Now, it was all sinking in. They were okay.
He pulled up a chair right next to where she sat on the arm of the couch and brushed his fingertips across her knee before he spoke. “You’re all welcome here. I can’t imagine what you went through, but I saw you all tonight, and you protected Emerald. In a way, you protected me.” He shook his head slightly. “I don’t even know you, but I was so damn proud. This isn’t like the other Pride, though. You can choose to stay and pledge to my Pride, or you can go anywhere you want. You. Aren’t. Trapped. Not anymore.”
Emerald swore she heard at least three sighs of relief.
Annamora looked at Ronin’s hand on Emerald’s leg. “You picked good.” Her expression was raw and open, her eyes rimmed with tears when she looked up at Emerald. “You changed everything for us. You gave us some fight.”
Emerald’s voice would crack if she answered right away, so she swallowed a few times before she tried. “When I saw you girls on Cassius? Your lionesses? It was hands down the coolest moment of my life. You’re submissive like me, and I know how hard it is to break a habit of fear, stick up for yourself, and just…let the animal have you. And you all did it tonight.” Warmth streamed down her cheeks, but she didn’t wipe the tears away. They could see her vulnerable. Tonight, these women had become her people. They’d had her back when it would’ve been easier to sit inside and stay safe until it was all over. “If you ever need anything, I’m your girl.”
Annamora stood, lifted her chin proudly, and approached her and Ronin slowly. Then she looked at the other girls before she knelt. “Ronin, I pledge to you because I pledge to Emerald. I don’t know you as an Alpha. But since the moment I met Emerald, my lioness knew her. She’s different. She’s a queen. And if she chooses you, I trust her. She wouldn’t pick anyone who isn’t a worthy king.”
Emerald gasped as the other women fell to their knees. She didn’t understand.
“Ronin?” she whispered, tears just streaming.
But he was smiling. Proudly. He pulled her against his ribs and kissed her temple. And she could feel it, how proud he was of her. That was a real man. That was love. When a man wasn’t intimidated by a woman’s power, but awed by it? That was strength.
She didn’t know what the proper thing to do was, so she did what she wanted. What her lioness wanted. She needed affection, so she leaned in and kissed Ronin tenderly, gripping his shirt because this man had become so important. And then she fell to her knees in front of Annamora and hugged her. She buried her face against the woman’s shoulder, and when she reached her arm out for Sora, they all piled on. She laughed as the girls hugged. Emerald stared at the ceiling fan, amazed at how anything could feel so good. Ronin’s hands were on her shoulders; he was right behind her, always behind her. And the girls were going to be okay. She would make sure of it. Being a queen wasn’t about being better than someone. Or being higher up. It wasn’t about power. Not to Emerald. It was about making other women feel like queens, too. The broken and the kicked, those were her people. The ones who had nowhere to go but up. She’d been there. She’d been sitting on rock bottom waiting for someone to save her, but she hadn’t known she didn’t need someone to save her. She’d just needed Ronin to show her that she could save herself.
And because of that? He would always have her loyalty and the loyalty of Fury. Someday, she was going to explain that to him, but for now, she was going to enjoy the climb. She was going to enjoy the life she would build with him. And build, she would. She’d believed once that she’d been destined for no special fate. But as she looked over her shoulder at her man, cut up and exhausted from defending her, she knew she’d been wrong.
Her destiny was to protect the neck of the Tarian Alpha.
And he would protect hers in return.
Chapter Fifteen
His hand around hers felt like a big moment. He was leading her through the snow toward the big house, but with his hand, his cut, calloused, strong hand, clasped around hers…Emerald hadn’t realized life could be like this.
He turned and smiled. The man bore claw marks on every inch of his body, but he still smiled at her. When he saw her face, though, he stopped and turned, cupped her cheeks. “What’s wrong, Sweet Kitty.”
“I’m just overwhelmed.”
He searched her face, worry swimming in his eyes. “Did they hurt you?”
Her lip trembled. and she rubbed her cheek against his palm, cupping it with her own hand to keep him touching her. “No. I don’t think they could if they tried. I think when I saw Derek dragging my dad behind that snowmobile…”
“No one will ever hurt you or your dad again.” He rumbled, “Look at me.”
She lifted her gaze and gripped the hem of his shirt. It was just them, alone on the trail between the big cabin and where the girls were settling in for the night.
“No one.” He shook his head slowly, and his eyes morphed from blue to that stunning green-gold. “When I saw you running for that snowmobile, for Derek, I was scared for the first time in as long as I can remember. I was scared you would get hurt. And then I watched you beat the ever-loving shit out of his face, watched his shock. I wanted to get to you, but more than that, I was so fucking happy you did that to him. Your protective instinct is so sexy, Em.” When he pulled her close, she could feel it against her cheek—his steady heartbeat. “And then I saw your lioness fight Derek tonight. I could tell you were trying to get to me. Every time I looked over at you, at your lioness posted up, not afraid a bit, smaller than him but going for that neck, going for a kill shot…I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a person in all my life. You were beautiful, Em. You know that, right? You were lethal grace, relentless. He didn’t make you cower a bit. Big old dominant lion and look what you did. You know how strong you are, right?”
“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?”