Duke

by Candace Blevins

  He sat up, put his boots on, and said, “Something’s wrong. Can you open the door and let Brain in, please?”

  She opened the door to see Brain leaned against the wall, working at his phablet. When he looked up, his eyes left no doubt something was wrong.

  He looked at her a few seconds and asked, “You holding it together okay?”

  “I think so.”

  Brain nodded and walked into the room, “We need to get back to the compound. Duchess needs to be either here, her brother’s house, or the compound.”

  “I can go home, if there’s something ya’ll need to do.”

  Duke looked at her, back to Brain. “Status update?”

  “Two of the girls were beaten. Doc’s taking care of them. Bash and Gonzo recognized the smell of the attackers in the room. All family has been ordered on lockdown.”

  Shaking his head, Duke muttered, “Knew this was going to cause problems.” He looked at Gen. “Brain’s right about where you need to be. Safest place in the city is where you’re sittin’ now, but I’d prefer you at your brother’s house or the compound. Your choice, Beautiful.”

  * * * *

  Duke drove them all to the compound in her car, and surprised her by driving into the garage, following Brain’s instructions to a parking space. Gen thought it funny the club had assigned parking, but deemed it an inappropriate time to laugh about it.

  The men were talking in code, trying to keep her from figuring out what this other ‘income stream’ was, but she had a sinking feeling she knew. After all, there were only so many money-making ventures a bunch of bikers could go into, and she’d been assured they didn’t do anything involving drugs, nor were they involved in the illegal gun trade. That pretty much only left prostitution or something else involving sex.

  And, he’d as much as told her it was something he felt he needed to be upfront with her over. Oddly enough, she wasn’t ticked at him for keeping it from her, though she was pretty pissed they were using women this way.

  Gen went to get out of the car when Duke parked, but he touched her forearm and she stopped. “Some of the wives and girlfriends know the score, others don’t, so the women never talk about club business amongst themselves. Still, they’re gonna assume you know, so if you don’t want to know, you may have to stop them from talking. None’ll tell you up front, but may say something as an aside they’ll expect you to understand.” He glanced at Brain in the backseat, then looked back to her. “You find out something you’re pissed about, keep it to yourself and take it out on me in private when I get back. Okay?”

  “I think I’ve figured it out from hearing the two of you talk, and yeah, I think I’m pissed, but I’ll wait and hear you out when you have time. I know you don’t now.”

  He nodded. “Fair enough. As my woman, you’ll eventually be expected to take a leadership role amongst the other women. We’ve brought food in from a bunch of restaurants, if you want to jump in and organize how the tables are put together for a buffet style meal, no one will stop you. If you’d rather let the women who’ve already been doing it handle it, that’s fine, too. My guess is you’ll be happiest behind the bar, but you’re gonna have to find your own place.”

  Brain spoke from the back seat. “If someone gets in your face, don’t back down, but it might be good not to take a swing at someone unless they swing first.”

  Gen looked at him, insulted he’d think she’d handle conflict with her fists, but he smiled and said, “You throat-punched our president, and we’ve all seen the video of you taking the asshole down in the bar. Odds are, most of the women will give respect right off the bat, but there are two who may try to push you into a fight. I’m just about positive neither will throw the first punch, but they’ll do their damnedest to get you to throw one so they’ll have an excuse to throw the next.”

  The clubhouse at first seemed to be in chaos, but Gen soon learned it was organized chaos. Some of the women were indeed handling the food, others had the small kids in a side room organizing little-kid activities. The older kids were in another room playing video games or tapping away at tablets or cellphones.

  Gen liked Duke’s idea of manning the bar, so she made herself comfortable on a barstool. Most of the women knew who she was, and some called her Gen while others called her Duchess. A few just called her “Duke’s woman.”

  Most of the men disappeared into a room for about twenty minutes, and they looked grim when they came out. Duke stepped up on a raised section near one of the walls and the room went quiet.

