7. Daphne Sucker Punch
seven
Daphne: Sucker Punch
“What, are you trying to make me jealous, hot stuff?” Blade cackled, staring at Nathem’s massive boner stretching between them. “It’s like it is reaching out to give me a hug!”
“FUCK YOU!” he mouthed, turning towards the counter and flinging open a cupboard to make it look like he was doing something.
I eyed the chaos, unsure whether to run or stay put and own every inch.
“It is too damn early for this,” a raven-haired siren yawned, pushing Blade aside with a sleepy wink.
I shivered when a force settled low in my ribs, stripping away at my insides.
Lyla smiled at me, tugging down on the shirt I’d bought for Wolfe.
“Hey, babe.” She rose to the tips of her toes to kiss me on the cheek before shuffling clumsily for a box of organic granola and a bowl.
I blinked again, slower this time.
There was no way in hell that cereal belonged to any of the men I grew up with, who ran on sugar like it was pure adrenaline and couldn’t spell organic if their lives depended on it.
"What happens when you need a queen?" I laughed as Wolfe pinned me to the mattress. He’d flung his legs over my hips, sitting heavy on my ass.
“You’ll know,” he growled into my ear, dragging his breath down my shoulder. “Because she’ll be wearing my shirts and eating all my food.”
“So, me then,” I teased, tasting his scent in my mouth. “Don’t I do all those things?”
“Yes. But you can’t be my queen.” There was a hint of distance in his voice, one I chose not to fall into.
“And why is that?”
“Because you belong to Threx.”
It was a strange dichotomy. A soliloquy that never took shape. Letters that carried the moral weight of truth, yet lied at the same time.
“And you,” I mumbled softly, turning to peer at him over my shoulder.
My breasts were full, my hips unmistakably feminine, the dusty, leathery yearning to have them controlled and paced biting into my center.
“And you!” I confessed.
“I know, Daph.” The silence sparkled. “I know.”
“I didn’t notice you come in with Threx last night,” Lyla said through a mouthful of crunch, when my soul went pale, and I couldn’t respond.
Nathem took a breath, his firm hands rolling over my thigh to anchor me, but it wouldn’t work. This man was not my anchor.
“But it’s kind of hard to see things…” She crawled up on the counter beside me, her bare ass hitting the white tile.
Crunch.
“When they are dick-deep inside you before you get in the door.”
Crunch.
Lyla rested her head on my shoulder, and I froze. The weight of her skull digging into all the right places. I adjusted inward, reaching for clay, metal, fucking 2x4s, anything I could build a wall from to stop the pain from seeping in.
I knew they would move on the moment I moved out. It was supposed to happen.
But then why did this feel like shit?
The untamable heat of ice and sex hit me all at once.
Was I not enough for him last night?
Was I just… some fuck? To Wolfe?
Crunch.
“Oh damn, you didn’t come back with Threx. He was with that blonde before he left,” she said as if it was nothing. “So then, who was it? Nate?”
Wolfe knew how I felt about the club’s so-called rules on fidelity, and how I refused to be complicit.
It was one thing when you weren’t labeled, but quite another when she slept in my goddamn shirt.
Cheating was cheating, and I did not give a shit if their oath turned a blind eye to boundaries. I didn’t.
“Fuck,” a wind-stricken slow burn muttered from the other side of the kitchen.
I looked up at Wolfe watching his girlfriend snuggle against my shoulder, dead and unreadable.
Jessie. Kaden. A couple of recruits and club wives walked in behind him, creating chaos and chatter in the hollow I was trapped in, but I didn’t move. I just sat there on the edge of the counter like a hairline fracture, searching his body for some answer that made sense.
“Listen, asshole?” Thay’s voice echoed from the hallway.
“I don’t give two shits about your excuses or where the fuck you were.
And your alibi about being home with Ava is a fucking lie.
You want to know how I know?” He paused in the shadows, leaning into the phone like the goddamn apocalypse.
“Because she was sucking my dick last night. All I can say to you is you better fucking run!” He warned, shoving the device into his pocket, and unlike the rest of them, clad in sweatpants and naked chests, he was still wearing the same clothes from the night before.
I watched Thay take a breath through his nose and turn slowly, as if he could smell me. But then again, he always could.
His eyes narrowed when he turned, breaking through the sea of bodies with a shove. My chest tightened when he stopped, staring at Lyla nestled into my side before shooting a look at Wolfe.
“You didn’t tell her?” he growled, but Wolfe said nothing, his jaw ticking twice before his eyes veered left. “I told you to fucking tell her! Shit. And you call me an asshole?”
