by T. S. Joyce
Weston pulled Avery behind him and frantically began strapping himself down with the sloshing weaponry. Avery hesitated a moment, unsure of herself, but Weston said, “You better move, woman. Defend yourself!”
Well, okay then.
Avery pulled a couple straps over her shoulders, shoved two water pistols in the back of her jean shorts, and screamed when Aaron blasted her in the shoulder with a stream of cold water. Giggling uncontrollably, she pulled a couple water balloons from a neon green bucket and launched them at Aaron and Alana, who were on the run.
Wyatt stood in the back of the truck, legs locked, as he shot two water rifles in the air and battle-cried like a lunatic. Ryder was shooting Lexi’s white shirt all to hell, right at her boobs, Weston was running full-speed after Aaron, the mountains were echoing with laughter, and everything was perfect.
Harper blasted her with water, and Avery gasped at how shockingly cold it was. What had they put in these, ice water? She pulled the trigger on her biggest gun, but nothing.
“Pump it!” Weston yelled from where he, Aaron, and Alana were embroiled in a water battle.
“What?”
“Ryder, quit!” Lexi said through a peel of laughter.
Ryder was hugging his mate, pelvic thrusting against her butt. “He said hump it.”
“Hump it?” Avery called, confused.
“No, pump it!” Weston yelled again, pulling the mechanism under his water gun to show Avery.
Right. She did as he’d shown her and pulled the trigger on Harper right before she disappeared around the truck. Harper squealed and said, “Aaah, that’s cold!”
Avery chased Harper, but Wyatt was still in the back of the truck raining down water bullets, and by the time Avery caught up to the Bloodrunner alpha, she was drenched and laughing so hard it was difficult to stay upright. She slipped and slid in the mud they were creating, her wet hair plastered to her face, and her clothes sticking to her like a second skin. Alana and Lexi appeared out from behind the truck as Avery bolted for the trees. She and Harper screamed and dodged the new jets of water, looked at each other with giant grins, then turned their guns on the other two girls. Her biggest gun was already empty, so she tossed it on the ground and grabbed the next, ducking and hiding around trees.
“Aaaah,” Aaron yelled as he jumped from behind a pine. He sprayed Avery across the stomach, and she reacted by hitting him in the chest with the stream from hers.
Another splash of water hit her and another, and then Weston was there, pulling her hand toward a thick grove of trees and tossing water balloon grenades at the others as they bolted for cover.
They played and shot and ran and hid until every water gun stream was nothing but a drip. Avery was heaving breath, her arms and legs were shaking, and she was soaked to the bone, but she’d never had more fun in her life. And when her last water pistol was empty, she shot a beaming smile at Weston, who was standing beside her, his short, dark hair dripping, eyes dancing, and his grin big and white. There was that dimple. His chest was heaving with exertion, and his shirt so wet she could see every tattoo through the thin material.
And for a moment, they just stood like that, locked in each other’s smiles. He felt like happiness.
Weston dropped his water gun and cupped her neck, pulled her gently to him, and dipped down to her lips. It was a soft kiss, one where his lips fit perfectly to hers. He didn’t push his tongue past her lips, but instead, stood up straighter and slid an arm around her back, brought her closer to his hard body. His erection pressed against her, but still, he didn’t push. He was tender as he sipped at her lips.
He disengaged, then gave her a soft peck, once, twice, then another lingering one before he rested his forehead against hers and drew her palm against his chest. “Feel.” His heartbeat was fast under her hand. Weston brushed damp hair from her face and smiled. “You do that to me.”
Avery pressed his hand to her lips, kissed his work-hardened palm, then rested it under her collar bone so he could feel how fast hers was racing, too. “We match,” she whispered.
“Weston’s touching Avery’s boob,” Ryder called. And then he loudly sang, “Weston and Avery sittin’ in a tree, F-U-C-K-I-N—”
“Ryder!” Harper yelled.
Avery cracked up and rested her face on Weston’s chest to hide the color of her cheeks. “I like your crew,” she admitted. “I thought they would be terrifying and mean, but they aren’t.”
