Wolf (Black Angels MC Book 2)

by A. E. Fisher

  In my forty-five years, I had seen enough hell in my life to know when heaven was looking back at me, and even in the dark, tiny confines of the bathroom, pale and tired, I could see the brightness she cast on me. The light she represented, and one of the only symbols of hope left in my life.

  “I love you,” I said so casually, and so calmly, the words just slipped straight out of my mouth.

  Anna’s blue eyes widened, her pale brows lifting slightly as her walls went up, soft, pink lips beginning to open.

  “I’m not saying this because I’m trying to win you over right now,” I reassured her. “I just wanted you to know.”

  Her lips closed and she nodded as her eyes dropped down to the white floor, looking far beyond the porcelain tiles.

  We sat in there for a moment longer, and when I was sure she wasn’t going to throw up anymore, I reached for the bathroom rail and pulled myself to stand.

  Anna’s eyes snapped to mine, our silence disturbed as I reached my full height, the bathroom shrinking around me as I felt the blood rush back into my legs, making them twinge with pins and needles, before I reached my hand down to a doe-eyed, uncertain Anna as she looked at the big palm in front of her.

  “Come with me,” I said, my voice calm and relaxed as her blue eyes studied me with caution, the corners of her eyes wrinkling back at the hand. “It doesn’t bite.”

  “I do,” Anna quipped dryly, but nevertheless, she lifted her small hand, and her fingers wrapped around the length of my palm, allowing my rough, calloused hands to hold her small, softer ones. Her skin was cool to the touch as I pulled her to her feet, careful to keep her balanced as she righted herself in her thin sandals on the tile floor.

  She was quiet but watchful as she allowed me to lead her out of the bathroom and through the doorway. We passed through the hallway and entered the clubroom. Heads turned our way, but my mind was quiet as we walked through the room, paying no attention to any of them as their eyes followed us out of the door.

  I was careful to keep my pace slow as we walked across the parking lot, and I made sure not to pay any attention to Anna’s curious looks as we passed my bike and the cars and headed straight to the gate.

  Pipe, who was wrapped up in a jacket, a smoke on his lips, gave us curious looks as we passed him, an eyebrow raised to his hat.

  The sound of my heavy footsteps and Anna’s softer ones following behind me continued down the street as we walked five more minutes, down past the clubhouse to the emptier part of town a few blocks over, and the longer we walked, the closer Anna’s body drew toward my heat.

  When we were far enough, I slowed down to a stop and turned to face her.

  Her cheeks were flushed red in the cold air, faint clouds of cold air coming from her lips as her blue eyes studied my face, picking apart my silence.

  She looked around us, the urban area surrounding us with the white picket fences, driveways, and porches with those bench swings and flower boxes. “Wolf?” Anna said, with a tone of caution. I let my gaze wander to my right, to the house with the faded blue door and rustic wooden panels covering the brick walls, shutters closed over the windows. Anna’s eyes jumped from the house to me, back and forth, quicker and quicker. “What is this?”

  “I value my position as president,” I said, causing Anna’s gaze to stop solely on me. Her pink lips pressed into a tight line, eyes narrowed. “I love being around the club, I love being the person to protect my brothers and to lead them when times get tough. I love that. I would do anything for the club.”

  I took a step back onto the white pathway leading up to the door. Anna’s step was reluctant, but as I tugged, she followed me stiffly up the pathway and up the creaking porch steps until we stood squarely on the ragged welcome mat. The iron number 1 reflected our images in a bronze wash as we stood close enough to smell the rusted hinges next to the aged paint peeling from the door.

  I let go of one of her hands only for a moment as I reached into my back pocket. Her eyes followed every millimeter of movement as I pulled out the silver key and placed it into the lock.

  The door clicked open, and due to the house being built on the slightest of hills, the door fell open in a slow, smooth gesture as it welcomed us in.

  I stepped in, but Anna stopped, her body halting on the welcome mat as she looked down to the threshold of the doorway. “I can’t.” She shook her head. “Wolf, with everything you said in the hospital room before, I—”

  “No,” I interrupted, Anna’s face stilling for a moment before her pale blonde eyebrows rose to her roots.

