Dark Limits: Alpha Brotherhood MC

by Evelyn Glass

  “Did I feel like I’d never done it before?”

  His smirk and the promise behind it caused her to hold his neck.

  “You have your moves down,” she muttered. “I’m living proof of that.”

  Cade just kissed her hair, as he lifted her head to look at his face. She felt flushed and knew that she was sweating as he worked his fingers down her cheeks, and when he stopped to stare into her eyes, Dawn held her breath and waited for his words.

  “Let’s keep it that way,” Cade said. “But it is nice having you near.”

  His fingers curled around the handlebars before he looked back to meet he eyes.

  “We’re doing this,” he said. “No turning back now. I’ll make you sorry if you renege.”

  “Another big word,” she said.

  “I have a good teacher,” Cade said. “Do I sound smart?”

  “Yes,” Dawn said. “But you taste even better.”

  She gave him a quick kiss and smiled around his tongue when Cade was the one to pull back and tousle her hair.

  “Taste sweet and sure,” he said. “Could still hide you away for later.”

  “I won’t wait, Cade. And I should be with you.”

  “No objections here.”

  As they kept moving, it was clear that Cade’s eyes, his feet, had committed every other crook in the road to memory, and Dawn felt a fresh wave of guilt for calling him out for showmanship that was so far from the fact. But the woods behind them were dark and deep. It seemed certain that Cade would probably want to take her back saying that she needed some proper rest. However, if he had to keep returning to the fold, Dawn wanted to go along for the ride. And to that end…

  “We’ll find another shortcut, Cade,” she promised him. “One that no one will take away from us.

  Cade brought his bike to a stop, and he smiled sweetly as he pushed a stray lock of hair from her eyes.

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” he said. “I’ll look forward to that.”

  The ground suddenly grew flat against their feet. As soon as the way felt easier, Dawn lightly touched her fingers to his hand still curled around his bike. Their eyes locked in a warm smile, and they stayed in each other’s gaze as they kept moving forward.

  “And you always have to come back, Cade. Right?”

  “It’s what family does, Dawn,” he said. “You got one of your own.”

  “Sort of,” she said. “I guess. They don’t… they’re not exactly on board with the whole journalist thing.”

  “Because they worry about you,” Cade said. “And maybe they should.”

  “That’s sweet,” Dawn said. “But I think they’re just after grandchildren.”

  And even if they saw her here, marching willingly into the lion’s den, she knew with total certainty that their first thought would have nothing to do with her safety. Not that that wouldn’t come with the second or third go around. But at the end of the day, her father wanted someone to carry on the family line, and her mother longed for a fresh little one to pet and protect. Maybe it wasn’t her fault; maybe it was natural to want a child to stay small, to be doted on and pampered non-stop. She would have done better with cats and dogs because children had to grow taller, and they were supposed to blossom into their own skin.

  In her parents’ minds, Dawn always wore the wrong coat, and if they could see her now, walking into a dark place with an outlaw biker at her side, no doubt they would turn their backs for good, barely giving her a passing thought.

  “You want kids, Dawn?”

  Stunned from her reverie by the sound of his voice, Dawn met his earnest gaze and shrugged her shoulders.

  “Someday,” she started. “I mean I… I mean, I guess. But not just because an invisible clock is winding down. It would have to be the right moment with the right guy.”

  “Always so smart,” Cade said.

  “And did you ever doubt that?” she asked.

  Stretching closer to her, Cade played with her hair and smiled. “No way,” he said. “And maybe one day it’ll be me.”

  Dawn hated herself for having to stifle a laugh, but it still bubbled in her breast. Cade, the Alpha’s go-to guy who knew all the secrets from every side, playing daddy? Not that he hadn’t taken care of Nicole in a strange way. But there he had Mona’s help. Could he really do it without the woman’s support?

  “Are you… what are you asking me, Cade?”

  He started to speak, his fingers curling around her waist when he suddenly pulled back and shyly shook his head.

  “Just spit balling or whatever,” he said. “Now’s not the time anyway.”

  Cade grabbed his bike and pushed forward. Following him, her head swimming with a rush of new thoughts, Dawn picked up her pace to get closer to him, and she nearly took hold of his hand when a massive structure finally came into view. Run down was generous; dilapidated a more apropos word. Just a few steps closer, and Dawn could smell and see the smoke wafting through the windows. An assortment of Alphas lingered on the porch, and they gave Cade the high sign. Two members of the crew stamped out their cigarettes under the heels of their boots and offered to place his bike behind the shed of to the left of the barn.

  “Good enough,” Cade said, as he slapped the boys on the back. Dawn saw their distrust, but she soaked in their unintentional respect as the men moved without words. They hated him for keeping her close, but Cade kept them in line with a single glance.

