She’d been standing between me and Dawg, with Duke and Brain slightly in front of us, and she grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. When Dawg stepped forward, too, I realized she had his hand, as well.
“You put my friends down for being criminals, and yet you’re the one looking at jail time. I can’t imagine what I ever saw in you when I look at you now. So when you leave here, do so knowing that I think these men have better morals than you. I think they’re better men, better people, and I trust them with my life but don’t trust you enough to turn my back on you. This is RTMC property and you aren’t welcome here. If you don’t leave, I’ll call nine-one-one and report you for trespassing, and refusing to leave when asked to do so by the property owners.”
He looked surprised, and Brain chuckled. “What, you thought we’d threaten you with physical violence? No, we’re playing by your rules, Pickering. Leave, or face even more legal charges against you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Angelica
I was shaking when we walked back inside, and I had no idea why. Bash asked if I was okay, his arm around my waist, and Dawg took me away from him. He pulled me against his chest, holding me in his embrace, and I closed my eyes and let him soothe me.
“Sit down, Bash,” Dawg’s voice vibrated through his chest and against my cheek. “Hold her in your lap. She did good, now she needs a little TLC.”
“No, you soothe her. I need to go for a ride.”
Something in Bash’s voice told me there was another issue, and I turned my head to look at him. “What the fuck did I do now?”
“You told Brain about Pickering’s dungeon. Don’t like being blindsided by that kind of thing.”
“Fuck, Bash. Brain needed to know in case we could use it to make him look bad. Didn’t think you wanted to hear about my time in Pickering’s dungeon.”
“What I don’t want to happen, is to hear about something else you and Brain have shared that I’m not a part of.”
He slammed out the door, and Duke followed. I slumped into Dawg’s arms and said, “Sitting down sounds like a good idea. I should probably go after him but I’m not sure I have it in me to fight with him right now.”
He sat and pulled me into his lap, and I curled up in his embrace and just let him hold me. He rubbed my arms and back a few moments before saying, “I’ve had occasion to get to know one of the more powerful vampires in our territory. Want me to see if he can break the binding you have with Brain? He isn’t the Master Vampire, but he’s stronger than most who are.”
Honestly? No. Realistically? Probably. I couldn’t exactly say that right now, though, so I said, “I don’t know. The idea of a Vampire in my head creeps me out. I’d rather let Randall try, and I’d be willing to pay him, so there are no favors used up or owed.”
Brain sat down in front of us and said, “What I find so unusual is that Bash is irate because you told me something he didn’t know, and yet he’s fine with Dawg literally taking you away from him so he can hold you… and then he’s good with Dawg soothing you physically while he runs off to have a temper tantrum.”
I felt Dawg shake his head as he said, “Not now, Brain. We can address that another day.”
I suddenly realized everyone in the clubhouse was looking at me in his lap. He hadn’t fucked me yet, though, so I could honestly say, “I haven’t fucked Dawg, guys. He’s mediated a few times, when Bash and I butted heads. He and Bash are close, and I’ve gotten to know him.”
Brain looked back and forth between us, and his gaze met mine as he said, “You need to talk to your dad before someone else does.”
I looked at the floor, and Dawg said, “She’s dealing with enough shit right now, don’t add to it.”
Duke brought Bash back inside several long minutes later, and I walked to him, unsure of exactly how to approach him. “Please don’t be mad. I thought I was sparing you some details you didn’t need to know. I’m sorry.”
“Bend over the pool table. Keep your clothes on. Do you agree to five strokes of my belt?”
My heart went into my throat, and I had to swallow it down to ask, “In front of people?”
“Yeah, Princess, in front of the people who know you shared something with Brain that you kept from me.”
“Three strikes.” I could take three over my jeans and keep from crying. Five? I wasn’t so sure.
“This isn’t a negotiation. Do as you’re told, Angelica.”
“You know my dad’s gonna find out about this, right?”
