by Sky Winters
Allie assumed that the guilty-looking, rat-faced guy was Vinnie.
Lance had told her that the motorcycle club was made up of his friends. Some friends…
While the scary guy with a gun was distracted by this Vinnie person, Allie crept back out of the restaurant. She took off running as soon as the door jingled again behind her. She didn’t bother with her car, but ran as far up the street as possible in order to get away, knowing that the guy wasn’t going to chase her down while he had a whole bike club to antagonize.
Once she was far enough away, she stopped and pulled out her cell phone. She called the police and reported a man with a gun in The Blind Onion.
Lance hadn’t had a gun. She didn’t see him holding any weapons, actually. Was he insane? Or was he just smarter than the rest of them?
She texted him that she’d alerted the cops and to meet her back at his house. She needed to talk to him and then she would be out of his hair for good.
The cops showed up and arrested several of the people at The Blind Onion, most importantly of all the drug dealer who’d been threatening all of them. The officers questioned Lance, but did not take him in because he was unarmed and was working in the establishment.
Two hours later, he was able to lock up and head home. He didn’t know what Allie needed to speak to him about, but he had a feeling that she wasn’t planning to be his girlfriend now; not after what she’d just witnessed.
Lance arrived at his building and managed to nap a parking spot directly next to hers. Cutting off his motorcycle’s engine, he dismounted and stored his helmet inside the seat. He trudged up the stairs of his building, not sure what to expect and not looking forward to whatever it was.
It had been a pretty shitty day.
“Hey, Allie,” he said, giving her a sweet smile as he came inside and shut the door behind him. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
She’d been sitting on the couch bed, but she quickly stood up when he came through the door. She was not smiling. “What the fuck was that all about?” she asked, her voice a shouted whisper. “You told me you had kicked your drug habits!”
He put his hands up defensively. “I have,” he replied. “But some of the members of our club ain’t so lucky, okay?”
Her face suddenly softened from a frown to a pout. “I was really scared.”
“I know,” he said. Lance came to her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug.
She rested her head against his chest. It felt good to be held like that, even though she was going to be losing it in just a few more moments.
“I came here to tell you two things,” Allie said, looking up into his brown eyes. “First of all, and brace yourself… I’m pregnant.”
His arms loosened and he gaped at her.
Well, this was not a severance from him. It was quite the opposite, in fact!
“And secondly,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t think I should see you anymore. You’re too dangerous.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Coffee And Cigarettes
A long period of silence followed as Lance looked at Allie in disbelief. At first, he thought that he had misunderstood what she was saying, but there was no mistaking the fact that she’d said she didn’t want to be with him because he was dangerous. After working so hard to make his life better and more suitable for a girlfriend like her, the last thing he wanted to hear was that word. He had changed a lot since he was a user. And he was willing to change even more if it would make her happy. His mouth went from shocked and open to an agitated frown, but then he smiled and laughed a little. It was a hostile sort of laugh. A ‘you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me’ kind of laugh.
“You know I’m right,” Allie said. “Unless your brain temporarily shut off back there, you know what your life is like. It’s no place for a child. I’ve been trying so hard to change my life around. This is the reasoning I’ve needed.”
Lance continued to smile at her. She couldn’t tell if it was menacing or goofy. It was right on the line between those two types of smile.
“Right after the police came and questioned me, and took a bunch of my friends away… I quit the club.” He looked her in the eyes. “You’re right. It’s not a good place to be in, surrounded by former addicts who are still struggling. I can’t stay clean if I’m around them… I want to clean up my act. Not just for you, but partially for you.”
Allie didn’t know what to say. “You like me a lot, huh?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Is that bad?”
She looked down, blushing. Before the baby, she might have said yes. After all, she was trying to just have some fun and didn’t want to be in a relationship. But now… Well, fate hadn’t really given her a choice.
“No, it’s not bad,” she said. “I suppose we do have more in common than I expected.”
He went to her and gave her a hug. “It’s all going to be okay,” he said. “I promise. We’ll work together to make the best little happy existence we can, okay?”
She looked into his eyes, sizing him up a little. He was so handsome and kind. She didn’t want to blame him for shit he couldn’t help. The dealer had been there to threaten one of Lance’s biker club friends, not Lance. And Lance hadn’t been packing heat or anything quite so ludicrous.
“What are you going to do now that you’re out of your club?” she asked him. She did not want him to give up riding his motorcycle or being in a club with his friends, she just would prefer it if he be more selective with who he spent his time with. There had to be motorcycle clubs around there that weren’t so destructive. Maybe he could join a pizza-lovers motorcycle club?
He shrugged. “Start a new club, I guess. Fly solo for a while til I figure things out.”
Allie smiled at him. “Well, you don’t have to fly solo. You can fly duo. With me.” She smirked slightly. “That sounded better in my head.”
Lance laughed. “Aw, that’s cute. I thought for sure that you were never going to want to be on my bike again.”
Shaking her head, Allie released herself from his hold and went out to the kitchen to make herself some of that heavenly banana-flavored coffee. “As long as you promise me that you’re not going to drive it drunk ever again, I’ll ride with you.”
