Hunter (The Devil's Dragons Motorcycle Club)

by Nikki Wild

  “We’re not talking some overnight mission, a weekend’s ride there and back,” Hunter explained briskly. “New Orleans is a damn long ride, and there’s no telling how long he’ll need to scope it out. Could be weeks. Months.

  “You all know what happens now…”

  The ones who hadn’t caught up yet were starting to come around, and everyone turned back to face me. The crowd was plastered in a mixture of surprise, worry, and pride.

  “Grizz, from this moment on, you are no longer a formal part of this Devil’s Dragons chapter,” he announced, placing his hand on my shoulder again. “You will carry the emblem of the Dragons on your leathers as a nomad, sworn to no man and no turf.”

  A hush fell over the assembled bikers.

  Something overcame me, and I couldn’t resist the impulse. A calm drowned me.

  “I don’t want to go,” I replied.

  The others shared glances in the crowd. Defying a direct order from our leader was unheard of.

  Especially when it was from me.

  “I owe you my life, Hunter,” I told him. “That life debt is unpaid. Send another.”

  For a second, I didn’t know how he would react. His eyes cycled through a number of emotions.

  Surprise.

  Confusion.

  Irritation.

  Resolve.

  “That fucking debt is repaid a hundred times over, Grizz,” came the authoritative response of the club president, my friend. “There isn’t a soul among us more qualified for this, and we all know it. I trust your judgment on this over my own.”

  I followed his gaze as he turned to the rest of the Devil’s Dragons. Each of them was nodding solemnly. I could see it in all of their eyes – they couldn’t do it the right way, and they respected me.

  “I trust you,” Hunter told me. “We all trust you. Take us home.”

  With a heavy heart…

  I accepted.

  While Hunter loudly addressed them all again, the world drowned out around me. I stepped to the side and thought on what this meant while the closest brothers proudly clamped hands on my shoulders.

  Hunter Hargreaves considered me the most diplomatic and self-sufficient man on his team. It’s why I had been his second-in-command from the start.

  He wasn’t wrong.

  The club president used me as a trump card, sending me on solo missions when he needed to be in two places at once. He relied on my expertise and experience, seeing firsthand what I was capable of.

  I had proudly served him.

  But I’d never seen this coming.

  Hunter tried to step down just a few weeks ago. Our last enemy had privately shaken his resolve, and he had begun to doubt his ability to lead.

  I had been offered the position.

  I didn’t want the position.

  Sarah set him straight. She kept Hunter right where he belonged at the head of the damn table. I still hadn’t gotten around to thanking her for it.

  I glanced back towards the front door of the bar, sensing that his pregnant fiancée was still sleeping off her latest bout of symptoms in the back room.

  Turned out, her second trimester was a real bitch.

  Sarah would be sad that I left without saying goodbye, but I didn’t intend on waking her. She needed her rest, and there wasn’t anything she could do to make this any easier.

  My attention hazily turned forward. Hunter was wrapping up, drawing attention to me again for some reason. Lifting my blank stare, I realized that the other members of the Devil’s Dragons were cheering.

  I struggled to give a small smile.

  Recognition was never necessary for me. I followed orders, I did what I was told, and I let someone with more charisma take the attention.

  I knew my place.

  The spotlight wasn’t mine.

  But putting the right person there…

  That, I could get behind.

  The others pulled me inside and demanded to buy me drinks, challenge me to pool, and fight my high score on the battered dart board. I reluctantly joined in.

  Hunter stepped past, giving me a small smile and a knowing look.

  I know, I nodded.

  Long ride tomorrow.

  But the morning was just as far away. The night was young. It would have been rude to turn down the festivities, and I was never one to argue when whiskey was on someone else’s tab.

  When I finally stumbled to my bunk in the dark I knew it was the last time I would sleep well for a long, long time.

  My fingers fumbled over my leathers, folded on top of the thin blanket.

