Ghost: The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8

by Blevins, Candace

  I knew my brothers were worried about Tiny. He’d closed in on himself. He rarely spoke, and he’d been pulled off patrol duty because he used his fists to settle things as a first option.

  He’d been working in the kitchen at the bar because he’d been too heavy-handed while bouncing, too.

  Tonight was supposed to be about us helping each other heal, but I wasn’t sure how to help Tiny. Gonzo and I were having to walk through fire to get there, but we were slowly getting Constance and Hailey back.

  Sheila was gone.

  I didn’t expect to see Bud and Bubbles, but it felt right to have Bud with us.

  Some nights are just an awesome run, while other nights are sheer magic. Magic doesn’t even begin to describe the energy, power, and camaraderie of our run on this night. Our women are more of the fabric of our club than I think any of us realized. Gen is our Duchess, Constance brought Gonzo peace, Angelica completes Bash in a way none of us expected, Gabby and Horse together give me goosebumps sometimes.

  We may be a brotherhood, but the women are part of our lifeblood, and the OKM had bled us by hurting them.

  This run let us be a unit again. We’d come through the fire together, and we’d survived a nightmare. We’d pulled together the core group of us for the actual full moon, and made arrangements for trusted friends to watch our interests. It’d been important, so we made it happen.

  Bubbles was one of the Atlanta enforcers, and I wasn’t sure why he’d come with Bud, but we all knew him and liked him, so it worked out. It wasn’t until breakfast the next morning that Tiny told us he was moving to Atlanta, and Bubbles was coming here.

  * * *

  I was exhausted when I pulled into Bran’s driveway around noon the next day, but more at peace than I’d been in a long time.

  I heard a piano as I turned my bike off, but it was too much to hope it might be Hailey.

  I hadn’t heard anyone playing the grand piano since I’d been here, though.

  The butler let me in with a smile and a bottle of cold beer on a tray, and I said, “Thanks, Ferguson.”

  “Of course, Master Ghost. I believe you’ll want to go to the great room. Miss Hailey has been blessing us with her talent for some time now.”

  Bran had guards at every exit to the room, and a snake handler behind her with a snake catcher, but Hailey was so into her music, she didn’t care.

  She knew when I entered the room, but she didn’t glance up until she’d finished the piece. I opened my arms to her and she came running to me. Every guard went on alert, but she was fine.

  She’d fight anything she had to if it meant she could play.

  “I love you so much,” I told her as I stroked her hair. “I take it you’ve had a good day?”

  “This is the first time I can remember not having either you or Viper here for this long. Bran worked with me so much last night, and it’s a good thing he can black out those huge windows, otherwise there’s no way I could be in here during the day.” She turned in a circle and came back into my arms. “He sent all the humans away, and let me walk around outside last night! And then brought me through the house, and I saw the piano and started playing.” She showed me her hands. “They’re perfect, and I don’t get tired. I could play forever!”

  Bran eyed the two of us a second before saying, “I believe she’s up for a trip to your room if you aren’t too tired. We’ll keep some guards outside your door in case there’s trouble, but you might see how things go?”

  I’d asked him last week when it might be safe for me to try more than a friendly kiss again. Every time I’d gotten her horny, she’d either been overtaken by bloodlust or had turned into the rattlesnake.

  I knew she’d been working with a vibrator on her own, figuring out how to let pleasure take her over without losing control of her humanity. Bran had counseled against doing anything more than cuddling — did he think she was ready for more?

  * * *

  “Bran has an entire library of sheet music, and I’ve been playing for over ten hours!” Hailey told me on the way to my room, but then clarified with, “Minus time for me to stop and snack on the guards, but I told him when I needed blood — well before I went out of my mind with hunger — and then I minded my manners and was all neat and tidy, so Bran let me go back to playing!” She held her hands up, her fingers splayed. “They aren’t at all tired!”

  “Stay in the hallway until I’m sure the blinds are pulled.” Someone had closed them, and I motioned her in. “You’ll have to see the view later. Bran doesn’t do anything halfway.”

