He looked up at Dawg. “Sit the fuck down. You care about her?”
“Not romantically, but we’re closer than just friends. She belongs to Bash.” He leaned against his own tree, slid down it so he was on the same level as us, but he was obviously on alert for Bud to jump him. “You’re taking this way too calm. What’s up?”
Bud shook his head. “She’s my baby, but I raised her around the MC. If this is her fantasy it’s probably my fault. Not prepared to bitch at her about it because she’ll just throw all the times she’s caught me with more than one woman at a time in my face.” He looked at Dawg a few seconds, then back to me. “I find out you’re sharing her willy nilly, we’ll have a problem, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I know you love her, and I get that you’re an idiot and fucked up today. Keep doing it, though, and I’ll give you more than a beating.”
Chapter Sixteen
Angelica
When we returned from our rather extensive shopping trip, the guys were sitting around the clubhouse watching cage fights. My dad saw me and stood, walked towards me, and pulled me into a hug.
I looked around him at Bash, and his nod told me he was good, so I relaxed and hugged my dad, and then let him lead me outside.
“Let’s go to your apartment and talk, kiddo.”
Uh-oh. I couldn’t remember the last time he’d called me kiddo. “Daddy? I’m not a kid anymore.”
“Hellfire, Angel, don’t I know it. But as much as I’d like to pretend you’re still a virgin, I know you’re a woman and I have to deal with it. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to check in with you when I think you need it, though, and I’d rather do it at your apartment than here.”
I already knew there was no way around this, so I merely nodded and got on the back of his bike. All of my purchases were in my car, but they’d be okay until later. I was sure I’d be coming back here after my dad said whatever the hell he needed to say.
He walked through my entire apartment, looking, listening, and smelling, and then sat on my sofa. I sat in my reading chair as he told me, “I can hear most listening devices, even in human form. It’s subtle, and I have to actively try to hear them, but…” He shrugged. “You’re clean. Now, first things first, Bash tells me you’re scared to sleep here, scared to come home. I want to be clear you don’t have to rely on the Chattanooga club for protection. I have a man who needs to stay out of Atlanta for a while, and he’s been spending time at other chapters. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to hang out on your sofa and keep an eye on you. I don’t think you’re staying with Bash for the safety he provides, but if you are…”
I shook my head. “I love him, Daddy.”
He nodded. “Okay, just had to be sure. Second, I’m not going to lie to you — Bash and I tore each other up pretty good, but we changed so you wouldn’t have to deal with it. I have no idea why you agreed to let him take a belt to you in the clubhouse, but I don’t want you agreeing to it again. I’m pretty sure he’ll choose to do that kind of thing in private from here on out, but if he suggests doing it in public, you are not to agree to it. If it happens again where’s there’s an audience I’ll do a whole helluva lot more than fight him over it.”
I was about to express my surprise he’d be okay with it, even privately, when he added, “Don’t like the idea of it happening at all, but I also know I raised you to be headstrong and not take shit off anyone, and I know you and Bash are going to butt heads. Don’t you dare let him abuse you, though. You screw up and it’s what you have to do to make things right? Use your best judgment, but if you disagree with his reasons? You’d best not bend your ass over, Angel.”
I put my head in my hands, and he chuckled. “Tough shit if you’re embarrassed. I didn’t raise a wallflower. What’s up?”
“Girls aren’t supposed to talk to their dad about this shit!”
“And if your mom was here, we’d both be spared. She isn’t, so you’re stuck with me.”
My eyes filled with tears and he motioned me to him. I moved to the sofa and sat beside him, my head resting on his chest. “Are you ever going to get serious with someone else? I know you can’t replace her, but I want you to be happy.”
“Haven’t met anyone else who can hold a candle to your mom, Angel. For years, I said I wouldn’t. Now? It’ll take a helluva woman, but I’m not saying never, anymore.”
While my head was buried and there was no eye contact I asked, “You know about Dawg?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry you saw threesomes, growing up. Makes me feel like I failed you.”
“You aren’t pissed?”
“Not thrilled with the idea, but they said you approached them, and it was a fantasy you’d never felt safe exploring before. Glad you didn’t take risks, glad Bash loves you enough to give it to you. Not sure I could’ve, with your mom.”
“How did you survive? When she died, how did you not just lay down and die, too?”
“If it hadn’t been for you, I’m not sure I would’ve had the strength to go on, to be honest. The drunk driver pled guilty to first degree homicide by vehicle, and went straight to prison in hopes of staying alive, because the cops told him they could protect him in there but he was on his own if he had to wait for a trial. As you probably figured out, we got someone to him seven weeks after he went in, and he died a slow and painful death. Still, it robbed me of doing it myself.”
I knew the guy had died in prison, and assumed my dad had arranged it, but this was the first he’d admitted it. He was quiet several moments and said, “Your mom was my life, Angel. Still miss her every damned day, but life goes on.”
“What if I give myself so completely to Bash, and lose him?”
