“Stay calm,” Vince said.
“We were supposed to be together,” Lucas said. “And you should never be out there alone, Vince. That’s on me.”
Vince opened his leather and smiled. “Look. Nothing happened, okay? Nothing happened. I was lucky Zayne showed up, covered in damn blood.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Saal thought they were going to rough me up a little. Scare me. Didn’t get to me, son. I will die for my town.”
“So it’s the Saal crew doing this?”
Vince nodded. “One of theirs. Grunn doesn’t know who, from what it seems. We may have a common enemy in this. I want to call a meeting right now and get votes. Grunn wants to meet, but I want it to be a small meeting. We may need to partner up with some of the Saal guys for the time being to penetrate their club and figure this out. I want a group of our guys up at Dr. Carane’s property, because if this guy from Saal makes a move, it’ll be for the baby. This allows us to attack on both sides of the problem.”
“I got it,” Lucas said. “Call the meeting then.”
Lucas stood and put his cigarette out. He reached for his beer and Vince’s hand clamped down on his arm.
“Son, are we good?” Vince asked.
Lucas looked into Vince’s eyes. “Yeah. We’re good.”
Vince smiled and let go.
The lies were filling the clubhouse and it was getting harder to walk through the place. That would all have to come to an end and soon.
18
Leah watched Lucas storm around the bedroom as he geared up. She saw guns, knives, but the thing that scared her the most was the look in his eyes. That burning look of anger and confusion, the look that would allow him to shift into a wolf without a warning.
“Can you talk to me?” Leah asked.
Lucas froze. He slid a gun into a holster on his body and looked back at her. “Just finishing this business shit. That’s all, love.”
“Okay.” Leah licked her lips. “I want to go somewhere.”
Lucas now turned. “You what?”
“I want to go to my apartment. Or maybe over to where I work… or used to work I guess. It’s been a long time, Lucas. I feel trapped in this room.”
“Trapped? You know this is for your safety.”
“I know,” Leah said. She rose from the bed. She took a second to think of what it was like when she first came here after her injury. How helpless she felt. How she could barely walk. How much the pain swelled throughout her entire body.
“You want to leave here?”
“Just to see my apartment. Just to not feel all this around me. I hate not knowing everything, Lucas, and I hate not being able to help.”
“I’m against this,” Lucas said. “But if it’s what you want.”
“It is,” Leah whispered. “I don’t understand what happened to me, Lucas. What I am right now.”
Lucas walked to Leah and touched her face. “You’re human, Leah. You’re my love, Leah. That’s all you need to know.”
“Then how did I survive? That bullet…”
“I let Vince claim me once and for all,” Lucas said. “I’m his son now. By doing that, Vince convinced Dr. Carane to save you. Our blood is stronger than human, which I’m sure you know. Our blood together, father and son, we were able to heal you.”
“You gave me your blood?” Leah asked
“You’ve given me life,” Lucas replied. His hand ran down Leah’s face. “I feel alive when I’m with you. I can control myself when I’m near you… well, not when it comes to the bed, obviously.”
Leah’s face blushed as she smiled. “I don’t know what to say right now.”
“There’s nothing to say, Leah. Your turn is coming next. I will claim you. I will finish all this. Full Moon Mercy will experience peace and you will be all mine.”
“What about… me?” Leah asked. “I mean, am I going to always be a human?”
Lucas swallowed. “I can’t talk about this right now. I’m sorry.”
“What about Mandy? What is she?”
Lucas ignored the question and kissed Leah. It wasn’t just his lips touching her mouth that made Leah shut up, it was the passionate taste of Lucas’s mouth. She felt her knees threaten to give way. Lucas’s strong hands were right there to keep her from falling.
“I’m always here,” Lucas said. “Remember that.”
“What does claiming me do?” Leah blurted out.
Lucas smiled. “It’s the deepest connection we can have together. In human terms… consider it like a marriage.” Lucas gently kissed Leah’s lips. “You’ll be all mine, love. All mine.”
