Page 44

Dravin

One Year Later

T he wind rushes past us steadily, screaming around my helmet. It’s a wild day for a ride, but a little breeze only adds to the fun. No one was going to call this off. The old ladies would have had our hides. They’ve been preparing for weeks to head up to the club’s cabin in the mountains.

The huge summer campout is a tradition for the club. One by one, families use the cabin throughout the warmer months, but it takes a lot of organizing, effort, and putting together to make this week a reality.

I didn’t go last year. I stayed back at the clubhouse, helping Wizard instead.

I wasn’t a patched in member and even though I was invited, I didn’t feel right about going.

I’d also told Tyrant and Raiden, and the rest of the club the truth about Kael and myself.

I didn’t feel right about bringing that shadow of potential danger with us up there, into such a beautiful and unguarded place.

Tyrant didn’t see it that way. He promised me the club’s support, should I ever need it.

I didn’t take the offer lightly and neither did Kael.

She’s never taken one single second of anyone’s time, devotion, or friendship for granted.

Her hands tighten around my chest, fisting at my waist. A few of the old ladies are riding with their men, but some are back behind us, driving with all the supplies we’ll need for such a big campout, and all the eager kids.

There might be a cabin up there in the mountains, but it certainly won’t fit everyone.

Kael never camped out once as a kid. I’ve never done civilian camping either. I can’t count sleeping out on a job while I surveilled someone as actual camping.

It will be our first time roasting marshmallows over a campfire. Such a small thing. Such a wonder to do it with her.

Her hands work their way under my leather jacket, dipping beneath my t-shirt.

She flattens her palms against my abs. Despite the wind, they’re not cold.

It’s been a nice summer, but wet. This week’s forecast promises sun, and hopefully that’s true.

Although, I know Kael wouldn’t mind getting soaked for days on end as long as it meant doing it with me.

Her hand starts edging lower, despite Atlas and Willa flanking us on the one side and the whole fucking fleet of bikes ahead of us and behind us.

I take one hand off the bike to stop her.

I can imagine her grin behind her helmet, especially when she rests her head against my leather vest. I patched in last week.

I expected Kael to have reservations about it, but she had none. This isn’t just my place in the world.

It’s hers too.

It’s hers from the house we bought together last winter, when the last men who existed in the world and posed a threat to her, were found dead in one of their nightclubs down in LA. The blood battle waged over territory, empires, and human greed, was finally over.

It gave us both a sense of relief, but honestly, we’d found our freedom before it ever happened.

The roar of our bikes punctuates the peaceful mountain road that twists and turns into the heart of the wilderness. We drove from Hart, past Seattle, and out the other side. The country is beautiful here. Breathtaking.

Nothing is more beautiful than when we finally head down a long gravel road and burst into a clearing surrounded by trees, offset by the blue peaks of mountains standing sentinel in the distance, blanketed by a blue sky with puffy clouds.

I help Kael off the Harley. It took me a few months after restoring the Triumph to find something that I thought was the right fit, not just for me, but for Kael as well.

I didn’t care one bit that it looked like a grandpa bike.

When Kael’s on it with me, I want her to be as safe as possible.

She whips the helmet off and shakes out her hair.

She went to Tarynn and got it cut into what she calls a mullet, but is really just lots of layers that frame her gorgeous face.

Tarynn worked wonders taking her color back to her natural brunette.

There are plenty of gold and copper highlights in the strands, which catch the sun now.

They don’t shine nearly as bright as her eyes.

I barely have my helmet off before she launches herself at me, half climbing me, and kissing me breathless. “That was incredible!” She shouts, throwing back her head and laughing loudly.

I get what she means. I haven’t been on many rides with the club, usually staying back with Wizard to do security, but it’s exhilarating.

She loves riding with me on my bike, but this was the first time we’ve ever gone out with a pack other than that time we drove out to Dominic’s to deliver the Triumph, but that was hardly a full ride like today’s, and she had to go with Willa, not out in the open where the wind and the sky and freedom claim her.

She kisses me with zero shame or censure, pouring her whole heart into it, and even when people start to cheer and holler, she doesn’t stop.

“You’re going to give Ella and Raiden a run for their money soon, babe,” Willa calls, but it’s clear just how happy she is for her us.

I might be red as fuck, but Kael is blissfully happy as she turns around and flips Willa off. “That’s the idea.”

“I love you.” Willa laughs, shaking her head. “I love this for you.”

“Me too!” Kael bounces all over the place once I set her down. “This place is so freaking amazing! I’m so glad I brought my paints.”

Lynette and Bullet are coming for the day, but they have a three month old baby, so they drove up together in Lynette’s car. Kael dropped her supplies off at their house last night so that they could be packed safely in their trunk.

“Don’t do a boring landscape,” Willa pleads. “You could paint… Oh, I don’t know… Maybe some super-hot chick who is totally into your work and also just happens to love antiques.”

Atlas snags Willa around the waist. She squeals, but it’s pretty much drowned out by the noise of all the kids starting to spill out of vehicles.

It’s a lovely sound, all that laughter, kids getting to be kids.

Seeing them tearing through the grass and creating a level of general chaos that will probably persist for the next three days before it calms down makes the child in me happy.

He’s down in there somewhere, still trying to find his place in the world, but I know what Kael says is true.

He’d be proud of the man I am today.

I work hard to make that a reality.

