6. Zaden
Chapter six
Zaden
I lean back in my office chair and blink, then blink again. The smiley face doesn’t disappear. Maybe I’m that tired, maybe I need sleep. I sit forward and level my eyes on my pack mate and fellow alpha, Ianto. His flavour of life is to sit back while the chaos he loves rains down on everyone until I point him in a direction and tell him to kill.
He becomes a violent, brutal, and ruthless machine. He’s also a stunning specimen of an alpha with his tawny skin, black eyes, and muscles for days. The women who come to party with us often refer to him as Angel. He looks like a fallen angel with perfectly sculpted, cock-sucking lips. He never gives anyone the time of day. Anyone except her or the pack. I scowl and glance back up.
I point to the ceiling. “You see that, too, right?”
He tilts his head back, and a tiny smile graces his normally expressionless face. “Yes.”
“Right, knew I wasn’t insane. How the fuck is she still managing to break in here without us knowing? We’re a fucking MC, for fuck’s sake.”
“She’s smart,” Ianto says and leans back on the couch. He doesn’t seem worried at all.
“She’s smart, beautiful, and completely innocent. She should not be over here. I feel sick just thinking about the shit she might see. Ya know, I caught Jace pissing in a frying pan last night. When I asked him what the fuck he was doing, he said it was cold as piss, so he decided to heat some up. I mean, what the fuck was he smoking? Seriously.” I rub my aching temples. “That kind of thing is exactly the reason she can’t be running around here without an escort!”
Ianto doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. We’ve had this conversation over and over .
I stand up and pace the crimson carpet. My heavy bookshelves hold all my favourite books. And the huge desk holds all my favourite weapons. It’s my haven.
Hanging on the back of my chair is my leather vest, complete with the Mirakill Owl patch. And the patch that says president. I reach out and stroke it. I’ve been raised for this, growing up in the club. It’s my legacy, but I miss my dad. He had to leave. The club is too small for the both of us, but, fuck, I wish I could talk to him right now. I wish I could hear what he’d say about this situation, but then again, I don’t. Because I know what he’d say, and it’s what I’m fighting. He’d say the club comes first, before everything.
“We need to find a way to stop her from coming here,” I mutter. For her safety and ours.
“But first, we need to retaliate, right?” Ianto says and folds his arms over his chest. “That is what you’re going to say?”
I hesitate and then give a sharp nod. “Send Valen, and tell him he’s not to talk to her or be seen this time.”
Ianto smirks and pushes up with feline-like grace and pads quietly from the room.
It’s a party night tonight. The Mirakill MC are gathering here, and I need to be focused. Someone is fucking with us. Too many little things have been going wrong. Money missing. A brother getting caught doing something when it should have been a done deal. The cops showing up before a rumble even starts. Our business information suddenly finding its way into the cops’ hands.
I’ve got a rat situation. I didn’t want to admit it, but the growing evidence is pointing me in that direction. The stress is pressing on me. I’ve got furious club members wanting blood, and I don’t know where to point them, not yet. All the evidence says one of our seven prospects.
But I’m not sure.
I might be the prez, but it feels like it’s only putting a bullseye between my shoulder blades. I’ve been hearing rumours of rival MCs looking to expand into our territory. A rat and rivals. It’s the worst timing.
I rub my hand across my stubble, my mind going back to Lia. I should not be indulging these games with her, but this ongoing pranking war has been a distraction that I haven’t been able to give up. The night we’d met, I’d dismissed her. She was hot and fearless, but she passed from my mind quickly.
This issue with Lia was she grew on me, one prank at a time. One smile dragged from me when I saw evidence of her exploits after another. Her quick smile, inquisitive nature, and innocence had stolen into me until I dreamed about her softness. Until she was an obsession. I watch her mansion every night, staring at the orange lights. Any sign of her is a high .
I need more. We all do. The bonds thrum with her name. Lia, in our sleep, in our waking, in our fantasies. Even in our most intimate moments when we’re fucking, we think of her.
The pretty beta is something special. She’s unspoilt, and I would keep her that way. Our brand of love would ruin her.
My vice president enters the room with the swagger that makes people, both women and men, sit up and notice him. And while all eyes are on him, they miss my pack moving into position. He flicks me a pretty smile, and I remember how loud he’d screamed my name last night. Maybe we can do it again.
“What do you want, Ranger?”
He grins, ignoring my surly question. “I want you to come downstairs and have a drink with me.”
I snort. “I have work to do.”
Ranger leans on my desk, drawing a smiley face with one finger. “Downstairs, come on.”
I stop pacing and spin. “What have you done?”
“Moi?” Ranger puts his fingertips to his chest and bats his eyelashes. “Not me.”
