1. Loki
1
LOKI
T he clubhouse bar was a shit show tonight. Half the chapter had been gone all week to pick up a cache of illegal weapons and explosives in Mississippi, and they’d all returned earlier today and were now blowing off steam the only way a bunch of bikers knew how.
“You’d think they’d all been in prison for years, the way they’re all carrying on,” Blaze grumbled next to me, “rather than on the road from two states over where there are plenty of dive bars and women.”
We sat at the bar, nursing beers while we watched a guy whose road name was Donut lick shots of Fireball off a club girl’s tits. His best buddy—road name Knuckles—had just shotgunned a can of beer and was slapping Donut’s ass while he worked. Another two idiots were tag-teaming a chick on the pool table, high-fiving like a couple of assholes who’d never fucked a girl before.
Hard rock music blared from the bar’s speakers. Drunken darts were being thrown. The center of the bar’s makeshift dance floor was beginning to fill up with sweaty, leather-clad bodies grinding on one another.
The President of the Piney Woods chapter of the Texas Dark Knights MC, a burly Alpha in his thirties named Stone, sat at his private table, watching it all as a king would survey his lowly subjects. He was surrounded by his pack Alphas, who all held other high-ranking positions in the club. Their bonded omega, Dolly, sat in Stone’s lap, observing with her usual sneer the antics of the beta women who liked to party with the club.
Hawk chuckled from my other side. “We can’t say this summer hasn’t been one for the record books.” A petite brunette, dressed in a tank top that struggled to contain her tits, cruised along behind us. She ran a flirtatious hand over the back of Hawk’s cut, which sported the same medieval knight logo as the local MC, but the Pecos Chapter patch denoted our status as visitors. Hawk winked at the girl, his boyish smile out in full force, and she flushed, giggling as she trotted away to rejoin her friends.
I nudged him. “Tread lightly. Donut tells me the girls are all getting very frustrated over the fact that none of them have been able to fuck the new guys, and you’ve got the sweetest face out of the three of us. They may just decide to drag you off and have their way with you.”
Hawk was every inch the Alpha that Blaze and I were, but his mop of chestnut curls, dorky wire-framed glasses, and big brown eyes had him hovering dangerously close to cute nerd territory. But his multitude of piercings—two in each eyebrow, four in each ear, and a ring through his lip—alongside the tattoos that covered his arms and crawled all the way up his neck did major damage to the nerd vibe. He looked at home in that MC cut.
He chuckled. “Not the worst way to go, I suppose. Maybe I’m finally getting bored of just your dicks. It’s been a minute since we had a girl.”
I wrapped my hand around his neck and jerked him closer, his clove-and-sage scent caressing my nostrils. He snorted as I shoved my tongue in his mouth, and he grinned against my lips before he shoved me off. “You’ll never get tired of my dick,” I declared.
“Ease up, Loki,” Blaze said, laughing. “The girls saw that and are looking real fucking thirsty. Donut and the boys are gonna get pissed that the girls would rather watch us make out than take an actual dick from a club member.”
“Not our problem,” I replied lazily.
Blaze, Hawk, and I were not just pack brothers—we were also lovers. It wasn’t unheard of amongst Alphas in a pack who weren’t blood-related, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t one of the reasons our enthusiasm for finding an omega of our own was lackluster.
One of the multitude of reasons.
“Hey, Blaze.”
Another of the club girls had slithered up to the bar next to Blaze, and she eyed him up and down with open hunger. Blaze had the baddest of the bad-boy looks out of the three of us—a feat, actually—but he was the most outgoing and friendly, and the girls swarmed him like locusts. Bronze skin and jet-black hair that somehow always looked tousled like he’d just rolled out of bed after a long night of hot sex. Playful hazel eyes and a scent that evoked crackling fires in a piney forest. An intricate tattoo covered his bicep and spread across his chest, and he had almost as many piercings in his ears as Hawk. His smile was blinding white, and he fucked like a god.
“Hey, Paloma,” he replied, pronouncing her name in perfectly accented Spanish. “You ladies glad to have all the boys back?”
“Mmm, sure,” she replied, inching closer. “It was quiet around here without them. We thought you three would finally take advantage of the opportunity to have more of our… attention.” She stuck a cherry-red lip out in a dramatic pout. “But no. Did you guys take a vow of celibacy before you came to visit our club?”
Blaze chuckled as he leaned down, resting his chin in his hand as he gave her his full attention. The black polish on his nails shone under the neon lights of the bar. “We certainly didn’t,” he purred, hitting her with that bright smile. “You girls know we fuck each other, right?”