Leah’s lips were moving even after Lucas pulled away from the kiss. She was in shock. Claiming was like marriage? Or claiming was marriage? She stared at Lucas and watched him finish getting ready for his meeting in the conference room. Judging by the way he had gotten ready, the club would be leaving the clubhouse soon after the meeting to take care of business.
“I’ll have someone take you to your apartment,” Lucas said. “But they’re staying there, okay? Not inside the apartment with you but they’ll watch the outside.”
“Thank you,” Leah whispered.
Lucas moved by Leah and she touched his shoulder. He turned and stared down at her. He looked really hot right now. Leah needed to find the words to ask this next question…
“What’s wrong?” Lucas asked.
“Are you going to… kill…”
Lucas leaned in and kissed Leah again, stealing her last word.
Vince.
That’s what she wanted to ask.
Are you going to kill Vince?
Lucas never answered the question with words, but considering the look in his eyes and the amount of weapons he had on him, Leah wondered if she already had her answer.
Lucas took her through the clubhouse and called up one of the guys in the far corner to accompany Leah to her apartment. Lucas grabbed the guy by his shirt and talked. Leah was too far away to hear but she knew it was Lucas telling the man to keep Leah safe. The man looked at Leah a few times during the conversation. She wondered if she was supposed to feel guilty right now but she didn’t care. If she was that important to Lucas, then so be it. He was going to claim her. Marry her. They’d been connected deeply. She believed in her heart then Lucas would tell her the secrets of becoming a beast, and perhaps she could become one like him.
The man approached Leah and he was huge. Chunks of muscle spilled from his leather cut. The tattoos up and down his arms did nothing to hide his size but rather left Leah amazed that his arms were so big to fit so much ink on them.
“Ride with him,” Lucas said to Leah as he took her hand. “Okay? He’ll keep you safe.”
“You can’t take me?”
“Meeting,” Lucas said. “But I’ll take you later, love. Trust me. We’ll crash at your place tonight. It’s only fair.”
“I love you, Lucas,” Leah said. “I want you to know that. I love you with all my heart.”
Lucas smiled and put his lips to her ear. “I love you.”
He kissed her cheek and broke away, rushing toward the conference room.
“Ready?” the man asked, his voice deep.
Leah nodded.
Before she knew it, she was on the back of a motorcycle, her hands clutched to the sides of the man’s leather, the two wheels moving, taking her to her home. In her heart, she felt as though she had just left her home, leaving the Full Moon Mercy MC clubhouse. Maybe it was time to consider that place her true home.
When she got to her apartment, she got off the motorcycle and the man put a hand out to stop her.
“Hey, want me to check it out for you?” he asked.
“No,” Leah said. “Nobody is in there. Nobody cares.”
“Lucas does. I’ve never seen him… like this…”
“You don’t have to stay,” Leah said. “I’ll be fine.”
“When the VP asks you to protect his woman, you do it,”
the man said. “Now go do what you have to do.”
“Do you need anything?” Leah asked.
“You know what I am?”
Leah smiled and nodded.
It was rare to see one of them eat human food. They feasted like beasts, as needed.
Leah walked away from the biker and went to her apartment building. The moment she touched the main door and pulled a sense of being watched came over her. It reminded her of that night she scrambled to her car, knowing she was going to be killed. That was the night Vince had wanted to take care of her. It made Leah shiver.
She looked back and saw the man staring at her.
That’s all the feeling is.
And that’s what Leah kept telling herself.
When she went to apartment and opened the door, she was hit by an array of smells. There was stale air. Dust and must. A collection of her neighbors’ smells. A plugged in air freshener promising the smell of warm apple pie had since run out, leaving a faint lingering smell of a dirty apple.
