Chapter Fifteen

Silver hooked her hands on her hips and stared at the printer she'd just set up in her office space.

She didn't know why, but this felt like a huge moment. Many moments felt big lately.

It had been three weeks since the rodeo, three weeks since she'd told Rook off. Three weeks in the Fastlanders, and life had morphed into something incredibly beautiful.

This was the first big purchase she'd made since she'd opened her website back up to customers and began making signatures for clients again. She didn't care about anything she'd left behind at Rook's. He could keep all her old clothes. She had everything she needed here. This was another piece to her fresh start.

The home was still sparse on furniture, but there was a reason for it. She'd spent most nights with Owen, and furnishing this place had taken a back seat to fire-pit-nights, and dinner dates with Owen. She'd been on adventures in town with the Fastlanders, and even a wine tasting trip with the girls. She was getting used to bringing lunches up to Owen's jobsite on Fridays.

The cadence of life here filled her with a steadiness she never even imagined could exist before.

And at the center of it all was Owen, who was cheering her on every step of the way.

She knew without the shadow of a doubt that when he got off work, and she showed him the printer, he would say they needed to celebrate. He would either cook for her, or take her on a date in town, and he would tell her, like he did every day, how proud he was.

That was just the type of man Owen was.

The Fastlanders were all very understanding of her needing space as she established her footing here, but they found this amazing balance with being there the second she needed anything too. And even if she found herself in unsteady moments, where old habits and thoughts and triggers popped up, she found understanding with these people. There was immense value in friendships like that.

For the first time in her life, Silver belonged.

"Knock, knock," Owen said, pushing open the door.

"Hey!" she greeted him happily. So lost in her own thoughts had she been, she hadn't heard the sound of his truck engine coming up the hill.

"Is that what I think it is?" he asked, reaching out to hug her in a greeting.

She nestled into his embrace. "I bought it today."

A deep chuckle reverberated against her cheek as he tightened his arms around her. "I'm so damn proud of you."

Her smile stretched her face. She had known he would say that. It felt good to make the man she respected proud.

"Hey, we have something going on outside," he said.

The seriousness of his tone made Silver ease back to see his face. "What's wrong?" Her mind immediately went to the Holland Pride.

"So ready to fight," he said, stroking his finger under her eye. "Just come outside, and you will understand."

Her hackles rose as she felt a weight outside she didn't recognize. "Something's happening," she whispered.

Owen lifted his chin in the air and wrapped his hand around hers. "Everything is okay."

But she didn't feel like it was okay. It had to be the Holland Pride here to steal her happiness. That had been her fear, and now it was coming true.

With her chest full of turmoil, she allowed Owen to lead her outside to the porch of her own ten-ten, and she was stunned to find the clearing lined with people. No, not people. Shifters with bright eyes, and kind smiles. She recognized some from her research. Willa. Clinton. Bash. Damon, she knew. The Saw Bears were all here in a group. The Boarlanders, too. The Warlanders were setting up tables near the firepit. Even Lucia was here.

"What is this?" she asked in a squeak of a voice as she took in the coolers, and bags of food, and trucks full of people clogging up the driveway.

Gunner and his Fastlanders were standing by the firepit, looking over at her.

Owen spoke softly. "Once upon a time, this lioness shifter messaged a man I have looked up to for years. And he called me one day."

"Mason?"

He gave a wave to a barrel-chested man walking toward them with his mate—the mother of Air Ryder. Mason nodded a greeting at Owen, and smiled at Silver.

"Over the weeks, he decided to take me under his wing, and mentor me quietly, because I was sure I was going to fuck this up."

"Fuck what up?" she asked, stunned at what she was hearing.

"Making you happy. Making you feel secure. I watched you the last few weeks, and you have these stretches of joy that are so fun to watch, but you have this fear that the freedom you've found will be taken away from you at any moment. It's like you're waiting for Rook to come get you."

"Because he will come after us."

Owen pressed his forehead against hers and then gripped her hair at the sides of her neck gently. "I asked Mason what I could do to reassure you that you are safe. That we are good. He said you should understand what is behind you."

"What is behind me," she whispered, looking out at all of these powerful people, who had such a huge legacy built in the shifter community.

"The Fastlanders aren't alone, Silver. Neither are you."

"We took the vote," Gunner called as Owen led her to the firepit. "If you want an official spot in the Fastlanders, you can have it."

Silver clasped her hand over her mouth as the burning tears welled up in her eyes, and she looked from Gunner to Hallie, to Corey, Ace, and Captain, then to Owen. Wreck would be somewhere close. She had a theory that he was always watching.

"I can be one of your people?" she forced out.

Gunner nodded. "I'll bond your animal to us tonight, after the celebration."

"The celebration," she whispered thickly.

It was Corey who spoke up. "Girl, we've been planning this. Just waiting for a day when the most people could make it out here. You've been one of us. Now it'll be official."

Utterly shocked, Silver dropped her gaze to the firepit and then looked up at Owen. "Is this okay with you?"

Owen laughed. Laughed!

"I'm being serious," Silver said. "I have a traitor mark, and I'm new around here, and I'm an emotional rollercoaster sometimes, and—"

Owen quieted her by pressing his lips to hers. His hand rested gentle against the side of her neck, and when the chaos inside of her quieted to nothing, he eased back, a smile on his lips.

"Woman, I'm yours. I've been yours. I'm trying not to scare you off, but you can have what you want. Claiming mark, my last name, my fealty? Whatever will assure you that I'm yours? You can have it."

"You want to be mine?" she eeked out in a small voice. "For always?"

"Yes. Easy answer."

She nodded and looked around at all the people setting up tables and food and talking, and waiting to greet her. "I have an admission. I have been practicing your last name on my first name with my calligraphy pens."

He belted out a laugh. "I guess we're on the same page then."

And how beautiful to be chosen in such a way. He'd seen her at her worst, seen her insecure, seen her hate the person she was. He had seen her when he had no reason to trust her, and he'd watched her grow, and he wanted to stick around for all of it. He wasn't choosing her because of her genetics or because of how her lioness fought, or because she was some sort of trophy, or something to control. He was choosing her knowing her old people were planning something awful. He was telling her she was safe. He was building a fortress around her, with the keepers of Damon's Mountains.

She loved him. God, she loved that man.

Tears streamed from her eyes as she lifted her gaze to Gunner, her Alpha, and nodded. "Yes."

She'd thought getting herself a printer was going to be the highlight of the day, but it didn't even touch this feeling of absolute acceptance, from her mate—and yes, she knew her feelings were right, Owen was her mate—and from the Fastlanders, and also from the other Crews in Damon's Mountains.

Whatever came for them, she couldn't control that, and Owen was right. She couldn't live in fear. She had to trust that the Mountains had her. And she had to trust in herself that she would protect these Mountains with the same fierceness.

There was too much that was important here.

She hugged Owen tight and then fell into Hallie and Corey's embraces. Hallie had tears in her eyes that matched Silver's, and Corey was wearing the happiest smile. Then she began the process of greeting the others who had come to throw a big party out here in the territory of the Fastlanders.

In her Pride, Silver had felt utterly alone.

But standing here in the heart of Fastlander territory, with Owen at her side—always at her side—and her friends cheering on her every triumph, Silver knew without the shadow of a doubt that she would never feel alone again.

She was not Silver of the Holland Pride any longer.

Now, she was Silver of the Fastlanders.