  “Let’s say you gas it up in case I need to make a run for it.”

  The Alphas obliged, and Cade started to lead her deeper into the barn when she held him back and looked hard into his eyes.

  “Dawn, there’s no turning back now,” he reminded her.

  “In case you have to make it a run for it?” she echoed. “Where does that leave me? Here? Or—?”

  “Dawn…” He held her closer and only broke away to sigh into her flushed face. “Only without me if things head majorly south,” he said. “I’m keeping you close for as long as I can.”

  “And that means right now?” she asked.

  “Sure enough,” Cade said. “You up for it?”

  Even if she wasn’t, no way she could tell him as much now. And the part of her mind that still heard Michael’s voice ringing in her ear demanded that she get to the heart of the story. But the feel of Cade’s hand in hers made him and his hopes the more urgent matter at hand.

  “I’m right here,” Dawn said.

  And she hoped that she could handle it.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Stepping through a wide door that seemed to creak away from the hinges as they passed forward, Dawn’s eyes focused on a wide open room. Mismatched pieces of furniture dotted the corners, and the Alphas not on the outside reclined in the chairs and over the tables. The source of the smoky scent became apparent; the room was consumed in the hazy gray cloud. She didn’t see Nicole and started to tense at the thought that she was the only woman on sight. Even with Cade at her side, even as Dawn wore her ratty clothes, what if the other boys decided to take a chance with her. Could Cade protect her? Strong as he was, would he be able to—?

  “Party’s in here, boys!”

  Before the fear could harden around her heart, a bunch of girls hit the ground running led by a dark-haired woman with olive-colored skin and a beer bottle in each hand. Clad in a tight skirt and a top leaving no inch of her cleavage to the imagination, the woman tossed one bottle to the closest Alpha. She kept the other bottle for herself and cracked the top off with the force of her teeth. Drinking deep and wiping her hand on the back of her mouth, she sized Dawn up at first sight, her lips flat until her visage became a smirk.

  “So is this the one they’ve been talking about?” the woman asked.

  Dawn didn’t like her in the flash of the first moment. Was that wrong? Did the woman have her own agenda? It wasn’t as if Dawn hadn’t dressed the part to get in deep. But when the woman licked an Alpha’s beard clean of suds and sat on his lap to consume the re
st of the beer, Dawn was suddenly of the mind that she wasn’t here to learn anything but how quickly the lot of them could get her off.

  “Pay no mind to the healer,” Cade said.

  “Healer?” Dawn asked. “Something else you’re not telling me?”

  “Jealous much?”

  Dawn started to shake her head when Cade wound his arm around her waist and purred into her neck.

  “She’s only here… they’re only here to have some fun,” he said.

  The rest of the girls scampered forward wearing next to nothing. Latching onto the assorted boys’ arms, the girls started to bump and grind against the men. Right then and there, Dawn got the clearest picture of how the Alphas spent their time after hours. Was Cade… would he be part of the equation if there was no Dawn clinging close to his arm?

  “And what about me?” Dawn asked.

  “You said you wanted to be in on it,” Cade said. “Not going soft on me now, are you?”

  His eyes seemed to brim at the thought that she would run, but Dawn squared her shoulders and showed him that she could follow him deeper.

  “Let’s just… can’t we be alone and come up with a new plan?”

  He nodded as they passed by the healer, and the woman sucked on her bottle and spit a laugh in Dawn’s direction.

  “Good luck, princess,” she said. “Think you’ll need it in spades.”

  Feeling as if she was back in a high school hallway, her overalls blasted because she opted for comfort instead of letting every inch of her body hang out in the hope of someone copping a feel, Dawn wheeled around and got right into the woman’s face.

  “You get an escort here?” Dawn asked. “Or did you just stumble in?”

  The healer stood tall, and she towered over Dawn at her full height. Dawn swallowed hard and tried to keep her chin from quivering when the other woman poured out what was left of her beer and the let her bottle fall to the hard floor in a million shards. Letting the splinters surround her feet, Dawn did not take a step back and fixed her eyes into a tight glare.

  “I’m always here,” the woman said. “Care to enlighten the little slut, Cade?”

  Cade rolled his head over his neck along with his eyes, and he tried to drag Dawn out of the line of the fire when she held her ground.

  “I’m here to lend an ear,” Dawn said. “Some measured support. You just want to suck… something.”

  The healer flashed her long, sky-blue nails just under Dawn’s eyes, and she wanted to face the woman, maybe even absorb her strike and still smile when Cade pulled her behind his back and gently pushed the so-called enemy back.

  “Easy,” Cade cautioned. “She is here with me. And we have business with the Boss.”

  “That a fact?” the woman scoffed. “Cause he didn’t seem all that down with you when he came back. And his sister back ain’t helping matters.”

