by Moxie North
Myra was shaking at this point, the air getting into her lungs minimal. She tried nodding as the tears ran down her cheeks.
“That’s being smart,” he said, releasing her neck and arm. “Now turn around and pull down your panties. I’ve got something else you can help me out with first.
Myra turned toward the desk and shakily pulled down her g-string.
Prudence shot awake at her cell phone ringing. It was dark. She must have fallen asleep from crying. Grabbing at her phone on the nightstand, she looked at the number and didn’t recognize it.
“Hello? Maverick?”
“Um, no, it’s Myra, from the club? We met the other day.”
“Oh, sorry. I remember you.”
“I heard your message. I was helping out in the office here. The guys just got back a little while ago. They are all down by the lake celebrating. I thought you might want to know.”
Prudence heard the words, but couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He was back and hadn’t called her?
“Really? He’s back?” She had to ask because it just didn’t seem right.
“Yeah, sure. Whooping it up big time. So anyway, just thought you’d want a call.”
The line clicked dead and Pru resisted the urge to chuck her phone across the room.
She was seeing red and she wasn’t going to sit and think this through like a rational human being. Oh no, she was putting on her ass-kicking boots and finding some unwilling participants.
Running down the stairs, she swung around the banister and hit the kitchen to collect her purse before sending a message to her friend Libby.
Off to kick man ass
At Redemption
May need bail money
She was in the car and driving down the road before she realized she didn’t have the headlights or her seatbelt on.
Focusing on keeping between the lines, she wasn’t concerned about speed or the potential to hit a deer this time of night. She wanted to get to the camp and rip into Maverick Hale.
Pru was startled to feel the tears coursing down her cheeks. Shit, she couldn’t cry. She could be mad, spitting mad, but she needed to be coherent. When she cried she tended to blubber and with blubbering came mumbling. Maverick needed to know just how big he’d fucked up.
When she came to a stop in front of the mess hall she didn’t even pause to look for his bike. There were lights on inside, but Myra had said they were down by the lake and that’s where she was heading.
Her fast walk turned into a run, her eyes trying to stay focused on the path in front of her. Any light from the camp was gone and she was hoping she was still heading in the right direction. Not knowing how far she needed to go, she strained to see ahead of her toward the lake.
Pru didn’t see the shadow that came out from behind one of the trees. “You are the dumbest of bitches.”
That was the last thing she heard before the darkness turned to complete black.
Chapter 30
Maverick was fucking tired as hell. He’d ridden all night to get back to Oregon and all he wanted to do was see his mate.
Their time in California hadn’t gone as planned. Deacon was doing a favor for another club that were human. They were having some trouble in town with a gang coming into their turf. This was a fairly common occurrence and usually just needed a show of force to explain things. Redemption had worked with the Devil’s Deviance on moving some pot across the border. Deacon figured with most states having medicinal laws and states like Washington making it legal, they shouldn’t be worried about shipping some grass to legitimate sellers. The growers weren’t exactly legal, but that was the market now. Legal growers cost too much. To make any money your supply still needed to be affordable.
The gang that was moving in wasn’t selling pot. They were into everything but and the Devil’s didn’t want any of it in their town.
When Redemption rolled up, they were supposed to just have a nice civilized meet and greet with the gang to discuss their impending departure. Instead, all hell broke loose and since Deacon’s crew couldn’t shift to defend themselves, it took a little longer to beat the gang down.
Maverick was enjoying the fight until he got blindsided by an aluminum baseball bat. He’d just put a banger down when his wolf tried to warn him the impending whistle wasn’t good.
The bat shattered his jaw and dropped Mav to the ground. Deacon took out the guy with the bat and left him unconscious next to a moaning Maverick.
“Wow, that must have hurt,” Deacon said when he helped him up.
Maverick thought he’d rather have another leg cut off than the pain of getting hit in the head with a bat. He tried testing his jaw and realized it was going to take a bit to heal. He glared at Deacon and they retreated back to the Devil’s hangout, having made their point loud and clear with the gang.
Maverick found a couch in a back room at the Devil’s and lay down on the couch with an ice pack covering his face. He’d fallen asleep and when he woke realized that it was late and he hadn’t called Pru. He thought about texting her, but she’d want to talk. There was no way he was going to be able to move his jaw for at least another twenty-four hours.
Did he make her worry by not calling or have to explain why he couldn’t talk? She didn’t truly understand what he did for the club. Telling her that getting bashed by a baseball bat wasn’t the worst he’d endured for the club probably wouldn’t make her feel more secure in their relationship. Luckily for him the knife wounds and one gunshot wound had healed without a trace, as would his jaw.
When he told her he was leaving, he said he’d see her soon. Maybe she didn’t need him to be clingy and call all the time. She had a life outside of him. Her knitting group, the rehab, the crazy old lady yarn shop. He’d see her when he got back and it would be all good.
Mav decided to fall back asleep and let his wolf heal him.
When he woke the next morning still swollen and unable to move his jaw, he picked up his phone to text again and decided it would be better to just get on the road to get back to her.
