Page 78 of Dravin

I didn’t go last year. I stayed back at the clubhouse, helping Wizard instead. I wasn’t a patched in member and even though I was invited, I didn’t feel right about going. I’d also told Tyrant and Raiden, and the rest of the club the truth about Kael and myself. I didn’t feel right about bringing that shadow of potential danger with us up there, into such a beautiful and unguarded place. Tyrant didn’t see it that way. He promised me the club’s support, should I ever need it. I didn’t take the offer lightly and neither did Kael. She’s never taken one single second of anyone’s time, devotion, or friendship for granted.

Her hands tighten around my chest, fisting at my waist. A few of the old ladies are riding with their men, but some are back behind us, driving with all the supplies we’ll need for such a big campout, and all the eager kids. There mightbe a cabin up there in the mountains, but it certainly won’t fit everyone.

Kael never camped out once as a kid. I’ve never done civilian camping either. I can’t count sleeping out on a job while I surveilled someone as actual camping.

It will be our first time roasting marshmallows over a campfire. Such a small thing. Such a wonder to do it with her.

Her hands work their way under my leather jacket, dipping beneath my t-shirt. She flattens her palms against my abs. Despite the wind, they’re not cold. It’s been a nice summer, but wet. This week’s forecast promises sun, and hopefully that’s true. Although, I know Kael wouldn’t mind getting soaked for days on end as long as it meant doing it with me.

Her hand starts edging lower, despite Atlas and Willa flanking us on the one side and the whole fucking fleet of bikes ahead of us and behind us. I take one hand off the bike to stop her. I can imagine her grin behind her helmet, especially when she rests her head against my leather vest. I patched in last week. I expected Kael to have reservations about it, but she had none. This isn’t just my place in the world.

It’s hers too.

It’s hers from the house we bought together last winter, when the last men who existed in the world and posed a threat to her, were found dead in one of their nightclubs down in LA. The blood battle waged over territory, empires, and human greed, was finally over.

It gave us both a sense of relief, but honestly, we’d found our freedom before it ever happened.

The roar of our bikes punctuates the peaceful mountain road that twists and turns into the heart of the wilderness. We drove from Hart, past Seattle, and out the other side. The country is beautiful here. Breathtaking.

Nothing is more beautiful than when we finally head down a long gravel road and burst into a clearing surrounded by trees, offset by the blue peaks of mountains standing sentinel in the distance, blanketed by a blue sky with puffy clouds. I help Kael off the Harley. It took me a few months after restoring the Triumph to find something that I thought was the right fit, not just for me, but for Kael as well. I didn’t care one bit that it looked like a grandpa bike. When Kael’s on it with me, I want her to be as safe as possible.

She whips the helmet off and shakes out her hair. She went to Tarynn and got it cut into what she calls a mullet, but is really just lots of layers that frame her gorgeous face. Tarynn worked wonders taking her color back to her natural brunette. There are plenty of gold and copper highlights in the strands, which catch the sun now. They don’t shine nearly as bright as her eyes.

I barely have my helmet off before she launches herself at me, half climbing me, and kissing me breathless. “That was incredible!” She shouts, throwing back her head and laughing loudly.

I get what she means. I haven’t been on many rides with the club, usually staying back with Wizard to do security, but it’s exhilarating. She loves riding with me on my bike, but this was the first time we’ve ever gone out with a pack other than that time we drove out to Dominic’s to deliver the Triumph, but that was hardly a full ride like today’s, and she had to gowith Willa, not out in the open where the wind and the sky and freedom claim her.

She kisses me with zero shame or censure, pouring her whole heart into it, and even when people start to cheer and holler, she doesn’t stop.

“You’re going to give Ella and Raiden a run for their money soon, babe,” Willa calls, but it’s clear just how happy she is for her us.

I might be red as fuck, but Kael is blissfully happy as she turns around and flips Willa off. “That’s the idea.”

“I love you.” Willa laughs, shaking her head. “I lovethisfor you.”

“Me too!” Kael bounces all over the place once I set her down. “This place is so freaking amazing! I’m so glad I brought my paints.”

Lynette and Bullet are coming for the day, but they have a three month old baby, so they drove up together in Lynette’s car. Kael dropped her supplies off at their house last night so that they could be packed safely in their trunk.

“Don’t do a boring landscape,” Willa pleads. “You could paint… Oh, I don’t know… Maybe some super-hot chick who is totally into your work and also just happens to love antiques.”

Atlas snags Willa around the waist. She squeals, but it’s pretty much drowned out by the noise of all the kids starting to spill out of vehicles. It’s a lovely sound, all that laughter, kids getting to be kids. Seeing them tearing through the grass and creating a level of general chaos that will probably persist for the next three days before it calms down makes the child in mehappy. He’s down in there somewhere, still trying to find his place in the world, but I know what Kael says is true.

He’d be proud of the man I am today.

I work hard to make that a reality.

“Is it against club policy to wander off and get kind of lost in those trees at night where no one can see and hear you?” Kael asks, edging close and taking my hand.

Even though I’m no longer a solitary man, I have a family and a club, a woman who I adore with every ounce of my being, a house we share, a life that we’re building, I’ll never lose that edge that comes with a lifetime of finely honed instincts.

The first thing I think about is the threat of wild animals, the dangers that could be out there—even though there are plenty of cameras installed in the woods and I have the ability on my phones to monitor them—the way the dark could sneak up on a person and how it’s not safe.

Kael pokes me in the side. She knows exactly what I’m thinking. “Remember that night that I finished the Hades paintings and we had that crazy epic sex? Or the first night we spent in the new house together and I told you that I loved you? When we were able to get all my things from that storage unit and reclaim our lives? The first time you took me for a ride on your bike?”

I nod, my throat thick, my chest burning, my heart swelling. Kael and I don’t live at a normal pace. The world seems to move fast around us, and we have to adjust accordingly. I don’t mean that there aren’t moments of peace. It’s just that I’m sure some people would hear our story and think we moved crazy fast, but then again, Kael takes special delight in findingstories online about couples who met and got married within a few months. She has a point that all throughout history, that’s the way marriages were done. I have argued that marriages were largely political in the past, but she just nods and always saystouchéand then kisses me hard enough to make me forget all about whatever my point was.

“First times doing things are amazing. We’ll be okay. We don’t have to gothatfar. I just have this specific fantasy of getting railed up against a tree.”

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