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“I don’t need your support.”
“Oh my gosh, Wreck,” Gunner gritted out, flashing him a bi-colored glare. “Look, I was going to give you a compliment.”
“Please don’t. Just suck it back inside. I don’t need your dumb compliments.”
“Fine. You’re the worst.”
“Thank you.”
As Gunner trudged ahead, shaking his head, Wreck allowed a private smile to slip across his lips.
Gunner respected him for something.
He wouldn’t say it out loud, but that was compliment enough.
Chapter Eleven
Timber’s heart felt busted wide open, but there was a sense of relief too. Sasha had validated her feelings. Corey and the other females of the Fastlanders had been offering her comforting reassurances, and were doing the same—validating her feelings. She was being told she wasn’t the villain, and there was great healing property in finally,finallyfeeling like she was understood.
She turned and waited on Wreck, wondering if he’d stayed to say something more to her family. The bar wasn’t on fire, so there was that. Gunner was walking toward them, blocking her view of Wreck, and he was rubbing his hand with a flinch of pain etched across his face.
“You okay?” Hallie asked her mate.
“I touched him,” Gunner muttered as he passed Timber. “Apparently you’re the only one allowed to do that.”
A surprised laugh escaped her, and she dashed her hands across her damp cheeks to wipe away the tears there.
Wreck was smiling to himself like he was pleased with the burn on Gunner’s hand. Wreck’s eyes were glued to the ground as he sauntered toward her. When he looked up, the smile faded and worry consumed his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked low as he pulled her against his chest and hugged her so tight in his warm embrace. He did it easily, without hesitation, like the potential to burn her wasn’t a concern, and she liked that. He was trusting himself as he gained control.
God, this felt good. She inhaled his scent—cologne, and a faint hint of that metallic smoke—and melted against him, closing her eyes to the rest of the world.
The pad of his thumb brushed her cheek, and she looked up at him. “I’m okay.”
“I shouldn’t have asked for us to do that.”
“No, no. None of that was on you. I actually feel…” She shook her head, looking for the right word. “Relieved.”
“Do you feel seen now?” he asked softly.
She pursed her lips against a smile and nodded. Exactly right. She did feel seen. She wasn’t the villain in the story with these people. They had her back when they barely had a reason to do so.
“Crew,” she called, and the Fastlanders slowed and turned. She wished she had her phone up to take a picture of this. Gunner’s arm was slung around Hallie’s shoulders. She had her hand pressed to her still-flat belly. Ace had picked Corey up at some point, and she was thrown over his shoulder, laughing. Silver and Sloane were arm in arm, and their mates, Owen and Captain, were behind them.
And Wreck was beside her, with Sasha walking up to her other side.
It was a beautiful thing to come from that awful outsider-moment, to feeling like being a part of something bigger than herself.
“First round is on me for having to put up with that fuckery. I’m so sorry. Honestly. You barely know me and you got this awful look at my family drama, and it’s too much too fast—”
“Captain and Owen fight each other like, every day,” Silver called out.
“It’s true,” Captain and Owen said in unison.
“Gunner doesn’t even like being Alpha of this Crew, and he barely likes any of us,” Ace said.
Gunner nodded. “He also speaks the truth.”
“I was human just last year,” Hallie said. “Turned against my will, and then the first thing I did was Turn my cousin. Corey is a shifter because I couldn’t control the animal.”
