Wolf (The Henchmen MC #3)

by Jessica Gadziala

  "Too?" I asked, smiling.

  "Lo and Cash didn't make it to their suite," he smiled.

  "Too much information," I objected.

  "Oh, please. You will get all the gory details later," he said, walking off down the aisle, hand curling harder into Amelia's butt cheek.

  He was right; I did get all the gory details.

  Wolf and I didn't get a storage closet. But we did get a room. We didn't use the bed. We barely got into the door before he had me up against it, furiously trying to get me out of the romper and I maybe understood the appeal of skirts for two-point-three seconds.

  Janie

  3 Years-

  "We're going to be late, Wolf," I barked inside the front door.

  "Keep your panties on," he called back, but his footsteps were coming toward me. He stepped out into the doorway in black jeans and a simple white tee. His leather cut was over it, making the mountain man disappear and replacing him with the biker. "Never mind, take them off," he said, eyes raking over me in my simple jean shorts and black tee.

  "We're bringing the beer. We can't be late."

  "Fuck the beer," he said, grabbing me and pinning me against the truck. His hand slipped inside my panties and stroked over me as my hand moved to stroke his already hard cock through his pants.

  Yeah, we were going to be late.

  And he was right. Fuck the beer.

  In the end, we got there about twenty minutes after things got into swing. The Henchmen compound was packed, bikers and club whores (yeah, I still referred to them as that in my head because, well, nothing else was really fitting), and friends of The Henchmen milled around.

  Wolf let out a loud whistle and nodded at a few of the probates who came running as he climbed up into the bed to get the kegs down. Five kegs. I thought it was overkill, Wolf told me they would probably need to send out the pregnant Summer and whomever else was sober later.

  "Heya kid," Cash called, walking up with an adoring Ferryn trailing behind.

  Shooter's, and Reign's, fears were realized in her and she was hardly more than a toddler. She was twenty-five pounds and eight ounces of pretty. Her father's dark hair had stayed dark but started to curl like her mother's, forever escaping whatever bands and bows Summer used to try to tame it. She had a really weird outfit on, paying homage to both of her parents. She wore a black faux leather pleated skirt and a pretty pink floral shirt with a pair of black Chucks on her feet and sparkly butterfly clips in her hair.

  "When are you guys going to make one of these?" Cash asked, scooping her up and throwing her under his arm football-style to which her response was to throw her arms out and make airplane noises.

  Wolf's arm went around my hip and squeezed reassuringly. "Got time," he said, making me take a grateful breath. I wasn't at that place yet. I was nowhere near that place yet. But while I was barely pushing thirty, Wolf was well on his way to forty. We really didn't have that much longer to think about it. This was evidenced by the fact that Wolf was making plans for an addition to the cabin.

  He told me the news and I remembered feeling my belly clench hard. Part of it was the feeling of the end of an era. We had made so many memories in that cabin. I had lost some of my fears in the arms of Wolf. I had found my first nights of dreamless sleep. I had felt a man's hands on my skin in adoration and love for the first time. I found parts of myself I forgot were there, or had never existed before. I found softness and love.

  And part of the sensation was fear. I was losing that safety net that three years of stability gave me. Things were changing. Our lives were moving in a new direction.

  But I was not the kind of chick to be afraid of change and adventure. And that was exactly what starting a family would be- the biggest change, and the grandest adventure.

  So while it scared me shitless, I was also excited.

  "Gotta marry her first," Wolf added, making me start.

  My eyes automatically went to my left hand where a ring was situated. Not a diamond. When it looked like Wolf was getting the itch to ask me, I'd made sure I threw a well-timed rant about blood diamonds so he knew to steer clear of that. He chose instead a ruby, telling me that red suited me better anyhow. It was round-cut and on a white gold band and I freaking loved the damn thing and what it represented- freedom, but at the same time, protection.

  "Well, the fuck you waiting for?" Reign asked, stealing his daughter from his brother. "Hey Repo," Reign called, a smile I didn't trust on his face.