“I’d rather have had the time I had with her, and then deal with the crippling pain of losing her, than to’ve never had the wonderful privilege of having her — and you — in my life. If you love him, then invite him into your life and treasure every day, kiddo.”
Chapter Seventeen
Angelica
Friday evening I drove to Sequatchie County to meet the other female wolves who’d be running with us this month. One of the women owned a little over one hundred acres, far from civilization — no roads, no jeep trails, and not really any human trails to speak of either. She asked that if we hunted deer, we bring down only one, but she put no limits on small wildlife.
The first month we’d had seven women, and we all brought food to cook the next morning. Charleen, the property owner, lived in a beautiful old farm house, and you could just tell the huge kitchen was the heart of the home.
This month, our second time running together, we once again arrived early enough we could sit, talk, and get to know one another a little more. Charleen’s property was lined with barbed wire on all sides, with signs posting it as private property every twenty to forty yards where the terrain was suitable for a human. However, we’d still stayed mostly to the center of her property last time, and intended to do so again this month.
Charleen had avoided questions about her past before, but now she told us she and her husband had been part of a Pack in upstate New York, and when he’d been killed she’d needed to leave the area because of “a mess of supernatural politics.” She’d decided not to join another Pack when she moved, but to buy a home and raise her family on land they could run on without being bothered. Her kids were grown now, and only her daughter and teenaged granddaughter came home to run. She said the timing for our little group was perfect because she’s ready for more companionship on the full moon but has no interest in joining a Pack. If she were human I’d guess her age at around forty, but she’d told me she’s sixty-eight.
We’d all brought a duffel or backpack, and we stored our clothes in them, and put them on the floor inside the back kitchen door. With the advent of long-range cameras in satellites, the Concilio wants wolves to change under the cover of trees now, so we walked across the yard to the forest before dropping to our knees to let our wolves come out.
With all women and no males, last month our wolves had gotten along wonderfully, with no one feeling the need to fight for dominance. Ten minutes into the run, I relaxed as we all found a rhythm and made our way through the forest at top speed, with all of us once again chilled and not demanding we sort through who was most alpha.
The smells of the forest — the tangy sweet fragrance of the evergreens, the earthy scent of the hardwoods and lichens, the tantalizing smells of small wildlife, and the sounds of deer running away from us in the distance — I was the wolf, and I was at one with the forest. The wolf was part of nature and the cycle of life, and all the human parts of me slid away as we ran under the full moon, its silvery magic influencing the way gravity worked, affecting the sap in the trees, and the minds of every living thing on the planet.
We ran for hours and ate some small game, but didn’t actively seek a deer and none came across our path. We bedded down in an overhang near a creek, and awoke to a rainy, icky day, but I didn’t care in the least. Running in the rain made me feel just as alive as running under the moon had the night before, and the others must’ve felt the same, as we didn’t take the shortest route back to the house. In these woods, we didn’t have to worry about footprints in the mud, and we ran and played and gloried in the cloudy, humid, watery, life-giving day.
When we finally made it back, we changed on Charleen’s porch, and then went inside to put our clothes on. The shift to human gave us dry hair and skin, no sense having to run through the rain as a naked human. With the clouds, it was unlikely a satellite could see us, and besides, we were mostly under the overhang.
We all divvied up the cooking duties and it wasn’t long before we had eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, biscuits, and gravy.
As a group, we agreed to meet in eleven days, on a Wednesday evening, at the RTMC bar for dinner. Duke had told me I could invite them, and that we could use the office to talk and eat.
Chapter Eighteen
Bash
The control room popped open a corner of the television when Angelica pulled onto the lot. I could see a difference in her energy, just in the way she drove her bike and kicked the stand. I met her outside and she ran to me and threw her arms around my shoulders.
“You look happy,” I told her. “How was your run?”
“It was incredible! With all women, the energy is totally different. I felt it last time, but this time it was even better. I guess I can kind of understand why ya’ll want it to be just the men on the full moon.” She went to her tiptoes and I leaned down to accept her quick peck on the lips.
I’d run night before last, so we hadn’t slept together in two nights. “I vote we spend a few hours in bed, and we have more privacy at your place.”
She nodded, and let me hold her as she told me, “I need to start staying at my place. Night before last, in your bed here all night by myself, knowing you wouldn’t be joining me partway through the night kind of highlighted how silly I’m being. It’s way past time for me to get over it. They caught me when I wasn’t paying attention. They won’t do it again.”
I pulled my key out of my pants pocket and told her, “I’ve already put a change of clothes in my saddlebags.”
Traffic was light, and following her was a treat, even if my wolf would’ve preferred to lead. I kissed her the second our helmets were off, and smelled her arousal. She didn’t know it yet, but I’d planned a few days of orgasm denial, and I was going to have so much fun teasing and tormenting her.
I also worried about her having another nightmare, though.
I’d smelled her terror and panic when she’d had the last one and I didn’t want her to have to go through it again. Or me, for that matter. It killed me, knowing this was a battle I couldn’t fight for her.
