Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ransom
“Are you fucking kidding me!”
And so it begins.
“Hey, let’s get out of here, Sugar,” I whisper in Marie’s ear.
I’ve noticed she dislikes confrontation and yelling. She gets really tense and small. I fucking hate that she’s been in situations where disagreements meant she could get hurt.
Every person in this club would cut their hands off before they dared to hurt her. Unfortunately, they’re hot headed and communicate at a roar.
Marie’s curled up in a chair with a glass of whiskey she hasn’t touched, staring vacantly at it. I can recognize a trauma response when I see one. She’s completely checked out and doesn’t notice when I pick her up into my arms.
Arsenal’s eyes move sharply over in my direction, his brow raising when he sees Marie.
“Yo!” he barks, making my girl flinch. “I’m gonna need you all to bring it down, guys.”
“We’re going to head out,” I explain. “She can’t be here while you all work shit out. She’s fucking shaking.”
“Marie,” Lore murmurs, walking over to push her hair out of her face. We all managed to shower and nap before this meeting, but there are shadows creeping under our omega’s eyes due to stress.
“Mmmph?” she asks, blinking up at him. It takes her a second to understand the concern in his eyes before she sighs. “I don’t like all the yelling. I think I need to step out while you handle this, Lore. Arsenal upgraded my stun gun, so it’s no longer a cute little zap.”
Arsenal snorts, saying, “I want you to be able to hurt people with the thing, Little Queen. A love tap isn’t going to do shit.”
“If I wanted to hurt people, I’d just shoot them,” she grumbles, laying her head on my shoulder.
“You’re a good shot,” Vik admits, crossing his arms. “We saw that at this asshole’s funeral.”
“Ugh. He was really shot,” Marie says. “I held the packing over his wound when he came into my fucking hospital! You all know he didn’t fake that.
He just pretended a little longer to keep you fuckers safe.
Now sit down, behave, and show some goddamned gratitude!
Things are changing, and you all need to figure out what that’s going to look like.
I’m not having babies while my pack fucks off on the road. You all need a home base.”
I swallow hard as several club members sit down hard, even if it’s on the floor. Damn. She’s kind of scary.
Marie is right though. She may not be pregnant yet, but it’ll happen soon if our pack has any say in it.
“And that’s why I call her Kitty,” Storm grins. “My girl’s got claws.”
“I’d say so,” Burner mutters.
“I got it from here, Princess,” Lore says, kissing her lips. His face turns slightly, and then he’s brushing my lips with his. “I heard there’s a gun range in this place. I think Marie needs to burn off some of her irritation.”
The unspoken command that I make sure not to go too far so I don’t trigger Marie’s bond sickness makes me nod in agreement. The room is silent, and when I glance around, I see that people are staring at us for an entirely different reason.
Lore kissed me in front of them all. Shit.
My cheeks heat as I begin walking toward the door. I’m not sure if that was his way of announcing our relationship, or if Lore is done hiding completely.
“Now that I have your attention,” he drawls, making me grin as I step outside of the room.
“I never know what the hell he’s going to do next,” I mumble, gently placing Marie on her feet.
The door shuts quietly behind us, shutting off the conversation that begins, thereby making it no longer my problem.
“That’s part of the attraction,” she mutters, weaving slightly as I hold her up. The adrenaline drop is hitting her hard now. “Shit. I didn’t expect to yell at an entire room of bikers.”
“I think that’s why it worked,” I chuckle, not hearing anymore yelling. “Are you up for some gun range time?”
“Yeah, I think I can handle that,” she says. “Shall we explore?”
“We shall,” I say, wrapping my arm around her waist.
Marie can play this however she wants, but I’ll be here in case she needs me to lean on. There’s nothing wrong with accepting a little help.
“Is your brother the one who makes you curl up into a ball and shut down when people yell?” I ask finally as we begin peeking into rooms to find the gun range.
“Hmm?” she asks, looking up at me. Marie’s is still a little spacey from her episode, and she sighs as she absorbs my question.
“It’s not just him. My parents were really loud when they’d fight growing up.
My dad died from drinking too much, and my mother eventually mellowed out.
Sometimes, I can handle yelling if I’m riled enough to yell back. Others?”
“You check out,” I observe, nodding. Trauma rears itself in interesting ways, and not always in the same way. “Do you talk to your mom at all?”
