Chapter Nineteen BLUFF #3
He coaches me through filling the tub with a cocktail of glistening, scented things that make the water glow and tickle the edge of my scent receptors.
I light a bunch of candles – all different colors, with fancy names I can barely pronounce - and then Abbie appears in the doorway like magic.
Pitt has a steadying hand on her waist, but he gives me a small nod as I gesture at the bath. “Wings is teaching me some aftercare.”
Abbie raises her brows at me, but drifts into the other omega’s arms, like they’re connected by a magnetic field.
He instantly stands taller, and I wonder at his transition from latent alpha to omega.
He’s got a really calming energy about him, but it must have been hard to suddenly wake up with a new designation, especially given the way he’s staring at Abbie like she’s his whole reason for existing.
“What’s next, mate?” she asks, turning in his arms to look at me. “Aftercare, and then what?”
“Whatever you want.” She arches a silky brow at me and I shrug. “Seriously. You want a pony? Then I’m stealing a horse float and sewing you some leather chaps.”
The guys snort at my ridiculousness, but I’m deadly serious. If it’s in my power to beg, borrow, or steal to meet my mate’s desires, then she’s getting whatever the hell she wants.
She twines her fingers through Wings’, tugging him behind her as she steps towards me. “I mean, where do you live? Do you have a job? More importantly, do you have a bike?”
The guys snigger again, but I keep my attention on the vision in front of me.
It’s hard not to, especially when her nails skip down my chest, mapping out my scars.
“No to the last two. Well, I had both at different times, but my brain isn’t up for more of that just yet.
As to where I live, how do you feel about puppies? ”
“Puppies?” She stares up at me with wide, curious eyes. “Is that code for something?”
“Nope. It’s exactly what it sounds like.” I catch her wandering hand, pressing a kiss to her palm. “I live above a refuge, and I volunteer there, in exchange for room and board.”
“So, you do have a job.” She pulls away to trace the scar on my face, up over my cheekbone and around the edge of my swollen eye. It still throbs like a motherfucker, but her gentle touch is the perfect distraction. “You’re the puppy wrangler.”
I snort. “I’m the puppy slave.”
“Well, it sounds like it’s important you’re there. The puppies need you for their survival, and all that.”
It’s true. Puppies are lucky they’re so cute, because they’re a lot of work and needy as hell. “Sure, but I don’t have to live there to help out.”
It’s not as simple as that, but it earns me another smile and she lets go of Wings, stepping fully into my arms. I’m well aware of the gift she’s giving me, especially with her other mates looking on. “I want us together, Bluff. However that works, that’s the only thing I really want.”
“Then you’re looking at the newest prospect of the Iron Flyers.” I drop a kiss on her nose. “Assuming someone is prepared to sponsor me.”
Abbie hums, but I catch Pitt’s eye, and I’m guessing his smile is a little feral for a reason. “That’ll be a fun afternoon at church.”
Finding Ark isn’t as easy as I thought it’d be.
I was half-expecting him to have worn a groove in the floorboards outside our bedroom door, but a cute omega with pink hair informs me that he’s gone on a club ride.
Seems Ark emptied out the clubhouse not long after Abbie went into heat, and most of the members aren’t expected back for another couple of days.
Since Abbie is happily back in bed, sleeping off her heat between her mates, I decide to duck home while I have the chance.
Given that my driver’s license lapsed while I was in recovery, I’m in the process of calling a cab when the same helpful omega appears beside me on the front steps.
She tips her face up to mine, blue eyes curious as she takes in the app on my phone.
“You need a ride, big guy?” It sounds flirty, but there’s only friendly interest in her gaze.
“Abbie would kill me if you got kidnapped by some psycho rideshare driver.”
“Yeah, those kind of guys don’t tend to pick me up.” And if they do, they try to break the speed limit to get me out of their car again. “I think I have a kind of fuck off or find out vibe.”
“Well, I’m not scared of you,” she tells me, bouncing down the stairs. “But are you gonna freak out at my pretty little cage?”
She’s headed towards a classic VW in buttercup yellow with pink and purple decals on the sides. “Well, since I’m banned from bikes for another six months, I can’t exactly be picky.”
