Bash, Volume III (16 page)

Bash

My phone rang early the next morning, and I knew it wouldn’t be good when I saw Duke’s picture flash on the screen.

“What’s up?” I asked him, without bothering with society’s pleasantries.

“Randall felt ya’ll joining, even though he’s here and you’re a couple of mountains away. He wants to see the two of you, and Dawg, this afternoon at his house.”

“Can we negotiate for neutral territory?”

“You got a location in mind?”

“Somewhere public would be nice. The middle of the Walnut Street Bridge? Or if he doesn’t want to drive too far, maybe the picnic tables near the fishing pier at Harrison Bay State Park? Tomorrow at two o’clock, maybe? We have the cabin until noon tomorrow.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Angelica picked her phone up, looked at it, and set it back on the bedside table. “Will having my dad there help the situation, or make it even more tense?”

“Let’s see what Duke says when he calls back. If we’re called to Randall’s house, I wouldn’t mind having your dad with us. If he’ll meet us on neutral territory? It’s a toss-up.”

She nodded and curled into me. “I knew we were using a lot of energy. It was kind of addicting, though, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Non-Pack wolves are so limited, it’s one of the few times we can use it. I’m surprised Randall felt it from so far away, though.”

“Who made the rules? Do you know?”

“Pack wolves, probably. Some territories, you either join the Pack, leave, or fight the Pack and die. Randall allows lone wolves, but he’s pretty strict about what we can and can’t do. He’s way more lenient than most Alphas, though.”

He didn’t have to tell me. I knew the problems between Pack and MC in Atlanta.

It was nearly fifteen minutes before Duke called back. “He’s adamant about seeing the two of you today. If he needs to break the binding, the extra twenty-four hours might cement it too much for him to do so safely.” Duke sighed and added, “This is a Pack versus MC thing. My being his brother isn’t playing into this, but I tried, Bash.”

“And if we refuse?”

“Please don’t. He agreed to Harrison Bay State Park. What time can you be there?”

I looked at Angelica, and her look told me she’d go along with whatever I chose. “Tell him two o’clock. We’ll let you know by noon if we’ll be there today or tomorrow.”

“If you don’t come until tomorrow, and he insists on breaking the bond and can’t easily do so, he’ll be in his right to kill you both without having to explain his actions to the Concilio.”

“Thanks, Duke. We’ll let you know.”

Angelica lifted her phone from the table as I hung up, and she called her dad and explained the situation, her voice unemotional, her words terse.

I could hear him over the phone, so I knew when he told her he needed to ask some personal questions, and it might be easier to ask me than her.

“Just ask, Daddy. We’re all grown-ups. You know Bash and I fuck.”

“How many times last night? I need number of orgasms, Angel.”

She sighed and looked to the ceiling. Her scent told me she was mortified, but nothing in her voice gave it away. “Most of the damned night. I lost track of how many times I came, he came three times. I was hoping for morning sex, but Duke pretty much destroyed any hopes of that.”

I gave her a smirk to let her know morning sex wasn’t out of the question. Also, because I knew she’d tacked on the bit at the end to try to show her dad the question hadn’t bothered her.

“Okay,” I heard her dad saying, “don’t have sex anymore. We need ya’ll cemented enough you don’t pull Dawg in, but not so much Randall sees your combined energy as a threat. Want you both to
change
and run, but don’t hunt or eat.
Change
back, but just eat a sausage biscuit, enough to tide you over but not fill you up. Don’t drink anything — you want to be close to dehydrated, if you can. Run hard as a wolf, then run as a human. Water conducts all kinds of energy — if you’re dehydrated, you won’t conduct as much. Both of you wear your motorcycle boots, the rubber keeps you from the earth’s energy. Don’t hold hands or touch. In fact, stop and get your bike, Angel, and ride separately.”

“I won’t let him break the bond, Daddy.”

He was quiet a second, and I spoke from a few inches away before he could argue with her. “Ditto, Bud.”

“Okay, I hear you both. Go
change
and run, I’ll call Brain and see what we can strategize. Call me when you’re human again.”

She hung up and I told her, “You know if we fight him on it, it’ll be war between Pack and Club.”

She shook her head. “I’m not Pack. He needs us both there to break it. If I leave and he only has you, he can’t retaliate against the Pack if you’re cooperating.”

