My fingers twitch at my side as I prowl like an agitated lion out in front of Mermaid Lagoon, the pool hall we frequent after the races. The rest of the gang, with the exception of Tink and Lily who went home to shower first, is already inside, ordering pitchers of beer and claiming our favorite spot in the back next to a couple of electronic dart boards.

We’re at week four of Wendy returning to Neverland, and I can count on two hands how many times we’ve seen each other. The last time was earlier this week when she carved out an hour to choose all the accessories and finishing details for the Bel Air, as per my condition #2. At the time I made it, I’d wanted the additional excuse for her to spend time with me, which turned out to be unnecessary. She’s more than happy to oblige me in that respect. The issue is our schedules.

The closer we get to the big fundraiser, the busier she gets, and so do I, since I’m having to haul ass on that Bel Air, but it doesn’t mean I don’t hate the distance any less. With this commission job Wendy tossed my way, I’m getting a small taste of what it would be like if we took on more custom projects outside of our normal LB jobs, and I don’t mind saying it kind of sucks.

I’m used to an even amount of work and play—I treat it as a rule, actually—but the past few weeks, I’ve been working nights after my days, and the only fun I have to look forward to are Friday festivities. I hadn’t been to a race since Wendy’s been back, but when she insisted she couldn’t come out last night, I insisted she come out with us tonight.

Tink and I put in a few hours with the Bel Air this morning before heading out to Neverland Speedway with the boys to hang out and support Tiger Lily. I’d wanted Wendy to see Lily race, but her day went longer than planned, so she’s meeting me here instead. Except, she’s ten minutes late now, and I’m on the verge of hopping in the Cuda to—

“Peter!”

I stop mid-stride and look over to see Wendy raising her hand as she makes her way through the parking lot. Even from here, I can see her bright smile, and it threatens to fucking cut my legs out from under me. I don’t know how I earned the love of an angel like her, and I don’t care. I’m not dumb enough to question the universe and risk it making things right. My plans are simple: treasure the hell out of her and never let her go.

Making love to her last Friday had been an earth-shattering revelation. It was like returning to the one place I belonged in this world and discovering a new one all at once. I used to be a Lost Boy, but the night I met Wendy, I became found. I belong with her, to her, and there isn’t an adventure big enough to pull me away.

When she’s only a few feet away, I rush up and wrap my arms under her ass to lift her with a possessive growl. She squeals and puts my shoulders in a death grip. As if I’d ever fucking drop her.

“Bout time you got here, woman. What took you so long?”

Smiling down at me through the curtain of soft, caramel-colored waves, she says, “It’s something you do as a responsible adult, called work. Have you heard of it?”

I grunt. “Yeah. Not a huge fan, though. Now you, on the other hand, I’m a huge fan of.”

Thanking whatever gods influenced her to wear a shirt that bares her stomach, I kiss the satiny flesh mere inches from my face. I intend to stop there, but temptation gets the best of me, and my tongue slips past the dangling star into her navel. I can feel her gasp at the intimate invasion. Glancing up, I know by the way her pupils expand and her lips part, that just like me, she’s imagining a much harder part of my anatomy pushing into a much wetter part of hers.

Threading her fingers through my hair, she pulls my face away from her stomach and glances at the big picture window behind me. “Put me down, you big brute, before we cause a scene.”

I reluctantly loosen my grip as I turn, letting her slide down my body, so she feels the steel rod I’m now sporting behind my zipper, then ease her onto her feet. Though we haven’t seen each other in days, we’ve talked on the phone and texted plenty. And my sweet, proper lady has divulged some very improper desires that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about for five goddamn days.

“That wasn’t even close to causing a scene, Wen.” Crowding her against the window, I lean in and graze my lips along the shell of her ear. “A scene would be pushing you onto your knees in front of all those people, so you could show them how much you want to worship my cock. They’d watch as you rub your face over it through my jeans like a kitten with catnip, begging me for it while your pussy makes a damp spot in those cute little shorts of yours for everyone to see. That would be a scene.”

I punctuate the fantasy with a sharp nip on her earlobe, eliciting a satisfying whimper. I sense someone stand next to us and pull back to see who’s stupid enough to interrupt us. Fucking Chief. He’s leaning casually on the building with his arms crossed and a shit-eating grin on his face, as per usual.

