Also, we’d been mostly wolves before, which challenged his standing as Alpha. Now, we were just another supernatural pack, with less than half of our membership made of wolves.
“We fought on the same side in the battle,” I told Gil. “I see no reason for us to be at odds now. I was in a position to help them, so I did.”
“But you charged others for protection.”
“Right, because if I had to fight for them, I risked having to stay inside longer. Helping your packmates came with a risk, but not on the same level. They didn’t need protection services, they just needed help hiding out for an hour so they could let their wolves out.”
He didn’t respond. Wolves are big on loyalty and trust, so I repeated what I’d said to him earlier. “Eventually, you’ll need to trust my decision-making ability. I get that I need to earn your trust. Three of your packmates respect me, and my club obviously does if they trust me to run our contracting company — not to mention the fact Cheyenne trusts me. I’m hoping those things give you a basis in trust for us to get started.”
“You can start by supervising the boys to buy their video games. Shy is clueless about the gaming world. I don’t want them buying GTA or anything in that vein. A ten-plus rating is fine in most cases. Teen can be okay, but use your best judgment. I have a few mature rated games I play, and I allow them to play them with me, but only when I’m actively participating and can keep their violence in check. I’d rather you not go there, but they will give you a list of M rated games they play on occasion to try to convince you.”
I grinned. “If they didn’t push boundaries, they wouldn’t be healthy wolf pups. Thanks for giving me clear guidelines. I appreciate it.”
“Shy told me how you handled Nora when she threatened you in wolf form. Have you been around juvenile wolves in the past?’
“Yeah. Before so many members were killed, we had lots of little ones running around. Many were killed, some have gone to live with relatives. I believe a few are now in the Pack, since their aunts and uncles are in it. I miss them.”
Grief showed in his eyes and mouth. His posture. He understood.
“We all lost so many people,” he said. “I’m thankful my small family survived intact. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“One of my brothers in particular…” I took a breath and met his gaze. It was okay to let him see my emotions. “I lost him, his wife, and his four kids. Eagles, and the kids were hatched together.” Quadruplets, in human terms. They’d been a handful, and I’d been Uncle Frost.
I pulled myself together while I took a long swig of beer. “I’ll do right by your kids. I’ll do right by Cheyenne. Not sure you need to know much more.” I started to add I was glad he’d decided to stop being an immature cunt, but figured maybe that was best kept to myself.
Frost
I’d planned to go back to the office to get some paperwork done, but Velvet told me Mad Dog needed to see me at the clubhouse.
He was in his office, also doing paperwork. He’s basically the CEO of a large corporation, and he doesn’t have an assistant anymore. One of the ol’ladies we lost used to fill that position.
“You need an assistant.”
“You know someone trustworthy with the skills we need?”
“No.”
“Neither do I. One of ya’ll needs to fall in love with someone who…” He sighed. “Pipe dream. Have a seat.”
“What’s up?”
“I’ve given you all the time I can to spend so many nights with Cheyenne. I need to put you on the rotation.”
We were patrolling the neighborhood around the new compound, clearing it of drugs and street workers. It was especially important since this also included Blaze and the construction company. We’d moved in and claimed a whole lot more territory than we’d claimed before, and it took a lot of manpower to do that, at first.
I needed to be with my brothers, walking the street for a shift, and spending the shift before or after at the clubhouse, so I’d be close by, to help if they needed it. Not a problem when your ol’lady can stay over with you, but that wasn’t an option yet.
“You need me to resolve things so she can spend the night here, with me.”
“We do. We’ve missed having you in the clubhouse, and that’s a biggie, but being short one man means everyone else has to pick up the slack on the rotations at night.”
“I get it. Thanks for giving me as much time as you have.”
“Wish I could give you more. Velvet said your meet seemed to go okay with the ex.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t kill him, or slice pieces off him, so yeah. Guess so.” I stretched my legs out. “I told you about helping three pack wolves who went inside a week before the full moon.”
He nodded.
“Seems that earned me some brownie points with the Pack. The Alpha had Gil talk to them when he found out I was in Cheyenne’s bed. Sounds like the leadership’s gonna be friendlier to us now than before the battle.”
“So far, he’s proven to be easier to work with. You know what night you’ll bring your woman?”
I shook my head. “Probably Saturday night, but I’ll need to check in with her. Might be Friday.”
“I need a heads-up since we’re restricting access.” He leaned back in his chair. “Finally figured out who our snitch is, and he’s a snitch. Not a cop. Backstory’s real with one exception — he’s out of prison on a deal. As long as he’s with us, he’s out. If he delivers information that puts us behind bars, his record is wiped. No parole, no nothing. We boot him? He goes back to prison.”
“Explains why he never thought twice about...” Right. Mad Dog already knew that. If he isn’t a cop then he wouldn’t worry about beltin’ and fuckin’ a few cunts. “We votin’ this one?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Squatch brought him in. Squatch will handle it. I’m tellin’ you because you’re the one who picked up on it. You want in on revoking his status as prospect?”