“You’re my ol’lady now, Princess. Not just a daughter. He can and will retaliate against the Pack if I can’t get you there.”

“I don’t want people we love to die because we won’t back down, but I don’t think I can let him break the bond, Bash. It was so… beautiful.” Her eyes teared up. “I don’t know why I fought you on it. We should’ve done it sooner. God, I love you so much.”

She put her engagement ring in her makeup kit, and we both went outside without getting dressed. We walked into the woods, and she started
changing
as she leaned over.

Sometimes I forget how strong she is. She’s stronger than possibly half of the male MC members — maybe not in muscles, but in sheer power.

She isn’t stronger than me, though, and I ran slightly ahead of her as we raced through the forest. She chased a bunny a while, but it was just for fun, and she abandoned the chase when the bunny got confused and doubled back.

She tackled me, we wrestled a bit, and the wolf knew there was a reason not to have sex, but the man was too far below the surface and it felt so
good
to take her from behind, sink into her, and pump until I found a glorious release.

As soon as the knot let go, she took off running and I chased. She led me back to the woods near our cabin, and
changed
as I approached.

She leaned against a tree, winded from the run and the fast
change
, and I sat and looked at her, resting a little as a wolf.

I walked to her, nuzzled her hand, and she ran her fingers through the fur of my neck and shoulder. “So beautiful, no matter what form you take. It really isn’t fair.”

The wolf didn’t understand, and he stepped back and let the man push forward and force the
change
.

“God, I’m starving,” Angelica said with a sigh when she was certain I was human enough to understand, “and thirsty, but my dad didn’t want us to eat or drink. Let’s go for a run, and then we can stop for a sausage biscuit on the ride back.”

Angelica

My dad, Dawg, Brain, Randall, and two wolves I didn’t recognize were waiting for us when we arrived.

Randall didn’t introduce the wolves behind him, just stepped to us and said, “Closer.”

I’m not sure why I didn’t leave my helmet with my bike, but it was still in my hands. I set it on the picnic table and looked across the water to the marina and restaurant. I saw at least thirty people, which meant we had enough witnesses we should be safe. A few people were on the pier on this side of the bay, but we were far enough away, human ears wouldn’t hear us.

Randall turned as he stepped between us, so we were all facing the same direction, and reached for our hands. A horrible buzzing sensation swept up my arm, and I thought he was trying to break the precious bond I’d formed with Bash the night before.

My dad had been right about the boots — I couldn’t pull energy from the earth through my feet. However, I soon discovered a wealth of power from the trees around us, the clouds above us, and the bay beside us holding the waters of the Tennessee River. I pushed energy down my arm, towards Randall, and he let go of Bash, knocked me to the ground, put his hand to my throat, and pressed power down on me until I couldn’t have breathed even if his hand hadn’t been on my throat. I couldn’t fight him, couldn’t move, couldn’t do shit.

In a panic, I reached out to my dad, Brain, and Bash. I have a blood connection with my dad because I’m his daughter. It doesn’t allow us to be telepathic, but today it let me draw on him for energy. As I sucked power from all three, I grew stronger and stronger until I could finally move, and I struck Randall in the face with one hand as I knocked his other arm away, freeing my throat. The next instant, I was standing and my dad was holding me back, while Dawg and Brain were attempting to hold Bash back.

“Explain your actions, Angelica.” Randall was pissed, but so was I.

“I won’t let you break the bond I made with Bash.”

“I wasn’t breaking it. I was only sensing it.”

I relaxed, and my dad let me go. “Maybe you should’ve explained what you were doing. It felt like an attack.”

One of the wolves with him said, “The Alpha doesn’t have to explain himself.
Ever
.”

“Is there a problem here?” Bless his heart, a little old man who’d been fishing on the pier was approaching a group of bikers to protect the girl. I could smell a gun on him, but still — the man had balls, even if he was still ten yards away from us.

“Thanks so much for coming to check on me,” I told him as I walked towards him to close the distance, “but I’m fine. I’ve been taking a mixed martial arts class, and my friend here is somewhat of a purist. He was trying to make a point, but we were sparring, not fighting. I’m fine, he’s fine.”

The man looked back and forth between us a few minutes and said, “Okay then, glad to hear it.”

I watched him walk back to the pier, and then returned to the men.

“The biggest problem I see,” Randall said, his look predatory and wild, “is that you drew energy from three wolves to fight me.”