Thay shoved Blade out of the way, nearly plowing over a couple of unknowns as he stepped between my knees.
“Get off her,” he demanded, shoving her away.
Lyla popped up, a rogue smile inching across her expression as she hopped off the counter and threw her ass into Wolfe. I gripped the ledge, watching her curl into his shape like she’d done it a million times and died.
Fucking died.
“You know,” Thay said, reaching into the front of my hoodie to grab my phone. “This shit only works when you use it,” he growled, the hard lines of his face running parallel to the way he held his body.
Everyone was looking now, but I didn’t care. This was why I left, not because of the violence, the crimes, or the horrible things they’d done, but because when it came to their rules, I always lost.
I met Thay’s eyes for a brief second before snatching the phone from his fingers to turn the camera on myself. Then, with my best winning smile, I flipped a big fuck you and pressed send.
The room waited until his phone vibrated before erupting in laughter. But Thay didn’t care; he didn’t play games. He only stepped forward, closing the gap until I was straddling his hips. I held my ground, unflinching as he burned his death stare into me.
“Daph?” he asked, taking a sharp breath before the room fell quiet.
My stomach fluttered when his eyes dropped to my fingers, and then lifted them into the air.
“Thay,” I murmured, but he ignored my silent plea as his mouth swept over my middle fingertip in an unhurried roll before cocking his head in Nathem’s direction.
“Give me one good reason not to carve your tongue out of your goddamn throat,” he said, tightening his grip on my wrist.
My eyes flicked to Nathem, and to my surprise, he didn’t flinch. He met Thay’s gaze only with a clear warning of his own.
He knew something that I didn’t.
Thay stilled, grinding his molars the way he always did when logic and the sudden urge to pulverize tore through his nervous system. When he tensed, the slow ache Wolfe had put between my ribs clawed into a tidal wave.
Screw their secrets. I was over it.
“Stop,” I snapped, shoving him hard enough in the chest to make him step back. “I am just picking up a few things from the utility closet,” I added quietly, immediately feeling the distance between our bodies.
Despite the festering sense of betrayal that always came with seeing both of them with other women, and the burning urge to torch his cage to the ground, everything inside me screamed to fill the chasm, to press my face into the center of Thay’s chest and breathe.
It was a strange kind of curse. Both beautiful and terrifying.
It was love, but not the sort I could name out loud. That was forbidden.
I lowered my gaze and slid to my feet, noting the pattern of crimson dotting the edge of my Chucks. Like all the men here, I had blood on my hands, but it was put there by a different type of violence.
I sighed, breathing in one last trace of his scent before heading for the door.
“Is the key still on your desk?” I asked Wolfe, barely meeting his eyes. I did not want to become lost in them. He was her labyrinth now.
“Yeah,” he nodded, and I didn’t miss the way his gaze twitched when his hand reached out for me before falling short.
He didn’t get to touch me.
“Kay,” I mostly said to myself, rounding the exit and stalking down the hall toward Wolfe’s den.
I eyed the golden knob looming in the distance and couldn’t bear the idea of walking into a world where I was no longer welcome.
I didn’t want to see it: the bed they fucked in, the smell of their bodies tangled in his scent, the thought of him pulsing into her the way he had done with me hours before.
I swallowed, listening to my footsteps echo down the corridor like a fading heartbeat, haunting the things she loved most.
I veered left up the staircase, sweeping past his bedroom. I couldn’t make myself small enough to crawl through his rib cage to retrieve my key to freedom. It was a terrible metaphor, and I wasn’t ready to face it.
“Daph?” Lolly grinned at me from the top. She wore a long shirt and a pair of pink underwear cut high on her thighs. “Did you see Kaden down there?”
Of all the club wives, I liked her the most. She taught kindergarten by day and fucked a demon after dark. We were practically soulmates, only she knew how to do it better.
“Yeah, he’s down there,” I mouthed, patting her shoulder as I walked by.
“Wait. Were you with Wolfe last night?” She squinted into the sun, yawning. “I thought I saw him with Lyla.”
“You did.”
“Shit, Daph. I didn’t know you played in threes.”
A sick, yellow feeling hit my stomach.
“I don’t.” I turned to face her fully. “I only just found out about her.”
“Oh,” she bit her lip, searching for what to say next.
Lolly was dark magic, like winter in a hailstorm. With her round curves and fierce expression, she was the closest thing to real life in the Underworld.
“Sorry, love,” she murmured, reading my expression.
“Don’t be. I mean, it was never going to be me.”