He left his long hair down around his shoulders and rolled the sleeves up on his T-shirt, prominently displaying his heritage tattoos—Samoan on one arm and Piccaninny on the other—as a firm middle finger to any tribe members who might be around. Considering the Piccaninnies owned Mermaid Lagoon, chances are high. I hope I don’t have to get into a bar brawl tonight. An injury will put a serious damper on my plans for Wendy later.

Not that Chief looks like he gives a fuck about my plans. With his perpetual smile and mischievous nature, you’d never guess at the kind of pain the giant keeps hidden. His sister and I are the only ones he’s ever let in enough to know the real Gray Wolf. To the rest of the world, he’s a carefree nomad, the life of every party, and an international ladies’ man to rival James Bond.

“Can I help you?” I ask dryly. Wendy turns her face into my chest and laughs, but I’m not nearly as amused at the interruption. Then again, the Lagoon isn’t the place to get all keyed up over the myriad of filthy things I want to do to Wendy Darling, so it’s probably for the best.

Chief moves his hands up and down, gesturing to his gigantic frame. “Do I look like I need help with anything? Wendy, what do you think?”

When she unburies her face, he waggles his eyebrows at her, making her laugh all over again. “No, Chief, you look very…”

“Watch it,” I grumble.

“Capable.” She turns that gorgeous smile up at me. “Is that acceptable?”

“I was hoping for idiotic, but I suppose that works, too.” I plant a long kiss on her lips then face a chuckling Gray. “Girls on their way?”

“Be here in five. Come on, I want to buy the lady a beer.”

I grab hold of Wendy’s hand and lead her inside where everybody’s already got games going and a few pitchers empty. The boys all shower Wendy with hugs and cheek-kisses, just like always. As I look on, something kicks against my breastbone, hard.

This is perfect. This is what I want. This is what I’ve always wanted.

When we were kids, we had plenty of adventures together—some with Tink and the Lost Boys and others by ourselves. In reality, they were simple games like playing make-believe or Ghost in the Graveyard, but to us, they were much more than that. They were our way of escaping our prison.

Our adventures today aren’t all that grand, either. Just a group of friends who like having fun and letting loose, whether it’s a party at the house, a night at the races, or hanging at the Lagoon; we always have a damn good time building on the memories we made the week before, and the week before that. Now that Wendy’s back, I want her to be a part of that again.

Don’t get attached. She’s not back for good, she said so herself.

I mentally snarl at my brain trying to piss on my parade. She’d said that before. As in, before I willingly sacrificed my battered heart at the altar of her body and told her in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t letting her get away from me a second time. She never argued with me, so that has to mean something. At least I don’t think she did. I blacked out right after and slept the dreamless sleep of a dead man—a damn satiated one at that.

“You love her,” Gray says next to me as we watch the twins play Wendy and Thomas in a game of pool. When she misses the cue ball entirely, Silas laughs so hard beer comes out his nose, which makes Wendy double over with laughter.

Without taking my eyes off her, I smile and answer him honestly. “Always have.”

“What are you gonna do when she leaves?”

My face falls. “Who said she’s leaving?”

“A little fairy told me she’s going back to Charlotte in a couple weeks after the fundraiser is over.”

Tinker Bell. What Wendy said to me that day in the hospital about Tink being in love with me has been weighing on my mind. She doesn’t act any differently toward me than she always has, and she sure as hell doesn’t act like other women when they want my attention: no coy glances or giggling at everything I say or “accidentally” brushing up against me.

But I can’t come up with a more logical reason for her to despise Wendy, and I hate that I can’t reconcile the two points for an easy answer. I’ll have to talk to her about it eventually, but not until after the fundraiser. We’ve been having a great time rebuilding the Bel Air together, and I don’t want to ruin that with a difficult discussion that could just as easily happen when she doesn’t have the opportunity to yank the jack and crush me under a ton of steel.

“That was her original plan,” I say, “but I’m working on changing it.”

“And if she won’t?”

I chug the rest of my drink, trying to drown the possibility of being faced with the same choice I had ten years ago. The beer suddenly tastes sour, but I manage to force it down. “Then I put Si in charge of the shop and follow her.”

In my periphery, I see Chief whip his head over to stare at me. “You’d leave the Lost Boys?”