The coffee maker only made about two cups at a time. As she stood in the kitchen to guard the coffee as it was made, she gazed over the kitchenette and the living room that she could see from her vantage point. They both lived in small, cramped, studio apartments… That was going to need to change. A lot of things were going to be changing.
“Can we take it one day at a time?” she asked him.
Lance smiled and let out a soft chuckle. “That’s the only way to live.”
Since Allie had a better job and Lance’s experience as a pizza chef was more flexible in cities, they decided to search for a two bed-room apartment in Portland instead of staying in Vancouver. They both dealt with the wraths of their separate landlords and were eventually able to move in together in an apartment building that was a short walk away from Powell’s Books and Voo Doo Donut, in the heart of Portland.
He hung out on the couch, applying for jobs while she went to work. It wasn’t a solution, but it was a start.
One evening, Allie sat on the floor with a package she’d received in the mail from IKEA, trying to make sense of the instructions. “This is supposed to be a crib,” she told Lance.
Looking over the laptop at her, he grimaced. “It looks like a pile of sanded wood to me,” he joked.
“It would look better if you’d come down here and help me,” Allie retorted.
Lance closed the laptop and set it aside, sinking down to his knees from the couch and crawling over towards her. He kissed her neck and cheek, still not exactly helping.
She let a soft giggle escape her. “Lance, this crib isn’t going to build itself.”
“Mm,” he replied through a kiss. “But I have some good news and I want to celebrate with you.”
Allie pulled
away from him to look him in the eyes. “Good news?” she asked. “Normally you tell people what the news is before you try and celebrate.”
“Sorry. I’m not used to having good news to share.”
She picked up one of the wooden slats that were meant to form the crib’s sides and hit him with it, with a light thwack.
He chuckled. “A baby of mine is going to be able to eat through that.”
“TELL me the news!” Allie shouted, but she was laughing. It felt good to live with someone again. They were taking things slowly, but she could not deny her continued attraction to him. Crib-building aside, he was showing her that he could be just as dependable as her goody-goody ex.
Lance cleared his throat and started helping her assemble the ridiculous, Swedish-crafted cradle. “I got a job,” he said. “And the mythical Powell’s Books.”
Allie’s eyes widened. “Whaaat!? But have you even been there?”
He laughed. “No, I got the job purely based on my ability to imagine the place.” He pretended to tap her head with another of the wooden slats. “I went there for an interview while you were at work. I just didn’t say anything about it because I didn’t want to get our hopes up for nothing.”
Her jaw dropped. That was so impressive. “I have to admit, I’m jealous. I love that place. Oh, my god, Lance! Congratulations!”
Beaming proudly, he nodded a little. “Now can we celebrate?”
“How do you want to celebrate?”
He answered by dropping the wood he was holding and making out with her on top of it. The pile of wood was not much of a pillow, but there was something kinky about making out on top of their baby’s future bed.
After several minutes of that, Lance finally – and a bit awkwardly – got back up onto his feet and then lifted Allie up into his arms. He carried her to the empty bedroom that was going to be their baby’s nursery. But for the colorful animal wallpaper, there was no evidence of the room’s intention yet. That was for the best, considering Lance’s intention.
Placing Allie gently down on the blue-carpeted floor, he threw off his shirt and unfastened his pants. As he got on top of her to continue making out with her, Allie pulled his pants off of him and he grabbed at all of her clothing. They kissed amidst a frenzy of flying fabric but, before long, they were naked together.
Lance pressed himself inside of her and thrust his cock against her walls, but he was slower this time. They were sober this time, which was a nice change.
She looked up at him as he took his time with her, exploring around and not being so rough. Gasping, she smiled at him. “It’s nice to not have an exit strategy this time,” she murmured into his ear.
“You don’t need an exit strategy,” he whispered back, shaking his head and placing a finger into her mouth. “Just like I’m never going to exit you, if I can help it.”
Allie laughed softly, licking his finger and sucking at it.
They fucked each other nice and slowly for a few moments before he pulled out and lifted her up, bringing her over to the back wall of the nursery room. She put her hands up against the wall and moaned loudly as he inserted his throbbing penis into her from behind.
Lance had an insatiable desire for making love to her from behind. She felt like she could get used to it… particularly when he licked his fingers and brought them to her clitoris. He stroked and flicked at it until she was barely able to keep standing.
She came and held onto the wall to keep from falling. His hand was now surely covered with her female juices. “Aaaahhhh!” she shouted. Their shouts and moans echoed throughout the empty room and the still-spacious apartment. All of a sudden, he spun her around and held her up against him, putting his cock back inside her and holding her as he stood, ramming into her and watching as her face contorted in indescribable pleasure.
He tightened his grip on her hips, practically drawing blood with his fingernails as he held on and came inside her.
“Ahh, shit!” he yelled, closing his eyes. “Whooo.”
Slowly and carefully, he lowered Allie back down to the floor and pulled out of her. He squeezed her boobs for a moment, gently getting her nipples good and hard before he walked out of the nursery and back to the pile of abandoned wood.