  “All the kids in the other rooms?”

  Gen watched a few mothers usher their children into one of the two kids’ rooms, and when they gave Duke the all-clear, he continued. “We’re on the lowest level of lockdown now, but I foresee us going up a notch later tonight. With this in mind, let’s go ahead and put the kids to sleep downstairs so we don’t have to move them. If you’ve been voted access to the back hallways and want to sleep in your man’s room, feel free, but know we may move you downstairs later.”

  He looked through the glass wall into the room with the teens, and Gen followed his gaze to see Brain talking to them. “The rule still stands about not texting or emailing your friends to let them know where you are, or why. Brain’s running the control room tonight, and you all know he can watch any data streaming into or out of our compound, whether you use our wi-fi signal, or bypass it and use your cell signal. Each of you is here because a brother vouched for you. Whatever you and your children do reflects on your man.”

  He jumped down and stalked his way across the room to Gen, going behind the bar, pulling her into his arms and putting his mouth at her ear. “Some of the women are werewolves, too. Can’t tell you which, but need to give a heads up. They can smell fear, so try not to be afraid.” He stroked her back, kissed her cheek. “When everyone starts going to bed, I want you in my room. Lock the door and keep your piece close. I’ll be out of pocket, but if you have a serious problem let Brain know. If we go to a higher alert you’ll be downstairs. Keep your piece on you down there, even if you have to sleep with it on your hip.”

  “I can’t be on lockdown tomorrow. You know that, right? I have an eleven o’clock appointment and I’ll need to leave here by eight to go home and get ready for my day.”

  He nodded. “I may send someone with you as a bodyguard, but I’ll do my best to keep my shit from disrupting your life.” His gaze traveled over her face and he asked, “We good?”

  “You can’t take the time to talk right now so I’ll put everything on the back burner until you can.”

  He wasn’t happy with her answer so she wrapped her arms around his neck and went to her tiptoes, stretching up for a kiss. He leaned down and kissed her, and kept kissing her. When he finally pulled away she said, “We’ll talk. We’ll figure it out. Be careful out there, okay?”

  “I’m really hard to hurt, Beautiful. I’ll be fine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Gen worked the bar and talked to people, but there were too many for her to remember names. She couldn’t drink, as she had her gun, so she stuck to ginger ale at first and then moved to coffee.

  When it came time to put kids down, the women started leaving, until eventually it seemed to be just the kidless people left.

  One of the prospects was guarding the door to the back hallway, and when she tried to go to Duke’s room, he had to call the control room to be sure she had access.

  He was on a walkie-talkie, so Gen heard Brain tell the prospect to send Gen in to see him.

  “I was there when ya’ll voted, Brain,” she said as she stepped into the room, “and Duke said he wanted me in there waiting for him when he got back.”

  Brain nodded and said, “We’re about to up the lockdown level, which means about the time you got settled you’d just have to get up and go downstairs. However, we’re short staffed so I need to ask a favor.”

  He glanced away from the screens and to her, then back to the wall of monitors. �
��This is me asking, not Duke. I’m in charge of the compound while he’s running an op. I currently have one member and three prospects I trust to protect us, and four more prospects who need light duty. I trust you more than the light duty prospects. Way more, but Duke’ll be pissed if I put you on guard duty somewhere. My first thought was to ask you to be the guard in the room with the women and children downstairs, but then I thought it might be a bad idea to broadcast the fact you carry on Thunder property to the wives and girlfriends.”

  He nodded to his left, to a bunch of monitors currently turned off. “I’m rotating through different places, but if I have an extra set of eyes in here with me, it’ll be better. Can I give you six or eight screens to watch?”

  “Can you tell me what I’m watching for, and what the guys are doing tonight that’s put us all in danger?”

  “Yes to the first. No to the second.”

  “I want to go home.”

  He shook his head. “Not an option.”

  “Then I want to go to my brother’s house.”