Somewhere around the Oregon border he was able to open his mouth without screaming in agony. The bone was mostly mended, not that it still didn’t hurt.
He considered driving to Pru’s apartment first, but realized he needed a shower. Pru had texted her address on the morning he left so he knew where to head once he had the road grime washed off.
What he really wanted to do was take off his prosthetic and let his leg breathe for a while. That would have to wait.
Mav pulled up to his house and saw all the lights on the first floor were on. If Pru was there waiting for him it would save him the trip. Parking his bike right behind the house, he hopped off and strode through the back kitchen door.
“Pru?” he called out before stopping cold.
His wolf had been trying to tell him something the moment he turned off the motor, but he was so excited to see his mate, he wasn’t listening.
Standing in his kitchen was his mother, his father, and his little sister Isolde. Except now she wasn’t so little. He remembered her sweet toddler hands reaching up to him to be picked up. Her slobbery kisses and baby giggles when she’d been two. Then he returned from his first tour and had a sister in kindergarten. She didn’t know him then, but he found a place with her before he left. Then he came back to a ten-year-old girl that was older, had more opinions, and didn’t understand all the fuss of her brother coming home. He never saw her after that. Two years into his third tour, he’d started writing to her and she’d write back. Then in the years afterward there was no communication. Now there was a wary looking seventeen-year-old glaring at him to hide her nervousness and a little fear.
“Maverick Phoenix Hale, what do you have to say for yourself!”
Mav’s mom was standing with her hands on her hips, her mouth in an angry line, but eyes full of tears.
He wasn’t sure what to say or how to explain, but there was one thing both he and his wolf agreed on
. They walked straight towards his mom and wrapped his arms around her.
His mother started shaking as she clung to him. His father wrapped around the back of him and his little sister squeezed her way into the side. They held each other as the girls cried and the men did their best to hold back their tears.
The group let go and Maverick took the blows as his mother started hitting him on the arm. “I have been worried sick, sick I tell you! Those stupid postcards, I wanted to burn them. Instead, your sister has them pinned to her wall because that’s all she has of you. You realize how little she was when you left on your last tour?”
Maverick took it. He knew at some point in the last few years, his sacrifice staying away from them had just been about his own fear.
“Why is your jaw swollen? And why did I have to hear about you finding your mate from her?”
“Pru called you?”
“Yes, poor thing was so worried about you she tracked us down. Can you imagine?”
“She’s not here?”
“No, son, no one was here when we got here. I sniffed out your key and we let ourselves in,” his father said.
Maverick walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. He sunk into it with a sigh. His parents took a seat while his sister kept her distance on the other side of the table.
“Why are you wearing that vest?” Isolde asked quietly.
He looked at his little sister that was still just as precious as he remembered her. “It’s my club. A motorcycle club. I’m a member and have been living here a few years. They’re like us.”
That’s all he needed to say and his family understood.
“I’m happy to see you, don’t get me wrong. But why didn’t you come home after you got hurt? We were all waiting for you. I can’t lie, knowing you got hurt and wouldn’t have to go back was actually a relief,” his dad said.
Maverick gave a sigh and pulled up the leg of his jeans. His mother gasped and his father remained silent at the sight of the metal post where a calf should be.
“Oh my baby,” his mother cried.
“Got hit. My Humvee rolled. They amputated before I could tell them not to. When I got to the hospital my wolf couldn’t keep up with the healing and it had to be amputated more. I didn’t think I could come back a lame wolf. What good would I have been for the pack? What would the other families think about me? About you guys? Would they treat you differently for taking me back?”
“That’s just stupid. Our pack has never been like that. It’s not like you had to come back and do manual labor. You know good and well that you didn’t need to work at all. We would have been thrilled just having you back. Leg or not, you’re alive and that is all we ever wished for,” his mother said, holding her hand across the table.
Maverick put his hand in hers and felt his father’s hand resting on his back. “At the time it seemed like the right thing to do. My head wasn’t in the right place after my injury. I eventually found a new pack and my club. I fit in here. They give me a reason to keep going. That was until I met Prudence. She came into the rehab wanting to know if she could knit me a cozy for my stump,” he said with a laugh
Just thinking about that made him break into laughter. It was crazy knitting covers for stumps, but it was totally Pru.
“I can’t wait to meet her. She sounded sweet. Although you might have some explaining to do when you see her again. I don’t think she’s too happy with you,” his mother said in a tone that meant he was already in trouble.
“Fuck,” he said, then looked at his sister. “Sorry, Izzy.”
“Like I haven’t heard that before,” she said quietly. She was still wary of him and he didn’t blame her. That was something he would need to repair.
“I need a shower. Probably need to put some more ice on my jaw. The swelling was because it was broken recently, and I need to go find Pru. You guys staying here?”
His parents were looking at each other in confusion over the broken jaw comment. “We took a taxi here. I see most of the house is empty, which, young man, I will be rectifying in the morning. We can take a car back to a hotel for the night. Thank goodness for Uber even out here in the sticks,” Tina said.
