard as she turned the small crystal in her hands. It was warm to the touch and one side of it had a bunch of sparkly patches, and one side was smooth and fit her thumb perfectly. “Is this for my pocket?”

He nodded.

“I love it, love it, love it,” she told him excitedly as she shoved it deep into her pocket. She would carry it everywhere for good luck.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “Shifter life can be messy.”

“Good thing I already have experience,” she said, twitching her chin toward Cold Foot Crew.

“It would be best for you if you were settled and had support. You have Harley here, and the girls. And I know Jess. When she’s in her right mind, she’s a good friend. She’ll try to make this up to you. She’ll pull you in. I want you to be happy, not uncertain.”

“I want you to be happy too.”

He snorted. “I don’t know what happy is.”

“I mean…you smile a lot with me and made a purple rope with me.”

He grinned again, and looked back at the Cold Foot Crew, who were milling around the firepit.

A couple of the guys were dragging a big blue cooler from Cash’s house.

“The Crew will be good, but it’s you and me first,” he murmured, cupping her cheeks again.

“If ever you aren’t happy, you tell me, and I’ll fix it. ”

And she could hear the oath in his voice.

The memory of Aaron’s picture in the hospital Mom had showed her flashed across her mind.

The vision of him fixing her battery flashed across her mind.

The memory of how she felt when she’d realized he had fixed her headlights flashed across her mind.

His oath held weight.

Tawk would fix it, whatever it was, whatever came.

And she was going to do the same for him.

“Are we doing this?” she whispered, hope building in her chest.

A slow, handsome smile stretched across his face and reached his eyes. “You and me.”

Her face crumpled and her eyes spilled tears, but not from sadness. Joy had done this to her.

Tawk leaned down and sipped at her lips, his hand gentle against the side of her neck, and then he slid his big strong hand around hers and led her toward the fire pit.

“I vote yes,” he said as they reached the edge of the flickering firelight.

The blur of celebration and hugs after that filled Tammy’s heart. She had come to Wreck’s Mountains tonight with this deep sensation that something was wrong, but everything had turned out right.

Tawk was going to be in the Cold Foot Crew, and from the way they were talking, Tammy was being brought in officially too. Cash pried open the lid to the cooler, and iced down drinks were tossed around, and for the next hour, they just enjoyed the high of everything being set right.

Jess hung on the outskirts, a small smile painting her lips, but she seemed to just be taking it all in. It was Tawk who gestured her over and pulled her in for a side-hug.

“We’re good,” he murmured. “You did good. You stopped it.”

“Apologizing is hard,” she admitted. “I feel completely drained now.”

“But you did it,” Tammy said. “I respect the hell out of that.”

Jess nodded, and looked like she wanted to say something, but then changed her mind.

“What?” Tammy asked.

“Um, I was wondering if you maybe want to go get lunch or something sometime. Or a drink? Just hang out.”

Tawk grinned down at Tammy and mouthed, Told you so .

Tammy draped her arm around Jess’s shoulders and nodded. Jess was part of Tawk’s team. She was the one with the power to feed him, and so for always, Tammy would appreciate her for that. “We’re going to have some adventures, you and I.”

Boom!

Tammy startled hard and gasped at the fireworks that exploded in the sky.

Cash whooped. “And in the rain!” he crowed, holding up his lighter.

“Dude, did you just burn your eyebrows off?” King asked.

Indeed, they did look a little thinner.

“Do you have any more, you freaking pyromaniac?” Harley asked.

“No. I paid twenty-seven bucks for that one. I’ve been saving it for a rainy day.” Cash pulled a face and pointed to the clouds. “Get it.”

“A one and done fireworks show. Nice,” Reed teased.

“Um, I can fix that,” Jess called out. “If you want.”

“How?”

She lifted her fingertips and whispered something under her breath.

Boom! Boom, boom, boom!

Bigger-than-life fireworks exploded into the sky and rained down sparkles all over the clearing. Tammy stooped and picked one up, and it sparked and fizzed in the palm of her hand, then lifted into the air and hovered in front of her face. “What is this?” she asked.

“An illusion,” Jess said. “A not-evil illusion,” she corrected herself, glancing at Tawk.

“Do it again,” Cash said, laying down in the rain.

“Is everyone okay with seeing the show?” Jess asked carefully.

One by one, the Cold Foot Crew went and lay beside Cash in the mud, with the rain falling on them.

Only Jess and Tammy, and Tawk remained.

“Already, your magic tastes purer,” Tawk murmured. He intertwined his fingers with Tammy’s and pulled her to lay down beside the Cold Foot Crew.

And for the next ten minutes, they looked up at the sky and saw a fireworks show that didn’t exist. The sparkles painted the clearing thicker and thicker until the Crew lay on a bed of magic.

During the grand finale, Tammy looked over at Tawk, and he wore the most serene smile she’d ever witnessed on a man’s face.

He squeezed her hand and looked over at her, and God, he was perfect.

Behind him, it looked like a thousand sparklers were going off, and in his eyes such affection was reflected. Such vulnerability. Such contentment.

“You and me,” he murmured so softly, she nearly missed it.

She was beginning to deeply understand him.

Acknowledging their lives would be together was huge for a man like him.

You and me was as close as this Sentry Dragon knew to saying I love you.

Tammy scooted closer and nestled her head against his shoulder as he hugged her against him. “You and me.”