Chapter 14 - Dash
CHAPTER 14 - DASH
Trigger warning: violence against a female secondary character and corresponding violent fight.
All I saw was red. My fist clenched, desiring to crush bones and remove TJ’s fucking hand crushing my Lunar mate’s jaw.
I anticipated actions like this from a mutt like Malice. Told Father I didn’t want to put Liv in the damn line of fire. Got shot down with threats of scraping my MC club to fall into fucking line.
Lingering energy from the Wolf Moon amplified my wolf’s sway over my body, and I resisted the impulse to shift, rush into the bakery, and challenge that mutt to a fight.
Steele’s hand clamped harder on my shoulder to keep the shaking in my body at bay. “Dash, you heard your father. Keep the Lunar bond a secret. Let TJ think everything’s cool.”
Too fucking late for that. I snarled over my shoulder at him, hating that he was right. Surprise was the best plan of attack, even though it killed me to use Liv as bait. That said, previous encounters with our enemies indicated their groundwork for winning conflict, and I didn’t want to underestimate them the way the Umbras did.
By the tension cording Steele’s muscles, he held himself back too. He wanted a rematch of last night, only this time, finishing the fucking job.
Panic split down the Lunar bond, weaker than it was last night before I severed our Lunar connection, but still there. Liv fighting TJ to let her go. The cocksucker playing games with her designed to intimidate. This was the last fucking time he or his men touched my mate or Steele’s.
Steele’s claws dug into my grey hoodie, warning me against a foolish move. “Hold the line, Dash.” A classic quote from my father.
The human side of me appreciated my friend’s support to keep me out of trouble. My wolf wanted to turn on him, fight, and remind him of his rank. I hated the moon’s hold over me, causing me to fight everyone, including myself.
I held onto the small reward of the black eyes, dark bruises bandages, busted bones, and missing teeth those Malice mutts sported. Anything to satisfy the dark urges of my wolf.
The vibration from his palm into my shoulder said this bothered my best friend as much as it did me. Observing the Malices in action revisited his fear over his sister’s safety. What his actions might have cost her last night or going forward.
Tensions escalated inside the bakery as the baker backed away at TJ’s aggression, forcing Heather to hit the motherfucker’s arm to let her sister go. TJ snarled something at her, and Steele bristled and rumbled. Liv’s desire to battle the cocksucker wolf-style sprouted hackles on the back of my neck. The more the Umbras’ plan broke down, I sent a warning pulse along our bond to calm, but she didn’t respond to it. Friction got out of control when the Malice mutts prevented Heather and the baker from calling the police, and one of the assholes backhanded her, knocking her to the ground a second damn time.
Steele’s grip on his wolf slipped and his claws released me. “Moonshine!” His rusty growl roused my wolf’s aggression.
Liv’s attempts to protect her sister by punching TJ pleased my wolf. Fire tore up my spine when that cunt strangled her. A sharp sense of ownership snapped into place. Predatory urges shrouded my mind as my wolf inched closer to seizing control.
Mine.
Threat.
Kill him.
Protect her.
End this.
Demands that scaled the defenses I set up to prevent him sliding into control again. Fear and adrenaline combined into a lethal cocktail that re-hardwired my system. Terror that I agreed to my father’s stupid plan and let this happen. That I irreparably screwed things up between Liv and me without the chance to make it right.
Control slipped away to my wolf. Saliva dripped from the fangs that extended from my human teeth. Claws sprung from my fingers to tear his head from his fucking neck. The last straw hit when that motherfucker slammed his head into Liv’s nose, and blood gushed from her broken cartilage. Shadows descended over my conscience like a theater curtain declaring the end of a play as my wolf assumed pole position.
Breaking protocol, I snapped up from our hiding spot behind parked cars across the road from the bakery. Hatred seared my veins, seeking the death of that fuckwit of a wolf. Touching her initiated war. Last night was just a prelude. Today I’d finish it.
“Fuck. Dash!” Steele stomped behind me.
The darkness of what I was about to do clouded the last vestige of my humanity. Plans I was about to destroy to stop that motherfucker from touching my mate.
Thunderstorms thrashed within me as I kicked the door, flinging it so hard against the wall, the glass shattered. Every bit of heaviness I felt these past two days rose to the surface to crash down on these fuckers.
