Chapter Two
Maverick “Viking”
I feel the rage consume me as the one woman I have ever loved walks out of my life.
My brothers hold me down as I try to go after her to plead for a chance to make it right, or chain her to me so she can never leave me. Honestly, both options sound good at this point.
When I finally give up and settle down, my brothers finally let me go. I’m nothing but a mess on the ground.
“She left,” I rasp as my heart starts shattering in my chest.
“I know, brother,” Rage says lowly.
“She left,” I repeat. I can’t believe that she’s gone.
“It’s for the best,” someone says, which makes me angry all over again.
“How is it for the best that my wife left me?” I ask before standing up and looking around the room at all of my brothers.
They are blocking all the exits now, making it clear that they agree with her.
“I thought you guys were my brothers. What the fuck are you doing keeping me from my wife?” I snarl.
Prez walks up. He has a look on his face that I don’t recognize.
“We are your brothers. As you pointed out, Anastasia has your patch which means she’s family too. We vowed to have her back when she put that on; even from you. She doesn’t want to be around you right now. Think about why that is and if there is any way you can save your marriage,” he tells me.
“She’s my home,” I rasp.
I hear a scoff and look over to see Ice; the man who was having lunch with my wife before all of it went to hell.
“Say what you want to fucking say, brother, ” I growl at him.
“I think if she was your home, you wouldn’t have treated her like shit. Fuck, I have only been here for a few months and can see how sad that woman is, which is why I decided to be her friend. I had no other intentions,” he shouts at me.
“A friend? I see the way you look at my wife!” I shout back.
He shakes his head. “I’m not blind. Heck, I’m sure all the brothers would agree that your wife is fucking gorgeous, and you were one lucky son of a bitch to have her. I still wouldn’t move on a brother’s wife. I just wanted to make a sad woman smile once in a while.”
I look at my brothers who reluctantly nod their heads.
“I just want her back,” I choke out.
“I get that, brother. Things need to change though. Did you know that I have been coming here once a week for months to have supper with her? Today was the first time you noticed. What does that tell you?” Ice asks, looking me straight in the eyes.
“That long?” I ask in disbelief. I had stopped checking on my wife after saying those words to Rage that I instantly regretted.
I had my reasons; but that’s not something I can deal with right now.
He nods his head. “Yeah, that long. I’ve fixed random shit around the house when something was broken. I asked her once how come she never got you to fix it, and she said you were never home. She couldn’t recall the last time you were actually here, so there was no way for you to see what needed repair, and she didn’t want to bother you.”
I didn’t think I could have felt any worse than I already did, but those words hit me again hard.
My wife has been having another man fix up our house. Fuck, I try to think of the last time I was here, but I can’t remember. I spend every night at the club.
I haven’t fucked around on my wife; I just didn’t know how to get us out of this shit we were in. Well, I knew how; I could have told her the truth, but I was worried that the truth would make her run.
It came to the point now where she was asking for help from someone else when I told her she could always count on me.
She doesn’t even talk to her family anymore. They basically disowned her when she married me. I wasn’t ever going to fit into their picture-perfect life, but Anastasia didn’t care. She loved me and that was all that mattered.
I’d love nothing more than to follow her, but I know everyone is right. I need to figure out my shit and how I am going to fix this before I try to find her.
I need to be the husband I used to be. I need to do it because it’s taking away the only woman I have ever loved.
“Brother, you have done a lot of shit over the last year or two. You know this isn’t going to be a simple flowers and apology kind of thing, right?” Rage says before patting my back.
I nod my head. “Fuck, I know. I have a lot of shit to make up for. This shit ends now. I need to deal with what’s going on in my head.”
Some of the brothers file out when they can see that I’m not going to chase my wife or lose it any more than I already have. When they leave, Prez, Rage, Ice, Knuckles, and Rock are sitting with me. Rock goes over to the kitchen to grab some beers. When he comes back, he shakes his head.
“There are only coolers in there,” Rock says with a shake of his head. Ice hands him a beer from the six-pack sitting beside him.
“She didn’t have a reason to keep beer stocked,” I mutter quietly, but I know they all heard me.
“Talk to us, brother. ‘You want to tell us why you have been an asshole to your wife?” Knuckles asks while getting up to grab a cooler, since everyone else grabbed the beers Ice had brought.
We all look at him. “What? It ain’t beer but, fuck, it still does the trick.”
I shake my head with a small smile. “I just had a bunch of shit going on in my head.”
“Not good enough, brother. This shit is obviously eating you alive, so tell us what has been going on,” Knuckles says.
“Start with why you are always checking out club whores. Because we aren’t the only ones who have noticed that shit,” Rock says.
I look over at my brothers and can tell they are ready to accept anything that I tell them, but could I really tell them something like this? Will they still accept me?
“Fuck,” I whisper.
“You want to cheat on your wife? Is that it?” Ice asks, looking like he’s ready to hit me if that is the case. I could tell he does care about her; just how much does he care about her?