  She looked around and shook her head. “No, he doesn’t. He put you in a gorgeous room.” She looked towards the ensuite bathroom and said, “Oh! He said I can swim tonight. Do you want to swim with me?”

  “I’d love to. If I’d known a night without either Viper or me would do this much good, I’d have left you alone with Bran months ago.”

  She shook her head. “It wouldn’t have worked until now. I was ready for what he taught me. It still isn’t easy, but as long as I stay strong, I can maintain my humanity.”

  “Bran says he wants us to go a few weeks without you feeding from me.” I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but he was the vampire expert.

  She nodded. “I know. I’ll miss it, but he says it’s important.”

  She twirled, and her dress bloused around her. “After being naked so long, it feels odd to wear clothes again.”

  “You know how much I like unwrapping presents.”

  I let a little lust out, and I don’t know if my scent or my words set her off, but suddenly she was oozing arousal, and I leaned down to kiss her.

  She opened for me, so sweet, so easy… until she wasn’t. I turned her away from me, pushed her forward onto the bed, planted my knee in the small of her back and held her hands high on her back. “Who’s in control, Hailey?”

  She took a few deep, slow breaths before saying, “I’m okay. Can we try again?”

  “If you bite me, I’ll spank you.”

  “There’s no way in hell I’ll stay human if you spank me.”

  “Then we’ll have to work on that, but for now…” I let her up, turned her around, and kissed her again.

  I’d been gentle before but I wasn’t now. My wolf wanted to show her who was in charge, and it flipped a switch in her because she melted into me, submitting to the kiss. I walked her backwards, pushed her to the bed, and slid my hand up her leg. She didn’t have underwear on — she wouldn’t want to be twisted up in clothes if she turned into a snake.

  I’d like to say the first time we had sex after her transformation was sweet and gentle, and it reaffirmed our love.

  The truth though, is that I fingered her to the edge of an orgasm, stood and pushed my pants to my thighs, pulled her to the edge of the bed, and fucked her so hard we’d have broken the bed if a vampire hadn’t bought extra-strong furniture for his guests to fuck on.

  I didn’t get her off. I was afraid she’d lose control if I let her orgasm, so I edged her and backed off, edged her and backed off, and then threatened to take my belt to her if she kept complaining. For whatever reason, my dominating the hell out of her was working, so I kept at it.

  When she’d told me about dying, she’d admitted one of her last thoughts was that I’d never fucked her ass and now I never would. I flipped her over, lifted her by the hips, and aimed my cock at her ass. She squealed as I went in, but my cock was soaked from her pussy juices so I kept at it. I turned my head towards the door and said, “If someone could bring me some coconut oil, and Hailey a snack for when we finish, that’d be great.”

  I was all the way in when one of the guards brought me a small tub of coconut oil. I smelled a female bobcat in the hallway, and nodded to him. “Thanks, I’ll let you know when to bring her in.”

  I got my cock slick and thrust hard, deep. A cry full of emotion tore from her throat and she grabbed the sheets — helpless, suspended, pinned.

  “You won’t come until
I give you permission. Stay human and you’ll get your fill of bobcat straight from the tap. Lose control and you’ll get cold, bagged human blood from the refrigerator.”

  * * *

  Hailey

  I’d smelled the bobcat when the door opened, and my mouth was watering for her. Knowing she was mine if I stayed in control helped. I focused on my hands, my breathing, and then the stretch as Dare pulled out and plunged into my ass once again.

  “I love you.” I was so full of emotion, so close to losing control, but my love for Dare trumped everything. He was giving me what I’d wanted, what I thought I’d never get, and he wasn’t making me wait for it.

  “Love you, too. Fuck, but your ass is tight.” He groaned and pumped faster, and all I could do was try to breathe as the sensations overwhelmed me.

  I reached for my clit and he popped the side of my ass. “Hands where I can see them.”

