“I just learned tonight,” she whispered thickly.
“It’s just the beginning. Those women in there are on a completely different path because you gave them confidence and empowered them. What better queen could there be?”
“Ronin?”
“Yeah?” he asked, resting his forehead on hers.
“I don’t want you to choose me because they follow me. I want you to choose me because of me.”
“Silly, Sweet Kitty. I watched you when I was a boy. Wished for you. Wished for someday. It took us a lifetime, but we found that someday. You could’ve stayed submissive and quiet, and I would’ve still burned all of those pairing contracts. I wanted you either way. There was always something about you. When you wouldn’t answer my texts? I went insane with worry. And then your dad woke up and told me about the murmurings he’d heard about the revival of the council, and I couldn’t wait. I had to trust you to handle yourself, yeah, but I also had to trust what you’d told me. To believe in my Pride and give them a chance to prove themselves.” He gripped her hair and rubbed his forehead against hers. “And you were right. You. Fixed. Everything that was broken. That’s power, Em. When you see something and call it out, dig in, support change, that’s power. You did that, not knowing if you would ever see me or my Pride again. You did it for me. I couldn’t respect another person any more than I do you. The lionesses pledging their fealty to the Pride? That’s a bonus. I was already with you before tonight, though.”
She rolled her eyes closed and sighed in relief. Slipping her hands around his shoulders, she hugged him up tight. Ronin was purring. Purring! Big old beat-up Alpha, and he purred at her touch.
This was really happening. To her.
“Come on,” he murmured. He kissed her sweetly and then pulled her by the hand again toward the big cabin. “I have someone who has been clawing at the walls to see you safe.”
Emerald followed him through the back door of the cabin, down the hallway, and into a room. God, if felt like a hundred years had passed between now and the time she’d seen her dad’s lifeless body in the snow.
Rose was sitting on the edge of his bed with a bowl of steaming soup, talking low to Dad. When the silver-haired woman looked up, her cheeks were flushed. She made her way out, but Emerald didn’t miss it. The woman’s smile stayed on her lips the entire time.
“You look much better than the last time I saw you,” she said, making her way to the bed.
Dad’s dark eyebrows lifted as he ran his hand through his silver hair and exposed a long row of stitches. Stitches on a lion shifter with heightened healing meant someone had bashed his head in pretty good. “I feel much better. Those Old Tarians aren’t very hospitable.”
“Yeah, well…” Emerald cast a glance back at Ronin, standing in the open doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “The New Tarians are different. Thank God.” She inhaled deeply and said, “I was really scared you were dead.”
“It’s okay,” he said suddenly.
She didn’t understand what he meant, though. “What’s okay?”
“Staying here. You don’t have to run anymore if you don’t want to.” He cast a quick glance at Ronin. “I like him.”
“I’ll give you some space,” Ronin murmured. He nodded respectfully. “Sir.”
Dad watched him go and then wrapped Emerald’s hand in his own. “It’s not like it used to be here. Not anymore. I believe in that one. Ronin. He was just as worried about you as I was.”
“Whatever,” she whispered. “I saw you checking out Rose’s butt when she walked away. That’s the real reason you want to stay.”
Dad shrugged and offered her a remorseless smirk, the silver fox. “Well, she ain’t hard on the eyes.”
“Oh, my God.” She waved her hand in the air. “I’m glad you are alive, but I’m not having discussions about your lady friends.”
“Lady friends?” Dad scrunched up his face. “How old do you think I am?”
“Like four hundred and sixteen years old.”
Dad’s face went comically blank. “You’re grounded.”
Emerald giggled. God, she was so happy he was okay. They could’ve so easily missed this moment. Both of them had been in the heart of the Old Tarian Pride, the most lethal Pride of lion shifters in the world, and look where they’d ended up. Joking in Ronin’s room, her dad tucked in bed with soup still steaming on the nightstand, a fire in the hearth nearby, and an entire Pride outside that would keep them safe.
