by Kathryn Moon
“I liked it,” I admitted, taking his hand and sliding it down my stomach to between my legs so he could feel where we were joined. “I like this. You didn’t do anything wrong. Even if you hadn’t stopped.”
Ryan took the cue I offered, his fingers circling over my clit and making me squeeze on his knot. “It’s not gonna be a surprise when it happens, Baby. You mean too much for that. We’ll get there.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Ryan took my earlobe between his lips, sucking at the tip and the echo it caused inside my cunt distracted me from the point. Ryan’s arm squeezed around my middle and he rolled back and then sat up, dragging me with him as I moaned at the friction of him shifting inside of me. I was sitting on his lap, my legs spread over his, and his hand kept a repetitive circle running on my clit.
“Now I wanna hear you scream my name again, sweetness.”
I sighed and rocked, trembling as he plucked at my breast. “Yes, sir.”
He growled and kissed the growing bruise on my shoulder, and I started to bounce.
23
Baby
The bed shifted around me, one of the warm walls of muscle at my side starting to move away. It took me a moment to orient myself to the memory of falling asleep between Bullet and Ryan. I reached out, grabbed at Ryan’s side, and tried to tug him against me again. His fingers circled my wrist, tucking my hand back to my chest.
“Scorch and Bomber are here, sweetness. Gonna go get some work done. They’ll keep my spot warm.”
“M’mkay. Need a bigger bed.”
“Noted, baby girl,” Jonah murmured.
Bullet rumbled at my back, his arms wrapping around me and pulling me to his chest as Seth and Jonah crawled into the nest and filled the warm space Ryan had left behind.
“Bull, share,” Seth murmured.
“No.”
I grinned and Bullet purred me back into a hazy, drowsy nap as Seth tried his best to steal me from his teddy bear grip. I was halfway between sleep and waking, aware of the warmth of my nest, the steady purrs from my two alphas, and Seth's breath puffing against the back of my neck. The entire feeling was almost too good to fall asleep and miss. I don’t know how long I lay there, enjoying myself, enjoying the home I’d tripped and fallen into, the pack that waited for me to find them. It must’ve been long enough that the city was beginning to wake up outside the apartment windows. Bullet stirred behind me as someone laid on their horn at god-knows-what-o’clock outside, his legs kicking up behind mine and hips nudging, stiff length greeting me.
I was just starting to consider waking up my bedmates for a bit of physical attention—something I’d been iffy on since the afternoon with Cole—when the Plaza itself came to life, doors slamming below. I hadn’t lived here long, but I knew the only place that even saw daylight in the Plaza was the diner, and that was on the other side of the building. The sounds picked up, voices echoing below and then in the hall, and I fought against Bullet’s steel band arms to sit up before someone reached the front door.
“Bull! Bullet, get up man! They got your bike!”
It was good that I’d already escaped Bullet’s hold because he was up out of the bed, tearing through the sheet fort so fast, that I suspected he would’ve taken me with him without realizing. As it was, he tore a sheet and caused a minor collapse of one wall of the fort.
“The fuck is going on?” Seth groaned.
On his other side Jonah was sitting up, listening to Bullet storm through the apartment to the front door, eyes nearly sealed with sleep. “Did they say…?”
“Someone got Bullet’s bike,” I said, sliding out through the torn sheets and finding my jeans hanging out of a dresser drawer where I’d dropped them.
“Fuck,” Jonah muttered, grabbing Seth's arm and pulling him from the bed, the three of us hopping into jeans on our way out of the room.
“Baby, you should… you can stay in bed,” Jonah said, although I was nearly to the door and he was still getting the other leg in his pants.
“I wanna see what’s going on.” I slid my sneakers on and ran outside.
Lizzie was hugging her doorframe as Cole slipped out of her apartment, face covered as he pulled a t-shirt on. My feet stumbled at the sight and Jonah caught up with me, arm going around my shoulder.
“Let me go out first, in case there’s any trouble in the lot,” Jonah said as I was busy gawking.