  "Yeah?"

  "I think Wolf needs some help with these kegs," he said, still doing the weird grin.

  "I'll get Maze on it," Repo called back, and I felt my eyes get small.

  "Are you guys hazing her?" I asked, my tone sharp and I could practically feel the eye roll Wolf was doing behind my back.

  "She ain't getting special treatment," Reign said on a shrug. "You wouldn't want special treatment at Hailstorm, would you?"

  "That's a completely different situation."

  "How?"

  "Because Lo would never purposely make any individual life hard just to prove a point," I said, preparing for the fight because everything he was saying was confirming my fears. They weren't giving her a fair shot.

  "Look you guys wanted us to give her a shot, we're giving her a shot. She ain't complaining about the treatment so you don't get to either."

  "Hey, what do you need?" Maze asked as she walked up, stretching out her legs to keep pace with Repo. She had on black skinny jeans and a black wifebeater, an outfit which only accented her feminine figure. She was slightly pear-shaped, wide of hip and small of waist. She had breasts bigger than mine, but not quite as impressive as Lo's. Her face had a somewhat squared jaw and full lips with dark brows over hazel eyes. Her hair was straight and fell to her elbows, colored in the deepest shade of purple possible.

  I liked Maze. I liked Maze the second I laid eyes on her a few weeks before. So did Lo and Summer and Alex and Amelia. We couldn't tell you what it was, exactly, about her that made us all band together and champion her cause, but there was something. And it was more than simply being pissed that The Henchmen were just going to blow her off on the simple fact that she was female. There was a quiet kind of strength about her, a grim determination, and the barest hint of desperation that maybe women were better at picking up on. Or, perhaps, just women who had been there before like we all had been.

  "Kegs," Reign said, jerking his head toward the truck where two of the male probates were lowering some down.

  "On it," she said simply, but I saw her tense. It didn't take a genius to know how heavy a keg was and she knew there was no way she could take one down, but she'd be damned if she let that weakness show.

  "You guys are assholes," I declared, turning away from them and jumping up into the bed, shoving the shoulder of the probate who made some sort of comment about Maze's ass as she hopped up. And, granted, she had an ass to kill for, but that didn't give them the right to comment. "Funny, I don't hear you telling Cash or Reign or Wolf what nice asses they have," I shot at them as I reached for the handles at the top of the keg.

  "Don't want to fuck theirs," one of the probates said, shrugging.

  "Are you fucking serious?" I asked, straightening and advancing him across the bed. "You do realize this is a brotherhood right? You're not supposed to..."

  "Have to deal with a sister? And her fucking mood swings when she's on the rag like you obviously a..."

  I bent low, planted my feet, and shoved with everything in me. I had the element of surprise on my side, making the man who outweighed me by a solid seventy pounds of muscle go toppling off the back of the truck, landing hard on his back.

  "Hey, bitch..." the other probate, obviously his brother if their looks were anything to go by, said as his hand landed hard on my shoulder.

  Down on the ground, Wolf started to growl and Cash and Repo straightened. Reign put Ferryn on the ground and patted her butt till she toddled off.
But before they could even move toward the truck, the probate's wrist was grabbed and twisted. Maze moved fast, spinning behind him, locking his arm against his back, and slamming him forward over a keg.

  "Apologize," she growled, hiking a knee up as he squirmed and pressing it into his lower back.

  "Fuck you."

  "With what? While we're talking about our brothers body parts, I've seen you changing, Moose. You don't have anything a woman wants in those pants."

  "Maze..." Repo called, his voice holding warning.

  "What?" she almost screamed back, frustration bouncing off of every nerve ending. "Last night Duke and Renny got into a knock down drag out and all you did was stand there and place bets! But because it's me you're going to pull the fucking 'boss' card a-fucking-gain?" she asked, still yelling, pushing away from the probate. I was right; they were giving her a hard time. There's no way she would be flipping out like she was if they were giving her a fair shot. This was just the icing on the cake for her after god-knew how long of god-knew what she was forced to put up with. "He put his hand on someone else's old lady. He's lucky it's still attached to his body!" All her rage was focused on Repo who looked like he was struggling with some kind of self-control, his hands clenching hard into fists at his sides.