“You’re daddy ain’t here right now, Princess. We’ll deal with him, likely in a few hours, but we’ll deal with him when he gets here.”
“Might need to deal with him in more ways than one, Brother,” Dawg said, his voice low.
“Then we’ll fucking deal with him. But right now, I’m dealing with Angelica.”
His eyes told me this was one of those huge decisions that would dictate the way our relationship progressed.
Or died.
My telepathic bond with Brain was still a huge issue, and being blindsided like that, with Brain knowing something he didn’t… I could understand why Bash was hurt.
“I’ll do this because I understand why you’re upset, and because I love you, and I’m sorry you’re hurt. I’m also sorry you want to hurt me because I hurt you, but…” I sighed, shrugged. “I’ll do it.”
“Actions speak louder than words, Angelica.” His eyes had softened a little, his voice was a lot calmer, but I could still practically feel him vibrating with… not anger so much as just pure emotion. Bash so rarely showed his emotions, especially in front of his brothers. Damn, I’d really hurt him.
I walked to the pool table, bent over it, and stretched my arms out in front of me, across the table.
“Can you stand still or do you want Dawg to hold you.”
“Whichever will make you happier.”
A few seconds later Dawg had his hands on my wrists. He looked about as happy with the situation as I felt, and I rested my cheek on the table, relieved I could relax a little, knowing Dawg had me.
Bash hit me harder than he’d ever used the belt on me, and if Dawg hadn’t been holding me I’m pretty sure I’d have come off the table after the first strike.
He gave me a dozen seconds before he hit me again, and though tears came to my eyes, I refused to beg him not to hit me so hard.
I was bawling after the third strike, and screaming after the fourth. The last strike told me he hadn’t been using his full strength on me before, and my legs gave out and I would’ve collapsed to the floor had Dawg not been holding my wrists.
Bash picked me up, cradled me to his chest, and Dawg opened doors for us on the way to Bash’s room.
He put me on the bed and kept me cradled against him as he ran his hand through my hair. He didn’t talk, just held me while I cried.
When I finally stopped crying, I asked, “Are you still mad at me?”
“No, Princess. We’re good.”
Dawg sat in a chair and fiddled with something on his phone. Usually, he left when Bash and I had a moment like this, but having him in the room felt right. He’d held my arms down, I figured when Bash and I were okay, he’d want to be sure he and I were okay.
I was surprised when Bash sighed and took his phone out of his pocket, though. It seemed a bad time for him to be making a phone call.
Until I heard my dad answer the phone, and my heart sank into my stomach.
“Bud, I just belted your daughter in the main clubhouse. She withheld information from me, and five strikes was what it took to make things right between us. You and I gonna have a problem?”
“You hit my Angel, with a belt?”
“Didn’t make her bare her ass. Did it over her jeans.”
“She there with you now?”
“Yeah, and you can talk to her in an hour or so, but I don’t think she’s up to it yet. She’s fine, just emotional. I wanted you to hear it from me and not anyone else, though, so I’m calling before she and I�
��ve talked it completely through.”
“She’s crying?”
Bash didn’t say anything, and I heard my dad say, “I’ll talk to her in less than two hours, face to face,” and he hung up.
Chapter Fourteen
Angelica
“I can’t believe you did that.”
“He was going to find out, probably sooner rather than later. Figured it’s best if he hears it from me.”
“There’s something else,” Dawg said, his eyes appraising Bash.
Bash looked at him, and Dawg said, “Brain figured out there’s something between Girly and me. She told him she hadn’t fucked me, and it came off not smelling like a lie, but he knows there’s something goin’ on, and there were a handful of people in the front room when he figured it out.”
Bash snugged me a little closer to him and sighed. “May as well get all the bad news over with at once, and just tell him everything when he gets here. Then we can all stop changing so frequently to hide the scents.”
“Maybe ya’ll should be gone when he gets here,” I told them, “so I can talk to him.”