  Switching on the lamp, I lifted the jacket against the light. My eyes scoured for the patch, and I saw the familiar, intimidating emblem of the Devil’s Dragons.

  But there was a new patch sewn in beneath.

  Nomad.

  The term wasn’t chosen randomly or lightly. It meant something very specific to the world in which we lived. A Nomad was a chapter of one. He was a distant emissary, representing club affairs well outside the club’s influence. A man with a Nomad patch could step into any goddamned club in the country and not a damn person would stand in his way.

  Nomads were dangerous.

  I’m dangerous…

  And alone.

  A deep sadness overcame me as I gazed upon the visible change in membership. I was now a Devil’s Dragon removed. A branch, cut loose from the tree and left to find my way in the wind.

  I almost regretted telling him about New Orleans.

  But Hunter was right.

  We were choking here. If the club didn’t hit the road soon, we’d have no choice but to fall back into the bad ways to keep the lights on. That’s the problem with selling protection… If you’re good at your job, you might just put yourself out of business.

  It was time for a change in scenery.

  With a lead heart, I hung my jacket on the hook and sat quietly on the edge of my bed. It felt like eons passed as I contemplated my journey, and my separation from the men I had come to call my brothers.

  Sleep finally came.

  When it was followed by sunrise, the horizon stood waiting. Freshly showered and packed for the road that lay before me, with a direct line to the rapidly falling club funds in my back pocket, I finally mounted my bike.

  As I turned to give the bar one last longing look, I spotted Hunter on the patio. He lifted a fist in the air for me, and I responded back in kind.

  I revved the engine. The time had come to leave this place behind and seek out a new Promised Land for my men.

  If only I’d seen what was coming for me, I might have packed a bigger gun.

  Two

  Grizz

  Twelve Years Earlier

  I hadn’t been born a hardened biker.

  In simpler times, there was a girl.

  One lazy Sunday afternoon I was curled up in bed, my fingers threaded through the hair of this sexy little thing that I was proud to call mine.

  Kate’s lips bobbed up and down my cock as she steadied herself with her palms down, bracing herself against my thighs. Every few moments, she would lift her eyes to match my gaze with fierce, hungry need.

  “Gonna have to stop that soon,” I murmured with a groan. “Unless you want me poppin’ off too early.”

  She plucked her lips free from my weapon with a satisfying pop, running her tongue along the thick tool as she stroked it.

  “Maybe I want that,” my lover grinned. “You, coming down back of my throat with that big cock of yours. Maybe I like listening to you groan it all out…”

  The mental picture almost forced it right there and then. God, I loved it when she sucked me off.

  I brushed her aside and flipped her onto her hands and knees. “Not this time,” I grunted in her ear while I engulfed my hard rod in a huge fist, pressing it against the tip of her wet pussy.

  “You never let me have it my way,” she pouted, her face turned back over her shoulder.

  “Opposite from the truth,”
I grinned, rubbing the bulbous, crimson head along the sopping lips of her hungry opening. “I let you have it your way every time.”

  When she involuntarily bit her lip as I rolled my crown along the lips, teasing her nerves, I watched her face retreat forward, lowering towards the bed.

  “It’s just that I know what you like better than you do.”

  “Is that true–”

  With a hearty thrust, I burrowed over half my girthy length inside her, and Kate’s words broke apart into a heavy, satisfied gasp. Her body tensed up against me, her hips inching backwards along my rod.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “Here’s proof.”

  I impaled her again with the heavy erection, my strong fingers webbing out across both cheeks of her ass. I could spread them all across, digging into her hips along either side.

  It gave me solid ground to pull Kate back into every last crushing thrust, powerfully dominating her from behind.

  “Jesus,” she groaned.

  She knew I was a faithful reader of the Bible, but I didn’t begrudge her the Lord’s name in vain. After all, I did plenty of things that went against the good word’s teachings.

