Chapter 31 Kaylor #2
“I was out of my mind tonight, little raven,” he said, forehead pressing to mine. Our noses nearly touched. His breath ghosted across my lips. “Don’t do that to me again. This is the last time you put yourself in danger. I can’t bear it.”
My fingers found the back of his neck, threading through the hair there.
The strands were soft between my fingers.
My own fear finally loosened its hold on me, uncoiling from around my lungs.
“I hate lying to you, but I couldn’t give Rusty the chance to hurt you again. I was trying to save someone I love.”
His inhale was sharp as his face pressed into the crook of my neck. His eyelashes fluttered against my skin, a butterfly-soft touch. “I never dreamed of a future until you. I don’t just want tomorrow with you, little raven. I want forever.”
Carson made a gagging noise from the front seat. “I’m going to be sick.”
I smiled, truly fucking happy at least until Carson turned onto the main road leading back to the Corvo estate, the familiar iron gates of the Willows coming into view. The headlights washed over the stone columns as he pulled through.
My chest constricted, not with fear this time but with the aftershock of everything that had just happened. The adrenaline dump made my hands tremble in my lap. Kreed noticed. He always noticed.
When Carson finally rolled to a stop in front of the house, he put the BMW in park but didn’t move. He sat there for a beat, fingers flexing around the steering wheel before exhaling slowly, like he needed to calm himself before facing whatever came next. Then he climbed out.
I stepped out into the cool night air, my legs a little unsteady from the comedown. Carson stood a couple of feet away, awkward and unsure, like he wasn’t sure if he should stay or bolt. His gaze drifted to Kreed, who had exited the SUV behind me.
Carson rubbed the back of his neck. “Can I hug her, or are you going to hit me again?”
Kreed didn’t miss a beat. “Do you want to take the chance?”
“Kreed.” I shot him a look and didn’t wait for either of them to figure it out. I stepped forward and launched myself into Carson’s chest.
He stilled, but after a moment, his arms wrapped around me. Hesitant at first, then firmer. Familiar. Safe in a different way than Kreed.
“Thank you,” I whispered into his hoodie. “I couldn’t have gotten through any of this without you.”
Kreed cleared his throat behind us, loud and pointed. “Hug’s over.”
I snorted and stepped back. Carson rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth twitched upward in a small, exhausted smirk.
I barely had time to stand upright before strong arms hooked around my waist and lifted me clean off the ground.
Maddox’s laugh vibrated through my spine as he spun me once, feet kicking in the air.
“That took balls, menace,” he declared as he set me back down, his grin boyish and wicked all at once. “I knew you had it in you.”
“That makes one of us,” I admitted, brushing hair out of my face. “I doubted myself right up until the last second.”
His expression softened, not something Maddox did often, the cockiness faded, and the worry buried beneath his bravado surfaced. “You did good.” He ruffled my hair.
I smiled up at him only to be whisked away, the moment shattered as Kreed moved in, sliding an arm around my waist and tugging me firmly into his side. “You have too many men in your life, little raven,” he murmured against my temple. “We’re going to have to do something about this.”
I elbowed him lightly. “You brought them into my life. That’s on you. And I like them too much now.”
“Damn straight,” Mason said as he stepped up beside us, clapping Carson on the back hard enough to make him stumble. “Who wouldn’t love us?”
“I said like,” I corrected, squinting at him. “Not love.”
Mason gasped dramatically, pressing a hand to his chest. “You love Kreed.”
“I do.” The words slipped out easily, truth heavy and warm on my tongue.
Mason grinned triumphantly. “Then you can love us.”
I choked. Actually choked.
Kreed growled. “No,” he snapped. “She can’t.”
Maddox laughed. Carson muttered something about cult behavior. Raine, leaning against the hood of the SUV with his arms crossed, simply smirked.
And for a moment, just a fleeting, shining moment, I could see it.
My future.
College. Freedom. Gaining my inheritance. Falling asleep beside Kreed without fear lurking in the walls. Being part of something. A part of them. The Raven Crew.
A family made of jagged edges and bruised knuckles and loyalty that burned fierce and reckless.
I still had to deal with Donovan, but for the first time in so long, it didn’t terrify me.
Not entirely.
I wanted it all.
I found Donovan in the family room, lounging in a recliner, whiskey swirling lazily in one hand, cigar smoking like a slow-burning fuse in the other. The fire glowed with low amber light, quivering, crackling, and heating the room to just above a comfortable temperature.
We hadn’t spoken since the night he shot Rusty.
I hadn’t wanted to.
But I couldn’t avoid him forever. He had kept his word, and sooner or later, he would come to collect mine.
Except…I couldn’t give him what I promised.
I couldn’t leave Kreed. I couldn’t leave any of them. Walking away from the boy I loved more than oxygen? Impossible. And Donovan knew it.
The bastard always knew more than he let on.
His head didn’t turn when I stepped inside. He only flicked his eyes up before returning them to the fireplace. “Sit,” he said, tone smooth as polished steel.
It wasn’t a request.
