Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3)

by V. E. S. Pullen

  Silence.

  One dark blonde eyebrow crept up his craggy forehead.

  I shifted, eyes darting around. “Well, that sounded weird, right? Kinda inappropriate. You just look so much like your sons, and that piercing is really fucking hot, I need to convince one of them— No! Focus, Azzie! Fucking hell, would somebody please gag me? I think I’m—”

  And then Justice exploded in laughter, a deep, booming sound that filled the room, and almost but not quite covered the sound of the doors behind me getting flung open and a whole pack of very angry, very scared men poured into the room shouting my name.

  “Goddammit, Azzie! Where the hell—”

  “What the fuck—!”

  “Why didn’t you come upstairs immediately!”

  “Who the fuck— let go of her!”

  “DAD!”

  “Give him a sec,” Lore said, cackling, “he just got his ass handed to him by your girl.”

  “Jesus Christ… and we missed it?” Sev sounded so plaintive, but it was Sasha’s arms that folded around me and pulled me back against him, though my hand (and gun) were still firmly in Justice’s grip.

  “Justice,” Sasha growled out, his fear and anxiety over losing track of me still apparent in the roughness of his voice and the tightness of his arms, the slight tremor in the hand cupping my shoulder. “Wanna let go of my girl’s hand? And maybe explain why her gun is in it?”

  I relaxed back against him with a sigh. “Luka wasn’t hovering outside the bathroom like I expected, and I, uh, thought I heard his voice from in here, so I opened the door and—” I broke off. There was no need for them to hear everything. “—met your family.”

  “Uh huh.” I could feel Sasha glaring. “Feels like some details might be missing.”

  “Nope,” I shook my head, meeting Justice’s eyes and holding steady. “That pretty much covered it.”

  “Almost positive that’s your pretty pink tactical baton on the ground there,” he pointed out. “And there’re some chairs knocked over like there was a struggle. And Rufus there hasn’t moved his hand from the back of his head, or stopped glaring at my girl, since we stepped through the door. So I’m thinking there might be some more to it. Justice?”

  Before he could answer, a rush of air flowed past as a body moved around us faster than I could follow, and then Luka had my opponent around the neck, leaning in on him menacingly, and it was like my goofy cocoa dragon had flipped a switch and was suddenly breathing out gouts of flame and decimating villages. “You touch my girl?” he growled in a voice I’d never heard before, and before the man could even answer — before I could even shake off my shock and try to intervene — Luka had laid the man out, knocked him fucking unconscious, with a single, powerful hit.

  “Glad to see some things haven’t changed in the last month,” Justice said sardonically, releasing my hand. “Darwin? You layin’ a claim too?”

  I’m sorry, who? I began to swivel my head to look around but Sasha squeezed me tighter, sliding a hand up to grip my chin.

  “Yup, honey badger is mine too. And theirs.”

  “Really?!” I spat out, pushing against Sasha’s hold totally ineffectually. “You had to share that name with them?”

  Justice grunted as Lore muttered “seems appropriate” which I did not appreciate. Talk about setting a bad precedent—

  “Dad, I met Azzie when she plowed into me by accident then proceeded to tell the room my ass wasn’t impressive enough to grope while doing so. When she met Sasha, she told him he wasn’t interesting enough for her to ask his name. But when she met Luka, she proclaimed he wasn’t allowed to walk around without a shirt on because he was too distracting, and now— I’m honestly not sure if she is our girl anymore or just Luka’s, because the look on her face when he landed that punch…”

  Justice smirked at me. I shrugged. What could I say? That raw aggression— the protective, possessive growl— it was fucking… panty-melting.

  “When I met her, she called me a fuckwad, and I was her teacher.”

  “In my defense, you called me an entitled little bitch,” I grumbled, staring at the ceiling and feeling my face turn roughly the same color as my hair.

  “She routinely told me to be quiet while the grown ups were talking,” Tai added, and I could hear the grin in his voice. Et tu, Tai?