“Not since before I left Chicago,” she admits. “I don’t really like to talk to her, especially when she has a tendency to pick things out of our conversation that I never said. I’m protecting my peace instead.”
“I can respect that,” I murmur, opening another door at the end of a hallway. “It looks like we’ve found the gun range.”
Turning on the lights, I see several stalls set up with safety protection and paper targets.
“Take a small step inside, Marie,” I say, hoping this isn’t too far away from Lore.
The building is huge, but her bond with Lore seems to have a mind of its own. Hopefully with time, it settles.
Marie takes a deep breath as she walks into the room before relaxing.
“I’m good,” she says. “I wonder if this has always been here.”
“It’s a smart use of space and time,” I admit, setting up a paper target for her before clicking the remote control.
Once it’s the distance that I want it to be, I snag Marie’s hand to bring her closer to me.
“Where are you hiding your gun today?” I tease her.
She’s wearing a pair of riding leggings and a cropped long sleeved shirt. In true Midwest fashion, the temperature dropped tonight. Oh well, we made the most of the beautiful, warm day while we could.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget how gorgeous Marie looked getting fucked on the forest floor. Dammit, I swear, I may as well get used to constantly walking around with my dick hard around her. It’s a foregone conclusion at this point.
Marie lifts the hem of her shirt and pulls her gun from where the holster is strapped underneath her bra, and I growl in appreciation. Double damn.
Storm and Wilder deserve to get their backs blown out for her custom holsters. Fuck me.
“That’s always going to be sexy,” I grumble, shaking my head as she grins.
Marie Madden knows she has power over her alphas. The day she stops forgetting, she’ll be a force of nature.
“Show me what ya got, Sugar,” I purr, watching as she ties up her curls.
Marie slides on the safety glasses over her eyes, and I kiss her cheek as I ghost my fingers over her sides.
“Actually, the clock is still running on Lore’s free use negotiation, isn’t it?” I ask, licking my bottom lip slowly.
I’ve never taken part in a primal chase like that before. Honestly, I think my sex life has been pretty vanilla until this pack came into my life.
“It is,” she says slowly. “I’m also really fucking good with my gun, Ransom.”
“It’s important to be able to shoot even when you’re…distracted, right?”
“Ugh, you’re going to fuck with me, aren’t you?” she asks, her body shuddering at the thought as she perfumes.
The omega may protest to enjoying this, but we both know better.
“Nope,” I say, peeling her leggings down her thighs.
Marie isn’t wearing panties, and it takes everything inside of me not to drop to my knees so I can bury my face in her cunt.
I stop myself by the skin of my teeth and unbutton my pants.
“Concentration is all on you, Sugar. I just need you to warm my cock for me. I miss being inside of you.”
“You’re ridiculous,” she grumbles, ignoring me to check her gun.
That’s my girl. I don’t bother closing the door since everyone in the building is with Lore, and he pretty much told the room that Marie would be blowing off steam.
There’s no better way to do that than my way.
“All the rules are as we said,” I remind her, freeing my cock from my pants. “Even Wilder’s. The cocksucker.”
“That’s not an insult,” she giggles.
“It’s not meant to be,” I reply. “No bites, Sugar.”
Marie’s quiet as she puts on her noise canceling headphones, and I take note of that as I line up my cock with her entrance before pushing just the tip inside. If she wants my bite, I’ll give it to her. Wilder can take it out on my ass later.
Marie gasps as I leave my cock just inside of her.
It’s thick and pierced, but I did warn her I wanted it warmed and wet.
Before we left, Lore told us he wanted to be the only one to come inside Marie’s pussy.
Wilder smirked at this because he made sure to eat every drop of our swimmers out of Marie that he could.
Lore wants Marie’s first pregnancy to be his, and I can respect that.
That’s why I plan to come in her ass. I’d force her to her knees to swallow it down, but that would be stupid. She’s dangerous while she’s shooting, and I refuse to distract her more than I already am.
Marie’s back is straight as she takes a deep breath and picks up her gun. I watch as she lines up her shot and pulls the trigger. Smart girl that she is, she lifts her finger from the trigger as I push my way further into her sweet heat.
My hands squeeze her hips as I barely move inside of her, and I refuse to touch her clit.
I watch as she continues to shoot, and it appears as if she’s making every damn shot, even as her breaths come a little faster.
The swell of her breasts blush over her shirt, and I hum appreciation as I drag my piercings along her inner walls.
I’m still in awe of her whenever I spend any time with her.