She raises her brows at me but then sticks out her hand. “I’m Tricks. Trixie to my folks, who also happen to have birthed Wings. Although you can’t hold that against me.”
“You must be the older, more sensible sibling,” I tell her as I stuff myself into her miniature car.
“Exactly,” she says, plucking a pair of white, cat-eye sunglasses off her dash. “Although, technically, he’s been alive longer, but that just means I’m way more interesting.”
I know better than to question her logic, and she chats happily as we leave the compound and head across town to the refuge.
She fills me in on all the clubhouse gossip, and while the number of names she drops is dizzying, I have a pretty clear idea of the lay of the land by the time we reach the refuge.
“Oh, my hairball!” she exclaims when she claps eyes on the refuge. “Do you live with puppies?”
“I live above them, but I help out where I can.”
Her mouth is a wide, delighted O as she follows me up to the door and I let us in.
I can hear Jake puttering around in the kitchen, and a moment later he maneuvers his wheelchair down the hallway, coming to an abrupt stop at the sight of Tricks.
“Oh. Sorry.” He gestures at his bare chest, which is ripped with muscle from having to lug fifty-pound bags of dog chow around.
“Lulu just piddled on me, and I was in the middle of baking some dog treats, so…”
“Sounds like Lulu is the one who should be apologizing.” Tricks’ voice is an octave higher, and even my fucked-up receptors can smell her interest in the air. “Want me to take her out back and beat some manners into her?”
Jake’s mouth drops open, almost as wide as Tricks’ when she realized I live in a puppy refuge.
He runs a hand through his overgrown crewcut, his throat working as he drags his gaze from her pink hair, over her leather cut, and down to her knee-high red leather boots.
“Ah, no. Thanks, but Lulu is a golden retriever puppy, so piddling is kinda on brand for her.”
“Oh.” Tricks is now as pink as her hair. “Then can I have a cuddle? Of Lulu, I mean. Although, if you’re ever taking passengers, I really like your ride.”
I stifle a laugh at the look on Jake’s face, then wave a hand at the staircase. “I need to run upstairs and grab a few things. You kids gonna be okay without me?”
“Sure.” Jake swallows hard, his eyes flicking between us. “I can look after your omega for a few minutes.”
“Not his, except by bonding,” Tricks explains, sinking gracefully to her knees in front of him.
If he looked starstruck before, now his eyes are bugging out of his head.
“Although that’s not technically true, since Wings and Bluff haven’t actually got all bitey yet.
But they share Abbie, who’s great, even if she’s with my brother.
Which is completely ick if I think about it, but also strangely adorable… ”
I leave her prattling away as I take the stairs, grabbing a duffel bag out of my closet and emptying my drawers in it.
I don’t have a lot of clothes, but I figure I can fix that now I’ve got someone to dress for.
I’m in the process of grabbing things off my nightstand when I hear a familiar voice rumbling from down below.
I grab the bag, hefting it onto my shoulder as Ark appears at the bottom of the stairs, his arms folded across his thick chest. He glares up at me, his face an unhealthy shade of red. “You left her? In the middle of her heat?”
“She’s well taken care of.” I saunter downstairs, even though my knees want to lock up at the dominance coming off him in waves. “Did you introduce yourself before you started barking at Jake?”
My housemate, landlord, and best friend, if I don’t count the asshole next to him, clears his throat. “Um, how about some tea?”
“Like I was trying to tell you, Ark,” Tricks interrupts, her tiny body planted firmly between Jake and her president, “Abbie is fine. Wings has been texting me, and her heat broke a few hours ago.”
“But you still left her,” Ark insists, his gaze boring into mine. “You’re her alpha, soldier. Your place is by her side.”
The title tugs at me, a leash my hindbrain is only too happy to remember.
But we’re not in the desert now, and I’m not the screwed-up killing machine that he left behind.
“I’m one of her alphas,” I say evenly. “She’s with Pitt right now, so unless you picked the wrong enforcer for your club, she’s in safe hands. ”
He jerks, the truth hitting him hard enough to make him flinch. I sigh, dropping my bag at the bottom of the stairs. “Wait here.”