A sob hit my throat, but I refused to let it free. Maybe it was pride, or perhaps confirmation, but I wasn’t ready to make it real.
“Daph,” Lolly stretched. “It is always you.”
I laughed. “But the thing is, Lolly,” I dragged a hand down my face. “It’s not.”
“Girl, I’m not following. Threx and Wolfe orbit you. How can you say that?”
“Because it isn’t.” I met her wild brown eyes and held onto them for dear life.
“Lolls, think about it. Thay keeps me, but he won’t fuck me.
He won’t touch me or go anywhere near feelings that veer outside whatever fated coexistence we share.
And Wolfe, he’ll fuck me, sure. All night.
On a scale from one to ten, until I can’t breathe or exist. But the one thing he refuses to do is keep me. So, no. It is never me.”
“Goddammit, Daphne,” Wolfe growled behind Lolly, nearly knocking her down the stairs. “It is not like that.”
Lolly dropped her gaze, giving me an apologetic look before scrambling away to find Kade.
“Fuck you, Silas!” I swallowed, pulling his birth name like a goddamn trigger and wishing I had something else to throw. “It is exactly like that! And you know it.”
I turned to sprint down the long hallway, sweeping past Thay’s door on the left. Usually, I would pause to admire the nuances of their private spaces. But not today. They could burn for all I cared.
“Would you stop?” he shouted after me, picking up the pace. “You are behaving like a child.”
“Says the lying, cheating asshole whose dick just got caught in his zipper!” I flared, pushing faster toward the lone door at the end of the hall.
“Goddammit, Daphne,” he stomped forward, crushing the spine of the wooden planks beneath his boots. “I said, stop.”
“I don’t give a fuck. What you say no longer matters, Wolfe,” I seethed when I hit the wall, turning to fight. “Not in my head. Not in my heart. And sure as shit not in my body.”
His feet slammed to a halt when my words struck him straight in the stomach.
“You have no right to tell me to stop. Or to come. Because I don’t belong to you anymore.” I aimed lower, and Wolfe stepped forward. “And you know what? Maybe I never did.”
Wolfe’s chest collided with mine, pinning me against the peeling shiplap sliding off the wall. I felt his heart thunder beneath his ribs, straight into my own, before I pushed again.
“I refuse to be complicit.” I shot him a glare. “I won’t be your side fuck. So whatever this is, or was,” I tilted my chin, holding my ground, “is over. Now,” my voice cracked, “let me go.”
I didn’t believe it, even as the words came tumbling out of my mouth. This man would always belong to me, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about that. But I could pretend. It was my superpower.
Wolfe’s eyes went wide as he pressed his forehead to mine, threatening to undo me completely.
“You are not the other woman, Daphne. She is.”
I shut myself off, shaking my head in protest. Was this supposed to make it all better? Words that didn’t mean a goddamn thing?
“As the leader of this club, I have to check boxes, and what happened with Molly last night is another clear sign I need a queen. Someone to manage all the broken shit I don’t see, because I am only one goddamn person.
And she is not bad. Lyla doesn’t do drama; she doesn’t get jealous, and unlike you, stationing her at my side would improve her quality of life instead of ruining it. ”
I broke. I did not give a shit about his cold math or the way the numbers played out in his head. Every bit of me was breaking.
“You might love me,” he said through a sad smirk, “but you didn’t choose me, either, Daph. Or this.”
And there it was, the punch I had been waiting for.
Crack.
“You left. But if you are drawing a line between her and you…” His eyes searched mine, drinking in any remaining flecks of light I had left. “Then she is dead.”
“Stop,” I whispered, trying to look away, but his hands swept up my throat and held me still.
“I’ll march down those stairs right now and throw her ass into the street because she is just a fucking checkbox. One I used last night to get the memory of you off my cock,” he growled. “It did not work.”
“Yeah, well, she is wearing my goddamn shirt,” I pushed back through a cracked sob, turning my head to avoid how beautiful he was.
“And she can have it. My crown. Dick. My fucking throne. But the only thing she cannot have, Daph, is you.”
He forced my hand up beneath his tee, pressing it over his heart.
“Or me. Or this,” his lips spoke over mine, forcing me to pay attention, “This is yours.”
I curled my fingers inward, trying to claw it out before slumping in defeat. I hated Wolfe for making me want to kiss him instead of setting him on fire.
I knew better, but I didn’t give a damn. I wanted Thay and Wolfe beating inside me forever, and I did not care if that turned us to ash.
“Please, Daphne?” A soft plea came from behind him, needling straight into my lungs. I paused, glancing at Lyla, frozen in the shadows. “Please don’t take this from me.”