  At face value, anyway. You could say I looked at the Bible as more of a set of guidelines than a strict rulebook. Sure, I read the stories, memorized the parables. Followed the spirit of the thing. I was an avid explorer of the Scripture.

  I let it guide my hand through my life, but I took more than a few liberties during my time in the Marines…

  You don’t find the things I was doing for my country in a good book... But that doesn’t mean those things can be left unfinished. I made the world a better place.

  I wasn’t some kind of fucking Crusader born again, powerful and self-righteous. I didn’t care if someone worshipped another deity or fucking animal spirit, so long as innocent people didn’t have to fucking die. Live and let live, I said.

  Kill, and expect to be killed.

  Thou shall not kill was a commandment, not a request, and I was put on this Earth to enforce that goddamned commandment.

  See? Even I can take a good name in vain.

  Speaking of blasphemies that rank low on the totem pole, I was fucking Kate in ways that would make the Heavens weep.

  Her head bobbed with every last thrust as I powered into her body again, and again, and again. Her knees slid a little further apart on my sheets, only tightening the grip around my thick rod as I fucked her into complete submission.

  “Grizz,” she murmured my nickname. “Fuck me just like that… right there…”

  I was all too happy to oblige.

  Clamping my fingertips harder into her skin, I pummeled the spot she liked best. I knew where she wanted it – and sure enough, after maybe twenty seconds, she was begging me in a string of broken words to not stop as she came hard.

  “Oh God, Grizz,” she moaned as her body collapsed in front of me, her chasm still squeezing my thick cock. “Don’t… don’t pull out yet…”

  “Have to, soon,” I reluctantly disagreed. “Need the condom. That was almost enough to pull the trigger.”

  “Just… a few more seconds?”

  I honored her plea and held her hips tightly against mine, her limbs still shivering with pleasure. I listened to her heavy breaths with validated satisfaction.

  When she composed herself, I plucked my cock free from her body, reaching to the end table to snag the wrapper. I always enjoyed making her come on my bare cock before using protection, even if I knew it wasn’t the wisest of choices.

  Ripping it open with my teeth, I quickly sheathed my sword, pulled her onto her back, and set about impaling her once more.

  I felt Kate’s ankles cross and lock into the small of my back. Holding me close, her arms around my shoulders, Kate gasped and moaned while I began punishing her body once again.

  My lips found the exposed skin of her neck. Hungry for more, I dug deeper inside her, daring to thrust harder even now.

  “Jesus, Grizz…”

  As I pulled my lips free to kiss her, her eyes were rolling back into her head. I planted my mouth on hers, our tongues dancing in carnal bliss.

  I loved this fucking girl.

  And holy hell, did I love fucking her.

  My sensitivity was already at a peak from feeling her folds rub against my bareback thrusting. With the knowledge that she’d already come – although, twenty minutes facedown between her thighs had already done that trick – I was ready to let myself go.

  After all, my pleasure was second to hers.

  “Think I’m going for it,” I whispered in her ear.

  “Do it,” she cooed. “Grizz, come for me.”

  With that exchange, I bit down and held her wrists above her head on the mattress as I pummeled her body with every last punishing thrust. As I felt her start to rock her hips to mine, losing herself until I pushed her to one last orgasm, I finally held her taut and strained with release.

  Everything went white with desire.

  It almost hurt how fiercely I came, the roping cum threading through the slit atop my thick cock. My heavy balls tightened securely, and I burst my seed into my lover – caught safely inside the condom.

  Gasping, groaning, and breathing heavy, I collapsed onto the bed beside her, my head swimming with dazed pleasure.

  After a moment of composing ourselves, I reached over and squeezed her sexy little ass. Kate giggled at the pressure, rubbing her rump into my hardened dick.

  “See? Who needs the military?” She smirked, grinding her cheeks against my still-hard dick. “Ain’t none of them who can jump your cock like I can.”

  I felt her cheeks rubbing around the outside of the erection, squeezing it between. It was a possessive move, and I loved it.