  “Again, not an option. You could’ve gone home with Isaac earlier and been safe, but I don’t have anyone to escort you right now. You’re safest inside these walls right now, and Duke would never forgive me if something happened to you.”

  “So you’re saying I’m a prisoner? I’m stuck here until Duke returns?”

  He looked at her a few seconds, then back to the monitor. “No. If you insist on leaving I won’t stop you. I know Duke told you about someone he used to date who kept doing dangerous shit and needing to be rescued. One of the reasons he’s so into you is because you’re smart. Think it through, Gen. We need you to stay here through the night to keep you safe. There’s no reason to leave. If you want to go down with the other women, I’ll make things work without your help. But you have a good head on your shoulders and if you’ll be awake anyway, I could use the help and the company.”

  “What if I see or hear something I shouldn’t? Something I might feel I need to lie about, if asked?”

  He shook his head. “I’m using headphones so you can’t hear what they say to me, and what I say back won’t tell you anything. I don’t have cameras on the action tonight.” He hit a few keys on his keyboard, reached forward and touched the monitor closest to him, and six screens lit up on the other wall. It took Gen a few minutes to recognize he was asking her to watch the areas around the compound.

  “Need you to watch for suspicious activity, for the same car showing up more than once, for people paying too much attention to the walls. Also, someone walking who just seems off. We had them try to throw Molotov cocktails over the wall back in the beginning. Unless they hit the woods, there’s nothing close to the wall that’ll burn, but we still need to know about it so we can be sure they don’t do damage.”

  She nodded and sat in the chair, facing the monitors. She could watch the area, help keep them safe.

  “Thank you, Gen. Oh, and one more thing. I’ll know before anyone walks in the door. No one comes into the control room without using the walkie to let me know. If I don’t tell you someone’s coming in, then hit the floor if the door opens. I’ll handle whatever or whoever it is.”

  “Why do you do this? Why not find a nice, safe, job somewhere? You have computer skills, you could probably make more money doing something else. Something safer.”

  “I’ll answer your question in a little bit, but I want to talk you through what you’re doing, first.”

  Twenty minutes later, Gen felt like she’d taken a three month long class in surveillance. She knew what to watch for, and her eyes glanced over normal activity and zeroed in on suspicious people and vehicles. Three cars were keeping an eye on the compound, moving in and out of the area in a well-choreographed dance she’d have never noticed without Brain’s excellent instruction.

  She thought he’d forgotten her question, but just as she was starting to get comfortable enough with her six camera views to get a little bored, he said, “You know what I am. Do you really think I could be happy with a normal desk job?”

  “There are other options available to someone with your skillset.”

  “Abbott gave an explanation I don’t think Duke was going to give just yet, but basically, most wolves have the choice of being in a pack or going lone-wolf. Neither of those options work for me. I can’t handle the totalitarian aspects of being under an Alpha, but I don’t want the bother of being Alpha. I know I’m strong enough, and smart enough, but I’m not interested. Lone wolf doesn’t work for me, either. I need my brothers, need a pack around me, just not an Alpha whose word is law.”

  Gen zeroed in on a fourth vehicle, told Brain about it, and then said, “I wish Duke and I had been able to talk before all the drama hit. I get that he needs to be the one to explain things to me, but I have so many questions.”

  “I can actually give you some of the basics. Like telling you he can’t change you into a werewolf when he’s in human form. A bite when he’s in wolf form will change you. A scratch might, but probably won’t. However, when he’s in his hybrid form, those claws will change you. If he goes into hybrid form to fight humans, he has to kill them. One, they’ve seen him and our code says we can’t leave a human alive with knowledge of us unless they’ve been bound, and two, he’d never risk turning a bad guy into one of us.”

  “He said he’s hard to hurt. Exactly how does that work?”

  “We heal really fast. The strongest of us, even faster. It hurts like fuck to get shot, but as long as we can heal before we lose too much blood, we’re good.”