That last part was code for cancelling the bastard. I clenched my fists and breathed to try to calm my inner warrior owl. The motherfucking prospect was trying to trade his freedom for ours. Fuck yeah, I wanted in on it. “When?”
“Get with Squatch. In person. No comms.”
We talked another ten minutes, and I went to my room in the basement and looked it over, considering what I’d need to do before I invited Shy. We hadn’t been moved in more than a few weeks when I found Shy again, so I hadn’t done anything in here. The room was as bare-bones as you can get. Cheap bedframe with a mattress, a dresser, and an upside-down box beside the bed standing in as a night table. The bed was sheets. No blanket. A single pillow. Nothing on the walls. I should get a TV, maybe. Probably some better towels for the tiny bathroom. I’d brought a few from home, hadn’t bothered to even go shopping.
The artist in her wouldn’t be happy. At all.
I sighed and called Matty in Chattanooga, told him money was no object, and that I’m dating an artist and I’d like to at least put something on the walls. He had me spin in a slow circle and take video, and then walk into the bathroom. Matty’s an interior decorator who belongs to one of my brothers in Chattanooga. Yeah. A gay biker. Surprised the fuck out of me, too, but Matty’s okay. He’s earned respect in his own way, and it works.
“That is seriously bad, Frost. Give me a little time to work something up, and I’ll send you some ideas.”
“It has to be stuff I can just go out and buy without help. I only have a few days. No time to order shit.”
I left the compound and went down the street, to my office at the construction company. We were headed into fall, and I couldn’t wait for cold weather. Not that it gets that cold in Alabama, but summers are a bitch for arctic animals.
I’d just settled in and started looking through change order requests when Matty called me back.
“Dude, you need more fabrics, and maybe some plants, but you’ll need a grow light on a timer for live plants. Go to a garden store an
d buy a big plant – I’ve sent pictures of ones that will work. Just go for that general shape, and put it in the corner. That’ll make your owl and her cat happier.”
“Maybe. What else?”
“You need a headboard, for starters, but then whatever else goes in needs to fit your personality. Harley stuff, or nature stuff, or kinky shit, but it has to reflect who you are. It has to be chosen with purpose. You might get away with putting a huge throw rug in the room, bigger than the bed, and centering the bed in the middle of the floor, then you won’t need a headboard. You’d need a too-big comforter or spread that comes down on all sides.” He sighed. “Tan walls? Fuck, Maybe a deep brown rug and other fabrics, with light tan and green throw pillows? Oh, who am I kidding? You aren’t going to fuck with throw pillows. Let me play with colors if you want to go that route.”
I thanked him, and then I got to work again.
Chapter Nineteen
Cheyenne
The motherfucker brought me catnip. I smelled it in the back of his truck from fifty yards away.
The cat wanted to roll in it.
The human woman wanted to cram it up the biker’s ass.
“What have you done? Must you insist on being a motherfucking asshole?” I asked when he pulled to the end of the driveway and shut his truck off.
“You can smell it under the tarp?”
I didn’t bother answering. Of course I could.
“I had to pick something else up at the garden center, and I saw it. Did you know it’s a legit garden plant?” He pulled a corner of the tarp back and lifted a one-gallon pot with a beautiful stand of catnip. My cat yowled inside me.
“I thought I could plant it near the back of the little planting area behind your pool.”
He was absolutely right about it being the perfect place for it, but since when does he get to buy plants for my yard?
“You’re annoyed. I’m sorry. I thought you’d like it.”
Fuck, I didn’t mean to make him feel bad.
I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s kinda like weed for cats. She gets goofy.”
He grinned, and I lost my irritation. “You’re right. It’s the perfect place for it. We can plant it now, but they die back in the winter and come back in the spring. I’m not sure it’ll have time to get established if we plant it now.”
“You can supervise while I dig.”
“Gil says lunch went well. The kids are in the house doing homework. Spaghetti bake with chicken is in the oven. They’re going to find this hilarious.”
He kissed me on the forehead, then the tip of my nose, and then he tilted me back. His lips landed on mine, and I’m sure I forgot to breathe for a while. When he stood me back up, the world tilted, and I held on until I found my equilibrium again. Cats always know which direction is up, but I was no match for my owl.
I ignored the fact I’d called him my owl and said “Fuck, I can’t smell horny when I go back inside.”
He leaned into the truck, grabbed another gallon container of catnip, and waved it in front of my face. I smelled more under the tarp, too.
“Damn. How much did you buy?” No wonder I’d smelled it from so far away.
“It was on sale. I bought all they had. Nine containers. I wanted enough so your kitty can roll around in it.”
I glared at him a few seconds and then rolled my eyes. Again. “You know the gate code. Take it around back and then come inside. I need to turn plain bread into buttery garlic bread.”
I had no idea what I could buy for his owl. The first thing that came to mind was those candy-filled suckers. How many licks does it take to get to the center?
But that would be a joke. I wasn’t aware of anything in particular that owls liked.
Dinner went better than I expected. Frost is really good with kids.
But then Nora went through the whole, “Kalie says that her dad says that you’re, like, a major bada… ummm, that you can fight. Will you teach me how to fight?”