Allie gathered up her clothes and carried them back out to their living room. She got dressed while Lance worked to put their crib together.
Once the crib was built and didn’t fall apart at the slightest touch, they beamed at each other and carried it into the nursery.
“One item down,” Allie said. “And so, so many more to go.”
Lance smiled and put his arm around her. “Well, at least he or she won’t have to sleep in a drawer.”
When Monday came around again, Allie was pleased to be joined by Lance in the kitchen at seven a.m. She poured a bowl of cereal for them to share and they sat together, eating chocolatey cereal and drinking the chocolate and banana infused coffee. She had become addicted to the stuff, but it wasn’t the bad, dangerous sort of addiction.
He could have his cigarettes if she could have her coffee.
Once their breakfast was over, they went downstairs to the parking lot and got onto his bike. She hadn’t been on it since their accident, but as she hugged him and they took off down the road, she realized that she trusted him.
Lance drove the motorcycle responsibly and got her to her office building in no time. “My shift doesn’t start for, like, three more hours,” he confessed then, smiling a sideways smirk at her. “I just wanted to be with you.”
Allie smiled and blushed. “Careful, Lance Chase. Don’t forget your bad ass reputation.”
He chuckled. “It’s Lance Chase DuBois,” he said. “And I’m making a new reputation.”
“Oh really?”
“Yup,” he said. “I think I’m going to start a motorcycle club for Portland dads. That’s how bad it is.”
Allie laughed, but she knew he was serious. And she loved him for it. THE END
ComeShift Series Bonus
Young Wolf
CHAPTER ONE
The Divorcee
“This app is great, just trust me,” Isabelle Grant’s best friend Ramona told her as she clicked and swiped around on Isabelle’s phone.
Isabelle’s divorce had just been finalized and, though the marriage had been pretty much the definition of ‘loveless,’ she was still broken up about it. She’d put years of her life into that relationship, and still somehow things had soured. Now, thirty-six years old, she had to start again.
And Ramona thought the best way to do that was to sign up for the ComeShift app, a dating service that connected people with shifters. Werewolves, werebears, even dragons, apparently. Isabelle was mystified by the whole thing, and she didn’t think it could possibly even be real.
“There.” Ramona smiled proudly at Isabelle’s phone before handing it back over to its owner. “Your profile is all set up. You even have a picture already. You’re good to go. And you’re so hot that I bet the messages come flooding in.”
Isabelle laughed, then realized something. “Where did you get a picture for it?”
Ramona got a bit shifty-eyed. “I used one that was on your phone.”
Eyes widening, Isabelle clicked her phone back on and stared at her profile picture. It was one of her in some black lingerie. She’d taken it, and sent it to her ex-husband in a vain attempt to get him in the mood.
“I thought I deleted that!”
Ramona giggled. “You can change it if you really want to. But the guys on there are wild and sexy, and into kinks. I’ve heard that sex with werewolves is the hottest thing ever. Just have fun with it.”
When her friend told her that she wanted to come over to visit her after work, Isabelle hadn’t expected this. Isabelle was a leasing consultant. She was successful in her own right. She felt that if any good came out of this divorce, it would be that she had more freedom now. Rebounds weren’t really her thing. But she appreciated that her friend ca
red, and she humored her so that Ramona would feel like she’d helped in some small way.
As soon as Ramona was gone, Isabelle sank into her couch. She doubted very much that anything good was going to come out of this app. She’d heard horror stories about guys on things like this. She was so much older than the generation that used these things. When she’d last been in the dating game, dating apps did not exist. In fact, cell phones merely existed as ways to call and maybe, maybe text people if you had a fancy plan that included limited texting.
But now apparently, you could pick up your phone and browse singles in your area. Single werewolves, no less.
She still thought that was a load of shit.
Setting her phone down on the coffee table, Isabelle stood up and went into her bedroom to change out of her work clothes. She threw on some pink pajama bottoms and a Jem and the Holograms t-shirt. Nothing would give her age away better than this. Well, aside from the odd gray hair she found peeking around amidst her black-dyed hair. Whenever she saw one of those forming at her roots, she plucked and touched up her coloring.
She supposed that she had good looks going for her. She was short at five foot two, but she was curvy with large breasts, and a sizeable ass to go with it. Her body wasn’t quite an hour-glass shape, but she certainly wasn’t overweight. Well, maybe a pound or two.
Isabelle sat back down on her couch, folding one of her legs underneath her, and started watching TV. She checked out the news for a moment, but that was too depressing, so she turned on a channel that was predominantly cartoons, and allowed herself to feel more like a child again.
She didn’t need a man to be happy or whole. But she did sometimes think how nice it would be to spend time with a man who cared about her. She wished she could kiss someone again. She wanted to sleep with a man again… It had been over a year. It was something she didn’t want to talk about of course, but it bothered her. A lot.
Right as she was about to consider one of the more ‘normal’ dating apps, her phone lit up with a notification from ComeShift.