  “Silver bullets?”

  “Bones take the longest to heal, but if everything’s lined up we can be good to go in ten or fifteen minutes. If it isn’t lined up, sometimes the Doc has to re-break them, so they can heal right the second time.”

  “You can’t talk about silver bullets? That probably means there’s something to it.”

  “Some questions you’re safer not knowing the answer to, Gen. Do me a favor and stop thinking out loud, okay?”

  “Because you can’t know if I’ve figured it out?”

  He didn’t answer and she said, “Yeah, okay. What about the full moon?”

  “We’re drawn to turn on the full moon. If we don’t have a chance to turn and run on one of the three nights of the full moon, we’re miserable. The strongest of us can keep from it, but it’s a horrible experience so we rarely do.”

  “How often do ya’ll turn?”

  “Some only change once a month, to run under the full moon. I know one of the wolves in the local pack is currently staying wolf more than human. His wife recently died and he isn’t dealing well. The pack is letting him go wolf for a little while, but will begin pulling him back to human before much longer.”

  “So, ya’ll are friends with the pack? No animosity between the two groups?”

  “In Atlanta, the MC and the pack don’t get along so well. We usually managed a truce, but there were problems. Duke used to belong to the pack here, and he went to the Alpha right off and told him he wanted the two groups to not only get along, but to be friends. He promised not to poach from the pack, but was clear he wouldn’t turn anyone away who wanted to make the change. The two groups aren’t exactly friends, but we aren’t enemies, either, and so far there haven’t been problems.”

  “How often do you and Duke change into wolves?”

  “Duke does when something’s bothering him. He went somewhere and ran when the two of you were broke up. Most of us prefer to change after we’ve been injured. Even if our physical body heals, it just doesn’t feel right until we’ve gone to wolf and back to human. If we’re injured bad, turning to wolf can save our life.”

  “That’s why you liked the fact there was already a wooded area on the lot? And that’s why the woods are off limits to girlfriends and wives unless there’s a paintball match going on?”

  “Yes. Wolves don’t like fences, so it isn’t ideal, but we like rooms and doors even less. Our wolves have le
arned that the woods in the compound are safe, but are only for napping and not for running.”

  “Duke once told my brother I called to his soul, and then looked at Isaac and told him, both of them. I never got an answer before of what he meant, but I’m thinking now that he was saying both his human and wolf soul? Do you have two souls?”

  “I’ve done more than my fair share of speculating about that, and I’m pretty sure we only have one soul, but I agree it’s easier to speak about it as if we have two, sometimes. Many werewolves consider themselves two entities, a human and a wolf. When they’re learning control, they see themselves as fighting the wolf in order to make decisions as a human, and in order to stay human when the wolf wants to take over.” He stopped talking to do something on the keyboard, and then resumed as if he hadn’t stopped. “In my case, I realize I’m one being, one soul, with two physical bodies. Fighting the wolf doesn’t work for me, but making a decision about which body serves me best at this moment helps me stay human when the wolf wants to take over. With that being said, the wolf inside of me needs to like whoever the man likes. I once thought I was madly in love with someone, and ignored the fact my wolf couldn’t stand her. Turns out, the wolf was right. She was a cold-hearted bitch and had managed to hide it from the man.”

  “So he was basically speaking in code to tell Isaac his wolf likes me, too?”

  “Sounds like it.”

  “I’ve seen something in his eyes, something wild, more than once. It kind of freaked me out. Was that his wolf looking at me, somehow?”

  “Possibly. Duke’s wolf stays a little closer to the surface than most of us allow. He has excellent control, and he trusts his wolf’s instincts. He’s faster than the rest of us when we’re human, and his hearing and smell is better than ours when we’re human.”

  “I smelled everyone in the room for a few seconds during the binding. Isaac was something that lives in the water, but not a fish. Abbott smelled cold. I could tell you and Duke were the same thing.”