  What the hell was going on?

  "She ain't wrong," Wolf agreed, reaching up into the bed and pulling my leg until I hopped down toward him, his arm closing around me tightly.

  "Maze you need to calm down," Repo said, his voice sounding almost like a sigh.

  "You need to stop..."

  "Alright, enough," Reign broke in, obviously done with the situation. "Moose," he said inclining his head toward the guy in the truck bed, rubbing his wrist where Maze had twisted it, "Maze is right; you don't put your hand on a woman. Ever. And you certainly don't put your hand on your fuckin' road captain's woman. What the fuck were you even thinking?"

  "She could have broken my brother's bac..."

  "Then your brother should show a little more respect. You're out," Reign said in a lethal way that brooked no argument. "Your brother can stay if he shapes the fuck up. Now you've ruined enough of this party so get the fuck gone so we can all enjoy the rest."

  Moose's face was that of barely-contained rage and he shoved Maze hard as he passed, almost knocking her off balance. But she didn't react, just gritted her teeth and jumped down off the bed after him.

  "Maze..." Repo said, trying to reach for her arm as she passed, but she jerked it violently away.

  "Don't you fucking touch me," she hissed under her breath, taking off toward the compound.

  I waited a minute for Moose to clear out, his brother following him toward the gate where they both started gesturing wildly, shoving at each other and, I assumed, yelling.

  "What the hell was that?" I asked, looking at Repo.

  Repo rubbed a hand down his face and shuffled away without saying anything. I turned my attention to Cash who was scratching his cheek, trying to not look as guilty as he obviously was.

  "Spill."

  Cash smiled, shaking his head. "You won't like it, kid."

  "Still want to hear it."

  "Repo is in charge of making Maze's life a living hell until she quits or fucks up bad enough to get kicked out."

  "Did you know about this?" I asked, turning my head to look up at Wolf.

  "Yep," he said with a nod, not even thinking about evading or lying. It was a quality I genuinely appreciated about him, but I wasn't in the mood to be pleased by him. I wrenched away and he let me, sighing hard. "You don't get it," he said with a shrug.

  "You're god damn right I don't fucking get it. Have we met? On that note, have you met Lo? Or Alex? Hell, even Summer and Amelia have got steady trigger fingers and good foot work. You are surrounded by strong, badass women and you think you can pull some Neanderthal shit just because..."

  "Because of what just happened, babe," Reign said, tucking his hands into his pockets.

  "What just happened was two immature dickheads pulled some immature dickhead moves."

  "Kid, have you met the guys? They're all immature dickheads," Cash put in. "This kind of thing would be never-ending."

  "Only because you three, as the leaders here, don't set the precedent of respect."

  "She has to earn that," Reign said.

  "She just fucking did!" I shouted, waving a hand toward the empty truck. "But instead of praising her and telling her she did the right thing, you had her chastised. She's not looking for an easy ride here. If she wanted that, she wouldn't be here in the first place, putting up with your sexist bullshit. And you guys can roll your eyes and think I'm on the rag all you want, but you know that I'm right. I'm so fucking right. You're deliberately trying to make her quit and she isn't bending, no matter how much you jump on her, no matter how much Repo is all up in her shit." I paused, taking a breath, trying to calm down as I focused my attention on Reign. "How would you feel if someone did to Ferryn what you just did to Maze, Reign? If she did something right, but got scolded for it just because she's a girl? I know how you'd feel and I bet it's one one-millionth of how fucking furious and disappointed I am in all of you right now. Shape the fuck up."

  I tore through the back of the compound, looking for Lo and Summer to tell them what their, and my, men were up to.

  To say it did not go over well would be an understatement.

