Page 186 of The Obedient Lie
“She’s ours, Bastion.”
I looked at him and grinned.
“Then we better do what our wife says.”
Because that’s what she was.
Maybe not on paper — not yet — but in every breath, every vow she made when no one else could hear.
And once we were twenty-one, it wouldn’t just be a collar.
She’d wear our rings.
Our family crest, with our names tattooed on her back.
We would cut her, bleed on her in front of our family, and make her aCrow.
Her name would be tattooed into our skin, carved across our shoulders, embedded inside the family crest that marked every Crow heir.
Not justbelowit —withinit.
The top arc would bear our legacy.Emilia Crow.Black ink laced through red. Claiming her asoursin blood and oath.
The Adams girl they tried to use as a bargaining chip?
She was the fucking queen now.
And tonight, we’d ruin anyone who forgot it.
The whistle blew.
We lined up.
And I searched until I saw them — twenty-two, five, and twelve —
Cocky, sharp-shouldered, laughing in that way men do when they think a woman is an object to claim.
Luca saw them too.
His grin mirrored mine.
“Let’s fucking go.”
The ball snapped.
Everything blurred.
Not because I wasn’t focused — but because Iwas. More than ever.
Luca passed.
I intercepted.
I took a hit — andwelcomedit.
Because all I could think was:
She’s watching.