  “True,” I agreed with a groan, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. With a chuckle, I pulled her into a tight embrace. “It’s a talent.”

  “Goddamn right it is,” she huskily murmured in my ear, neck so close to my lips that I strained to keep from biting it. “We were made for each other, we were.”

  “Ain’t arguing that,” I said defensively.

  “Don’t worry, Grizz.” Kate turned over and took my face into her hands. “I know you have to do this. I’m not about to give you grief over it.”

  “Kate…”

  “No, I mean it,” she replied sadly, planting a kiss on my lips. “It sucks, but you do what you’ve gotta do.”

  I felt bad for putting her in this position.

  The plan had only been to knock out four years in the Marines, then come back home to my beloved – for good. I’d put in some time serving the country, get some serious training from respected marine officials, and leave with a sense of direction for the rest of my life.

  After a stint in the military, I’d come back home with a solid bank account and whisk her away from all of this. We could start our life anew.

  But this shit in Afghanistan changed the game. War meant a hefty signup bonus, better perks, more security afterwards, and selfishly… I liked being told what to do. I enjoyed direction from someone I could respect. I was a loose cannon in need of authority from someone I trusted, and God knew it.

  “Not a whole lot of people can do a combat tour in the Marines, and here you are doing two. I’m proud of you, Grizz,” she whispered lovingly. “Lots of people around here are.”

  “I don’t care about any of them,” I told her. “Can’t say I give two rat-shits about their opinions.”

  It was true.

  My deadbeat, washed up alcoholic father was still rotting in his trailer somewhere around here, and the rest of the people – nice as they were – weren’t enough to keep me in this tiny Arizonan mountain town.

  “I know,” she smiled. “It’s just you and me against the world, isn’t it?”

  “Always was, Kate,” I nodded. “Always will be.”

  Her hand stroked my arm, up to my shoulder. “Which is why I wanted to make your last night as a free man special,” my
lover smiled. “Tonight, we’ve got all the time in the world.”

  “And don’t it feel good,” I grinned.

  “When you get back, we’ll get all set up,” Kate smirked. “And maybe then, you won’t need a commander. You’ll be in charge of your fate. You can call your own shots. It’ll be your time in the spotlight.”

  “Don’t care much for the spotlight,” I shook my head. “Something to be said about enabling someone better.”

  She snuggled up closer. “Who could ever be better than you, Grizz?”

  “Plenty of men,” I shrugged. “Besides, there’s safety in it. Put someone else in charge, someone deserving, and serve them well. Make a difference without putting yourself on fucking display. That’s the life for me.”

  Kate smiled and shook her head. “That can work for you, but I’m a bit more ambitious than that.”

  “New York,” I nodded knowingly.

  “I’ve decided to turn it down.”

  “What, why?”

  “I’m going to wait for you, Grizz. I mean, really… Can you see a shy little desert girl like me in the big city alone? In the biggest city we’ve got? They’d eat me alive up there.”

  “You can handle it.”

  “Not convinced I can. No, I’d rather go up there with you by my side,” she told me. “Then I can focus on the work...”

  “But what about the job offer?”

  “The industry’s not going anywhere soon. I can wait and build up my work history out here. Maybe I’ll take a few more classes. By the time you’re back, I’ll probably be up for even better job offers.”

  “Don’t know that’s what’ll happen.”

  “The other choice is to live in some shitty studio apartment and barely pay the bills. The pay’s good, but it’s not that good. Not for New York City…”

  “So, what? You’re just staying out here now until I’m ready?” I asked thoughtfully. “That wasn’t the plan.”

  “Neither was watching you string on your combat boots to play Rambo on the other side of the world,” Kate reminded me, “but we are where we are, and I support you either way.”

  I pulled her deep into my embrace.

  “I’ll come back. I promised you this, I’ll be back before you know it, and I’ll be able to take even better care of you. You’ll see.”