“Nope. Just crass and immature,” Weston said, his voice tinged with amusement.
Weston bent down, and shouldered their water guns. And on the way up, he slung Avery over his shoulder.
She squealed and struggled, but Weston was much stronger than her, so she gave up quickly. He headed back for the clearing, and Avery arched her back so she could see the others. Lexi was riding Ryder piggy-back style, Alana and Aaron were picking up a pair of water pistols off the ground with lovey smiles on their faces, and Harper and Wyatt were making out by a pine tree.
Avery’s face hurt from smiling so much. The shifters of Raven’s Hollow didn’t show affection like this. There had always been a coldness, a distance that had made her uncomfortable, but here, it was accepted to hug, kiss, and show adoration.
Up at the shop, Weston disappeared inside and brought her a dry T-shirt in the right size. Her shorts were soaking still, but they would dry soon enough. The Bloodrunners changed into dry shirts without a single care about nudity, but when Avery hesitated, Weston pulled her to the other side of the truck and told her, “It’s okay, you can change over here.”
Relieved, she peeled off her wet tank top and slipped her T-shirt over her head. And when she peeked through the neck hole, she snorted. Weston was staring wide-eyed at her bra-clad boobs.
Busted, he offered her a wicked grin and said, “I was staring at your heartbeat.”
Avery’s shoes squished with every step as she walked beside Weston toward the garage, but even though she was a little uncomfortable, nothing could ruin this moment. While the others loaded up on ATV’s and strapped coolers and supplies to the backs of the biggest ones with bungie cords, Weston showed her how to turn her camo print ATV on and get it into gear. Apparently they would be riding in “high” to get where they were going.
A rush of nervousness took her, but Weston rested his hands over hers on the handlebars. “You’ll do fine. Follow in my tracks. I’ll take the easiest way. And look”—he jerked his chin toward Alana, who was receiving a similar lesson from Aaron—“you aren’t the only first-timer.”
Well, that did make her feel better.
When Ryder arced his ATV in a wide circle, the others followed. Avery hit the throttle too hard and her quad lurched forward, scaring her. She skidded to a stop with the handlebar brakes. Alana had done the same thing in front of her, except she was laughing and her mate, Aaron, was looking at her like she was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. Okay, making mistakes wasn’t so serious. Not with this crew.
Avery tried again, easing her thumb onto the throttle slower this time. She moved forward at a good, smooth clip, and when Weston tossed a glance over his shoulder at her, he winked and gave her that crooked smile. And her butterflies fluttered on. Grinning, she eased her quad right after his. Harper was behind her, and any other day, it would’ve bothered her to no end to expose her neck to a dominant dragon shifter like this. But she and Harper had just had a water fight, had even fought together some, and she’d never made Avery feel like she was in danger. Plus, it was really hard to see Harper as a threat when the alpha was giggling and joking with Wyatt, who was pulling up the rear.
For the next fifteen minutes, all she heard was her own giggling and the roar of her ATV motor as they sped up and down trails. Sometimes they would ride along a cliff edge adorned with towering trees, and she would have to remind herself she was a flight shifter. If the ATV rolled, she could Change. Her raven made her braver, where before, her inner animal would have burrowed deep inside of her in the face of
fear.
She’d done that to her animal—trained it to be frightened and hide.
Avery made a silent oath to take better care of her raven, and herself.
She wasn’t as fast as the others, but Weston never pulled too far ahead, and Harper and Wyatt seemed perfectly content with the speed she kept them at, so she didn’t get overwhelmed like she usually would’ve. Up and up they climbed the rocky trails until they reached a flat part with a wide loop of trail around a single sourwood tree. There was a rocky ledge overlooking miles of shallow hills with buildings dotting the distant green. It was beautiful, so Avery snapped a picture with her phone while the boys unloaded the backs of the four-wheelers. She would print this photo out and write the date on the back so she could always remember today. She would keep it in the box with Weston’s letters.