  “I don’t think I ever used those exact words, and I apparently missed where it said this was Let’s Embarrass Azzie! time on our schedule, so maybe you could just keep these stories to yourself? Obviously I need to sharpen my interpersonal communication skills but you could let them form their own first impression of me—”

  “Think that ship sailed when you took that baton to Rufus.”

  “—and did I mention that three Koleks jumping on the pick-on-Azzie bandwagon were enough, so maybe your cousin can cut back on the running commentary?”

  “I’m beginning to understand why she’s here,” Justice muttered and I glared at him.

  “Whatever you think you know, you’re not even close,” Sasha chuckled from above me. I bent my head and tilted my chin up and glared at him. “Pike willingly shared hot chocolate with her.” Apparently that was a bombshell he just dropped because the room went still.

  Lore let out a low whistle and Justice’s eyebrow popped right back up as he eyed me.

  “He has six boxes of it,” I explained, “and I was borderline hypothermic.”

  “The first time,” Sev contributed, and Justice looked over at his middle son, who had moved closer to me and was rubbing his hand.

  “Sweetpea can have my cocoa whenever she wants,” he said proudly, and I smothered a giggle into Sasha’s forearm, which caused him to snort out a “Really?”

  “What, it sounded dirty!” I hissed at him, “And doesn’t it seem appropriate that Luka would refer to his junk as Cocoa?”

  “You know everyone can hear you, right?” Tai asked from behind us. I winced, glancing over at Luka, but he didn’t look upset at all.

  “Now it’s official! My cock’s name is Cocoa!”

  “Oh Jesus,” Lore groaned, rolling his eyes. I was sure there were other eyes rolling, but I couldn’t see them because Sasha still had my chin and throat in his kung fu grip.

  “Fantastic.” Justice closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his mouth and chin. “Before we learn the names of anyone else’s dick, how about you introduce me to your friends?”

  “Optimus Prime,” I whispered, “Szass Tam. Prometheus. And Captain Mal Reynolds.”

  “You all heard that, right?” Lore choked out, looking around. “I’m not just hallucinating that she named my cousin’s dick Optimus Prime?”

  “Aww, baby,” Sasha purred, “and you haven’t even met him yet!”

  “Felt him,” I whispered back, trying harder to keep my voice down. “He earned that name.”

  “So what was it before Cocoa?” Luka asked slyly, in a really unnecessarily loud whisper.

  “Sharknado,” I replied, at regular volume. “Because it’s obviously completely implausible but how cool would it be if it were real?”

  “Damn, that’s a great name too… I really can’t decide. I mean, the opportunities for discussing Cocoa in public are practically unlimited, and then there’s being able to say things like slurp it down and if it’s too hot, feel free to blow on it. But Sharknado? That’s epic.”

  I shrugged. He wasn’t wrong. “We don’t need to choose, baby,” I cooed at him. “Cocoa in the streets, Sharknado in the sheets.” I winked at his cousin, whose horrified expression made me cackle.

  “I’m forty-five years old. Been in a motorcycle club since I was eighteen. I’ve never talked about dicks more in a single conversation before this one, and bonus, it’s my sons’ dicks we’re discussing.” Justice was blinking and shaking his head like he was trying to wake himself up or dislodge an earwig.

  I shrugged. “They’re worth discussing. You did well, Papa Justice.”

  “Daddy Justice,” he mock-scowled,
“don’t make me remind you again.”

  “Excuse me?” Sasha grated out as the rest of the room exploded in laughter, and my face was hot enough to launch a rocket into space.

  Azzie

  Justice was introduced to Spider and Tai, and then we were all introduced to the dozen or so Hellspawn that had ridden out with him from their compound in Ohio to meet up with us. Most notable — besides Lore and Justice himself — was his Road Captain named Horse, a beast of a man, and the club Sergeant At Arms, Rollins. He reminded me a lot of Spider, which might’ve had something to do with the three guns and two knives he was wearing, and I suspected those were just the visible weapons; Sev explained to me that a SAA is like a combination head of security and weapons quartermaster for the club. They also brought two prospects, the aforementioned (and still unconscious) Rufus and a skinny dude that was probably a really handsome guy before he discovered meth.

