Raised by Reapers (A Storm Reapers MC #3)

Chapter 1

Mason

The house is quiet. That alone is a miracle.

A year ago, quiet meant something was wrong. In the world I came from, silence usually meant someone was about to kick in a door or pull a fucking trigger.

Now it means three kids are finally asleep.

I stand in the doorway of our bedroom with my arms folded across my chest, just watching them for a minute like I do most nights when I get home. The moonlight slips through the thin gap in the curtains and spreads across the bed, painting everything in silver and shadow.

Kelly is lying on her side with her hair fanned out across the pillow.

Even in sleep she keeps one arm stretched protectively over the twins.

Maddy is curled against her chest, tiny fingers wrapped in the fabric of Kelly’s shirt like she’s afraid her mama might disappear if she lets go.

Madison is sprawled on her back beside them, her little legs kicking occasionally as she dreams about whatever babies dream about.

Probably chaos.

They’ve been nothing but chaos since the moment they came into this world. And I wouldn’t trade a damn second of it. At the foot of the bed is the biggest surprise of the night.

Johnny.

The kid swore up and down he was sleeping in his own room. Made a big show of it too. Told me he wasn’t a baby anymore and that six-year-old men didn’t need nightlights.

Apparently six-year-old men also sneak into their parents’ room sometime after midnight.

He’s lying sideways across the foot of the bed with one arm hanging toward the floor, his dark hair sticking up in every direction like he lost a fight with his pillow.

I push away from the doorframe and walk into the room quietly, careful not to wake anyone. The old floorboards creak under my weight, but none of them stir. I reach down and lift Johnny’s arm back onto the bed so he doesn’t wake up with a dead limb in the morning.

Kid sleeps like he just rode a hundred miles. I shake my head with a quiet chuckle.

“Thought you were too grown up for this,” I mutter under my breath.

Johnny doesn’t answer. Just snorts softly and rolls onto his stomach.

Typical.

I sit down carefully on the edge of the bed and look at them again. All four of them. My family.

The word still feels strange in my head sometimes.

For most of my adult life, family meant the Storm Reapers. The club was blood, loyalty, and the only place a man like me belonged. Brothers at my back. Enemies in front of me. The roar of engines and the weight of a cut across my shoulders.

That life still exists. It always will.

But this…

I glance down at Madison’s tiny foot sticking out from under the blanket.

This is something different. Something bigger.

Maddy shifts against Kelly and lets out a small sleepy sigh. Kelly instinctively tightens her arm around her without even waking up.

I reach over and brush a strand of hair away from Kelly’s face. Two years ago, I wasn’t sure I’d get this.

Hell, Two years ago I wasn’t sure I deserved it.

Now I’ve got a house that’s never quiet for long, toys scattered across the living room floor, and enough baby bottles in the sink to drive a man insane.

And tomorrow…

Tomorrow we’re throwing the biggest damn birthday party the Storm Reapers have ever seen and all for two little girls. The first two Princess’s to grace this club.

I lean back slightly and glance toward the hallway, already imagining what the house is going to look like in the morning.

Balloons.

Decorations.

Cake.

Kelly has been planning it for weeks. Says every girl deserves a proper first birthday. Which means by tomorrow afternoon this quiet little house is going to be filled with half the damn club and a few invited guests from out of town.

Bikers trying to tie ribbons. Grown men arguing about balloon colors. And Johnny running around like he’s in charge of the entire operation. I smirk to myself. Kelly has no idea what she’s started by telling him he was in charge of helping decorate.

My eyes move back to the twins.

Maddy and Madison. One year old tomorrow.

One year since these two little tornadoes came screaming into the world and turned my life completely upside down.

I remember the first time I held them.

Two tiny girls wrapped in hospital blankets, both of them screaming like they were already mad at the goddamn world.

Johnny had stood beside the hospital bed staring at them like they were the greatest thing he’d ever seen. Then he looked up at me and said something I’ll never forget.

"Those are my sisters."

Like he already knew they belonged to him.

I reach down and gently pull the blanket up around Madison’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” I whisper quietly. “They’re yours.”

And if anyone ever tries to take them from him…Well. The Storm Reapers didn’t get their reputation for nothing.

Kelly shifts slightly beside me and her eyes flutter open.

For a second she looks confused, still half asleep. Then she notices me sitting there and gives me a tired smile.

“You’ve been staring at them again,” she murmurs.

I shrug.

“Can’t help it.”

Her gaze moves across the bed, landing on Johnny sprawled across the bottom. She huffs a quiet laugh.

“Thought we put him to bed.”

“Apparently he had other plans.”

Kelly shakes her head softly before looking back at the twins.

“Tomorrow’s going to be chaos.”

“That’s an understatement.”

She studies my face for a moment.

“You nervous?”

I consider that for a second. A year ago I’d have said no without thinking. Now?

“Yeah,” I admit quietly. “Little bit.”

Kelly reaches out and laces her fingers with mine.

“It’s just a birthday party.”

I squeeze her hand.

“Not for me.”

She raises an eyebrow.

“No?”

I look down at our daughters, then at Johnny.

“No,” I say softly. “For me… it’s the first time I realize what we’re really doing.”

“And what’s that?”

I glance toward the window where the faint rumble of a motorcycle echoes somewhere out on the highway. Then I look back at the bed. At the woman I fought to get back. At the kids sleeping under my roof. And the truth hits me harder than any punch I’ve ever taken.

“We’re raising Reapers.”

Kelly smiles slowly, her eyes closing.

Kelly’s breathing evens out again not long after that. It doesn’t take long for her to drift back to sleep. Being the mother of twins will do that to a woman—she can fall asleep faster than any biker I’ve ever met after a three-day ride.