Last time, I couldn’t. They were still under Croc’s care, and I didn’t know how he’d treat them if I wasn’t around, so I had to stay. I’d told Wendy I had a job lined up that offered room and board, but I didn’t take it because it was at Croc’s other shop—the place where Hook had gone after he left the school—and they made the illegal shit we did as kids look like, well, child’s play. I knew if I went there, the boys and Tink would follow me, and we’d never be free.

So I lived on the streets during the summer and homeless shelters when it was colder, worked odd jobs for cash, saved my money, and kept tabs on the kids until they got out.

I’d needed to stay back then, just as Wendy had needed to go. But now…?

“No matter where I go, the boys and I will always be family.” Tearing my eyes away from her, I meet his steady gaze. “But she’s the air I breathe. I can’t live without her, Gray, not again. If she goes, I go.”

“Damn, brother, I never thought I’d see the day,” he says, his grin returning as he slaps me on the back. “Peter Pan, all grown up.”

I chuckle—and wince from the Grizzly-sized hand print probably imprinted on my shoulder blade—and pour myself another beer. “Let’s not get carried away.”

“What are we laughing about, boys?” Wendy asks as she steals my beer and takes a long drink.

“You, trying to play pool,” I say, reclaiming my beer. “It’s not a javelin you need to throw across the bar, Wen. It takes more finesse than that.”

“Feel free to show me how it’s done, Pan.” Again, she relieves me of my glass, but this time, she holds it away as her gaze drops to my ass for a hot second. “Then I’ll enjoy the show of your tight backside every time you bend over the table.”

My mouth hangs open as Chief roars with laughter. “Carlos,” I bark. “How much has she had to drink in the ten minutes since we’ve been here?”

“Only one, boss!”

Wendy giggles and snakes an arm around my waist. “I’m not drunk, Peter, I’m just having fun with you.”

I pull her in close and smirk. “You want fun, woman? Let’s get out of here, and I’ll show you all kinds of fun.”

“You can’t leave yet,” a voice says from behind me, “we just got here.”

“There she is,” Chief announces loudly, enveloping his little sister in a bear hug, complete with sound effects, before releasing her. “You almost gave me a heart attack when you went into that wall tonight. You owe me like six beers.”

“Not the first time I crashed, won’t be the last, big brother.”

It may not have been the first time she’s crashed, but it’s the first time I’ve seen her lose a wheel. As Lily was taking turn three in the twenty-fifth lap, her driver’s side front wheel flew off out of nowhere. She escaped injury by keeping a clear head and managing to slow the car down to about twenty before hitting the wall, but it fucked her car up enough to take her out of the race.

“It’s my fault,” Tink says next to Lily, her features stormy and her blond hair sticking up like she’s been pulling on it.

Tink and Tiger Lily have been best friends since the night we rescued Lil when we were kids. The two are similar in temperament but couldn’t look more opposite. Tink loves her heavy eye makeup, but Lily hardly uses any. One is pale and petite with a platinum pixie cut and the other is tan and tall with black hair down to her ass.

Chief resembles his Samoan father, but Lily is a younger version of their mother, regal as a runway model with sharp brown eyes that can slice you to ribbons. She does her best to balance her duties as the chieftain’s daughter while still pursuing her racing career, both of which require her to be professional and a bit of a hardass. But around us, she’s fun as hell and just another one of the boys as far as we’re concerned.

Except for maybe the twins. I have a feeling those two have plans for the Piccaninny Princess, and they’re just biding their time before acting on them. If they like their balls where they are, they’ll wait until her brother moves on. Then again, Lily’s just as liable to take a tomahawk to their dicks as Gray is, so either way, it’ll be entertaining to watch.

“What do you mean?” I ask Tink.

“I was the last person to tighten the wheels before she hit the track.”

Lily put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Hey, enough already. I know you did everything right. It was just a bad lug nut, it’s no one’s fault, okay?”

Wendy chimes in with, “I agree, Tink. I don’t know anything about cars, but I know you’d never risk one of your friends’ safety. It must have been a fluke.”

Our feisty fairy rolls her eyes and mutters that she needs a drink as she heads over to where Si is already holding out a beer for her. I give Wendy’s waist a quick squeeze, letting her know I appreciate the attempt and not to worry about the brush-off.

“So, the rumors are true,” Lily says, drawing attention to the fact that this is her first-time seeing Wendy since her return.