The Bloodrunners built a fire in a pit that had obviously been used before, and Lexi heated up giant pancakes on an iron griddle over the flames. Ryder had been right about the booze being a substantial amount. Weston scooped a red plastic cup through a blue cooler full of a fragrant fruity concoction Ryder called Clinton’s Trashcan Punch.
One sip, and Avery’s eyes watered from the burn. “Holy moly,” she choked out as the crew laughed at her. “That’s potent.”
“Weston pulled her down onto his lap in a bag chair and took a long drink of his own. “Look,” he said, pointing up the steep hill through the trees.
“What?”
“Wait. Just watch.”
A tiny blinking light flickered through the woods. Avery gasped. “Fireflies?”
Weston kissed her shoulder, bit it gently, and nodded.
“You know,” she said, relaxing back against him. “We don’t have fireflies in Raven’s Hollow. And when I first moved here a month and a half ago, I would see them through the woods when I drove at night, or when I was sleeping in my car.” She pointed excitedly as another firefly sparked to the right.
“Mmm hmm,” Weston said in a happy, deep murmur.
“Anyway, I was so stressed out about what I was going to do, where I was going to find a job, how long I would be able to make my money stretch, that I didn’t really have the mental capacity left to really look around at how beautiful this place is. I get to see fireflies. And I’m on the side of a beautiful mountain overlooking the Smokies. With you.” She leaned to the side so she could better see him. “This is amazing.”
“Uh, I think you forgot to say you get to hang out with the coolest fucking crew on the planet,” Ryder added from across the fire where he was dumping syrup over a plate of pancakes.
“That, too.”
Ryder snorted. “That, too, like we’re an afterthought. “You mean that first!” He shook his head like he was offended. “We’re awesome.”
“Lexi, did you hear?” Avery asked softly.
“Hear what?” she asked, handing Avery a plate of three pancakes.
“I got promoted to eleventh best friend.”
Lexi handed her the butter next. “Above the worm?”
“His name is Bart,” Ryder said around a giant mouthful of pancake. “He’s my spirit animal.”
Lexi rolled her eyes and flipped the pancakes on the griddle with a plastic spatula. “Last week he said his spirit animal was the pterodactyl.”
“No,” Weston drawled. “No. You can’t pick an animal that is extinct.”
“I didn’t pick it. The pterodactyl picked me.”
A chunk of pancake flew from Wyatt’s general direction and hit Ryder in the face. Harper laughed when the redheaded jokester didn’t miss a beat, just plucked the morsel off his lap and popped it in his mouth.
“Look at that,” Alana mused, staring over the ridge at the sunset. The sky sure was putting on a show with pretty pinks and yellows. “This is what it will look like at our wedding,” she said to Aaron. “Two weeks from today, at this same time, I’ll be taking your last name. Alana Keller.”
“Has a ring to it, baby,” the blond-haired grizzly shifter said, pulling her chair closer to his. “I can’t fuckin’ wait to put my name on you.”
“What kind of wedding do you want, Harper?” Alana asked, her attention back to cutting the food on her paper plate.
“I know the answer to this one,” Wyatt said. “Ivory dress in a big chapel, all of Damon’s Mountains invited. Reception in her mountains.”
“So a big wedding,” Lexi said.
“Huge,” Harper confirmed through a grin. “I want it to be a massive party when we finally do it. Booze, fireworks, the whole nine yards. What about you?” the alpha asked Lexi.
“Oooh, no,” Lexi muttered. “Don’t even get me started on weddings.”
Avery giggled, “Why not?”
“Ryder already has a wedding idea book.”
“Picture if you will,” Ryder said theatrically. “Doves flying overhead the entire ceremony—”
“So bird shit everywhere,” Wyatt murmured through a grin.
“A harpist playing our song.”
“Which is?” Harper asked.
Lexi piped up, “Oh it’s super romantic. It’s that song about humping like they do on the discovery channel.”
Weston had been mid-drink and spit his Clinton’s Trashcan Punch with his laughter.
Ryder didn’t look amused. He arched his red eyebrow primly. “Can I finish now?”
Lexi was trying to hide a smile, her pretty green eyes sparking with humor. “Go ahead, Groomzilla.”