  “No?” she repeated.

  “I didn’t say anything to you in the hospital room that day, Anna. You didn’t let me.” I saw Anna’s eyes narrow on me, and her lips begin to open as she no doubt was ready to argue with me, but I stopped her. “I hesitated. For a single moment, I couldn’t answer you. That’s what happened in that hospital room, Anna.”

  “That’s because you couldn’t say it. You couldn’t say that you would put our baby first!”

  “That wasn’t what you asked me, Anna,” I growled, stepping back out of the door and into her space. “You asked me whether I would ever choose the club over our baby.”

  “What’s the difference?” Anna yelled, her brows weighing on her eyes as she shook her head, her face hurt, victimized as she tried to pull out of my grasp. “Let go.”

  “No, Anna. I won’t let go because I’m going to clear this up right now, and you’re going to listen to me once and for all.”

  She looked down at her hands, to where her slender wrists were held between my thumb and forefinger, and then to the steps and down the porch before giving one last pathetic tug on her wrists, knowing they wouldn’t come loose, knowing there was no running away from this one.

  “You asked me whether I would choose the club over our child,” I repeated, keeping my voice steady and clear as I made sure to lower my head and look straight into her blue eyes. The slight ring of yellow around the center of her pupil was clear and on me as I said, “I wouldn’t.”

  “But you said—”

  “I said nothing, Anna,” I growled. “I said nothing because I couldn’t think. I couldn’t say it thoughtlessly, because the one thing you don’t understand, Anna, is that our child and our club are no different to me.”

  “What?” she said, completely stunned as she looked back at me, her head softly shaking as she took another step away from me, tugging on her hands.

  “It’s ‘club before all,’ Anna. It always has been and it always will be.”

  “Then our child—”

  “Is club,” I finished, catching her by surprise.

  “What?” she blurted, the confusion written into the groves of her frown as she searched the softness of my face for the reason as I gave her, with the deepest simplicity, the answer that I had come to. The answer that I knew was true. And the answer that I knew was what I truly wanted.

  “My club is made up of the people closest to me. The people I know who are worthy of protecting, of sacrificing everything for. The club I chose to love. And my club is my brothers and their women. My club is you and it’s me. And our club is everything in between us,” I breathed, stepping forward, so close to Anna that I could smell that sweet but spicy scent of her skin as the soft clouds of her breath touched me. “The reason I hesitated is because our child is already club. There will never be a day that I won’t put it above all, and there will never be anything I wouldn’t do to protect it. And just like I would never sacrifice a brother, and will never sacrifice you, I will never sacrifice our child. Never.”

  Anna stood still, her small head only reaching the middle of my chest as she looked straight forward, her face stunned, and her mouth speechless. I saw her mind processing my words, her face flickering from one emotion to the next so fast I didn’t know what to think, until I felt the timid but gentle squeeze of her hands in mine.

  I took a step backward, and despite not looking at me, Anna’s small foot
took that one simple step over the threshold and into the hallway. “I bought this because it’s near the club,” I explained, looking up and around the interior, knowing it was completely different to every aspect of mine and Anna’s personality; the aged wooden floors, floral patterned wallpaper, and the single old rocking chair in the corner. “But I also bought it because that meant the club was near home. When I walk onto my compound, I can be the president I want to be, but I also want to make sure that when I step through that door, that I can be the husband and the father I want to be for you and for our child.”

  “Husband?” Anna repeated, her head snapping up to me, just as I felt the small smirk pulling up onto my face.

  “I know everything I just said to you was a lot, Anna.” I lowered my body and got down on one knee. Anna’s blue eyes went wide, and her head pulled back as I pressed her hands against my lips, the velvet softness of her skin and the spicy scent of them treasured by me as I stared back into her eyes. “But I want you to know that, although I can’t guarantee that I won’t ever make a mistake again in the future, I will never do anything to risk losing you again. I will never hurt you like I have. And I will never make you feel like you can’t be with me. There’s nobody else but you. No other bitch for me. I need you.”