I can feel Wendy’s ribs expand against my side and then hold like she’s bracing herself for another less than warm welcome. Tiger Lily lifts her chin slightly and studies Wendy, as though deciding the fate of a traitor who abandoned her tribe. I’m not worried, though. Wendy earned Lily’s respect long ago, and that’s not easy to break.

Finally, Lily’s sharp brown eyes soften over her warm smile. “Wendy, it’s really good to see you. Welcome back to Neverland.”

Wendy sags with relief and returns the smile. “Thank you, it’s great to be home for a bit. I wish everyone was as glad to see me,” she says with a glance in Tink’s direction.

Lily waives her hand in the air. “Ah, she’ll get over it. Come on, I need a beer and a partner for pool. You can catch me up on all the exciting things you’ve been up to.”

“Okay, but you might want to rethink me being your partner. I kind of suck at pool,” she says with a chuckle.

“That’s okay because I’m awesome at it.” Lily loops her arm through Wendy’s and leads her back to the group, shouting at the twins. “Hey, knuckleheads, rack ’em up, so I can kick your asses.”

Tobias and Ty exchange a heated glance as Lily sashays past them. Chief must’ve caught it, too, because his eyes narrow and his shoulders tense. Running interference for my boys, I step in front of the mountain and ask him what’s been on my mind since Tink mentioned it.

“You think someone’s messing with Lil’s ride, don’t you? It’s why you came.”

His steady gaze swings to me, and he lowers his voice. “I’d heard some things and wanted to check on her myself. She’s getting noticed, and if her rankings stay the way they are, she could move up to the big leagues in another year or even sooner. But not everyone is happy about the idea of a woman, and a Native one at that, playing with the white boys in the professional circuit.”

Fire sparks in my veins at the thought of anyone coming after Lily. She might be privileged in her world, but she’s considered trash by a lot of people in ours, and she’s had to claw, scratch, and fight to get where she is today. I’ll be damned if we’re going to let any small-minded assholes get in her way now.

“Any idea who those someones might be?”

He shakes his head. “Not yet. But I’m not leaving until I know it’s handled.”

“Agreed. I’ll talk to Hook, see if any of his contacts know anything.”

Chief scoffs. “He barely tolerates you. What makes you think he’ll help?”

It’s true. “Captain” James Hook and I have never been your typical friends, but I at least have his respect, and more than that, we have a shared past. Though, our experiences at the school were vastly different. James had it way worse than any of us. For years I’d been oblivious to the hell he was going through, until I walked into the storeroom of the shop at the wrong time. I didn’t even fully understand what was happening before I was on Croc and knocking him unconscious with the fire extinguisher I’d been putting away.

As soon as he’d collapsed in a heap on the floor, I realized what I’d interrupted, and so many things finally made sense. I’d wanted to puke on the spot, but Hook had jacked me against the wall and threatened my life if I so much as got heartburn over it or thought of spilling my guts about what I’d seen. I swore not to do either.

That instance didn’t earn me any favor with Hook—at least none he’d ever shown—but it tied us to each other in a way no one else will ever understand. So, are we friends? Probably not. But like I said before, we’re still family. He would no sooner let someone mess with one of us than we would with him. It’s just how it is. It’s orphan law.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll talk to Hook. I need to check on the situation with Starkey, anyway. And we’ll both keep an eye on Lily. I’ll tell the twins they’re joining her pit crew to see if they find anything suspicious behind the scenes.”

Growling, Chief says, “Not them. They’re like dogs panting after a bitch in heat with her. They’ll be too distracted.”

“Yes, they are, and no, they won’t,” I argue. “Their interest will only make them more vigilant. Trust me, if you want her protected, they’re the ones you want doing it.”

“Fine, but if they touch her, I’ll cut their balls off and feed them to Tasi.”

I snort. “I don’t think your wolf will get the chance before your sister turns them into her version of fuzzy dice for her mirror.”

A proud grin splits his face. “True. Let’s go, I’ll beat you in a game of darts.”

Laughing, I follow after him to where the others are milling around. “You don’t stand a chance against me, big man.” Stopping behind Wendy, I lean in and speak in her ear. “And later tonight, neither will you.”

Her lips curve coyly as she stares up at me through thick lashes. “Sounds like my kind of adventure.”

Damn straight it will be, I’ll make sure of it. Tonight, and every night.