  That was unfair and judgey. He still had all his teeth, so it probably wasn’t meth.

  I’m not going to lie, I’m partial to the Kolek bloodline, so having five of them together in a room kind of blinded me to pretty much anyone else besides Tai and Spider, my soldiers — still maintaining their titles of two of the most beautiful men in existence — but the rest of their brothers were pretty impressive. Heights varied, but even when the men were on the shorter side, they were still thick with muscle and sporting impressive facial hair, ink, and a volume of leather equivalent to an entire herd of cows. An intimidating group, these Hellspawn, including the other five I was introduced to: members of the small local chapter located right here — this bar was their de facto clubhouse — and the reason this was chosen as the rendezvous point.

  At some point during the introductions I must’ve lost track of my guys because next thing I know, three of my boyfriends, and their travel-stained commando gear, were replaced by badass biker dudes.

  Sasha’s dark jeans, t-shirt, and heavy boots were transformed from basic clothes to something more by the leather vest and the almost tangible mantle of authority he now wore — something slightly menacing in contrast to the name on his cut: Saint. The scruff I always admired was now clearly the start of a beard he was regrowing, aging him up, and his hair was wet and slicked back away from his face, making his cheekbones and jawline even more prominent. He had a “VP” patch sitting below his road name.

  Sev’s jeans were lighter and looser, hanging off his hips in a way that left his abdominals and Adonis belt — that glorious V of muscle that pointed in the right direction — exposed almost obscenely beneath an unbuttoned plaid flannel with the sleeves ripped off, his muscular arms and the tattoos on both biceps on display. He had more ink on his chest and stomach, and a word tattooed along the delicious curve of his “eyes down here” muscles that I couldn’t quite make out. The name on his cut said Darwin. His hair hadn’t changed but the too long front that he was always pushing off his face was now pulled all the way back and knotted up in a rubber band, and with the shaved sides I realized he’d had a mohawk before they got recruited for the study. He had a long leather cord hanging down around his neck, a metal disk with something printed on it hitting a couple inches above his navel.

  Luka had shed his shirt altogether, wearing his cut over his bare chest and arms, all the beautiful golden-tan and inked skin on display. He was in jeans and boots like his brothers, his hair hanging loose and long around his beautiful face, and his cut said Pike.

  “Holy Jesus,” I whispered, as these biker gods approached me — taller than everyone else in the room, moving with the grace of apex predators, with the light seeming to deliberately form a halo around them. It was… in a word? Ridiculous. “Does a heavy metal anthem just naturally play from an unknown source whenever you walk into a room? Or is it just a choir of angels? No, I’m being serious — is there maybe always a breeze from whichever direction you’re facing, to get a nice ripple in your flowing locks? Have you ever even had a fucking pimple, you unnaturally perfect freaks of nature?” They froze in their tracks and stared at me — Luka with a kicked puppy look, Sev making a face, and Sasha with narrow-eyed annoyance. “I’m so fucking serious right now… I kinda want to hit you for being so fucking attractive.”

  They relaxed, absorbing my constructive criticism very smoothly. Somewhere off to the side, Lore sputtered out a laugh while Justice shook his head with a sigh. Luckily we weren’t anywhere too crowded — most of the men had gone back to drinking now that all the excitement had passed, and loud music was covering up my spontaneous burst of crankiness to cover up how stunned I was by the sight of my men.

  Mine.

  Holy Christ.

  I felt compelled to slam myself into Sev, mostly so I could run my hand along those absurd abs, and I was happy his arms rose up to circle around me and he didn’t just reject me outright now that they were back in their natural environment. “This may be hard to believe, but I’m not really a demonstrative person — no, seriously, I was never really that into hugging before, but you guys are beyond hot. I’m not even kidding, this is a good look on you.” Sev huffed a grudging laugh while the other guys did various flavors of chuckles. It wasn’t a huge deal or anything, but it broke the tension. I tilted my head to peer over at Spider and Tai. “Do I have a badass makeover to look forward to from you two?”