  Anna’s white teeth raked over her pink lips as she said, emotion tangled through her voice, “You think calling me a bitch is going to make me forgive you?” She couldn’t hide the slight smile pulling at the corner of her lips, the slightly paler pink her lips went as she bit down on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smiling wider.

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “You’re a bastard, you know that, right?”

  “Yeah, I know.” I couldn’t help the smile spreading across my cheeks as I took a deep breath and looked up to the girl who was at the center of everything I ever wanted, ever needed, and could never live without. “Marry me?”

  “No.”

  I felt my heart jump with joy as she acc—

  Wait.

  “What?” I blurted, my face taking on the shock as I quickly rose back up to my feet, my eyes bearing down on Anna as she pulled her hands out of mine, letting them flop down by my side. “What do you mean, you won’t marry me?”

  “I mean I won’t marry you,” Anna retorted, the sarcasm thick in her voice as she propped her hands on her hips, adding an extra eye roll as she point-blank rejected me. The stunning shock felt like a blast from a shotgun as every part of my chest began to hurt, and when I turned to look at her, to open my mouth and demand why she wouldn’t be mine, she held up a finger to stop me.

  “I won’t marry you, Wolf,” Anna repeated, rubbing salt in the wound. But then she lowered her finger and I noted the gentleness taking over her face as she looked at me, her lips showing the genuine smile. “But I’ll forgive you,” she said. My mind began to catch up as she added, “We can start from there.”

  “You forgive me?” I repeated, and it was as if a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I only now realized how much I had yearned for her forgiveness, more so than her acceptance of my proposal, more so than anything, as Anna’s arms reached up to the collar of my cut, grabbing a fistful and tugging down.

  “I forgive you. Now, hurry up and kiss me before I change my mind; you’re too bloody tall for me to reach,” Anna growled, tugging hard on my collar, forcing my head down and toward her face as she pushed up onto her tiptoes.

  “As you wish,” I growled as my arms wrapped around her back, pulling her toward me until our lips crashed against each other.

  The sweet taste of her mouth was like a sledgehammer to my body as all of my senses were overwhelmed with the taste of her, yet I knew it wasn’t enough. Her hands that desperately clung to my cut let go and lunged around me, gripping the back of my neck, fingers catching the short ponytail at the bottom and pulling until a growl tore through my chest, urging me harder as I took a step forward, slamming the blue door closed as I pushed her back against it.

  She broke the kiss, pulling me back as her blue eyes looked into mine. “Wolf...,” Anna breathed.

  “What?” I panted back, my voice strained with lust.

  “I’m going to throw up.” Anna gagged, and in a second, I had her planted on her feet; then she raced toward the open door at the end of the hallway, lunged for the toilet, and hurled into the bowl.

  Still the most beautiful thing I’d seen.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Anna

  “Stop trying to set it on fire!” Kay snapped from across the room as she stormed over, grabbed my hand, and snatched the lighter right out of it.

  “Rude,” I hissed at her. “Didn’t your mother tell you not to steal?”

  “My mother told me that you shouldn’t try burning wallpaper off with a lighter just because it won’t come off easy!” Kay retorted, grabbed the scraper thing I’d tossed to the other side of the room, and planted it in my hand.

  “That’s a rather specific thing for your mother to say to you,” Jax quipped from his end of the wall, making both me and Mallory, who had been quietly trying to remove her corner of ugly flowery wallpaper, snigger.

  “You,” Kay growled, waving her scraper at him, “get back to your own corner before I pinch you.”

  Jax winced even without Kay touching him, quickly scurrying over to the other corner of the sitting room to have at it again.

  “And you,” she said, pointing back to the wallpaper behind me, “need to put a bit more elbow grease into it.”

  “Elbow grease?” I seethed. “This piece of shit paper is stuck to this wall tighter than hoes are to Jax!”