I narrow my eyes and step towards him. “Then who?”
“Our magical little fairy beta,” Ranger whispers and blows me a kiss with his middle finger.
I groan and storm past him, jogging downstairs. Ranger points at the kitchen. I head in that direction, ignoring the people who are loitering around. Badger, a big, burly biker with a long beard, leaves the room, shaking his head and chortling happily.
Mills is leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. He’s looking up, but he’s got this smile on his lips, this amused and awed smile.
I look up.
And groan.
“How did she even get up there?” I snap, repeating my earlier question.
Mills glances at me, his eyes dancing. As the MCs secretary, he’s brilliant, incredible at understanding and sorting out problems and getting people to talk to him. Plus, he’s got a memory for all the gossip and details about the club members. All the shit that gives me a headache. He also loves baking and can shoot better than almost everyone I know.
The exceptions being Ianto and Valen.
He is also the one who gets past my rules about staying away from little miss beta.
I peer back up and groan louder. She’s created a smiley face out of smiley face stickers, and it takes up half the kitchen .
It’s the difference between us right there. She’s golden and sunny, almost juvenile in her pranks. They are cute. Adorable.
Completely inappropriate for a club room.
“Get it down now.”
Mills snorts and stands up. He goes to the fridge and pulls out a sandwich that he slaps against my chest.
“You skipped lunch.”
“I don’t have time.”
“You skipped lunch,” he growls.
I won’t win this fight, so I take the sandwich and peel off the cling-wrap. I take a bite, and only after I’ve had a mouthful do I recognise how hungry I am.
“When is everyone going to be here?” Mills asks.
“About two hours.”
“Who is going to answer this?” Mills asks and points to the ceiling.
“Valen,” I growl.
Mills purses his lips and looks away.
“You disagree?” I’m not surprised, Mills is seriously protective of her.
“Valen is terrifying on the best of days.”
“And?” I ask in a low growl.
“I didn’t realise the intent was to make her scared of us.”
“Well, nothing else has worked to deter her from sneaking in.”
Mills rolls his eyes, and I pretend not to see him do it. I can cope with everything so long as I can ignore the bullshit.
Valen slides into the room, his eyes wide. He’s got shaggy black hair that’s almost made of ringlets. His grin is wide, and his dark brown eyes twinkle. Ianto is the one who put every single tattoo on his skin, and he’s not a work of art.
I groan. “Valen!”
I say his name in pure exasperation because I know with just one look, I just know what he’s done is going to piss me off.
He winks at me and pulls open the fridge, snatching a can of beer out of it, and then hopping up on the bench, ignoring the violent growl Mills gives him as he snatches a plate of biscuits out of his way.
“What did you do this time?” Ranger asks.
Valen snags three biscuits, takes a massive bite of all three of them, and chews quickly, while Mills growls louder.
“I threw all her clothes into the pool. ”
I freeze. Wheeze. Cough. Choke. Gasp for air, and all the while, I can hear warning bells screaming in my head. Lia is going to go crazy when she finds out.
“I’m sorry, I think I misheard. Did you say you threw all her clothing into her pool?”
“No!” He finishes the biscuits and licks his palm. I’m relieved because for a moment there, I thought the worst. “I threw all her clothes in our pool.”
I grab at the wall to keep me standing as the complete shit fuckery of a disaster explodes in my brain, showing me every single likely scenario, and none of them are fun at all.
“How does this help us, Valen?” I snap. “Payback, a prank for a prank. You went too far.”
His face falls. “I did?”
“You fucking know you did. What were you aiming for?”
He snags another biscuit and looks up at me, and I know he’s neither sorry nor ignorant. I have kept him on a short leash, and this is his payback.
“Hmm, I probably shouldn’t mention that I stole her favourite teddy bear, then, I guess?”
He pulls out a teddy the size of my hand. It’s black with huge, big amber eyes. It’s cute, I guess. She sleeps with it. We’ve all stolen into her house enough, and I have a thing about watching her sleep. She never sleeps without the bear.
“Valen!”
He laughs, grabs some cooking twine, builds a noose, and jumps up on the island, ignoring Mills’ protests and hangs the teddy from the exhaust fan.
“Seriously?” I growl. “And how did you get this done when I only just told Ianto? I must have been insane to make you road captain.”
Valen snorts and suddenly shouts. “Catch me!” He flies across the room, straight at Ranger, who, to his credit, somehow spins and catches him, only stumbling back a single step.
Ranger kisses him hard, and then drops him unceremoniously to the ground.
“Where is Ianto?” I growl out.
Mills shoves a handful of biscuits at me, turns me, and pushes me out of his kitchen. I glance back once, seeing the teddy bear swing.
