by James Cox
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2017 James Cox
ISBN: 978-1-77339-149-6
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor: Katelyn Uplinger
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
To Benjamin, for his Octopussy suggestion and the, I'm going with, colorful explanation. Yeah, it all made it into the book.
To Evernight Publishing, for everything you do. I can't thank you enough!
For Jason Momoa. I've been a fan of yours since Stargate Atlantis. Who better to inspire the role of Beast than you. You, sir, are my sexy beast. (Not in the creepy stalker way just a guy who thinks you've got serious acting talent and a nice ass).
SUCK THE SAVAGE BEAST
Sons of Outlaws, 3
James Cox
Copyright © 2017
Origins:
Outlaw, Liam, and Reilly’s kids: Arie and Elric
Mayhem and Torrin’s twins: Roark and Taryn
Deviant and Tage’s kids: Welliver and Lily
Romeo and Justice’s kid: Helrick
Chaos and Beau’s kid: Rain
Grim and Valentine’s kid: Pendergrass
Whip and Harley: No kids
Chapter One
“If you look at the stars on a dark night, there is always the chance that someone, somewhere is looking up at you from another planet,” I spoke quietly as I stared out at the stars. They were painted in the unending blackness along with the beautiful white curve of the moon.
Lily smiled. She was my younger sister, named after our late Aunt Lily who passed away during childbirth. My father, Tage, says that when she died, our other father Deviant lost a piece of his soul.
“I always loved that saying.” I was a scientist and I knew that other planets being occupied was entirely possible. There was also a bit about locking eyes across the universe with your soul mate. That was less likely. I was a scientist after all. Facts were facts. I reached down and grabbed her hand. We had the same colored reddish brown hair and the same bright blue eyes. It wasn’t hard to tell we were related. I stared back at the stars, scattered randomly among the universe and smiled. It was truly beautiful. Even with the danger at traveling at these speeds and the spaceship being less than optimal, the view was worth it. The steel tube we were in hurtled through those dark pockets of the universe for a few hours now. We traveled from Mars, the place we called home, but the planet was dying. Now, we headed toward Earth, our origin planet. We were hoping to create a safe camp for the city of Mars to live in, at least until we found a city that was still intact. There was a sixty percent chance of this mission being successful, which was why my father Deviant and my sister Lily were here. The floor rumbled and I lifted an eyebrow. “This close to Earth, it has a seventy percent chance of being caused by coronal mass injections.”
Lily smiled at my father’s blank expression. “Kind of like a solar flare.”
Deviant nodded but my sister and I exchanged a grin. He was smart but not as intelligent as us.
We all strapped in, along with the seven other members of this team. Recently an Outlaw MC member, Arie, was stuck on Earth for a few days and he encountered several creatures that we hoped to study and learn from. How had they survived on Earth after humans polluted it? It boggled and intrigued me knowing that we would soon be stepping on our original planet. I may be a member of the famous Outlaw MC but at heart, I was a scientist. The spaceship gave another soft vibration and my father grabbed the edge of his seat. His knuckles went white. I don’t know what he was so nervous about. He didn’t know half the ways we could die in here like Lily and I did. It wasn’t just hitting an asteroid. There could be a hull implosion, life support system failures, steering failure, re-entry issues, and those were just the ones off the top of my head. Of course, there was a ninety percent chance I could fix it and eighty percent chance, should I be unconscious, that Lily would be able to save our lives. Ninety was a good number so I arched my body to stare back out the small port window. The stars, consistent and bright, glowed back. The ship gave a lurch that jerked me right out of my wistful mood. It was violent and to the right. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the bright flames start up as we began to enter Earth’s atmosphere. I struggled with my restraint and fell to my knees when I was free.
“Welliver?” My father loosened his grip to follow.
“Be right back. I’ve gotta save us before we all crash and die.”
Lily grabbed his hand and gave me a pointed stare.
I had more important things to worry about then my lack of tact. I stumbled to my feet, staggering like a drunk biker to the stairs that led to the cockpit. “We’re shaking too much. Something’s wrong!” I landed beside the pilot’s seat on my ass as the ship jerked to the left.
“Steering’s fighting me.” Our pilot, MC member Kurt was about five years older than me, white knuckled and breathing heavy.
I whipped my handheld out of my front pocket and used the wire receptor to connect with the ship’s systems. Instantly my screen lit up, giving me specs, information, and warning signs.
“What is it?” Kurt shouted over the rattling around us. His voice deep, masculine, and seriously sexy.
“Landing gear malfunction.” I tapped the commands into the screen, adjusting pressure so the gear would be forced to open. This ship was older than my nineteen years so it was bound to have some issues. “That should do it.” I yelled as the rumble began to soften. “Manuel override and…” I paused. “Fuck it all to Earth.”
“What!” Kurt glanced at me. Black hair fell to his forehead and made him look like he just fell out of bed after a night tussling with another man.