Five men’s attention snapped to me. They looked a mess. Purple, bruised, and bandaged, but no less cocky and deadly.
“Don’t fucking touch her.” My words fell like shattering glass prepared to slash the fuckers up.
“Ah, you’re back, boys.” TJ’s grip on Liv’s neck tightened to show me who she belonged to. He hauled her off the floor and used her body as a shield.
Wrong, cocksucker. She belonged to me, and I would show him.
Stuttered words from the baker announced a call to the authorities.
Guns flashed beneath the Malice’s bomber jackets. These fuckers were crazy enough to brandish weapons in public even though carrying loaded weapons was illegal in Australia for over twenty years.
Cold dread pierced me at Liv’s whimper, and I raised my palms. I didn’t risk glancing at my mate, knowing my will would falter, my need to comfort her squashing my need to rescue her.
Easy, wolf, I warned mine and Steele’s animals, conveying the threat of weapons to my second-in-command .
Metal from the gun tucked in my cut burned through my shirt, reminding me of its presence. I could have gone for it, but my wolf preferred to do it the old-fashioned way. Teeth, claws, and strength.
Alpha power pumped hot and dark through my veins. TJ and his men sensed it and snarled. My insides went up in flames as I broke through the swarm of men and braced his throat between my palm and fingers.
“Let her go.” My wolf gave him one brutal warning and one only.
TJ held on, his wolf refusing to submit, regarding me with black, dead eyes, like a predator about to tear into both her and me.
“This ain’t none of your business,” he drawled, tightening his hold on Liv, cutting off her air, making her choke. “You interfered yet again, cunt. Why? You want what’s mine?”
Desire to snap his neck flamed in my wolf’s chest, and I countered by stiffening my hold, depriving him of air. My human shouted to deescalate the conflict, but there was no way of backing down now.
Steele had two mutts down by the satisfying slump on the ground behind me. Heather’s bleated cry distracted Steele, and he abandoned his mission to drag her from the carnage.
“Stay out of the way, Moonshine.” Fuck. I needed him at my back to ensure I didn’t get a bullet there instead.
Father always said to end friction and fast to get out alive. Cut off the air of your enemy if taking them prisoner. Kill them when necessary and move on. The last impossible when in public, despite what my wolf wanted.
TJ’s gaze dropped to the exposed Lunar tattoo on my wrist. He splutter-laughed despite my grip. “She’ll never be fucking yours.”
Another fuck-up to add to my tally.
Wary of my exposed back and two mutts lurking behind me, I paralyzed TJ’s throat, squeezing to the point of killing him. Bone over his thyroid and Adam’s apple crunched and my wolf howled with wild pleasure. The motherfucker spluttered and thumped at my arm.
“Let. Her. Go.” I punctuated each word, digging my claws into the side of his neck. Blood tricked over my fingers, lubricating them, but I didn’t let it loosen my grip.
The cowardly mutt finally submitted and released Liv, and my bloodied mate stumbled away from the both of us. My wolf longed to abandon him and comfort her, but our enemy was armed, dangerous, and fueled with vengeance by the sparks in his eyes. Like hell I’d turn my back on him.
Sirens wailed in the distance. Fuck. Cops were on their way. Five seconds was all it took to end this for good. Bad guys lived on the edge. What the hell? I’d do time to get my mate out of her arranged marriage.
Arms hooked beneath my armpits, trapping mine overhead, preventing me from going through with my plans.
“Cool it, hotshot.” Steele’s voice, hard as the metal of his namesake and just as lethal. “Not here. Not with witnesses. We gotta bail.”
TJ laughed and spat blood on the floor. Fucker taunted me even though he lost his voice box. Reacquainting him with my right hook, I smashed him in the cheek. He fell to the floor, and I grabbed his face, closing his mouth, making him swallow the few remaining teeth he had left. Asshole would be without fresh ones for two weeks, approximately the time it took to regrow a new one. Though, I never lost more than one at a time, so I wasn’t familiar with the timeframe for regrowing a whole new set.
Once the motherfucker surrendered and swallowed, I kneed him in the jaw, knocked him out, and thrust his limp body to the floor.
The baker rushed out from behind the counter and shooed us away with shaking hands. “I don’t want to know who or what you are. Please leave.”