Everything in the apartment looked normal, which shouldn’t have come to Leah as the surprise that it did. She went to her fridge and found fruit shriveled and moldy. Her milk expired. The orange juice was coming close to expiring. Of course everything would have spoiled by now, but standing there really let everything sink in to Leah. She went right back to the night she met Lucas. How she barely escaped being shot, running into the arms of a wolf. And that wolf became a wickedly sexy man who wanted her. How the days kept collecting in her life, even though circumstances around her made it seem as though those days were collecting their last few before ending.
Leah closed the fridge and went to her bedroom.
The bed was a mess from the last time…
She bit her lip thinking of that last time she in it.
Leah crashed to her bed and scooped up the sheets and pillows. She held them tight to her body and sniffed.
They still smelled like Lucas.
Leah felt her body reacting. Everything ached for him.
She kept her eyes closed and pictured him. She heard his voice in her mind.
The old smell from the old sheets engulfed Leah’s senses.
Quickly, she slept.
*
The table was full (with the exception of Seth’s vacant seat) and the table was quiet. Lucas finished his smoke and then folded his hands. He looked around at the main table, his truest of brothers. Ian, Zayne, Ethan, Nate. Others, too. Vince was at the head of the table, speaking the perfect part, lowering his voice when needed, making eye contact when the power commanded it.
The words were spoken and Lucas let them flow in and out of his mind. Vince had already told him everything, but Lucas wondered who else at the table knew things. It was no secret that if a club was going into turmoil, there would be a split. That split, however, would more than likely take the club down. Members would fight. Brothers would become enemies. Worse yet, the true enemies would come forward and be ready to pick up the pieces of the club, which meant the entire town of Mercy would be at stake.
Lucas knew it was Vince’s fault for all this. He had been the one who started the war with the Reckingdune crew. It was a shock that they hadn’t retaliated again. It was Vince who wanted Leah dead and set Seth up for it. Seth had become weak and confused and now he was dead. It was Vince who set Zayne off once and for all. And in the background of that, Lucas could only imagine what else Vince had planned without anyone knowing.
“That’s what we know,” Vince said. “It’s time we take care of all this. We’re not getting into bed with the Saal Five, but for the moment, we’re sharing some space. That’s the way we have to look at it.”
Vince stopped and nodded to Lucas.
“He’s right,” Lucas said. “It’s the only way we can finally get to the bottom of all this. We’re in a bad spot. I take the blame for all this shit. I take the blame for burying Seth. I take the blame for the bodies. Everything.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Cooper said.
“I did. I was with Debbie. I felt a connection that wasn’t true. I put all of us in danger. And today, I let my emotions win a battle and I left Vince on his own. He could have been hurt if it wasn’t for Zayne.”
The table remained quiet. Lucas looked at Vince and could almost see the shock coming off his face. Lucas hated this game, but it was about power. He’d get it all from Vince, no matter what.
Ian was the first to raise his bottle. “Let it roll, brother. Don’t think about it anymore. It’s done.”
Lucas nodded. “Thank you.”
The rest of the table raised their bottles and it was Vince who stood. “We all fuck up. All of us. Lucas. Cooper. Zayne. Even me. We all fuck up. What makes us brothers is moving forward. The bottom line is that our brother, Seth, is dead and this is a chance to avenge that death. We take care of this Saal problem and then we take care of the Reckingdune problem. Once that’s done, we settle our debts with the Oreno and we’re back to normal. We’ll defend our town, our home, against all our enemies. I promise you then, we will have a hunt.”
“Yes,” Lucas said. He slapped the table and stood up.
One by one the rest of the table stood. Bullshit aside, they were all close like brothers. Vince was like a father to them and was a father to Lucas now that he claimed him. Lucas knew the rules… his instinct was to protect Vince, but the son could always kill the father.
“Then we do this,” Vince said. “Here’s what I need…” Vince looked around the table. “Nate, Reed, Riley, and Mason. I want you up at Dr. Carane’s place. Me, Lucas, Ian, Cooper, and Zayne. We will go to meet Grunn.”