“I don’t teach anyone to fight until I’m certain they’ll use what I’ve taught them responsibly. That means you need to show me you have self-control. Let’s see how you do in the coming months. If I teach you to hurt people, and you cause harm to someone who didn’t deserve it, I’m accountable. Not legally, in this case, but morally.”
The twins wanted him to teach them as well, of course.
“It’s good to be able to defend yourself, but it’s even more important to learn how to avoid fights, when possible. I have a feeling I know who Kalie’s father is, and if I’m right, he and I were in a place where avoiding fights isn’t an option, in most cases.”
“He met you in jail.”
He nodded. “I’ve only been in one little scuffle since I was out of jail. Not even a full-on fight.”
With their dad, but they didn’t need to know that.
“But you had to fight a lot in jail?”
He shrugged and glanced at me, clearly wanting me to change the conversation.
“I think he had to fight a few times when he first got there to show people they should be afraid of him. After that, sometimes new people needed to fight him because they were bigger than him and thought they could take him. So, he had to fight them to show them. I don’t think he fought as much in jail as you’re probably thinking.”
“Exactly right. It was a strategy. Speaking of which, I’d love to play chess with ya’ll.”
None of them had ever played chess, and the look he gave me when he found out told me he clearly thought Gil and I were lacking as parents.
And since I don’t own a chess board (horror of horrors), he was forced to explain the rules and then play the first game with them on one of the gaming consoles.
When the kids were finally in bed and asleep, I grabbed a house monitor and led him downstairs. The former residents had soundproofed two rooms in the basement. I had no idea why.
He heard the difference when I closed the door behind us. “Soundproof?”
I turned the house monitor on. “Yeah.” I waved the portable monitor. “I can hear them if they get up, but they can’t hear us.”
His gaze traveled around the room and landed on the sofa. “Doesn’t look like your style.”
No, it wasn’t. It was pinstriped, pale blue and cream. I didn’t hate the way it looked, but he was right.
“I turned this room into a reading room, for when I want to shut out the rest of the world. There used to be a store in Brainerd that I think sold overstocks or something. I sat in it, it was super-comfortable, and the price was right, so I bought it.”
Truth be told, it was a bunker, of sorts. If we had rioting and looting and I didn’t think I could take them, or if I need to stow the kids somewhere safe while I fought, this room could be barricaded. It didn’t need to be fancy, just comfortable.
He looked across at the daybed. Walked to it. Lifted a throw pillow. “What is it with women and pillows?” He shook his head. “Gay guys, too. I don’t get it?”
“There’s a body pillow behind the throw pillows. I use it when I’m down here reading. The throw pillows get used, too. They aren’t just for decoration.”
He pulled the body pillow out and I saw his mind churning. I took my shirt and pants off behind him. He turned as I unhooked my bra.
“Ah, you read my mind. Finish stripping and stretch out on the daybed. Face down to start, I think.”
Frost
I’d been preparing her for a belting in front of my brothers for a little over three weeks. I’d hoped to have another week or two, but I understood Mad Dog’s point.
“In a little while, you’re going to choose between Friday and Saturday night. Not yet. Not until you fully understand the rules.”
This was Wednesday. I was betting she’d pick Friday, but maybe not.
I rubbed her shoulders, her back, and worked my way down to her ass. I can smell better than humans, but nowhere near as good as the cats and wolves. However, her arousal was strong enough, it permeated
the room. Her ass wiggled. She moaned. Clearly, she wanted me to stop massaging her ass and use either my fingers or my dick.
Another ten minutes of teasing, and I sank three fingers in her cunt, got her close, so fucking close, and pulled them out. I went back to massaging her butt — keeping her on the precipice, but no way could she find release.
“You aren’t going to get an orgasm tonight, and I’m going to edge the fuck out of you. Tomorrow night, I have plans with some of my brothers, so you’ll get a night to yourself. If you pick Saturday night, then I’ll spend all night Friday edging you, letting it fade, and then edging you again. Over and over. Saturday morning? Same thing. Saturday during the day? I’ll stop by the jobsite to bring you lunch, and we’ll find a corner somewhere so I can edge you again.”
I slid two fingers in her pussy this time. Slow. Oh, so slow. In and out. Her moans were higher pitched now. Begging without words.
“Saturday night, you’ll go with me to the clubhouse. Once you’ve had your spanking, I’ll take you downstairs and give you orgasm after orgasm after orgasm. Your little bottom will hurt so damned good, and I’ll order you to come over and over for me, so you clamp down on my dick while I fuck you hard and fast.”
“Friday night. Fuck, not Saturday. Please.”
I grinned and started a countdown from twelve, reminding her with each new number that she’d only get to be this needy for a little while longer before she was denied her release.
Cheyenne
I awoke a frustrated mess. Even in my dreams, I couldn’t find release. Frost started breakfast while I got ready, and when I went to help him, I discovered Nora was working on the biscuits and eggs while Frost drilled her on geometry terms and formulas. He’d helped her with her homework the night before, and now he was giving her a last-minute boost before the big test today. My heart melted a little more.
Frost (Rolling Thunder MC Birmingham Book 3) Page 13