Not now dick, I was trying to save our lives. “Oh, nothing, I may have just killed us all. Don’t worry. I’ll fix it before we run out of oxygen.” He didn’t answer as I brought up the schematics of the ship. “Level out the ship as much as you can. Slow down our speed by half.” I hopped to my feet, tugging the wire free and running to the back.
“We stopped shaking already.” Peter, one of the few non Outlaw MC members stated.
“Obviously.”
“It was a simple re-entry. You’re overcomplicating things.”
I pulled open a wall panel and connected my handheld, bringing the data I needed up. Ignoring Peter and his words of … what was the antonym of wisdom, idiocy. Yeah. That’d fit.
“So why are you looking for a problem?”
“We’re depressurizing.” Didn’t he feel how heavy the air was getting? We had minutes before we asphyxiated or worse, a vacuum that would suck us all out. I jogged to the closed ramp and touched the panel beside it. Warm. Forcing the landing gear must have busted the ventilation.
“Oxygen is low!” Peter said, struggling to get next to me.
“I know!” I knew like three minutes ago. I hit the switch to turn off this panel so we didn’t go up in a fireball.
“So why aren’t we rushing to land?” he asked.
“Stop talking to me!” I shouted. “We have minutes to stabilize this ventilation valve and I’m not wasting my time explaining this to you.” I spoke as I ran to the other panel. I knew what I was doing despite this being my first time flying. I put most of these systems together or I tried
to, resources were limited on Mars. Turning the panel off kept us from the whole fire being bad thing but the oxygen was still dropping. Soon we’d all slump over and die gasping. Wasn’t that a cheery thought? I moved to the floor panel that was between a tightly packed row of hover bikes also making this trip. Peeling it opened showed me the issue, the pressure equalization valve. The damn thing had a loose seal.
“We have to replace that,” Peter said as he crawled toward me, everyone was taking deep breaths, feeling the effects.
It was getting hard to breathe. I didn’t have the patience for people like him. People in general. “Dad. Gun.” A moment later the weapon flew through the air. No, I didn’t catch it, but I snapped it up and aimed above the seal.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Peter shouted, lunging at me and flinging his dark, curly tail of hair over his shoulder.
Let me make this clear. I was a scientist first but an Outlaw MC member second. I slid my foot out from under me, which shoved me off balance and into the perfect angle to plant my sole into Peter’s chest. Air whooshed out of his lungs and he fell back. I shoved the gun into position, doing the math in my head to calculate how far away the shot needed to be for the desired effect.
“He’ll kill us all!” Peter shouted.
And I pulled the trigger. The bullet, this close, sent heat along the cap, melting the edges nearly instantly. The bullet itself lodged in the thick underbelly of the ship and the oxygen that had been seeping out of the ship through this valve started filling the cabin. “The hull down there is strong enough to withstand the heat of reentry into another planet. A bullet isn’t going to do shit.” But it sent a jolt of heat over my hand that I’m pretty sure singed my arm hair. “The cap melted from the explosion and that sealed it so the oxygen can get to us.” I retrieved my handheld then gave the gun to my father. “You’re welcome for saving your life.”
“Peter.” Deviant placed the gun in the holster at his hip. “Don’t get in his way again.”
I sat back in my seat and saw the intense flames begin to die down. It was replaced by white puffy … clouds. Yeah, they were clouds. They didn’t exist on Mars. I know they were just a collection of tiny water droplets that were so light they floated but they were still beautiful. A moment later we started a soft descent, under them.
Earth.
Chapter Two
“Those valves have to be replaced before this ship is flown again,” I said once we landed with a soft thud. Kurt was a hell of a pilot as well as being the sexiest Outlaw I knew. “The seal will probably hold up for low flying but anything above … say … twenty thousand feet is no good.” The ramp clanked nosily as it began to open.
Sexy Kurt started to untie the hover bikes and my gaze strayed in his direction. I blushed when he glanced over his shoulder. Without checking his reaction, I looked back at the ramp that was now halfway open. My mouth dropped open.
“It’s so…” Lily began.
“Alive.” I finished. Arie, the MC member that was accidentally sent here a few days ago, said it was lush but this was intense. I’d never seen green like this. It was vivid and abundant. The ramp landed and no one moved. Caution vanished as I stepped down and inhaled that fresh air. Normally, I’d be putting up sensors and checking the situation in case I needed to do some major ass saving but I was swept away by my first look at Earth. Dirt was packed under my boots and I reached out to touch it, my palm flat on the ground. The scratchy dirt was brown, such an odd color and it was as coarse as the stuff on Mars. I stood up and walked toward a small bush that we nearly landed on. The colors! You’d think I’d been color blind all my life after seeing this.
“What happened to being careful?” Deviant asked, as he rushed to stand beside me. He had his weapon out, eyes scanning the area.
“Right.” I pulled out my handheld. “No radiation, or dangerous gases in the air. The oxygen level is nearly twice that of Mars filters so it may feel strange to breathe in until your body gets used to it,” I said loudly so the entire crew could hear me. The fence was rusted and old. A section of it was on the ground, no two sections. “We have to secure that before nightfall.” According to Arie, those octopus creature things come out when the sun sets.