  To say our, and by extension, Amelia's and Alex's moods, made it a very tense party would also be an understatement.

  "Don't," Repo said when I moved to sit down next to him on top of one of the picnic tables. He'd been sitting alone for the better part of an hour, nursing a beer and staring off into nothing. I made sure I had calmed myself down before I approached him.

  Repo and I... we'd gotten close over the years. Some nights he would come up to the cabin and hang out with me when Wolf went to sleep, or we would meet up at an all-night diner. While I still didn't know his story, we were as close as I had gotten with the girls club.

  "I'm afraid I have to," I said, looking off to see where his focus was. I felt my lips turn up when I saw Maze leaning against the fence, flanked by Lo and Alex and looking down at her feet. "Why?"

  "Why what?"

  "Why would you agree to do it?"

  "Got an order," he shrugged.

  "Right and you're just too damn loyal to question an order."

  "Something like that."

  "She doesn't deserve it."

  "Doesn't matter."

  "So you have no moral compass of your own?"

  "Brotherhood above all."

  "So if Reign told you to put a plug between her eyes right now..."

  Repo's face tilted toward me, his eyes empty, haunted. "I'd go get my gun."

  "God Repo... that's so fucked," I said, shaking my head.

  "How I am, honey, take me or leave me." With that, he hopped off the table and took off toward the back of the yard to his mostly dismantled cars.

  "Woman," Wolf's voice said from my side a minute later.

  "No."

  "No what?"

  "No I don't want to talk to you right now."

  "Too bad," he said, sliding onto the picnic table, snagging me around the waist and hauling me up and between his spread legs, pulling my back against his chest. "Janie, won't always agree."

  I felt myself snort. "Obviously." We agreed on very little a lot of the time.

  "You wanna talk?"

  "No."

  "Wanna fight?"

  "No."

  "Then get over it," he said, curling around me to rest his chin on my shoulder.

  "No. I mean I've disagreed with things The Henchmen have done here and there, but this is just unacceptable."

  "Let it play out," he said, turning and kissing the spot right under my ear and making me pretend it didn't send a shiver through my body.

  "Why?"

  "Look at Repo," he suggested.
/>   I swiveled my head toward where he was down the field, sitting on the roof of one of his cars, his gaze on Maze.

  "Okay, so?"

  "Janie, look at Maze," he said softly, his fingers moving down my arm until his hand found mine and held it.

  She was standing a few feet away from Cash and Shooter who both looked like they were trying their damndest to make her smile, but she was apparently the only woman in the world immune to their charm. She would nod at them or shrug, trying to look like she was paying attention, but every few seconds, her eyes would drift across the field and spot Repo then look away before she could be seen.

  I felt my lips curving up and shook my head. "How long have you known?"

  "She walked in," Wolf started, "he was interested."

  "Does Cash or Reign know?"

  "Dunno."

  "But you knew," I said, leaning into him. I guess it came along with being so quiet, but Wolf was hyper observant. He noticed everything.

  "I knew."

  "So you aren't being a Neanderthal," I said, turning my head backward so I could look up at him. "You think that if they keep butting heads that it will eventually make something happen there."

  Wolf grunted. "Be good for him."

  "Why's that?"

  "Good man needs a good woman." His arm went around my belly and tightened. "Like mine."

  I pressed my lips together to keep the smile in. Three years and he still said stuff like that, off the cuff, sweet things that made my belly do flip-flops.

  "Think I'm a good woman, huh?" I asked, needing to lighten the mood.

  "No," he said, making me jump and turn in his arms, sliding my legs up against his sides as his hands went around my back. "The best," he clarified, pulling my body closer. "You gonna marry me already?"

  "Do I have to wear a dress?"

  "Can wear my tee, you want," he said with a shrug.

  I smiled then, big and as happy as I felt inside, long since over the fear that if I got too happy, it might be ripped away. Three years ago, the Earth started revolving around the moon, and for me and Wolf, it never stopped.