Vince called the meeting and the room cleared out.
It was time for action.
It was time to end this all.
Lucas stopped at the bar for a shot and watched Vince stand in the doorway to the conference room. He crossed his arms. That was the first time Lucas felt a swell in his heart. It occurred to him he wasn’t just going to kill Vince, the President of Full Moon Mercy. He was going to kill the man who claimed him. The man who was like a father to him.
19
He was on a motorcycle and he hated it. He was going in the wrong direction. He needed to go north. He needed to get his son, his infant, his blood.
His hands gripped the handlebars tight. The rest of the guys around him couldn’t know the truth. He would need to get through his meeting and then he could hurry and get his son. Once he had the newborn, he would take the woman too. She would have a choice. Love him with her body or nourish him with her body. Either way, there would be sex or there would be a meal. It was a winning situation.
Then he would leave this crew, raise the newborn into a child, and that would allow him to walk to any crew and become a member. With a bloodline, he would be at the very least put second in line to a table.
This would work.
The motorcycles all roared as they cruised the streets of Mercy. He smelled the air and thought of the bodies. Killing them brought pleasure. The messages were fun. But it was that instinctive urge to find his son. The mother was supposed to be in Mercy, but she had been hidden. They took the mother and they took his son.
He sped up and cut to the left. The motorcycle growled some more and he was soon next to the President. His President, for now. The man looked at him and nodded. He nodded back.
The motorcycles thundered through the town and once the houses and businesses were off in the distance, it was just valleys and canyons. Open ground. Plenty of places to wage a war, to escape, the get to his son and finally have life in his hands.
They soon slowed and all pulled up in formation.
He stepped off his motorcycle and stood next to the President. He was supposed to be in this position, but he didn’t care. Before anyone could protest, the call of more motorcycles echoed in the distance. Up over a small hill came the enemy.
He knew them all. He’d seen them before. He hated them all. He wanted them all to di
e.
He made fists and felt his lip curl. It was going to take a lot to not shift right now and go after them.
“Hold steady,” a voice said. “We’ll know when it’s time…”
He looked at the President. The man was too old. Grunn was too old to run a club.
That’s when he decided he hated Grunn. He would seek out his own crew someday and kill him.
But first, he had to deal with meeting Full Moon Mercy face to face.
*
Vince had a plan in mind. Show up and raise hell. Keep Grunn and his guys busy while the culprit of all this was going to head up to Dr. Carane’s house, wanting to kidnap the newborn. Vince had already made it clear that when the person shows up, they get a bullet between the eyes. No talking, no waiting. This was a kill mission.
With Lucas to his right, Vince led the way through the north part of Mercy. They were meeting near a wide open clearing. It was deep enough in Mercy that if shit were to hit the fan, Vince could battle and keep it in his territory so there was no dragging other crews into this.
As he came up over a ridge, Vince spotted the group of bikers and felt his body tense up. He wished he were in a semi truck right now. Then he could press the gas pedal and slam through all these pieces of shit. But that couldn’t happen. Things needed to be done with care and respect, for now.
When Vince stopped, the other motorcycles came alongside him. They all stepped off and Vince approached with Lucas close to him.
“Let’s figure it out,” Grunn said, wasting no time. “This needs to end.”
“Tell us what you know,” Lucas said.
“It’s one of mine in the crew. I want to set a trap and catch him. The disrespect to your club will not go without punishment. And we want to find the newborn. It’s only right.”
“You realize what we did for that newborn?” Lucas asked. “One of our brothers lost his life.”
“Sorry about that,” Grunn said eyeing Lucas.
“Stay calm here,” Vince cut in. “What Lucas is explaining is that it’s not that simple to just give up the newborn. Not after all we’ve done.”
The Dark Monster (A Full Moon Mercy Novel) (shifter / MC romance) Page 17