“Thank you. Flowers everywhere, but like, poison ivy around the cake so if any little fuckers get to eating the icing too soon and ruin my pictures, they’ll swell up and itch like hell. Beef jerky fountain, balloon animals, a wild-west theme with Lexi wearing one of those tit-baring corset dresses with the lace. We ride in on a pair of pure white stallions…”
“What kind would you want?” Weston asked Avery quietly in her ear.
“Me?” she asked as Ryder droned on about how he wanted armored medieval knights jousting behind the altar.
“Yeah.” It was dark enough that the flickering orange of the fire showed up across the chiseled planes of Weston’s face. He sure looked handsome in the firelight glow.
Avery fed him a giant bite of pancake, then took a long drink to stall. She’d never thought about that before. The idea of marriage to any of the ravens of The Hollow had put her off imagining any romance on the big day.
“Don’t think too hard about it, Ave. Just blurt it out. If you were getting married tomorrow, how would you want it to be?”
“Well tomorrow would be less than two weeks before Alana and Aaron’s big day.”
“So?”
“So I wouldn’t want to take away from that in any way. I guess something small and intimate, with just me and…” You. Avery cleared her throat and dipped her gaze to the red drink cupped in her hands. “Just me and the groom, and maybe he would take me to eat after. Somewhere fancy. And I would wear a pretty dress, and he would wear a dark suit, and maybe we would stay at a bed and breakfast or something that night for a honeymoon.” She laughed nervously. “Sounds lame, huh?”
“No,” Weston murmured, lifting her hand to his lips. He pressed a kiss there, just between her knuckles. “Sounds perfect.”
Avery smiled at him gratefully for being so nice to her and relaxed back against him, rested her cheek on his, and listened to Ryder talk about the life-sized painting of him and Lexi on a pirate ship that he wanted to commission for their engagement photo.
Weston had only asked because she was the only woman here who had been left out of the wedding conversation. He was just trying to make her feel included, but now that she thought about it, yeah—a small, intimate ceremony was the new dream.
But only if it was with him.
Chapter Eighteen
Today had been the best day of Avery’s life.
She cast another glance over at Weston who was laying under her car, changing the oil. He’d been working on her Civic for the last hour, telling her
stories she’d missed out on in the years they hadn’t written each other. Most of them were about his Gray Back Crew and how much trouble he and his friends got into when they were kids. She liked those best—the ones that included Wyatt, Ryder, Aaron, and Harper. She felt like she was getting to know them better. She enjoyed imagining she’d grown up alongside of them in Damon’s Mountains with the normal childhood they’d had.
She liked knowing that, for other people, good childhoods had existed. Maybe it should’ve made her jealous, but it really didn’t. Instead, it made her happy.
She rolled over onto her side on the blanket he’d laid out for her beside the Civic. From here, she had a perfect view of the sexy southern half of him from the top of his abdominals down, and that man had blessed her greatly by taking off his shirt before sliding under the car.
“What was your mom like?” she asked.
“Uuuh, let’s see. She was quiet, strict. She was a worrier. I was her only raven boy, and Da was so protective of me it definitely rubbed off on her. I got away with less than the other kids in the trailer park, but I didn’t mind. I knew it was just because they loved me. She was really good at cooking. Still, when I go home to visit for holidays, I just eat the entire time I’m there. I’ve tried to make some of her recipes over the years, but my cooking can’t touch hers.”
Avery smiled and gave a soft laugh. “It’s because she cooked with love.”
“That’s what Da says, too.”
“I think I will pee my pants if I ever meet Beaston.”
“Oh, you will meet my Da, and no, you won’t pee your pants. For one, I’ve watched you grow tougher every day. You showed no fear around the Bloodrunners today, and I was so fucking proud of how well you fit in. You held your chin up more when you talked to them and spoke your mind when you wanted.”
“The alcohol can be blamed for that.”
“Bullcrap, you’re coming into your own. It’s pretty fuckin’ awesome to watch. Two, my Da isn’t that bad.”
“To you. You grew up with him, and you’re his son. He had no reason to maul you. I was made to betray you.”