“No, Princess.” He kissed the top of my head. “You’re mine now, and your dad’s going to have to deal with it. We’ll get it worked out.”
“Fine, then I’m going to change so my ass doesn’t hurt anymore, and then go shopping. If you hurt my dad, I’ll never forgive you, and I’m texting him the same — that if he hurts you or anyone else I care about, I’ll never forgive him, either.”
I went to sit up, but he held me.
I didn’t fight him, but didn’t relax back into him, either. I kept my voice calm as I told him, “I let you spank me because I was sorry I hurt you. You told me it’s over and we’re good. Let me the fuck up.”
“This isn’t about that. I’m not happy about you shopping by yourself.”
“I have to go outside by myself at some point. Maybe I’ve been relying too much on you and the MC to keep me safe. I’ll have my gun, and I’ll be more aware of my surroundings than I was before. I will not, however, stay here and watch you and my dad try to kill each other.”
“Let her go, Bash.”
I felt Bash turn his head to look at Dawg, who explained, “You can’t win this one. If you try to force her to stay, there might not be a relationship to fight her dad over by the time he gets here. She submitted to your belt, but listen to her when she says it was because she was trying to make up for hurting you. She isn’t going to just do whatever the fuck you tell her to do because she’s afraid you’ll spank her if she doesn’t.”
I reached for the waistband of my jeans, worked the button and zipper, and moved to stand again. He let me, but probably only because I was taking my clothes off. Didn’t matter, though.
I stripped and changed, and then jumped up on the bed and snarled at Bash. I jumped down, went to Dawg, and rubbed against his leg. His hand stroked the top of my head, down the side of my neck, and he ran his fingers into the scruff at the base of my neck. I rubbed the side of my face against his leg again, and then walked to the bathroom and used my nose and then the top of my head to push the door closed. I lay in front of it, so no one could easily come in, put my head on my paws, and just let my mind go blank as I enjoyed being a wolf for a little while.
Chapter Fifteen
Bash
I’d had to let her go. When she came out of the bathroom human and got dressed again, she said goodbye to me and warned me again she’d never forgive me if I hurt her dad, kissed Dawg on the cheek and told him to be safe, and left.
I believed Dawg when he told me this was a bigger deal than I realized, though, so I let her go. We’d have to work through everything once I worked it out with her dad.
I didn’t know until later, but Gen and Harmony had been upstairs when she left, and the three of them had decided to go shopping together.
Dawg and I stepped out into the parking lot when Bud pulled in. If we were going to fight, better to do it out here. Some of the prospects closed the gate to the compound, to make sure no cameras picked anything up, and we all moved to the wooded area before we started talking, for more concealment.
“Where’s my daughter?”
“She told me she’d never forgive me if I hurt you, and then she went shopping with Gen and Harmony.”
“You let her leave? With people after her?”
“I can’t make her do anything, Bud. You did good with her — she doesn’t take shit off anyone, including me.”
He crossed his arms. “Tell me what happened.”
“I didn’t know about her telepathic connection to Brain until she used it while we were talking to Marlin.”
His face clouded over and he nodded for me to go on.
“She won’t do a binding with me, says she won’t even consider it for a year.”
“She has every right not to.”
I sighed. “Maybe, but you have to understand, knowing she has that relationship with someone else and not me isn’t sitting too well.”
“Your problem. Still haven’t heard what happened today.”
“She told Brain specifics about her time with Pickering that I didn’t know about. Details about his dungeon. She had a face-off with Pickering today, and I was blindsided by it when Brain threw it in the bastard’s face.”
“And that gave you the right to fucking humiliate her in front of the MC, in the goddamned clubhouse?”
His words hit home. I’d humiliated her, and she’d submitted to it. She knew she’d hurt me, so she let me fucking humiliate her.
Bud saw when I got it, saw me realize what I’d done, and he relaxed his arms and shoulders. I didn’t go off my guard, though. I’d seen Bud sucker punch people, and I didn’t trust the stance, just yet.