  “We’re naturally badass,” Spider said, shrugging his ludicrously broad shoulders as if to emphasize his point. “We don’t need fancy vests.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” I muttered into Sev’s chest and earned another chuckle from him, one that vibrated in lovely ways under my face. He moved to the barstool between Tai and Lore, sitting down and holding me in the space between his knees, his hands resting on my hips. Justice, Sasha, and Luka were behind me now, and I felt like I was in a cocoon. A really nice smelling one.

  “So I take it she normally just says whatever crosses her mind?” Justice inquired of someone that I’m guessing was part of a different group, because he couldn’t possibly be talking about anyone here.

  “The more worn-down she gets, the less the filter works,” Sasha replied, and I was curious to know who he was talking about as if she wasn’t standing. Right. Here. “But she doesn’t just blurt out whatever crosses her mind usually, especially not around strangers.” Huh. I guess that was true. I’d never really paid attention to it. “Then again, she also thinks we’re super attractive and that makes her feel awkward, and when she gets uncomfortable she tends to lead with her mouth.” Also astute. Really fucking rude, but astute.

  I used my forehead as a fulcrum point against Sev’s chest and pivoted to face Sasha. Sev’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me back against his chest, and he rested his chin on the crown of my head. “That’s fair. But you’re a dick for saying it.”

  He shrugged and curled up one side of his mouth. “You respect honesty. I want your respect.”

  I grunted and shut my eyes again. “Nice save.”

  “Dad,” Luka’s voice was off, I couldn’t define how though. “I see that look on your face. Don’t.” It was a warning. Luka was warning his dad. That— that was odd. I cracked open my eyes again, and Justice was staring at me with suspicion and anger, and I think— yeah. Disgust.

  What the fuck? We were fine a minute ago!

  “Don’t what, Pike?” Justice’s voice was cold, and his glare didn’t waver. I tilted my head, waiting for him to give me a clue as to what I did to piss him off.

  “You— just don’t.” Even I was aware of the edge of desperation in Luka’s tone, which just seemed to enrage Justice further.

  “It seems you were correct.” There was a vein beginning to throb in Justice’s temple, and his face was suffused with red, making his eyes almost electric blue. If he had a fancy hammer in that moment, I’d expect lightning to form a halo around him and a demand to call him Thor. I raised my chin up and waited. It didn’t take long for him to get to the point. “It seems you are my sons’ girl just like you claimed, against all comm
on sense and the last twenty-one years of knowing them.” Direct hit. I winced. Sasha tried to interrupt but Justice raised his hand, and I knew this wasn’t just his dad talking, it was his leader. “So I’d like to know what exactly it is that you’re bringing the table, because they can’t be with you by— you’re a fucking child with a motor mouth and no respect. So what is it? Why the fuck would my sons be acting like puppies waiting for you to toss them a treat? Your pussy really that—”

  “Magical? I’d like to think so.” I interrupted him, not wanting to let him dig the hole any deeper. Right now, I could probably get past the way he was making me feel, how worthless and ugly he was making me feel, but if this kept up… it was better to stop this train of thought. “Remember what I said before, about family gatherings? I’m not telling you what to do or trying to shut you down — pretty sure I couldn’t even if I wanted to — but I think it’s worth repeating that you’re about to step over a line with me that will fundamentally alter our relationship going forward. Our relationship, you and me. I still like you. I still respect you and understand you’re concerned about your sons and have been for weeks. But you need to understand that you don’t know the situation and you don’t know what those weeks have been like for them and me, and if you keep going the way you are… I don’t need anyone else in my life treating me like I’m garbage, or a burden, or someone they have to tolerate because— because I’m useful. I don’t need anyone else looking at me the way you are right now, thinking I’m undeserving of three of the best things— You don’t know me, Justice. And I’m saying, that if you treat me like garbage right now, I’m not going to come back from that easily. And you’ll be forcing them to choose, and neither one of us wants to be the one they walk away from.”