  “You sound like a damned cop.”

  He let his cock go wider. “You’re being awful cheeky for someone with a cock up her ass.”

  I squealed and tried to move away from him, but he had me by the hips and I couldn’t escape.

  “Tell me what you want.”

  “Exactly what I have, just maybe not so big around?”

  He chuckled and fucked me harder, and it’s possible he made himself a tiny bit smaller because it suddenly worked for me and I was millimeters away from an orgasm once again. The next thing I knew, a naked leg was in front of me, a juicy artery just below the surface.

  “Come for me, Hailey, and if you stay in control she’s yours — but you’ll have to make her feel good and mind your manners.”

  If I was happy when I bit her, the bite should feel pleasurable, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

  Dare moved faster as he grunted, “Play with yourself. Get yourself off.”

  Three strokes and I was coming. If Dare hadn’t held me up I’d have fallen to my stomach, but he didn’t slow down even a little. As my orgasm faded I zeroed in on the leg, and the guard pushed her closer to me. I smelled her fear and determined to make this good for her.

  My teeth slid in and Dare slowed his pumping. I heard the girl groan, I smelled her lust, and I pulled her blood into my mouth and down my throat. I was careful not to take too much, though it isn’t as big of a deal with shapeshifters since they can change and replenish. I licked her wounds so they’d heal without her having to change, and glanced up as Bran lifted her from the bed. He cradled her in his arms as he told me, “You did well.”

  Dare growled from behind me. “I’m still finishing up, if ya’ll don’t mind.”

  I squealed as his cock grew thicker in my ass, and he pulled out and slammed home.

  I don’t remember anything else, because Dare made sure I could only focus on the things he was doing to me. I thought I’d been exhausted and couldn’t possibly orgasm again, but I’d been so fucking wrong.

  When he finally came deep in my ass, we both collapsed onto his bed, and I’m pretty sure I fell straight to sleep.

  * * *

  I woke in my cell, on my mattress, but Dare was behind me this time, his arm over my waist.

  No one had slept with me since my transformation. People had been outside my cell as I slept, but I hadn’t awakened in anyone’s arms in so long, and my heart ached at all the time I’d lost with Dare.

  “Why so sad?”

  “You’re locked in a cage, Dare. I don’t know what it cost you to come to terms with it, but I’m so sorry.”

  He kissed the side of my neck. “You’ve mostly cured my claustrophobia. I should be thanking you.”

  I smelled truth, but I also smelled the memory of pain and panic.

  “I’m going to gain control so we can go home.”

  “You’re already ahead of schedule. There’s no rush.”

  “I’ve missed waking up with you, and I know why I have to stay in this cell, but I’m so damned tired of it.” I sighed. “Also, I want food. Bran says it’s because I’m in the habit of eating, and it’ll just make me sick, but I’m craving a fried egg and cheese sandwich.”

  He stuck his nose in the crook of my neck and breathed in. “You smell more snake than Lugat right now. Let me go talk to the cook and explain how you like them, and we’ll see how you do. If you get sick then at least we’ll know, right?”

  I looked at the clock on the wall outside my cell. “It’s only nine thirty. God, we only slept four hours.”

  He chuckled. “Viper goes nocturnal during the hottest summer months, but sleeps like a human the rest of the year. Your snake and vampire are in agreement about being up at night right now, but you fought them and stayed up to play the piano yesterday.”

  He slid into his underwear and jeans, and a guard stepped around a corner to let him out of the cell. He was okay in my cell, but he knew someone would let him right out. Still, he couldn’t have been locked in at all before, so he was better.

  But I wasn’t getting out. I’d fought them in the beginning, but now I knew the way to eventually get out was with good behavior.

  When I lost it, Viper sometimes turned rattler and bit me, and damn a rattlesnake bite hurts. Dare usually held me down until I relaxed and re-centered, and then we’d talk about where I went wrong.