We weren’t going to go running back to the compound again if she had one, though. We were going to face it head on. Legally, Pickering and a whole bunch of other officials were in deep shit, while Angelica and the MC were in good shape. Her dad had told me she’d had nightmares after killing the man when she was twelve, but she’d remembered them, and he thought if she was having issues dealing with killing the five Disciples now, it would bother her whether she was at home or the compound.
So logically, we needed to make her feel more secure at home. The complex didn’t allow bars on the windows, but I’d had Brain install a top of the line security system over the past couple of days, and I showed it to her as we entered the front door.
“Code is one-five-three-two, it makes a little triangle, and the numbers can’t be tied to anything personal.” I handed her a card that explained the zones, and how to turn off or on specific features. “You’ll want the motion detector and heat sensor on when you’re away, but off when you’re home. There’s an option to pick up motion everywhere except the master bedroom and bathroom, and there’s another keypad in your bedroom so you can make use of it.”
“How much did this cost?”
“Brain got it through Drake, so we got a substantial discount on the hardware, and then he did all of the installation. You won’t have to pay a monthly fee because the feeds go to the RTMC control room instead of the alarm company’s offices. As my ol’lady, and the spot I’ll be sleeping when I’m not at the compound, you’re entitled to free monitoring.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“Nope, and now I want your naked ass in your bed.”
Chapter Nineteen
Angelica
Three hours later, I was so pissed at Bash that thoughts of caving his skull in were beginning to sound reasonable.
A little light spanking, lots of tongue, some fingers, and then he finally fucked me, but he did my ass and he never got anywhere near my clit.
Still, I could’ve come a thousand times — okay, maybe three or four dozen times — except every time I got close, he fucking backed off until it went away.
I was so damned close when he came in my ass, but he held my hands so I couldn’t play with myself, and then wouldn’t even let me pull my legs together, or dry hump him while he recovered from his orgasm. He walked me to the bathroom with him, bent me over the tub, cleaned me up, and then put fucking boxing gloves on my hands, so I couldn’t play with myself.
“You know I can change my hands and get them out, right?”
“If you do anything to intentionally get yourself off, you’ll feel my belt thirty five times. If it’s an accident, we’ll deal with it another way, but if you do it on purpose, you’ll pay. The gloves are so you don’t play with yourself in your sleep.”
Steaming mad, I told him, “I didn’t agree to this.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then take these off my hands and leave me the fuck alone so I can get myself off!”
He gave me a cocky-assed grin and said, “I’ll get you off Sunday night, and it’ll be the best orgasm you’ve ever had. You’re stuck with me until then, though, and I’m going to keep you on edge every minute I can.”
I could still get myself off with the gloves — there was enough padding I could dry hump them, press them into my clit and get enough sensation. Though, I mused… boxing gloves are made for hitting, aren’t they? I looked at him a few seconds, debating, and then decided to go for it. He wanted to be a bully and force rules on me I hadn’t agreed to? Then he’d better be prepared to deal with a pissed-off girlfriend. He’d put boxing gloves on me, so I’d box. Dammit.
I looked to the door quickly, like I’d heard something, and when he looked, I punched. I got three hits in — two of them fucking solid, and then backstepped when he reached for me, then faked with another punch and kicked the shit out of his knee.
I heard muscles and ligaments tearing, heard his cry of pain as he went down, and I turned my back on him and stalked into my living room, too pissed to feel guilty. I changed my hands, let the gloves slide off, and shifted them back until I had fingers to wiggle.
I smelled him changing in the bedroom, and he was in wolf form when he walked into t
he living room. His body language was relaxed, and I didn’t smell anger coming off him, so I sat in my chair, tired, and told him, “I didn’t agree to this.”
Surprisingly, he put his paws in my lap, rubbed his head against my face, then licked my face, gave my ear a small nip, licked it, and then jumped up into the chair with me. He used the bulk of his body to push me to the side of the chair and make room for him, and he finally got comfortable, his head on my leg.
“This your way of us not talking about it?”
He lifted his head, looked at me, and put it back down.
I was still frustrated as hell, but no longer horny, and not of a mind to jill off. I reached to the side table and picked up my e-reader, and read for maybe twenty minutes before sleep hit me enough I thought I could drop off. I was still frustrated, still wished I was horny and could get myself off, but too pissed off to really get myself there again. Bash followed me into the bedroom and jumped up on the bed.
“You gonna sleep in wolf form?”
He ignored me as he got comfortable, and I sighed as I slid between my sheets.
As I turned the light out, I told him, “You’re an ass, but I still love you.”
Chapter Twenty
Bash
I’d had the idea of sleeping with her when I was wolf, in the hopes of waking her before her nightmares got too bad. I hadn’t brought it up because I wasn’t sure it would work, and because I had major plans to put her through orgasm denial, and I needed to be human for that.
But, since I’d had to change to heal my knee, I decided to stay in wolf form and see if I could smell the nightmare while she was having it — should she have one.
Bash, Volume III Page 11