Maverick was sure his mother was going to have his house kitted out in the morning. His family had old Texas oil money, but nobody wanted to live in Texas when you were a wolf. They’d moved west and lived off their money quietly. But when it came to shopping, his mother was a gold medal winner.
“I don’t need furniture. I’ve got plenty,” Maverick said, standing up.
“If we are going to have a nice long visit, we need beds, young man. I’ll take care of it, don’t worry. I won’t be using your trust fund.”
“What the hell would I do with my trust fund?”
“Same thing we do with our money, son. Generally ignore it,” his father said with a laugh.
“I’m going to take a shower. Help yourselves to whatever you can find,” Maverick said, pulling out his phone. He hit the speed dial for Pru and it went straight to voicemail.
He dialed it again just to be sure and it didn’t even ring. He was about to leave a message when a banging started on his back door.
Maverick sniffed but didn’t recognize the scent. Pulling open the door he found a small woman standing with her hands on her hips. She wore what looked like pajamas and was tapping her foot.
“Prudence here?”
“And you are?”
“Libby Hayes. I want to know why I get a text from her after I’ve gone to sleep, which mind you I don’t normally get to sleep this early with a little one in the house, telling me she might need bail money?”
“Bail money? For what?”
“Let’s see, she says she’s kicking some ass at Redemption and might need bail money. That’s all I got. Since I haven’t talked to her in a few days, I had to call the sisters. They suggested I check here first. I wasn’t keen on rolling up to Redemption on my own. I can tell you right now that my man was not happy that I left him with the kid either.”
“Stryker Hayes is your mate?” Maverick recognized the scent.
Libby’s eyes got big. “Yes, he is. Who the hell are you?”
“Maverick. That’s my mom, Tina, my dad, Allen, and my kid sister Isolde.” Maverick made a circling motion in the air and said, “Wolves.”
“Seriously? Fudgsicles! So you and Pru?”
“Fudgsicles?”
“I have a kid, stay on track here.”
“Sorry, but yeah, she’s my mate. I’ve been out of town a few days. I was just going to go over to her place.”
“She’s not there. Remember the text? I’m assuming that since you’re here I don’t have to go tracking her down at a motorcycle club in the middle of the night?”
“No, I got it from here. I’ll have her call you.”
“You do that,” she said. “Nice to meet you.” Libby waved at the rest of the family.
They all could hear her as she walked away mumbling under her breath about wolves and cougars and what next, giraffes?
“Looks like my shower has to wait. I don’t know why she’s at the club, but I better go find out.”
“We’ll get ourselves settled, don’t worry about us,” his dad said.
“Go get your mate. I want to have breakfast with her in the morning,” his mother said, kissing his cheek. “It’s good to see you, honey.”
“You too, Mom,” he said, giving her a quick hug.
His little sister gave him a shy look, then a tiny smile. Yeah, he had a lot of work to do there.
Mav grabbed the keys to his truck and headed out into the dark.
Chapter 31
Deacon was trying to calm Maverick down.
“Where the fuck is she?”
Maverick was barely containing his wolf. When he reached the camp, he saw the Cadillac parked out front. He started with the mess hall and no one had seen her. He went to Deacon’s cabin and it was empty.
His Alpha had rolled up wh
en Maverick had already lost his shit and was threatening everyone that was trying to help.
“Mav, she’s got to be here somewhere. I mean how far could she have gone? The hood is still warm. Let’s just spread out and everyone look around. Maybe she got lost in the dark?”
“Did anyone say anything to her? Why would she say she was coming here to kick some ass?” He looked around at the assembled men. There were a few lost girls peeking through the windows, but they probably couldn’t see much or hear much with the music pumping.
“Maybe she heard you were back?” Rocket was brave enough to pipe up.
He got a loud low growl from Maverick for that.
A brother not too much younger than Mav came running out from the building that held the office.
“Hey, there was a message from her looking for you, asking someone to call her. There was an outgoing call not long after that,” the man said.
“Thanks for checking that, Ranger. Why don’t we go with plan A and everyone just have a look around. That work for you, Mav?” Deacon asked.
Mav’s blue eyes were shining and all he could see was through his wolf’s gaze. He was trying to hold it together. Each moment that he didn’t find her made his wolf send up a louder whine in his head. Something wasn’t right. She should have been there. She could have waited in the mess hall or at Deacon’s. But her scent was gone in the wind. He could smell her by the car, but that was it. The dew had started to settle on everything and it was fading her smell.
“Fine, I’m going down to the lake. I want everyone else to look in every nook and cranny. Let me know if you find her,” he said, trying to stay calm. He was failing and everyone knew it.
The group dispersed and Maverick headed toward the lake. He was walking as fast as he could down the path and stopped when he thought he caught her scent. Citrus in the woods stood out. It was there though, faint against the bark of the tree. There was no way this was from the other day. They didn’t touch any of the trees. This was fresh.