I swallowed and obeyed, perching on the armchair opposite him. My knees were weak, and my fingers immediately sought out the ring on my finger, turning it, twisting it, and clinging to it like a talisman.
The silence pressed down until it became unbearable, so heavy my breath felt thin beneath it.
I couldn’t draw this out. If I did, I’d lose my nerve.
“I can’t uphold my end of the deal,” I blurted, the words spilling out too loud, too fast. “I’m sorry, but I can’t leave Kreed.
I’m willing to pay for it, money, inheritance, whatever you want.
Or we can make another deal. Just…not that one. ”
Donovan set his cigar down gently on the tray beside him and leaned back, steepling his fingers. A slow grin curled across his face. “I thought you might say that.”
Cold slid through me, sinking deep into my bones. And then sickening clarity. “Oh my god,” I exhaled shakily. “I’ve been played.”
His grin widened.
Fuck me. He was good. Too fucking good.
And I’d walked right into his trap exactly the way Kreed warned me I would.
“You knew,” I whispered, voice cracking. “You knew I would break the deal. You knew how much I love your son, and you took advantage of it.”
“A key component in business,” Donovan said, lifting his drink, “is knowing your opponent’s weaknesses.”
Opponent. Was that what I was? I guessed we were enemies. How could we not be considering what he’d done to me,
“But,” he added, tilting his head, “the difference here is that you do not have to be my opponent.”
I stared at him, chest tight. “What are you saying?”
“We can be on the same side, Miss Steele.”
My pulse kicked. Hard. “Meaning?”
“It’s simple. Far simpler than breaking my son’s heart and your own. What I want is your loyalty to me. To my crew.”
The room tilted slightly. “My loyalty,” I echoed.
“To the Ravens,” he clarified.
My stomach dropped. “You want me to swear my fealty to the Ravens?”
His brows lifted, amused, waiting patiently, as though he expected me to see that this was nothing short of a coronation. Or a cage.
The ring on my finger felt heavier. Almost like it burned. “What exactly does that loyalty entail?” I whispered, throat tight.
Donovan smiled over the rim of his glass. “That depends on how far you are willing to go for the family you’ve chosen.”
“And if I do this, you’ll leave Kreed and me alone? We’ll be free to continue as we are?”
“Yes.” A curl of smoke unraveled from his cigar, drifting upward like a ghost of something older, darker, thicker than blood.
Everything in me warned this was a fucking bad idea. It was worse than signing a deal with the devil, which I’d done already. This was the price for double-crossing the devil. I gnawed on my lip, contemplating, my mind quickly weighing the pros and cons.
“I can see your hesitation. Loyalty,” he began, “is not a concept we treat lightly in this family. It is the backbone of the Ravens. The reason we stand. The reason we survive.”
“What does that actually mean?”
His eyes cut to mine. “It means, what you see, what you hear, what you learn…stays within the crew. There are no exceptions. Not for friends. Not for lovers. Not for law enforcement. And you do not question what I ask of you. If I give you a job, you get it done. Quietly. Efficiently. Correctly. You do not run to my son with doubts. You do not run to the police. You do not run at all.”
My pulse stuttered, a shiver crawling up my spine.
He leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees, gaze locked on mine like he was imprinting the terms onto my soul.
“Loyalty means being part of this family. It means being trusted with its ugliest truths. It means you do not flinch when the world demands sacrifice.” His voice softened, almost warm, which somehow terrified me more.
“And in return, Miss Steele, you will have the protection of every Raven. You will have a place here. You will never be alone. But my enemies will treat you as they treat me.” His lips curved just slightly. “And my sons, especially Kreed, will know that you stand with us, not against us.”
Emotion scraped at my throat. Not fear, though that was part of it, but something heavier. Something final. This wasn’t just a deal.
It was a vow of identity. A vow that would alter the shape of every day that followed.
“And if I agree?”
“Then,” Donovan said smoothly, “your broken deal is forgiven. You remain by my son’s side without consequence. And I will consider your inheritance secured, not jeopardized due to poor decision-making on your part.”
My pulse roared, rattling every inch of me.
Kreed.
The life I wanted with him.
My parents’ legacy.
My place.
I straightened, my fingers touching the ring on my finger, the one piece of jewelry I had from my father.
I never took it off. I had no idea what it meant at the time he’d given it to me on my sixteenth birthday.
I’d thought it a pretty trinket, the snake coiled into a white gold ring.
I twisted the piece until the head of the snake and tail met around so it was on the inside of my finger, hidden. A viper.
Donovan had never paid any attention to it. He might want to swear me in as a Raven, but in my heart and soul, I was a Viper.
“So tell me, Miss Steele,” Donovan murmured, smoke curling around him like a dark crown. “Do we have a deal? Do you swear your loyalty to the Ravens?”
The finality in the question pulsed through me like a drumbeat. Fear. Resolve. Defiance.
Love.
All of it fused into something unshakable.
I lifted my chin. “Yes,” I said, voice firm. “I swear my loyalty to the Ravens.”
Donovan smiled, a slow, satisfied thing that made the back of my neck prickle. “Welcome to the family.”