I nodded, letting him lead me past Lizzie’s door, my head reeling with too much information for so early in the morning. Seth joined us, his fingers linking with mine, and Jonah ran ahead down the stairs and to the back door. Cole threw it open ahead of us just in time for Bullet’s roar to sound, and a string of curses to come floating up the stairs. My heartbeat was a wild riot in my chest as we rushed the rest of the way down, Seth holding me at the door as Jonah slid out into the morning chill.
The parking lot was foggy, yesterday’s warm reprieve evaporating in the cold snap licking on the wind. The wreckage of Bullet’s beautiful bike was swimming in that gray mist, pieces scattered from its parking place down the drive and around to the front of the building. Dusty was in the crowd, eyes wide and skin pale as he took a visual inventory of the mess, mangled metal and burnt rubber.
“They fuckin’ scrapped it,” Bullet said in a gasp, tears in his throat.
I didn’t need to be an MC member to feel the pure destruction wrought in the attack. There was no saying ‘it’s just a bike.’ I’d been on the back of it yesterday and even then it had felt personal, Bullet’s affection for the machine shared with me, between us.
“Anyone see anything?” Jonah asked.
“Back of a Hangmen’s cut,” Chef growled from the doorway of his diner exit. “Not that anyone’s surprised. No one shreds a bike ‘less they’ve got shit to say to its owner.”
“What would the Hangmen have to say to Bull, huh?” Cole snapped, turning his back to the scene. His eyes flicked to me and then away just as fast.
“What do you wanna do, Bullet?” Jonah whispered.
I steeled my expression, uncertain if they were talking about the mess or an act of revenge. Surprisingly, I found myself leaning to the latter, wanting to march into Old Uptown that minute. Except I knew what a huge disaster I would make of the situation, an omega in heat trying to target a pack of feral alphas.
“Shit,” Bullet sighed.
I tried to step in his direction, go to him and offer some kind of comfort, but Seth's hand on my shoulder stopped me and he nodded to Bullet’s fists. They were tight at his side, his arms vibrating with tension, threatening to snap at any second. I was fairly certain that I might be the ticket to soothing that barbed anger, but I held back for another moment to wait and watch.
“No point fuckin’ saving it, I suppose,” Bullet sighed, shaking hand rising and pulling hard on his beard.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Dusty said, stepping up and picking up a mangled pipe. “I built ya the first one. I could do it again. If there’s anything worth keeping, might as well try. For sentimental’s sake.”
Bullet grunted, shoulders rising up to his ears. The hand on his beard slid up over his eyes and I had enough. Slipping out from under Seth's hand I skidded around Jonah’s attempt at intercepting me and ran up to Bullet’s back, circling his stomach with my arms and planting my hands on his chest. Bullet growled, and Jonah hissed my name behind us until Bullet’s hands covered mine, his head bowing.
There was nothing to say, that bike wasn’t just his ride or his toy or even his friend. It was a part of him, as vital to him as a limb. He would have another one soon, Dusty would see to it, but the wound would stay for longer.
“You want us to take care of it?” Seth asked.
Bullet shuddered in my hold and then slowly untangled me from around him, his head shaking. “Nah. I can deal.” He enveloped my shoulders in his grip, gentle strokes of his fingers around my neck, and I tipped my head up to him.
“Let me help,” I said.
There w
as a refusal on his tongue, I could see it in the flinch around his eyes and mouth. I would go inside if he asked me to, even if I would’ve rather stayed with him. He blinked and then nodded, before looking over my head. “Somebody get Baby some gloves. And her coat. Family clean up time.”
I held my smile in my chest and stood up straighter as Seth ran inside.
Bullet and I spent the day in his office together. He didn’t mention his bike or the Hangmen, and I didn’t ask. It would come up later, probably soon, but if he wanted time to feel the injury in peace, I could let him have that. I would feel it with him.
At some point in the quiet, and after I’d disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled my handgun to his satisfaction, I fell asleep in the overstuffed armchair in Bullet’s office. I woke again, sun down outside, in Bullet’s lap, his purr surrounding me. My stomach rumbled, chorusing with the sound, and I watched his eyes pop open, lips curling up in a smile.