I shake my head and blow out a breath. Here goes nothing. “I have never looked at or wanted another woman.”
The room goes silent. I drop my head and stare at the floor.
“I don’t understand. You are always watching the club whores getting fucked by a brother,” Knuckles says loudly.
The room is silent for a few minutes, and I feel everyone’s eyes on me.
“He wasn’t watching the club whores,” Ice says lowly. I squeeze my eyes shut imagining the angry, hateful, or disgusted looks from my brothers.
“Brother,” my Prez says softly.
“Tell us,” Rage says.
“I wasn’t looking at the club whores. I was looking at my brothers,” I rasp.
“How long have you been keeping this in?” Rage asks and, when I don’t hear any hate in his voice, I finally look up at my brothers.
They all look at me with acceptance and understanding. “I don’t know when it all started. I love Ana very much, and I want her, but a part of me can’t help but wonder what it would be like to experience all of that with a man. When those thoughts came, I was pissed at myself for looking at someone else other than Ana. I felt guilty and could barely look at her. So much so that it created a distance between us that I couldn’t fix.”
“You should have talked to your wife. Ana isn’t the type of person to leave you because of that,” Rock says.
I nod my head. “I know. She has never been that way. She’s accepting of everyone.”
“Why did you say all that shit about being tempted, and Ana letting herself go? Because, brother, that shit was cruel,” Rage says angrily.
That makes me smile that he’s mad at me for that. I know all my brothers will always have my wife’s back.
“I said all that shit because I was just trying to make sure none of you suspected that I was really looking at men. I wanted to keep everyone off my game. What I said was fucked up, and I regretted it the second I said it,” I tell them with a sigh.
“Do you know how you are going to fix it?” Ice asks.
I shake my head. “Not a fucking clue.”
I do know that I will do everything it fucking takes to get my woman back.
I’m not complete without her. I already feel the loss inside of my chest.
Levi “Ice”
Watching my brother struggle is hard. I knew from the moment I first met him what he was hiding from everyone.
I came to party at this chapter often. It was one of my favourite places to visit so, when I knew I was ready to transfer, this place was at the top of my list.
I knew I liked men and women just like Viking did, but it was something I didn’t hide from. My brothers at my old chapter knew right away. I made sure everyone knew in case anyone had a problem with it. Thankfully, not many had.
It was one of the reasons a lot of my relationships ended, or that I didn’t take an Old Lady. It was because I knew that being with a woman wasn’t going to be enough for me. There is always a part of me that will crave what a man can give me.
I’m not sure the brothers at this chapter know that about me. I only know Prez does because it was the first thing I told him when I requested the transfer.
Viking had been looking at brothers even when they weren’t fucking someone or getting their cock sucked. I honestly don’t know how no one caught on. It was pretty fucking obvious to me.
Heck, I had seen him looking at me even, but I welcomed those stares. Even when I knew I couldn’t have him.
Anastasia and Viking are a very attractive couple. Even though I wanted them both, I meant what I said; I was only trying to be a friend. Ana was a woman who needed one, and now Viking needs one. I’ll always be their friend if that’s all they ever need.
Hopefully I can help them work this out. I can tell how much they love each other. They had just lost themselves and forgot how to be husband and wife. They are both going through pain and have gradually lost their ability to communicate with one another. The more Viking pulled away, the more Ana would too.
I order some more food since the Chinese isn’t enough to feed everyone; especially when I see Knuckles’ hand sneak towards my plate.
“Fuck off,” I grumble before slapping it away and resuming eating.
“Fuck that looks good, brother. I’m starving,” he whines.
“I just ordered some more for everyone. You can wait,” I snap. No one touches my food.
“Fine. I’ll go get some actual fucking beer. If I don’t come back, that means I died from starvation,” he says with a dramatic sigh.
I shake my head. Fuck that guy is always entertaining.
“I think that before you follow her and grovel, you need to fix up this fucking house. I have done shit here and there, but that woman would only let me fucking do so much. Really, the bare minimum. Now you have a chance to turn this place into the home you two knew it could be,” I tell him.
“Fuck, You’re right. I know Ana. She would have hated to rely on someone who wasn’t her man, but I gave her no fucking choice. I didn’t know this house was getting this bad,” Viking says while looking around.
“I’ll help you tomorrow,” I tell him.
“We will all help. It’s not only you that failed to take care of this Old Lady, but all of us. I know I wouldn’t want mine to live in a house that was falling apart. I wouldn’t want that for any of them,” Rage says while looking around.
There are a few holes in the walls and some of the lights don’t work. I remember Ana telling me about the plumbing. I did know that some cupboard doors were broken and shit like that.
“I think we need to do more than fix it up. We need to renovate it,” Viking says as he looks around his home.
“That won’t be cheap,” Prez says with a low whistle.
“I have enough money. Ana barely uses our card. She used it for basics but nothing else,” Viking says while looking at his phone.
This is going to be a long process, but I think that it will also be a step in the right direction. Especially for Viking. Hopefully, Ana and Viking can have a future here by starting fresh.