“I should’ve handled it privately. Fuck.”
“You need to deal with your own fucked up baggage, and then deal with the fact she has a connection to Brain but she loves you enough to let you fucking beat her with a goddamned belt and make her cry in front of people.”
I saw his fist coming but there wasn’t time to block it or move out of the way, and he didn’t just hit me once — he hit me with a combination that had me reeling before I got my first punch in. I pride myself on the fact I haven’t lost a fight since I was still in single digits, but Bud pounded the shit out of me and I didn’t land anywhere near enough hits on him.
In retrospect, I should’ve expected it. Bud wanted to humiliate me as I’d done to his daughter, and once I realized I’d fucked up, my heart wasn’t truly in it. That being said, I was a bloody mess when he finally backed off. Under other circumstances I’d have attacked again, gotten the upper hand and hurt him… but he’d been right, and I deserved to get my ass kicked.
So instead of popping up and jumping him, instead of pummeling him into the ground, I told him, “There’s something else you need to know but I’d rather talk about it when we don’t have an audience.”
“If you don’t already know what he’s talking about, go in the clubhouse,” Brain ordered. I heard people walking, heard Brain encourage a few more people to go on inside, and I scooted until I was leaned against a tree, my legs out straight in front of me. My left eye was almost swollen shut, the right one fared only slightly better, and most of my face hurt, but I ignored the pain.
Bud sat and leaned against another tree, and I noted I’d gotten more strikes in than I realized. Bud’s nose was clearly broken, and his eyes were in the same shape mine were. He moved his mouth, testing his jaw, and his reaction made me pretty sure I’d fractured it.
I sighed and began my explanation, though. He wasn’t sorry for hitting me, so I couldn’t be sorry for having to fight him back.
“She saw a bunch of threesomes and foursomes growing up. It was a fantasy she never had the nerve to ask for until we got together, and then I helped make it happen. She’s mine, and I’ll only ever allow one other person to touch her intimately.” I shrugged. “Wolves smell every-fucking-thing, so you�
�ll find out eventually even if it’s just from the damned gossip, and I want you to hear it from me.”
His body tightened, prepared to spring up and tear into me again, and I told him, “I was in the wrong before, I’m not now. I won’t let you beat the shit out of me again.”
“Tell me you didn’t let Gonzo lay a hand on my Angel.”
“No,” Dawg said, stepping forward. “She came to me before she talked to Bash about it. She’d seen the two of us working someone over together, before she and Bash hooked up. Long story, and you probably aren’t interested in the details, but she instigated it. We did it to fulfill her fantasy.”
“I fucked up, today,” I told Bud, “and I’ll have to find some way to make it up to her. Still, she’s mine, and always will be. I suck at relationships because I haven’t really been in one since I grew up. I’ve already told her I’m going to mess up, and I’ve asked Dawg to mediate for us more than once, when I knew I was going to screw up.” I looked at Dawg. “You held her down for me. Why didn’t you tell me I was fucking up?”
“You didn’t ask.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, and he said, “I’m not part of your relationship with her. Not sayin’ I’ll always take your side, but in this? You were pissed and hurt, and weren’t going to listen to reason. You asked for my input once before, and I reminded you there’s more than one way to let your wolf assert himself.”
We were all silent a moment as I considered how much I’d fucked up, and what I could possibly do to make it up to her, when Bud said, “Should hit you again for saying you let me beat you.”
I shrugged. “We both need to change before she gets back. She’s gonna be pissed as hell if she sees us.”
“No shit. Got a text from her earlier. You sure she’s safe with just Gen and Harmony?”
I shook my head. “All three of them have guns and know what they’re doin’. They’ll keep their guard up. Harmony’s sharp, and can smell trouble coming from a mile away despite being human. Not sure they’re safe, but your little Angel wasn’t about to let me stop her.”
Bash, Volume III Page 10