  Dawn forgot her desire to smack the woman silly, and she turned to tug on Cade’s arm and peered into his eyes.

  “Think we need to get to where they are?”

  “You don’t even know!” the woman cried out with a laugh. “Some fine addition she is to the fold!”

  She should hit her, despite her smaller stature, Dawn felt sure that she could make the urge work to her advantage, her short nails trying to take on the appearance of claws when Cade hauled her into a corner and clasped his hands around her face.

  “Let it go now,” Cade whispered. “She’s just—”

  “Someone from your past?” Dawn asked.

  “Dawn, I—”

  “Just something else you forgot to share?” she asked. “Maybe hoped I’d never find out.”

  It sounded jealous; she was jealous as she trembled in his hold. Back in Plainfield she would have flipped any man with a piece on the side off and jogged across the block beyond his building a million times until her body could think of nothing but sleep. Slip into a dream, wake up refreshed, keep her heart closer to her vest and vow to never let any man get close enough again to cause her any kind of harm.

  But everything had changed.

  “Can’t keep anything from you,” he said. “But it’s not a lie.”

  “So you didn’t make it with Nicole,” she said. “Doesn’t mean that there weren’t others.”

  “I told you as—”

  “And was she one of them?”

  Cade watched the woman pour a stiff drink as she lit a fresh smoke. The healer was beautiful in a hard, strange way, and she smoked as George crept closer to his side. His wounds were still fresh, and the woman lifted a spray of tissues from her pocket and dotted at the blood crossing his brow. She helped the man into the back, and Dawn had wonder if it was the one place where Nicole might be able to talk to her brother when Cade pulled her back to his side.

  “Will you believe me if I said no?” Cade asked.

  “Is that what you want, Cade.”

  He groaned and shifted to the tips of his toes before gathering her face in his hands. Cade peered at her hard, and his breath wafted over her face. Dawn started to fall into his arms when Cade pushed her back and hung his head.

  “I want you,” he said. “Let the rest of it go.”

  Their lips nearly met, and Dawn was about to take in his kiss when she pulled back and asked him again if he wanted the healer in more ways than one.

  “No way,” he said. “Because this is too sublime.”

  Another big word, and Dawn nearly told him as much when Cade kissed her neck and his tongue worked its way towards her ear.

  “This is new.”

  Dawn started to swirl into his hold, and she absorbed his kiss on her cheek. She could see him as a frightened child, but his hold was more than any man. And with a man came needs…

  “But this is the truth,” she said.

  She started to shift away from him when Cade caught her in his arms, and his eyes burrowed into her hers.

  “Truth means you, Dawn,” Cade said. “I could never want anyone this—”

  “So you don’t think she’s hot? Talking about The Healer now.”

  Cade looked to the woman scooping up the broken glass. His eyes seemed to sparkle at the sight of her, and Dawn felt as if she had connected the dots without wanting to when he fixed his stare on her eyes and crushed the glass between his fingers.

  “Not like you,” he said. “Nothing is like you.”

  “But… but did you…?”

  The Healer shot him a quick wink, and Dawn started to struggle when he held her fast and kissed her mouth.

  “I never told her my whole story,” Cade said. “That was just for you.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because I trust you,” he said. “What more do you want?”

  Dawn felt her body wilt under his stare, and she was ready to claim his mouth and forget the party buzzing all around them when another Alpha lurched forward and gathered her under his sweating arms.

  “Let’s put that that to the test!”

  Lifted into the air, Dawn saw the room lined in wood and reeking of whiskey suddenly growing smaller and smaller. She reached for Cade and only faintly heard his scream when she found herself confined in a small room with a narrow bed. As soon as her feet hit the ground, Dawn sucked in a deep breath and tried to move towards the way out.

  “Cade! I—”

  “Don’t bother with him!” the man, Brian, laughed as he dug his fingers into her arms. She was unable to draw another breath when he pushed her into a grimy wall and went to work on his jeans.

  “Who… who the hell do you think you are?” Dawn asked, as she struggled against and around his hold. “I… I saw you. But you…you weren’t in Plainfield.”

  “Been out in the field,” Brian said. “Hear that you’re the type of lay that can make the worst man turn good. Want to put me to the same test?”

  Before Dawn could answer, before she could say no and bat him back, she found herself pressed into a filthy mattress. The unwanted Alpha peeled off his jacket a
nd revealed a chest adorned in all manner of scars and ink. The man’s muscles rippled as he leaned down to force his tongue into her mouth, and Dawn bit down on his lip.

  “Fucking little—!”

  She seized the chance and scrambled towards the door. Dawn wanted to run, but she thought of the story if she could still land it. It seemed the only part of the bargain that she could make good on. Dawn only wanted to help Cade, to hold him. All she had to do was force the door open and…