“Is it against club policy to wander off and get kind of lost in those trees at night where no one can see and hear you?” Kael asks, edging close and taking my hand.

Even though I’m no longer a solitary man, I have a family and a club, a woman who I adore with every ounce of my being, a house we share, a life that we’re building, I’ll never lose that edge that comes with a lifetime of finely honed instincts.

The first thing I think about is the threat of wild animals, the dangers that could be out there—even though there are plenty of cameras installed in the woods and I have the ability on my phones to monitor them—the way the dark could sneak up on a person and how it’s not safe.

Kael pokes me in the side. She knows exactly what I’m thinking.

“Remember that night that I finished the Hades paintings and we had that crazy epic sex? Or the first night we spent in the new house together and I told you that I loved you? When we were able to get all my things from that storage unit and reclaim our lives? The first time you took me for a ride on your bike?”

I nod, my throat thick, my chest burning, my heart swelling.

Kael and I don’t live at a normal pace. The world seems to move fast around us, and we have to adjust accordingly.

I don’t mean that there aren’t moments of peace.

It’s just that I’m sure some people would hear our story and think we moved crazy fast, but then again, Kael takes special delight in finding stories online about couples who met and got married within a few months.

She has a point that all throughout history, that’s the way marriages were done.

I have argued that marriages were largely political in the past, but she just nods and always says touché and then kisses me hard enough to make me forget all about whatever my point was.

“First times doing things are amazing. We’ll be okay. We don’t have to go that far. I just have this specific fantasy of getting railed up against a tree.”

“Kael!”

She grins, but it’s not like anyone has heard us over the chaos.

Tyrant and Lark are already at the cabin and have the doors open. It’ll take a while to get everything set up—all the tents and the supplies put away, but maybe not as long with so many hands helping. There are people everywhere. My club brothers, the women they love, and their beautiful families.

Lynette has her baby held against her shoulder, while Agatha hovers around, waiting for her turn to hold that precious bundle.

She’s the most adorable old lady. Extra awesome because her favorite thing to do in the world is go to Bullet’s range and shoot guns.

She’s a firecracker who never lost her badass spirit.

That job I did for the club that put me in their orbit?

It was her daughter-in-law who stole all that money, along with her son.

Things got crazy, but Agatha is basically a club grandmother now.

Atlas and Willa went out to her farm and got her yesterday and she spent the night with Lynette and Bullet at their house so that she could head out with them in their car early this morning.

This.

This is what I love about this place. It’s not just a brotherhood. It’s the true definition of family is what you make it.

“The old girl made it just fine.” I turn in time for Dominic to clap me on the shoulder. He’s prospecting with the club and rode with us for part of the way, but was more than okay with falling behind and taking his time.

“Dom!” Kael hugs him hard.

My lungs compress watching them together. Not with jealousy. With pride. Dominic has worked so fucking hard this past year, going through multiple surgeries and getting into stringent physical therapy to get back the use of his right arm. He can wrap it all the way around Kael now to hug her back.

Kael loves Dominic, but like a brother. It was her who convinced him to come stay with us while he recovered from that first surgery.

It was weeks of agony, and he needed family.

I have to admit that it’s not just Kael who has reserved a special place for him in her heart.

All the men at the club are my brothers, but no one is as close as Dominic.

We’ve laughed together. Cried together. There were plenty of times he needed someone to vent to about the pain and frustration of healing, and honestly? Same.

Dom has his own room at the clubhouse now.

He splits his time between there and his place.

I wasn’t sure that would work out, but Tyrant is an understanding Prez, a great leader, and a wise man.

The club has always supported Dominic, understanding that some people can’t be confined to a single space.

He’d go crazy if he couldn’t carve. He used to be so angry, though he kept that close to his chest. He’d call himself a cripple in the heat of the moment.

When I asked him if he wanted to prospect with the club, he said he couldn’t.

They wouldn’t take someone like him. Every single person who belongs to the club has helped him see that someone like him is exactly the kind of man who should join.

“Set your tent up right next to ours?” Kael invites him.

Dom laughs, a sound that Kael and I were once so worried we’d never hear. He points to the cabin, where platters of watermelon are being carried out by Lark and Ella.

“Sure. But food first, business later.”

I slip my arm around Kael’s waist as she starts over to the cabin to help. “Alright. The woods. Whenever you like. I can’t let any of your fantasies go unanswered.”

“We could play hide and seek. I hide, you try and use your super skills to find me. It’s been a while. You’re probably getting rusty. Gotta keep you sharp.”

There will be plenty of time to make her squeal later. For now, I just smirk at her darkly, letting her know exactly what’s coming for her later.

After helping all the kids get watermelon, she takes a slice for herself and passes one to me.

Kael can’t just be a regular person and that’s what I love about her so much.

She’s so unexpected. We work out together and she’s strong.

She’s always going to have that artistic spirit inside of her, which helps her see things that other people can’t.

I’ve learned to be ready for the unexpected, even if I can’t predict it. She bites a small slice of watermelon and shoves the rest in my mouth, right up to the rind. She laughs at the green smile it gives me.

“I love you so much,” she says, licking juice off my chin and laughing.

I pop the rind back out, chewing and swallowing before I choke. “I love you right back,” I sputter.

“Even if I’m weird and crazy?”

She gets another piece of fruit, but this time, I’m ready. “Especially then.”

THE END

Hope you enjoyed the book!

The next book in the Satan’s Angels MC

series is Carver