I circle around a wide-eyed Jake and head into the sunroom, plucking a wiggling puppy from the pile in the playpen. When I return, Ark eyes me suspiciously, but Tricks’ eyes are as wide as moons. “This is for you,” I tell Ark, handing him the two-month-old chocolate lab.
“It’s… what?”
“A puppy,” I say, watching him hold it like a grenade with a twitchy pin. “His name's Jedi. And before you roll your eyes, we both know if you had a kid you’d call him Skye and change your surname to Walker.”
Tricks smothers a giggle in her elbow, but Ark is as steely-assed as ever. “Why? Are you cleaning house? Dumping your excess stock on strangers?”
Jake stiffens at that, but I place a calming hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t be a dick. It’s a courting gift, Ark.
And no, we don’t dump puppies in this house.
In fact, Jake wasn’t keen to part with this one until I convinced him that the Iron Flyers aren’t as bad as they sound.
” I cock a brow at his scowling face. “Of course, then you had to come storming in here, barking at the puppies like you’re the big, bad wolf. ”
Tricks has sidled closer to Jake, like she can sense his distress, but Ark retreats a step, shame burning on his cheeks.
“Well, I didn’t know you were here for a courting gift.
” He drops his gaze to my duffel bag, his scent harsh enough even for me to pick up on it.
“Are you planning on bringing her back here?”
“What do you think?”
He looks like I’m giving him a migraine, but I’m pretty sure I’ve cornered the market for that particular ailment. “You can’t take her out of the club, Bluff.”
“You really think I’d do that? To Wings? To you?”
He looks away again, this time down at the squirming puppy in his hands. “I’m not sure you’re thinking straight about any of it.”
“I did, actually. I tried to give her up twice. Pretty obvious I was fighting a losing battle, so I sat down, puppy in my lap, and decided it needed to be a fast infil, take-no-prisoners kind of mission.”
Jake snorts, but Ark looks up at me, eyes bruised and defensive. “And was I the enemy in this scenario?”
“You’re always my brother, my CO, and my best friend.
Here, back there, in the club and outside it.
” I let that settle for a beat, then nod at Jake, who turns and wheels down the hallway to the storage room.
While he’s gone, I reach out and clasp Ark’s shoulder.
It’s like gripping the side of a mountain, but he doesn’t shrug me off.
“I just didn’t ask your permission this time, because I knew you’d say no, even though it’s obvious I did this partly for you. ”
He laughs, low and bitter. “You bit the woman I've been in love with most of my life - for me?”
“Well, it didn't look like you were ever gonna get around to doing it yourself, Pres,” Tricks says matter-of-factly. “At least this way you know Abbie isn’t against the whole mating idea.”
Ark swings her way, stunned. “Seriously?”
“You’re still looking out for everyone but yourself,” I tell him. “This isn’t the desert, Ark. Let them fend for themselves, at least until you’ve got your own life sorted.”
Something complicated passes through his eyes and he hands the puppy off to Tricks. “We can’t all walk away from our responsibilities.”
“Hell,” I snort, “I had to be choppered out from mine.” I sigh, because I don’t want his guilt and I know some part of him regrets not being there to be ambushed alongside me. “Look, I get feeling responsible, Ark. What I don’t support is lying down and quitting.”
Instead of pouncing on me, as I expect, he rubs a hand over his face. “Fuck. I know what you sacrificed, Bluff. And I know how hard it’s been in recovery.”
“Yeah, it sucked, but I’ve put a time limit on my suffering.” I take the puppy off Tricks, ignoring her pout as I hand it back to Ark. “Now I’m back in the land of the living and the courting.”
Ark rolls his eyes at me. “You grin any harder, you'll snap the staples holding your brains in.”
I laugh, since even when he’s being funny, he’s still a stubborn fucker.
“You can resent me for getting there first, but we're still a unit.” I push the puppy his way again, relieved to see Jake wheeling back into the room with the dog crate and starter kit on his lap. “Now, I expect you to hurry the fuck up and woo the woman we both adore, even if we don’t deserve her.”
Ark’s eyes widen as Jake drops the crate at his feet. “When you said a courting gift…?”
“Romance 101,” I tell him. “Give her something cute and cuddly and she might not notice what a grouchy asshole you are.”