Page 36 of Trick's Elite

“Yeah. Well… Trick calls me Stiletto. I… I know that things like that mean something to you guys.”

“Should mean something to you, too,” Rock said.

She smiled. “It does.”

“Good.” Rock sighed. “What’s with the call? You guys need something?”

Stiletto took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she answered, “I need to know how to make things right with you all. We… we mated tonight… and Trick… Trick was happy until he…”

“Wasn’t, because his family wasn’t close by and waiting to celebrate with him.”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I know I fucked up. I know what I thought about shifters was wrong. I know that I have to earn the trust of the family. I just… I need to know how to do that. Trick is sad, and it’s my fault. So, I need to be the one to fix it.”

“Trust is going to take time, Stiletto, but this call is a good start. The fact that he actually sealed the bond and claimed you tells me that he has learned to trust you, so there’s something there for the rest of us to work with. It’s not one particular thing that will fix the problem. We need time and need to see our brother happy. Do that. Give us that. And it will happen.”

Stiletto wasn’t sure what she expected from the call, but she swallowed down the lump of shame and sadness in her throat. She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. “Okay. Yeah. I can do that.”

“Good.” She heard Rock sigh deeply. “Stiletto?”

“Yeah?” She hated the teary sound of the word, but she couldn’t help it.

“Welcome to the family, Sis.”

After sitting in the bathroom for at least an hour, Stiletto wiped the tears from her face and blew her nose. She washed her face and hands before she turned and unlocked the bathroom door. She had barely turned the lock before the door was yanked open, and her naked mate was standing there.

His eyes were still half-shut with sleep, but he was poised and ready to attack if he needed to defend her. “What? Why are you crying? What happened?”

Stiletto laughed and stepped forward. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to the center of his chest, right over his heart. “I love you,” she expressed.

His big hands cupped the side of her head and made her look up at him. He examined her face, and she knew what he saw. Red, puffy eyes. Red cheeks.

“You were crying.”

“I said I love you.”

Trick lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I love you, too. Now, tell me why you were crying.”

“You can’t be mad at me.”

“Stiletto,” he growled in warning.

She huffed out a breath and admitted, “I called Diamond, but she didn’t answer. Rock did.”

His brows pulled together in confusion. “Okay.”

“He… he gave me some advice that I’m not going to share with you, because that’s between the two of us. If he decides to tell you, well, that’s his choice, but I’m not telling you.”

She watched as the corners of his lips twitched, but he just replied, “Okay.”

“And… he… welcomed me to the family. And he called meSis.”

A smile grew on his face. “And this would make me mad, because?”

She stomped her foot and glared at him. How could he not know why? He was the one that told her what he wanted. “Because you didn’t get to witness it,” she snarled.

Trick chuckled. “Stiletto, if you think that’s the only time Rock is going to tell you that, you’re mistaken.” He wrapped her up in his arms and lifted her off the floor. “That still doesn’t tell me why you were crying. Was he an ass to you before he welcomed you to the family?”

“No… but he should have been. I don’t deserve his kindness.”

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