  “Hey!” Jax yelled from his corner, not daring to come any closer as he glared his pretty brown eyes in my direction. “Hoes hold me way tighter than this wallpaper!”

  “Shut up, Jax,” Hunter grumbled, smacking him upside the head as he made his way into the room. He had his shirt, which was supposed to be over his chest, thrown over his shoulders as sweat dripped down his skin, his dark hair slicked back by his hand, and his jeans hanging low on his waist as he gave all of us something pleasant to look at while he moved over to his wife tucked into the corner.

  I had to admit, one of the only benefits of this godforsaken, piece of shit house was the tall ceilings, allowing the boys, who must have all been raised on steroids, to move freely around my little white-picket fenced house without having to duck under doorways. Wolf, at his tall six foot seven, only just made it underneath, however, which was a miracle in itself.

  Hunter’s arms went underneath Mallory’s as he lifted her to stand, her rounded stomach looking massive against her small but curvy figure as he helped her into the old but surprisingly comfy rocking chair in the room before handing her a bottle of water and pressing a peck against her lips.

  I almost awed but feared I’d throw up at how disgustingly cute they were before I felt two huge, hot and sweaty arms wrap around my own stomach. Mine wasn’t anywhere near as round as Mallory’s was becoming, but the small bump was showing at eighteen weeks and suddenly, all my favorite, tight-fitting clothes didn’t fit, forcing me to wear long, flowy tops that instead of giving me a motherly glow made me look even shorter than I already was. Not to mention, I couldn’t even wear my boots anymore, since my ankles had begun swelling early at week twelve.

  “You need to let me burn this place down,” I growled as I felt the brush of Wolf’s beard against my neck, the heat radiating from his body tingling against my skin as he pulled me into his also bare chest, I realized as I felt the back of my shirt dampen with sweat. Gross.

  “Okay,” Wolf answered, his kisses moving up the corner of my neck, underneath my hair, which was desperate for a haircut; it was tied into a ponytail on the top of my head, further making me look like some kind of troll character.

  “I’m serious, Wolf. This place is going to burn.”

  “Uh-huh.” Wolf then grabbed me by the hips as I heard Kay bickering with Jax, and Pretty as well when he
walked in a second later, looking for the two escaped men to help with fixing the roof and replacing the rotted wood in our little house that was a door slam from falling apart. What on earth let Wolf convince me selling my old place for this one would be a good idea was beyond me.

  “You better not be agreeing with me to pacify me,” I growled, turning to look up into his amused brown eyes as he leaned down, and with the taste of the nicotine gum fresh on his tongue, he pressed a deep kiss to my lips, demanding entry into my mouth. His hand reached up to my hair, tugging free the tie and letting my blonde strands fall against the back of my neck, his fingers threading through them and pulling to grant him extra entry.

  I moaned against him, causing him to pull back, and with an annoying smirk, he said, “Of course not.”

  I glowered at him, but Wolf held up his innocent façade and passed me a bottle of water as well. “Where’s Ash?”

  “Bitch was supposed to be here an hour ago,” I growled, looking over my shoulder and around the room as if I might have overlooked her, which in Ash’s case, would be impossible with all her bitching and complaining the last few weeks about her injuries, despite her release from the hospital—so long as she took it easy. But Ash just figured “taking it easy” was a pass from the doctors for being a lazy piece of shit.

  Not that she’d be able to pull the wool over my eyes. She’d been roped into doing this damn chore of helping remove the wallpaper as us women and Jax had been assigned to do, while the boys did the “heavy lifting” for only the manliest of men. Utter misogynistic bullshit if you ask me.

  “Want me to ask Lamb to go pick her up?” Wolf offered, but the bitter look on his face already told me all I needed to know about how much he wanted Ash around.

  The two of them might have a mutual understanding when it came to me, and God forbid the times when they teamed up for the sake of “what was best” for me—not that either of them had a clue about that—but they didn’t like interacting with each other at the best of times. I figured it was an underlying case of jealousy between the two of them. Best friend versus boyfriend and all, though it could just be that Wolf hadn’t really forgiven her for shooting him in the leg.