“We’re on it,” Kurt answered.
The old prison from my father’s era was behind our ship. It looked half collapsed from this angle. Several spots of the roof were caved in. I highly doubted that it was secure. “Peter, check out the cave, take samples, readings, and assess the structure.” I hid my grin but my father openly smiled.
“Lily, you and I are going to start to fix this ship.” We needed to get it set for the return journey. Not that any of us were going home but for a new shipment of people from the city. Mars was really dying and our only chance was returning to Earth. I was hoping for the best and mentally preparing for the worst. Surprisingly, this made me optimistic.
“I’ll radio home and fill them in on the events,” Deviant said, lowering his gun but not putting it away.
“Tell Dad I said hi.” My other father was still on Mars, Tage. He wasn’t exactly the rugged type. An expedition to him was a trip to the store at night. I rolled my eyes and took another look around. I hadn’t noticed it before but Earth was pretty noisy. Creatures flew through the sky, small things that I recognized as birds from history lessons. They were more colorful than the images I’d seen.
“That was mean.” Lily settled next to me, her eyes on our new home.
“What was?”
“Sending Peter in there by himself.” She glanced pointed at me.
I grinned. “I am, after all an Outlaw.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m tougher than you.”
I didn’t say anything because she wasn’t exactly wrong. I wasn’t the gun totting, kick ass with just my fists, type of guy. The only reason Lily wasn’t an Outlaw was because the club didn’t take females. I reached out and pinched her arm.
“Ow!”
With a grin, I took off toward the ship. “Tougher than you? No. Smarter? Yes!”
****
One new thing about Earth was also the temperature. Damn, it was hot. Sweat was beading my forehead and dripping down my back, soaking into my shirt. Lily and I had been working on the ship for hours now. Rerouting the broken, replacing what we could and generally making this thing safe for space travel. I could hear the guys outside working on the fence. Apparently, it’s in pretty bad shape but they used wenches from the ship to hoist and secure it. Tonight would be interesting, but I doubted those creatures that Arie told us about would be strong enough to break through. Still, I had a backup plan in case they did. When you plan ahead, shit never goes wrong, just in different directions. There was a thump on the ramp and I fell to my ass to see.
“The cave isn’t safe,” Peter mumbled, his hair wet, mud streaked his clothes and was that a cut on his arm?
I had to squeeze my hands into fists to keep from laughing. “Good to know.”
He scowled at me then sat on the bench to retrieve our medic box. Peter pulled out a disinfectant cleaning rag as I went back to work. It wasn’t long before the strong smell of fire drifted into the ships cabin. Oh, food! “I’m starving.” I hopped up with more pep than I had a minute ago.
“You’re always eating. We had protein squares on the way here,” Lily said, brushing damp hair off her forehead.
“Brain food. I need more than you do.” I grinned and I walked out of the ship. She threw the light weight, pointed tool at me and I leaped the last few feet nearly falling on my face. “Very mature, Lily.”
Her reply was an insulting finger.
“Showing your age, Lily! You can’t even curse can you? Too naughty for you?” I teased as I turned back toward the crackling fire. A savory smell was filling the air that made my mouth water and catching sight of Kurt naked wasn’t exactly helping me. I think drool was close at hand. But damn, he was gorgeous. He was all lean muscle and pale skin. He had a giant tattoo of our Outlaw logo
on his back and this time there was drooling involved. I licked my lips and stumbled toward the fire. “Food done?”
Deviant grunted.
“What?”
“You always turn up when there’s food,” Lily said from behind me. “It’s the only way we get you out of your laboratory at home.”
“Is not!” I sat on a log, one of four that they arranged around the roaring fire. Smoke billowed into the air and it was a sight. Trees were so rare on Mars that burning them had been deemed a crime years and years ago.
“It’s not done yet.” Deviant grabbed a container of water from beside him. “Give this to the guys.”
Manual labor. I rolled my eyes. “Fine.” At least I’d get to talk with Kurt. The sun was starting to fall but the clouds had gone. It was still bright when I handed the water over and waited for all the other crew members to drink. The food did smell good even though it would probably just be more protein squares. They weren’t everyone’s favorite but I didn’t mind them. Weird I know.
“Water?” Kurt smiled, looking like a God with his shirt off, muscles bunched and sweat dripping.
“Hey. Hi.” I handed him the container. My gaze strayed to his lips as he placed it against them. Water dripped out the sides of his mouth and rolled down his neck. Kurt’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he drank his fill.
“That’s damn good,” he muttered as he lowered the drink. “Thanks.
I blushed hard, looking away. “You’re welcome.” I cleared my throat. “How’s the fence looking?” There you go, Welliver, think about survival and percentages not Kurt’s lips.
He frowned briefly before staring up at the reinforced barrier that was supposed to keep the nasty beasts out. “It’s old, rusted in some places. I think with the support it’ll hold against an attack.”