I sit there a little longer, just listening.

Johnny snoring softly. The twins making those tiny baby noises that sound like half sighs and half squeaks. Kelly breathing slow and steady. Then I carefully slide off the bed.

The floorboards creak under my weight again, but no one wakes up. I step into the hallway and quietly close the bedroom door behind me before heading toward the bathroom down the hall so I don’t wake the kids.

The house is dark except for the faint glow of the kitchen light downstairs and the nightlight in the hallway Kelly always leaves on at night.

I turn on the shower and wait a second while the water warms up. The pipes rattle softly in the walls—another thing on the ever-growing list of things I keep meaning to fix.

When the steam starts curling into the air, I step under the spray. Hot water pounds against my shoulders, loosening muscles that still carry the weight of years spent riding hard and fighting harder. I brace my hands against the tile and lower my head under the stream.

For a moment I just stood there. Letting the water run over me. Letting my mind wander. It doesn’t take long before it drifts back to the day the twins were born.

Hell of a day.

Hospitals make me uncomfortable on a good day. Too quiet. Too clean. Too many memories of my mother and my brothers who didn’t walk out of places like that.

But that day…That day I paced the damn floor like a caged animal while Kelly was in the delivery room.

Johnny had been sitting beside me in one of those uncomfortable plastic chairs, swinging his legs and asking a million questions I didn’t know how to answer.

“Are they gonna be tiny?”

“Are they gonna cry?”

“Can they ride motorcycles?”

That last one almost made one of the nurses choke trying not to laugh. Then the doctor came out and told me it was time.

I still remember the sound of their first cries.

Two of them. Loud. Angry. Alive.

The nurse handed me the first one—Maddy—and I swear to God I was afraid to breathe too hard. She was so small it felt like she might break if I held her wrong.

Madison came ten minutes later.

Two little girls wrapped up tight in pink blankets, both of them screaming their lungs out like they already knew the world was a rough place.

When we finally had a room where everyone could come in and see the girls, Johnny had stood next to the bed staring at them like he’d just discovered treasure.

“Those are my sisters,” he said proudly.

Kelly was exhausted but smiling like she’d just won a war.

And in a way…She had.

The memory makes me huff out a quiet laugh under the spray. The real trouble started after that. Because once word got out that the twins had been born, the Storm Reapers started showing up.

One by one. Then all at once. Big tattooed bikers trying to act normal in a maternity ward.

Devil brought stuffed animals that looked like they had been through three bar fights. Justice walked in carrying balloons like he was holding a damn grenade. And every single one of them wanted to hold the babies.

That’s when things got interesting. Because Johnny and I weren’t having it. Not a damn chance.

I remember standing beside Kelly’s hospital bed with my arms folded while Johnny planted himself right next to me like a tiny bodyguard.

Justice reached out toward one of the bassinets. Johnny stepped forward immediately.

“You can’t touch them.”

Justice blinked.

“…Excuse me?”

“They’re my sisters,” Johnny told him seriously.

I didn’t say a word. Just stood there backing him up. Justice looked at me.

“Brother… you gonna let the kid threaten me?”

I shrugged.

“Sounds reasonable.”

The entire room lost it. Kelly had been laughing so hard she started crying. Eventually she had to step in just to restore some order.

“Mason,” she said, giving me that look that meant I was being ridiculous.

“They’re not going to break the babies.”

“I know,” I muttered.

“Then let them hold them.”

Johnny crossed his arms stubbornly.

“They have to wash their hands.”

Justice groaned.

“Kid’s worse than his old man.”

But one by one, they all washed up and took turns holding the twins. Watching those big dangerous men cradle two tiny babies like they were made of glass…

That’s something I’ll never forget.

The water starts cooling slightly, pulling me back to the present. I turn the shower off and grab a towel. After drying off and pulling on a pair of sleep pants, I step back into the hallway.

When I open the bedroom door, nothing has changed. Johnny is still sprawled across the foot of the bed and the twins are still tucked against Kelly.

I walk over and carefully scoop Johnny up into my arms. He’s getting heavier every day, but right now he just buries his face against my shoulder without even waking up.

“C’mon, little man,” I whisper.

I carry him down the hall to his room. The glow-in-the-dark motorcycles on his ceiling shine faintly in the darkness as I lower him into his bed and pull the blanket up around him.

Johnny rolls onto his side, hugging his pillow. I stand there for a second. Watching him. Then I quietly leave the room.

Back in the bedroom, Kelly hasn’t moved. I walk over and gently lift Maddy first. She stirs slightly but doesn’t wake as I carry her down the hallway to the nursery. The crib waits in the soft glow of the nightlight. I lay her down carefully and tuck the blanket around her.

Madison comes next.

She lets out a small sleepy grunt but settles the second she’s placed beside her sister. Once both girls are tucked in, I reach over and grab the baby monitor from the dresser. Their tiny shapes glow on the small screen.

Safe. Sleeping. Exactly where they should be.

I carry the monitor back to our bedroom and set it on the nightstand. Then I slide into bed beside Kelly.

She shifts slightly when the mattress dips but doesn’t wake. I lean over and press a soft kiss to her lips.

“Love you,” I murmur quietly.

Her hand drifts across the bed until it finds my arm. Even asleep she pulls herself closer. I wrap my arms around her and pull her against my chest.

For a man who spent most of his adult life sleeping alone in the clubhouse… This still feels unreal.

A warm bed.

A quiet house.

A family under my roof.

The baby monitor hums softly on the nightstand. Kelly’s breathing slows again as she snuggles deeper into my arms. And eventually…Mine does too. By the time sleep finally pulls me under, one thought is still running through my mind.

Tomorrow is going to be chaos. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.