“I like him, too,” she whispered, eyes on the thread she was picking at on the comforter.
“Ronin?”
She nodded.
“Baby, you always did. He’s the only one I’ve ever heard you talk about. Hey,” he murmured, stilling her hand from plucking at the thread. “It’s okay to let yourself care. I did with your mom, and it was the best decision I ever made. It’s what I want for you, too.”
Her dad’s blessing meant the world to her. He had been her rock for so long, and she trusted him. He was giving his approval, and she wanted to start crying all over again. No one person deserved to be this happy, right? It probably messed with the cosmic balance or something—this much happiness inside of one person.
But then again, who was she to question what was happening? Her dad seemed relaxed for the first time in years, and Ronin’s last kiss still tingled on her lips, filling all the holes that had been in her heart before him.
It was okay to be happy. To fight for something she wanted. For a life she wanted.
“I want to stay,” she whispered.
Dad’s smile was easy and steady, and his dark eyes danced. “That’s what I hoped you would say.”
Chapter Sixteen
The day had been eternal.
It was four in the morning, and down to her bones, Emerald was exhausted. She’d stayed up late talking to her dad and then stumbled out into the hallway to find voices echoing from the kitchen.
She couldn’t help the smile on her face when she saw everyone. The Pride was still awake— Kannon and Terrence and Gray were here. The Daughters of Beasts were also here with Grim, the Red Dragon, Vyr, and his mate Riyah. They were all wearing PJs and gathered around the kitchen island. Ronin wore no shirt, but she couldn’t even be that big of a perv because he was covered in bandages. Low-slung gray sweats hung from his hips, and his hair was all mussed like he’d rubbed his hand through it a bunch.
And even though his eyes were tired, his smile was megawatt when he saw her. “There she is,” he murmured. “Come here. I want you to meet some friends.”
His arm was outstretched, and sleepily, she slipped against his side and rested her cheek on his shoulder. “I’m Emerald,” she introduced herself.
The others introduced themselves, too, and when it came to Grim, he said, “Hey, I remember you.”
“I remember you, too, but you’re really different,” she murmured. “The last time I saw you, the Reaper was new. And terrifying.”
“Yeah,” Kannon said, spinning a half-full beer slowly in his fingertips, “He’s still terrifying.”
“At least you’re on his good side,” Ronin murmured.
One of Grim’s Crewmates, Rhett, leaned toward Kannon and said with a mischievous wink, “Might want to keep it that way.”
Ronin pulled up a bar stool and settled Emerald onto it before he stroked his fingers lightly down her spine and said, “I have to ask, Vyr. Why did you come?”
The red-haired man took a long swig of his beer and murmured, “My son is a Tarian lion. I don’t want him to grow up ashamed of where he came from. If the council was revived with Cassius as Alpha, and the Tarian Pride went back to their old ways, how could he not be ashamed? I want better for my boy. Ronin, I believe you can fix this Pride.” Vyr shrugged. “And if you can’t, then I’ll just burn you and devour your ashes.”
“Hmm,” Ronin said, nodding.
Vyr winked at Emerald and took another sip of his beer, but she was still about thirty-four percent disturbed. She’d seen his dragon on the news and believed he was fully capable of following through with that threat. He would have to go through her, though.
They stayed up for a little while, but eventually, the Pride started trickling away, and the girls in the Daughters of Beasts crew nodded off on the couch. And before she knew it, Ronin was carrying her to his room.
“What happened?” she asked softly.
“You fell asleep. It was cute,” he assured her.
Well, thank goodness for small blessings because sometimes she snored when she was exhausted, and that would’ve been truly embarrassing if she’d—”
“You were snoring.”
Oh, God.
He shut his door behind her and settled her on the bed, pulled back the covers, and tucked her in as she got comfortable and made a pillow nest. He made his way to the same chair he’d sat in when she’d awoken here a few days ago.
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “Come sleep here.” Emerald lifted the corner of the blanket invitingly.
“You’ve been through a lot, Em.”