“I didn’t know I could do that, I panicked and it just kind of…
worked
. All I can do is apologize. I thought you were attacking us, destroying something I hold precious.”

He shook his head. “I can’t let you have a bond to three wolves, Angelica. Nothing I can do about the one to your dad, so either the one to Brain or Bash will have to go. I wasn’t aware of the one you have with Brain.”

I shrugged. “We didn’t do it on purpose. He was helping me study, back when I was around fourteen, and I couldn’t grasp a pretty complicated concept. Eventually, he just inserted it into my head somehow, and then we could talk telepathically.”

“Probably nothing I can do with that one, either, if it’s so old,” he said with a sigh.

“What do I need to do in order for you to be okay with the binding between Bash and I?”

“Join the Pack or leave my territory, and you have to know Atlanta is part of my territory. I’m Alpha to the local leader down there.”

“She isn’t joining the Pack,” Bash said, his fists tight at his side.

“Then she has forty-eight hours to be gone, which is forty-six hours longer than I usually give people.”

“And if she refuses to leave?” my dad asked. Sometimes, I truly wondered if he could read my mind.

“Then I’ll have to decide whether to force her into the Pack or kill her.”

“We don’t want war,” Brain told him. “We left Duke at the compound because if this degenerated, we didn’t want to force brothers to fight each other.”

“I don’t want war, either, but when she draws from the three of you she’s stronger than my third, possibly close to equal with my second… and that’s without her knowing what to do with the energy. I can’t let someone who can pull on the power of other wolves and multiply the effect, live in my territory when they aren’t part of the Pack.”

I looked at Bash and he told me, “I’ll go where you go, if you choose to leave.” His voice was suddenly in my head, saying,
And I’ll fight by your side if you choose to stay.

I looked to Randall. “My life is here. My dream job is here. Surely there’s another solution? I promise I don’t mean you harm, and I’m
not
a threat under normal circumstances. I thought you were attacking. As long as you aren’t attacking, I won’t fight back.”

He looked at Bash a few seconds, and then back to me. “The MC exists peacefully alongside the Pack because none of the MC are bound to each other. However, with you bound to several of them, it negates most of the reasons for my consent for the considerable presence I’ve allowed them.”

He looked to Brain, my dad, and Bash, considering, and finally asked Bash, “Will you allow Angelica to walk with me to mouth of the bay? You’ll be able to see us, but you won’t hear us. If she agrees to my proposal it’ll be between the two of us only, and not the entire Pack. I need you to promise you’ll remain here, and won’t come to us, though.”

“As long as it isn’t sexual and doesn’t involve blood…” He looked at me a second, then back to Randall. “Yeah, you have my word.”

“Blood will be involved, but she’ll have to agree to it.”

A good thirty seconds went by before Bash met my gaze to say, “I trust you not to agree to something you know I can’t live with.”

My dad tossed me a bottled water and two energy bars, and I ate and drank as Randall and I walked in silence along the water’s edge, past some camp sites, up a small embankment, across a parking lot, and back down to the water’s edge once again. We were a good half-mile from the other wolves, but they could see us.

“I propose a safety-switch, of sorts,” Randall told me when we stopped. “A bonding between the two of us, with wording that will allow me to override your will only if you mean me or a member of my Pack harm. It won’t make you a Pack member, though it’ll qualify you for Friend of the Pack status, which I would advise you to take, as it’ll further cut down on any hostility the Pack members may feel once word gets around you openly fought me.”

My human brain kicked in enough to think politically, and I gave him a small bow of respect. “I’ll accept Friend of the Pack status. You know I already have it with another Pack. As for the binding, can you tell me more of what’s involved, and the specific wording?”

We negotiated the wording for probably ten minutes, and I knew I was skating on thin ice, but I also knew Bash wouldn’t have been okay with Randall’s initial proposal.

The Alpha was making a huge exception for me, trying to find a way to let me stay in his territory as a lone wolf with the kind of strength I’d apparently accidentally amassed, so I spoke respectfully, kept my eyes down, and never refused an offer, merely suggested something else instead.

When we finally agreed on the wording, Randall told me, “I’m going to put us in a bubble. For a short time, I’ll be cut off from my Pack and you’ll be cut off from Bash. I’ve already let my people know what’s about to happen. You should let Bash know.”

