Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,6

or the universe or whoever the fuck else who might want to get involved to try and question me on that.

Her fingers tightened on mine and a choked sob of relief escaped her lips at my words.

I could feel her cracking, the adrenaline from the fight fading from her body and reality coming down on her hard and fast as she was forced to face everything that had happened tonight. And I got the feeling I didn’t even know the half of it.

I turned to her and lifted her into my arms without a word, cradling her against my chest as I could feel her shocked gaze on my face, but I just kept moving back towards the road.

"Tatum!" Monroe bellowed as we approached the edge of the trees and I stepped out onto the road just as he sprinted up to the car.

"She's here, she's okay," I called back as his gaze fell on us and the frantic look in his eyes made me pause.

He was drenched in sweat from running this whole way and he didn't slow as he ran straight up to us and I let Tatum slide from my grip.

Monroe caught her face between his hands, tipping her chin back as he inspected her, his thumbs smearing the blood on her cheeks as he reassured himself it wasn't hers. Then he ran his hands down her sides, checking her arms, hands, waist, dropping to his knees before her as he inspected her legs, making absolutely certain that she wasn't injured before releasing a groan of relief and pressing his head to her stomach.

"I'm alright," Tatum reassured him, her hands stroking his blonde hair in a soothing motion that stained it with the blood of the man she'd killed.

He stood suddenly, his lips capturing hers as he wrapped her tight in his arms like he never wanted to let go again and my brows shot up as she melted into him.

I hadn't had a moment to consider why the fuck he'd been out in that cabin with her without his damn shirt on until this very second, but looking at them now made it undeniably clear. Apparently all of the Night Keepers were just as obsessed with our girl as each other and all of the protests he’d made before now to the contrary had just been bullshit designed to hide what was now painfully obvious.

Nash pulled back suddenly like he'd just remembered I was here. That he was a teacher and she was his student and that was the biggest secret we would all have to keep after tonight.

I wanted to be angry about it. I wanted to roar and snarl and stake my claim and tell him to back the fuck off of my girl.

But she wasn't my girl, was she? She'd sworn herself to all of us and just because I was giving myself to her alone, didn't mean she'd be doing the same. I'd already known about what she had with Blake and I'd seen what lived between her and Saint. And if I really did want to buy into the story of who we all were and who we claimed to be then maybe I was going to have to accept that this was the way it was. The way it was always meant to be.

"That's how it is then?" I asked to confirm it, pinning Nash in my glare as I dared him to make this mean any less than it had to if he expected me to share my girl with him.

Monroe swallowed thickly, his gaze slipping from me to Tatum as he held her hand tightly, clearly waiting for me to lose my mind over this truth. But I could see it now, burning so bright that I must have been blind to miss it before. He was as captured by our queen as the rest of us.

"Yeah," Monroe said, raising his chin defiantly as he faced off against me. "This is how it is."

"What are you going to do?" Tatum asked and I blew out a breath as I pulled my cell phone from my pocket.

"Something I wish I didn't have to," I replied as I moved to make the call I'd sworn I'd never make. But all of the vows and oaths and declarations meant shit if they put my girl at risk and if they might equal the death of my brother.

"You can't tell anyone about us," Monroe snarled, catching my wrist in an iron grip