  But when Bran was in charge, he used his whip when I got out of line. I know he and Dare fought about it at first, and Bran had basically said tough shit. Eventually, Dare changed his mind about the whip, but I almost always had either Dare or Viper close and I was rarely left alone with Bran.

  It couldn’t be helped during the full moon this month, though. The club wanted the majority of the wolves to be able to run together, which meant all non-wolf brothers had to patrol their territory or man the working-girls, while employees worked at the restaurant.

  Bran had reached for his whip once that night, but I’d gone to my knees and shown control and he hadn’t used it. The rest of the evening, I’d learned so much. It’s like everything finally clicked.

  My stomach growled when Dare stepped in with the sandwich. “Let’s try water with it and see how you do,” he said as he settled a flexible plastic glass beside me. The sandwich was wrapped in a fancy napkin. Apparently I couldn’t be trusted with actual dishes.

  I groaned as my teeth sank into the bread. The warm cheese, the mayonnaise, the egg yolk spread on the bread. It was perfect. Divine.

  Bran came down as I was finishing, opened my cell door, and sat in one of the recliners outside my cell.

  “This changes everything,” he said.

  “I’m not sick.”

  “I know.”

  He sounded so sad, and I smelled something close to misery coming from him. “What’s wrong?”

  “As long as you were drinking only blood for nourishment, I didn’t have to report anything. I know Viper has gone against tribal law by not telling the Elders about you, but I’ve been skating the line of staying technically legal.” He sighed. “I worked for the Concilio for centuries, and I’m still brought in as a consultant. You now qualify as a new species, and they have to be notified.”

  “What will they do? Why is this bad?” And why did he look so sad?

  “I don’t know, and I can’t research to see if this has happened before until I’ve made a formal report.”

  “Is it possible she’ll be less Lugat when she’s eaten? She smells more snake now.”

  “I’ve noticed. She’s also warmer.”

  I looked from Bran to Dare, and back to Bran. “I feel more in control. I feel more human. I’ve been feeding the vampire but not the other parts of me. I believed you, and I shouldn’t have.”

  “You don’t know to be afraid of the Concilio,” Dare told me. “They’re this all-powerful council who can do whatever the fuck they want with us. When I was growing up, one of the wolves was hit by a car and he changed in front of humans. The Concilio didn’t just step in and clean all the human’s memories and then kill the wolf to make their point. They took him a
way for six days, and then sent him back to us for three months. He was like a robot, doing only what he’d been told to do by his new masters. He awoke, went to his job, came home, ate dinner, went to bed. He answered questions but didn’t initiate conversation. His memories were intact, but his personality was no longer functional.” Dare shuddered. “They’re very good at making their point. It’s better to die than to face the Concilio, because there are many fates worse than death.”

  Bran nodded. “Slavery amongst supernaturals is seen as normal. Survival of the fittest. Unless you live in The Abbott’s territory, there’s nothing wrong with taking another supernatural for a slave, and there are many Concilio personnel who are in it for no other reason than to gain powerful slaves.”

  I pulled my legs to my chest. “Okay, now you’re scaring me.”

  Bran looked to Dare. “If the MC has any markers they can call in for Aaron Drake or Abbott, you should talk to them about doing so.”

  Dare was sitting beside me on the mattress, and now he kissed my forehead and stood. “I’ll ride down the mountain and talk to Duke and Brain, see who we can round up.” He looked to Bran. “I assume I have at least a few hours?”

  He nodded. “I’ll work with her on a few things she’ll need to know before I make the phone call to initiate everything.”

  “I want to be here when you do, so please give me a thirty-minute warning.”

  Bran nodded, and Dare left.

  “First things first, today is your twentieth day on this mattress, and it’s still intact so you’d have been moved today anyway.” He stood and said, “Follow me.”

  He took me across the main area of the house and down a flight of stairs I hadn’t seen yet. The first doors were, well, doors. Not jail cell doors, but regular wooden ones.

  After the first ten wood doors, I saw jail cells again, but there were bedrooms behind the bars.