I nodded and used the telepathic link to tell him,
He’s promised he isn’t messing with my bond with you. However, he’s going to insulate us for a few minutes, and you and I won’t be able to feel each other or talk to each other.

I don’t like it.

I know, but you need to trust me, okay? Randall’s going out of his way to make an exception for us.

Love you.

I love you, too.

I looked at Randall and nodded, and then gasped as we were suddenly disconnected from everything except the sun and moon. I couldn’t feel the river, the trees, my dad… I hadn’t even realized I was feeling my dad, until he was
gone
.

Randall’s energy filled the bubble, and he said, “If Bash had come, Zach could’ve insisted on coming, and he won’t approve of the way I’m getting us around the rules. He doesn’t approve of the way I’m handling lone wolves — he wants to make life difficult for you, to try to force as many of you as possible into the Pack. At some point, he and I will have to come to an
understanding
, but we aren’t there yet, and when it happens I want to do it in front of as much of the Pack as possible, because I’m going to make a helluva point. So, today isn’t the time.”

Randall took his shirt off before shifting the end of one finger. He poked a finger of his other hand with his claw, and I did the same. I pulled my tee down far enough to bare the spot over my heart, and we touched each other’s chests, then our own. I was surprised when he had us do our wrists as well, but I didn’t argue.

He spoke first, I repeated, and then we said it all together. It was a long and convoluted statement that basically said he could override my will in a nonsexual manner if I intended harm against him, or against someone from the Chattanooga Pack who hadn’t been aggressive towards me to start with.

I gasped and staggered against the energy bubble as Randall’s power sealed the binding, and I had a feeling he’d made it hurt on purpose. He’d used way more energy than was necessary, but it successfully made his point, and my wolf had no doubt how strong he was. Not to mention, I’d physically slammed into a bubble of his energy,
and it had held
.

He surprised me by insisting on a hug before he broke the bubble, but I gave it to him. Now, he used his energy to soothe me and take the pain away, and I understood it was another statement of friendship and goodwill between us.

He broke the bubble and said, “Talk to Bash, let him know he can still hear you.”

It’s all good, Bash. We should head back in the next couple of minutes, I think.

Fuck, Princess. Don’t ever put me through that again. Now that I’ve had you in my head and I’m used to feeling you all the time, it was like I’d lost a limb when you weren’t there.

For the record, I don’t feel Brain like that. He’s only there when we’re actively talking.

Good to know, now finish up and get your ass back.

I’d been looking at Bash across the water while I talked to him, and now I looked back to Randall with a nod. “Thanks again for finding a solution. You didn’t have to, and I appreciate it.”

“If you hadn’t come to me in peace, bearing gifts, I’m not sure I would’ve. You are very much your father’s daughter, though, and I trust you won’t make me regret my decision. A storm is brewing, and we may very well need all of the wolves fighting on the same side at some point. In a battle of good and evil, the Pack and MC would be side-by-side fighting evil.”

“I’ve heard the legends of those kinds of battles, but it’s been centuries, right?”

He shook his head. “No. Humans have gotten involved in the past couple of conflicts, so the supernatural fighting isn’t as well known.”

I walked beside him on the way back, instead of slightly behind as I’d done on the way out. He didn’t seem to mind, and he talked conversationally. “I’d like to invite your little group of women to run with the Pack at the next full moon, and I can name you a Friend of the Pack at that time. I’ll put the word out now that it’s coming, though, so you won’t have Pack members being an ass to you. They’ll know you did something to make up for fighting me, though what you did will be no one’s business.”

“You aren’t going to tell your underlings who are here as witnesses? So, whatever gossip they put out, you’ll let stand?”

“Yeah. Cora won’t gossip, but Zach has a few friends he’ll tell who are
huge
gossips, so most of the Pack will know you and I did some sort of bonding ritual by dinnertime tonight.”

I didn’t say anything, and he asked, “Did your dad tell you to come to me hungry and dehydrated?”

I remembered how rushed we’d been,
changing
, running, driving back, talking to Duke and the other officers at the compound, getting my bike and driving here. There hadn’t been time to stop at a restaurant and have a big meal. “Was a rough morning, food had to take a back seat.”

“You don’t smell as if you’re lying, but then, your father doesn’t either, even when I know he’s lyin’ his ass off.”

I shrugged. “My dad doesn’t talk to me about stuff like that.” Also true, because I’d learned it from Bash.