Hawk snorted, and I bit back a laugh as Paloma flushed from her cheeks to the top of her tits, which were threatening to spill out of her shirt. “Oh, um… right,” she said on a flustered breath. “Well, I guess we all thought you liked girls too?”
We sure did, but we were here to work.
“Well, we didn’t want to break too many hearts,” Blaze replied with a cocky grin. “Since we’re only visiting.”
She pouted again. “That’s very… considerate of you. How much longer are you staying?”
With any luck, we’d be out of here in the next twenty-four hours.
Blaze just shrugged. “Whenever our prez calls us home.”
Paloma realized she wasn’t going to talk Blaze into fucking her up against the wall in whatever corner of the bar was available, so she finally gave him a flirty little finger wave and trotted off.
“I don’t know,” Hawk said. “If, God willing, tonight’s our last hurrah in this place, maybe we should have a little fun.”
He sounded distracted, and it piqued my interest. I followed his gaze across the bar to a round booth in the corner where a group of girls sat, laughing and talking and taking what looked to be copious amounts of shots.
“Wait,” I said, zeroing in on the gorgeous redhead in the center of it all. “Who’s the girl in the middle? She’s not a club girl.”
I vaguely recognized the rest of the girls as part of the group of beta women that came and went from the clubhouse. A few were partnered with some of the beta club members, and one was Jessica, a bonded old lady of the solitary Alpha who was the club’s head mechanic.
Blaze leaned into my space, wrapping a hand around my thigh as he craned his neck to get a better look. He whistled. “Damn, she’s adorably sexy. And definitely does not belong here.”
“She seems to be getting along just fine,” Hawk replied dreamily. The guy was such a sucker for a cute girl. “She’s gone shot-for-shot with Jessica, who looks like she’s about to pass out, but the little flame looks fresh as a daisy.”
Jessica was no slouch when it came to putting away whiskey, but her head was now on the table. The other girls watched with rapt attention as Hawk’s “little flame” regaled them with some kind of fascinating story. She gestured animatedly, revealing the hint of muscle in her pale arms. Her red hair was actually a fiery orange color that would’ve made her stand out in any room. She wore it in a sleek ponytail that fell to her upper back, and an image of it wrapped around my fist flashed in my brain. Her black tank top was understated, fit her body perfectly, and teased a hint of a seriously fucking stellar rack for a girl with the body of a runner or a swimmer.
It was her eyes, though. Big green eyes that lit up the room as she grinned at her new companions, the genuineness of her excitement shining like a beacon. She really was having the time of her life in this dingy fucking biker bar in backwater East Texas.
“I don’t like it,” I said, suddenly overcome with a primal Alpha urge I couldn't explain. “This isn’t a safe place for a girl who hasn’t signed up for this life. We’re well aware that not everyone in this club is a decent human being.”
Our collective gazes slid to Stone and his pack brothers. Despite his bonded omega still sitting in his lap, Stone leered in the direction of the booth, and I liked this whole situation even less.
“Look, Paloma’s convinced them all to dance,” Blaze said.
Sure enough, the girls began to file out of the booth after Paloma strutted over to them, shaking her ass and pouting at the group.
Hawk slid off his barstool. “I’m going in. You guys coming?”
My boots hit the cement floor. Blaze stuck to my back as we followed Hawk out into the writhing mass of bodies that had migrated to the makeshift dance floor in the middle of the bar. Scents clashed, lust and sweat and booze swirling under the dim lights. Our target was now in the middle of it all, surrounded by club girls as they all belted the lyrics to an Evanescence song.
Eyebrows hit hairlines as we converged, working seamlessly together as a pack like we always did. Blaze drew half of the girls away with his brief but enthusiastic attention. I maneuvered in front of Knuckles and another club member who’d definitely had their eyes on our prize. Hawk was the first to slot himself into her space.
He gave her a shy smile, the picture of innocent interest in a pretty girl. Her gorgeous eyes widened, and her pink lips formed a little “o” as she took him in. Blaze and I converged on each side, just beyond the bounds of a respectful distance, acting as a shield against other assholes with ideas.
The girl’s brief shock at having Hawk’s full attention morphed into a beaming smile. Then her gaze landed on Blaze, who grinned back at her like she was a birthday present he was excited to unwrap.
Finally, she noticed me, craning that delicate neck to look me—boldly—in the eyes. Hawk and Blaze were tall, but I was taller. She gasped a little as our gazes locked, and a thirsty little swallow preceded another beautiful, genuine smile.
“Hi,” she said breathlessly.
My answering smile was slow as I studied the treasure we’d found after months of work in this shithole.
“Hello, little lamb.”