Fuck. A witness to our partial shifts. Teeth, claws, eyes, and inhuman growls. That better not make it to the police report or to the desks of Guild hunters.
“I’m so sorry.” Liv pressed a bloodied hand to her forehead. “I’ll pay for all the damage. I swear.”
“Don’t ever come back.” The cold warning in the baker’s words cracked like splintered ice.
Steele hauled me back by the scruff of my cut.
“Liv.” My growl urged her to my side, and I clasped her hand, dragging her through smashed glass, our boots crunching on it and dislodged teeth.
Outside, Steele’s wolf checked over his mate, bracketing her face between his palms, stroking beneath the cut to her forehead, growling at the fresh bruise on her cheek.
“Stop. Don’t.” Her wolf resisted falling for his charms and getting burned again.
He silenced her squirming, pulling her to his body, giving her a quick hug, smoothing her frayed hair, sniffing her a few times, then releasing her. She tumbled from his grasp and ran a hand over her head.
I clasped the sides of Liv’s face, tracing the edge of the blackening bruise over her eye. “Is your nose broken? We can’t take you to a hospital. We have to get you out of here.”
“No. I’ll be fine with an ice pack and a Tylenol.”
“Tilt your head back.” I went to stop the bleeding and she shoved me away. She came to her senses and didn’t want me to touch her. I forfeited that right when I split our Lunar bond.
“I’ve got it.” Material from the end of her t-shirt ripped as she tore it, exposing her soft, rounded belly. I growled at Steele, warning him to keep his eyes off her. She huffed and dabbed at her nostrils, staunching the blood flow.
Not the correct technique, so I instructed her on first aid. “Pinch your nose. It puts pressure on the blood vessels and stops the bleeding.” Surprisingly, she did as she was told.
Whining sirens intensified. Cops. Close. Three blocks away, at most. Fuck, we had to get out of here. Leaving the scene of a crime didn’t pay, and I couldn’t afford to darken the club or pack’s doorstep with felonies. By the way the baker pushed us to leave, I trusted he had our backs. If he didn’t, I might have to call in that favor from the Jackals for legal representation, raising questions and darkening Slade’s confidence in my leadership.
Protectiveness trumped my concern for my ass landing in trouble with the law, and my fingers braced tighter over Liv’s hand.
“Take Heather home,” I ordered Steele. “I’ll take Liv.” I didn’t trust the slimy Malices wouldn’t escape police custody and come after us for embarrassing their hides a second time.
Steele’s wolf rumbled across our connection with delight while his eyes hardened with complaint. Call me the matchmaker. Those two needed a moment alone to sort out their shit.
Liv and I needed more than a conversation to sort things out.
“We’re fine. I can drive,” she protested with a jerk of my grasp.
My wolf didn’t give a shit. He had other plans and wasn’t taking no for an answer. “We’re getting you home safely.”
“Come on, Moonshine.” Steele jerked his head at Heather, shaking off his wolf with the Malice threat taken care of. “I’ll get you home.”
Heather pulled her long cardigan tighter over her waist, highlighting her expansive bust. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Steele glared at her for being difficult. He didn’t tolerate bullshit, including mine. “You drive then, and I’ll follow you. Where are you parked?”
Reluctance sailed along our union, but in the end, Liv realized we weren’t taking no for an answer, and gave Heather a look promising to speak later.
With a huff, her sister acquiesced. “Behind this building.” Heather got a head start on him, limping away, Steele at her back.
I pulled out my phone and texted him.
Make sure she gets to her cabin. Come straight back to the clubhouse.
He replied within seconds.
Where are you going? Why aren’t we meeting at the Hester’s and riding back together?
I shot back.
Just meet me back there.
A flash of irritation stretched across our bond, an ability allowing us to stay in contact over larger distances for pack hunting.
Whatever you’re up to, Dash, reconsider it.
The man knew me too well.
See you back at the club
I returned, keeping it vague on purpose.
Asshole. How many times are you gonna get my ass on the rope course?
At least ten ??
YOU OWE ME!
I rubbed it in with a
??
We could get into the reasons later. Namely, I came up with my own fucking solution. Father was going to kick our asses for inflaming the situation and ruining the Umbras’ plans. Change of plans. Kidnap my mate and hold her captive. If no one knew where she was, they couldn’t point fingers. Not my smartest idea, but hey, if it saved lives, then that was all that counted.