letting his eyes rake over me as he pulled away, jerked his chin up, then turned around to walk back into the clubhouse.
A heavy sigh fell from my lips as I closed my eyes and leaned back against the fence.
“Hold up,” Nova said, back suddenly, his arms wrenching me to him so he could seal my mouth in a furious kiss, running his tongue over my teeth, my tongue, the inside of my cheek, claiming every inch of me.
When we broke apart, his smile was bigger, genuine and warm with his usual charm. The sun was breaking over the horizon, spilling white gold light over the lot, the gilt limning Nova’s face. He was just straight-up, unfiltered gorgeous. From the thick waves of his dark locks glinting with threads of copper and gold, to the way his eyes caught the shine of the new day and reflected it back at me.
“Thank you,” he said, holding my hand as he started walking backward. “Thanks for bein’ my person.”
“Anytime,” I said light-heartedly as our fingers unclasped and we lost eye contact as he rounded the corner.
Then, to myself I whispered, “Every day of my life.”
LILA
The early morning air was already melting, warming like butter in a pan as the sun rose over the craggy peaks of the tall, snow-capped mountains and spilled onto the valley where Entrance was nestled amid the thick carpet of old growth trees and the narrow fingers of cliff lines that descended steeply into the sea.
My feet churned through the milky fog still clinging to the forest floor of Wolf Creek Provincial Park as I ran through the trees. I hadn’t been able to sleep after the drama-filled night. Tay and Cyclops were at the PD with Zeus and the club lawyer, Mr. White, while Lion, Harleigh Rose, Bat, and a few other brothers were at the hospital with Ransom. He had three broken ribs, multiple contusions, a severe concussion, and a stab wound that just missed his right kidney.
Life was not easy, and it seemed to me, the only way it could go from here was down. We needed to take down the Venturas, to end Irina for touching a hair on a Fallen head, and then maybe, we could taste peace.
For now, I chased after it during my bi-weekly jog. I’d had my gym bag in my trunk, and I’d snuck out after feigning sleep for a couple of hours.
There was music in my ears–Wild Horses by Bishop Briggs––morning dew and sweat glistening on my skin, and the deep, fragrant scent of pine, cedar and musk-sweet earth in my nose.
This, running through nature, brushing my hand over bark, trailing it through long grass, was my happy place.
This was why, even in the darkest moments of the last two years when I’d wondered if I’d ever get over Nova, if I’d ever be able to commit to Jake and move down to Vancouver, I’d never wanted to live anywhere but Entrance.
Mine was a wild, curious soul, so I loved to travel, and I had a bucket list of destinations the length of my five-foot four frame. But this was home.
As I ran, my mind clear as the lake sprawling out to my left, the detritus on the bottom magnified as though looking through glass, I knew it wasn’t just the natural beauty of the place that made it home.
It was, of course, the people.
Growing up, I’d never thought a person needed a community.
Ignacio had taught us to be suspicious of strangers, of kindness and connection.
It was blood over everything. Blood first, blood last, blood always.
But I’d learned differently in the years since he’d disappeared from my life.
It wasn’t blood.
It was family, first, last, and always.
It was my girl Harleigh Rose, my biker babes, and their men.
It was Hudson with his goofiness and elastic expression, Milo with his sharp mind and twitching lips, and Oliver with his intense manner but quick, rapid-fire laugh.
Molly and Diogo, the only real parents I’d ever known, and Zeus who had stepped up like some kind of magnet, calling me to him and his just because I was Nova’s.
And Nova.
It was Nova more than anyone else.
Nova had defined my sense of home since I’d seen him gangly and beautiful stepping from that minivan across the street from the structure I’d slept in.
I could’ve moved to the other side of the planet, never seeing him again in person, just painted in exquisite brush strokes in my mind’s eye, and still, I knew he would