“Chef’s delivering couple pallets of buffalo chicken mac and cheese to the bar if you’re hungry,” he said. “Consolation, I guess since it’s my favorite.”
I reached up and scratched my fingers along his jawline, digging into his beard. The jittery anger that was digging lines into his forehead faded and he purred again.
“You’re good to us, kitten.”
“I was just thinking the same thing about all of you,” I said. “Good to me. To each other. A family.”
Bullet could lift me like I weighed nothing, and he rearranged me to straddle his lap, his hands cupping my ass as he pulled me closer. I didn’t make him wait, just took his face in my hands and leaned in for his kiss. It was my turn to be the aggressor, sucking on his lips, licking my way into his mouth. Bullet growled and shuddered and then his control gave way and he chased me, teeth and tongue till I was whimpering in his hold. My stomach growled, louder this time, and my nose wrinkled as a dull clawing echoed inside of me.
Bullet laughed, leaning back and grinning at me. “Hungry or horny?”
“Both, all the time,” I said, rolling my eyes.
He lifted us up out of the chair without another word. “We’d better start with hungry then. I’ve got plans for the horny and I don’t need you wasting away before then.”
He carried me to the door, nodding for me to open it.
“You’re not gonna put me down?”
He blushed, pink rising above the dark line of his beard. “S’not that I don’t think you can walk. Just like having your pussy close to my knot.”
Well, now I was blushing too.
He set me down on the way downstairs to the bar but kept me tucked against his side, a hand settled possessively over my hip. The mood in the bar was subdued, despite the massive table set up in the center with a buffet of food and booze. The entire pack was in the bar, with a few regulars I’d seen often enough to recognize, who made their way to Bullet to offer condolences.
This is kind of like a funeral reception, I thought as Bullet shook hands and Tiny brought us both plates of food. I ducked away and parked myself at the corner booth, stretching out on the bench to save room for Bullet when he was done on the greeting line.
“How’d I do, honey?” Chef said, sitting across from me.
“I haven’t had anything you cooked for me that wasn’t my favorite as I was eating it,” I said, smiling as the gruff, older man seemed to grow in height.
“Well, you haven’t told me your own favorite yet so I’m still guessin’,” he said with a wink.
“I wasn’t sure if you made Indian food,” I said.
His head cocked. “Indian food, huh? I could figure it out. I can always ask Torna—“ the name stopped abruptly on Chef’s tongue as he looked across the room, stiffening suddenly. A hair-raising growl, a sincere snarl that made me whimper, came lowly up from his throat. His eyes were narrowed and his muscles tensed as he stared at the entrance hall. I followed that stare, and I wished I could growl too.
Walking into the bar, leather cuts on and dark smirks stretched over their lips, were Buzzard and Indy. Chef’s growl gathered attention, and soon the sound was reverberating around the room. I wanted to storm up to the Hangmen and toss them out of the bar. What kind of nerve or insanity did it take for them to show up here after what they had done? I rose up from the bench, and at every table, alphas rose too.
“Behind me, Baby,” Chef hissed.
“Well, what kind of greeting is this?” Buzzard called from the front of the room.
“Buzzard, I know you like to boast how crazy you are but this is a new level,” Jonah said, walking up to the rival MC Prez. “Bullet’s feeling pretty sore about your club today, and I don’t think there’s a single one of us in here strong enough to hold him back. If we had a mind to.”
“Why, Scorch. I honestly haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about. But I gotta say, doesn’t feel like we’re still in a truce in here,” Buzz said.
It was true, the alphas were narrowing in on Buzz and Indy. They hadn’t brought Lola with them this time, and I wasn’t sure if I was more relieved or worried.
“You know, I was just thinking the same thing this morning when one of your Hangmen came and trashed my enforcer’s bike. That’s low shit, Buzz. Even for your lot.”
“Morning? Morning’s aren’t an active time for us,” Indy said, shaking his head. I was creeping up behind Chef, watching from behind his back, when I realized Indy had his eye on me. “We usually still got our dick’s in last night’s pussy in the morning.”
