Page 32 of Fastlander Fallen

He scratched his jaw and looked around. “You want to go join the others?”

She pursed her lips against a sad smile. There it was—the shutdown. All men did it at some point. Ace chose to do his early.

She wasn’t going to force him into opening up though. He could keep his secrets. That’s what boys did. They kept secrets.

“Sure,” she said, giving him an out.

He paid for their sodas and then led her toward the four tables of shifters near the back. A live band had been setting up on the stage at the back, and they opened the notes to a cover song that she absolutely loved, and she was suddenly very happy that she’d accepted his invite out. A rush of happiness zinged up her spine, and without thinking, she hugged his arm. “I’m glad we’re here.”

He came to a halt and looked down at her with blazing-blue eyes and an unreadable expression on the too-sharp angles of his face.

“Oh, sorry,” she uttered, releasing his arm. “I just got excited.”

“No, no,” he said low, a frown drawing his dark brows down. “I don’t mind you touching me. I can feel your…” A tiny smile took the corners of his masculine lips. “I can feel that you’re happy.”

“That’s a good superpower,” she murmured, searching his eyes.

“Sometimes. Sometimes I feel anger or sadness, but you are naturally light. It’s easy to be around you.”

She parted her lips to respond, but was interrupted by Hallie calling her name.

Her cousin was scrambling across four grown men’s laps to escape the booth she’d been trapped in.

One of them yelped and cupped his dick like he’d been racked, and Corey felt for him. Hallie was wearing heels.

“I think you broke it,” the Crew applicant, a stout, barrel-chested gargantuan, groaned.

“Oh hush. You’re a shifter, it’ll grow back,” she muttered as the Crew applicant complained.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s how it works,” one of the others pointed out.

Corey pursed her lips as Ace meandered over to the table to greet Gunner and the others. Hallie grabbed her hand and called over her shoulder, “We are going out to smoke!”

“Wait, you don’t smoke,” Gunner called, confused.

Hallie pointed to the sign above the side door that read Smoke. It was the firepit’s name, but the boys probably had no clue.

Corey bit back a grin as Hallie pulled her through the swinging door to an outdoor firepit, where people did at times smoke, but tonight it was empty on this part of the deck.

“You are giving googly eyes to Ace,” Hallie said, rounding on her.

“I don’t even know how to make googly eyes,” Corey muttered as she turned the dial to turn on the propane firepit. It was an enormous stone number with a timer. She cranked it to thirty minutes, and the flames jumped to life as Hallie grabbed a couple of blankets from the wooden bin against the railing.

“What’s going on?” Hallie asked.

Corey settled onto the cushion of the bench seat by the fire. “Maybe I’m lonely because someone doesn’t pay attention to me anymore.”

“You’re so high maintenance,” Hallie teased.

“Damn right I am. The last five months it was you and me against the world, and I rearranged my whole life around keeping you safe. The transition back to normal life is necessary, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s boring.”

Hallie tucked a blanket around Corey’s legs like a doting older sister, and then took the seat next to her and tucked her own blanket around her legs.

She leaned over and rested her head against Corey’s shoulder. “It’s not always easy for me either.”

“You have Gunner to distract you,” Corey muttered.

“I’ve been having a hard time feeling safe,” Hallie admitted softly. “It hurts Gunner. When I consciously think about it, I know I’m safe. He would kill anyone who came after me. Fuck, he did, Corey. He killed Derek. He doesn’t have an ounce of guilt over it either. But I was on the run for so long that the fear became a huge part of me. Maybe it’s the biggest part of me now. I don’t think Gunner would ever consider being an Alpha of a Crew if I didn’t exist in his life. He’s trying to build a safety net for me that I can settle into and feel safe.”

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