It’s a red flag.
She can’t ignore it.
And damn, if I don’t get a dark thrill of excitement thinking about her coming.
It started about three weeks after the night the Raines invaded our party. She stole into the house and set off smoke bombs. So, I had Valen put up neon lights in the shape of people fucking on her front lawn. So, she set off fireworks.
Valen had become instantly and irrevocably fascinated with her.
In my foolishness, I’d allowed him to retaliate.
It had started something that I had been unable to end. Even talking to her and explaining the situation hadn’t made a lick of difference. She brought me a pacifier and glued it to my desk. It took me hours to get it off.
Or the time she hid speakers throughout the house, and then started playing music randomly during the day.
I rub my forehead as I try to bite back a smile. And that’s the crux of the matter. She’s an intelligent little she-devil and quite possibly one of the few women who has walked into our clubhouse with no awe, no fear. She’s a little queen. I’d thought it was ignorance.
I’d been wrong.
She’s fearless.
And relentless.
I turn on the cameras and check them. I won’t see her. None of us are sure how she gets in, but she’ll be back tonight.
I pace to the window and look across to the Raines mansion. Lia is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure how she’s still single, but she never seems to go anywhere. It’s perplexing. Most women her age are out shopping, partying, working.
She is always at home.
She’s a mystery in a perfect package, and I am getting distracted by her again. I go back behind my desk and sit down, loading up my emails. I start answering them and going through the jobs I need to get done before the club arrives.
The hours stretch out, and it’s not until I feel a kind of itchy sensation of being watching that I look up. She’s sitting on the couch across from me.
Her ability to get past my natural alarms is startling.
“Where is my bear?”
“What bear?” I don’t even hesitate to draw this out. It’s amazing how happy I am just being near her.
“Don’t play with me, Zaden.”
I close my laptop as she stands up. She moves with the grace of a hunting lioness. Her hips tilting in a sexy way that makes me want to grab her and pull her up against me.
She looks like a lioness, too, with that golden hair and her tawny skin. Everything except those startling blue-green eyes. She’s not thin but not overly curvy, either. The kind of woman that you can really fuck hard, someone with some curves to hang on to .
What am I doing thinking about fucking her?
She’s wearing black leggings and a long-sleeved black jumper. I suck in a breath when I recognise that it’s mine. She’s been in my bedroom.
Strangely, that sets off the alpha inside of me, roaring and thumping my chest, wanting to drag her back there, bend her over, and…
No, I’m not thinking about that.
“You know where your bear is. Go get it and go home.”
“You’re buying me new clothes.”
“Fine. Send me the bill.”
She bites her lower lip and looks away.
I tense. “Is something wrong?”
“My cousin is okay.”
“Locke?” I know all about the fiasco with Locke Raines and the bitch that died.
When Lia had disappeared, we’d been on the verge of declaring war on everything. Instead, after a few hours, Mills found her.
Because we have trackers put in her phones. But she doesn’t know that. And I don’t like to admit it.
After a little bit, Mills came out and told us four of the five cousins, including the AWOL Kelly Raines had reappeared, got on a plane, and everyone got their asses down to a tiny town named Two Rivers.
They stayed for two miserable, excruciating weeks. And when Lia returned, she was subdued, quiet, pale. I’d snuck into her room and sat beside her on her bed and held her hand while she cried in her sleep.
“That’s good.”
“Yes. He’s got a pack now. He’s happy.”
I’m not certain where this conversation is going. But red flags are waving.
She tenses and inflates her lungs as if she’s preparing to deliver a mortal blow.
“I’m going to go on dates, and I would appreciate it if you guys could not scare them away.”
DATES? FUCK NO.
I struggle to come up with something to say to her that isn’t a growl. But she stands up and starts pacing.
“You don’t need to do anything, just don’t be all naked and stuff when I have them come over.”
I can’t help but grin. “We aren’t naked.”
“You don’t have tops on, and all the,” her eyes drop to my chest, “muscles are distracting and might intimidate them. ”
“Are you planning on dating a slug?”
She snorts a laugh. “Not everyone is blessed.”
I lean forward. “Lia, what’s really wrong?” If I can convince her not to date, and instead, talk to me, that would be better, right?
She looks up and nervously looks around before heading towards the door.
“Nothing, nothing’s wrong.”
“Lia!”
“Bye, Zaden! Love you!”
I freeze. Those words ring in my head. I know she didn’t mean them, but damn, my mind seizes on them and runs with it.
It takes me too long to shake her voice out of my head, and then I have to push it aside and get ready for the meeting.
I push Lia from my head, but I can’t forget those words.