“You sayin’ I didn’t fuckin’ see one of your cuts swingin’ round the back of my shop this morning?” Dusty snarled, his eyebrow raising.
“I mean, it was kinda foggy this morning. Probably couldn’t,” Indy said, grinning with his eyes still fixed to me.
“How would you know?” I asked. “Apparently, you were still tryin’ to satisfy whatever unfortunate woman took a chance on you.”
Indy’s grin dropped, but Buzzard threw his head back, a hyena’s laugh released from his chest. “Fuckin’ too right! Shit, Ind, she fuckin’ sees right through you.”
Books and Tornado came to stand at my back and I hunted through the collection of us, searching for Bullet. Cole and Brody had hold of him, with Steve and Ryan and Tom all blocking his way to Buzzard and Indy. Even then, I could see the smoke coming out of his ears, his teeth fully bared in a snarl.
“Speaking of pussy,” Buzzard purred, and Chef shifted in front of me, blocking me from sight. Buzzard only laughed. “Can’t believe you idiots still sitting on an unclaimed omega.”
I swallowed and Bullet thrashed against the men holding him, barking, “You fuckin’ watch it.”
“She’s claimed,” Brody snapped, which made my eyes widen.
Buzzard’s too. “No, friend. She ain’t. Not until you sink your teeth in her. She barely smells like your pack. She sure as shit doesn’t have the bite to prove it. Wonder how long you’ll get to keep her.”
“You can walk out of my bar now and keep your territory, or you can say another word and have this pack at your throat and taking hold of your streets,” Jonah said, low and dark. “Or Buzz, I can tell you to get out and we’ll see who the alpha is in the room, hmm?”
The room was quiet, waiting for either of the Hangmen to speak, and I held my breath, peeking out from behind Chef again. Buzz and Jonah stood nearly nose to nose, Jonah’s hackles up, muscles clear and tense through his tight t-shirt. He didn’t growl, just waited, and I could see Buzz’s throat vibrating with sound. Finally, when I thought for sure Bullet would snap, or Buzzard would speak, or Jonah would lose his endless patience, Buzzard took one step back.
“How’s it feel, tryin’ to fill Nine’s shoes and knowing you just don’t measure up?” Indy asked, eyebrow raised. When Jonah didn’t rise to the bait, he turned away from the room and led the way to the front door.
It was Tom that followed their path, and I watched his arms cross as the door swung shut in front of him.
“Whole d
amn club was out in the street. They’re heading off now,” Tom called back.
“We following?” Brody asked Jonah.
“No. We know what they want now.” Jonah turned, his eyes landing on me immediately, worry folding lines in his forehead.
24
Scorch
The bar closed early that night, lights turned off and pallets of food packed up and carried up into Baby’s apartment. Everyone, right down to the sweet butts, was waiting inside the small space. It was time for a pack meeting. Outside the door I stood with Bomber, my VP, and Bullet, my enforcer. There would be a lot of voices trying to be heard once we stepped inside and I wanted to know where these two were at first.
“You sure I shouldn’t be out on the streets?” Bullet asked, pacing in place in front of the door, eyes watching the hall as if he expected Buzz to return and break in.
“I don’t want you anywhere but with Baby. She’s your priority now.” Bullet nodded and I ground my jaw, wondering if I should speak the thought that’d been rolling around in my head all day. “Your bike…”
“They must’ve seen her on the back of it yesterday,” Bullet said, his eyes shuttering. “I figured as much. Doesn’t make a difference. Better my bike than her.”
I turned my head away and swallowed down the bile in my throat at even the mention of the Hangmen getting their hands on Baby. “We should take her back to the Center.”
“What?!” Bullet bellowed, frozen in place.
Bomber scoffed, head shaking, digging his fingers through dark strands of hair. “I can’t believe- no, I can. Jesus, Jonah. I dare you to say that to her. To the others.”
“This might not be a problem we can solve,” I started, but Bomber cut me off.
“There’s an obvious solution.”
I ignored him. “If she goes back to the Center, finds a different pack—“