Wolf (The Henchmen MC #3) (31 page)

"I'm Swiss," Amelia said, holding up her hands.

"Just saying, you need to be able to walk a straight line. You know... the aisle," I insisted. "We all do."

"Stop being a bunch of pussies and have a shot with me," Lo declared, getting up and moving toward the sidebar. She was clearly on a mission and there was no stopping Lo when she got an idea in her head.

"I think she might be the only bride in history to say 'pussies' to her bridesmaids on her wedding day," Alex said, smiling.

And with that, we were handed shots, and like the good bridal party we were, we threw them back.

There was a soft knock on the door. "Everybody decent?" Shooter's voice called through the door and we found it opening before anyone could answer. "Damn," he said, shaking his head when he saw us all fully dressed. Then his gaze fell on Amelia and his dark green eyes went soft. "Oh, angel," he said, moving across to her and dropping down by her feet. He took her hand and kissed it dramatically, making Amelia almost wobble on her feet. They'd been together for several months, but apparently there was no way to build immunity to his kind of charm. "Beautiful," he told her quietly. "Anyway," he said as he linked his pinkie finger with hers, "things are about to start. I was sent to rally the troops."

Summer rushed across the room toward the propped up pack-and-play, reaching inside and pulling out the very pudgy, dark haired, gray eyed Ferryn in her pink dress and matching diaper cover and socks. I'd never given much thought to babies, but if you saw her without a little weird feeling in your empty uterus, you weren't human. It was hard to imagine a man like Reign with a baby, let alone a daughter, but from the second he saw her, saw himself and his wife in her, he had been putty. And she was an equally big fan of her father. Summer told me they chose the name Ferryn because it meant 'adventurous' and they figured that if there was anything her life was bound to be filled with, it was adventure.

"I'll take that," Shoot said, kissing Amelia's cheek and moving to take Ferryn out of Summer's arms. "Thank god you have a whole army of men around you, beautiful," he told her, holding her aloft as she smacked her lips at him, "because if you have one ounce of your mama's pretty when you get old enough, the boys will need to be beat off with sticks."

"If Reign has his way, she's never going to date," Summer said, rolling her eyes.

"Smart dad. Ain't a good one of us men out there," he said with a wink as he walked toward the door, Ferryn situated on his hip.

"Anyone ever stop to consider that there literally isn't a bad man in that bunch out there?" Lo asked, looking around us, her eyes looking the tiniest bit glassy from the booze. "I mean... we've all had such shitty experiences with men in our lives and here we are, surrounded by the best of the bunch."

"And every last one of them is a criminal," Summer agreed.

Alex laughed. "So are most of us."

"And we're the best bitches around," I agreed, feeling all gushy inside. "Okay, enough of this sappy shit. Let's get you married," I said, snagging Lo's wrist as I passed and we all fanned out into the hallway.

I watched from the side of the doorway as the women walked out, Summer first, her eyes on Reign. His eyes were on her too, a sweet smile on his face. Alex was out next. Breaker wasn't a groomsman, standing in was Repo instead. But her eyes found his in the crowd and there was no mistaking the heat behind his as he watched her. Amelia was out next. Shooter had handed off Ferryn to Vin, one of the older Henchmen, and took his place beside Repo, his eyes on Amelia and the new love there was enough to make Amelia fumble a step.

"You're up, honey," Lo reminded me.

I turned, giving her a small smile. "I know we don't do the girly shit, but Lo... I'm so happy for you." Her eyes welled up and I moved quickly into the doorway before she could get me blubbering too. I wasn't at the 'greeting-card-crying' stage yet, but I wasn't the dry-eyed stoic I had once been either.

My eyes instinctively sought Wolf, as they always did when I knew he was around. I'd never really been the kind of woman who paid much attention to things like how men dressed, but damn... he cleaned up nice. Shoulders like his were why suits were invented if you asked me. His eyes stayed on my face for a second before drifting downward, taking in my second-skin pink outfit. When his eyes made their way back to my face, they were heated.

I took my place across from Cash who caught my eye and winked. "Hey kid," he said before the Wedding March started and he turned to watch as Lo came into view. If I wasn't so close, I wouldn't have been able to hear his breath hiss out of his mouth.

Lo's smile was infectious as she looked at her fiance. She did manage to walk a straight line and her bouquet fell to the floor because Cash took her hands before she could hand it off to me. It stayed there, between their feet, as they said their vows, not so much as glancing at anyone as they did so.

"You may now..."

The rest of those words were never heard because Cash reached out, grabbing Lo around the waist, and hauling her up around his waist, his mouth on hers before her toes were even off the ground. His hands moved down to her ass, her hands to the sides of his face, as he turned and walked down the aisle with her wrapped around him to the hoots and whistles of the audience.

"Crying?" Wolf asked, coming up by my side, taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger and tipping my face up toward his.

"No, I'm not. Shut up," I objected, blinking away the wet that had pooled in my eyes. "They're really good together," I said when his arms slid around me.

"Yep."

"Know what?"

"No, what?"

"We're pretty good together."

"No," he said, shaking his head at me.

"No?" I asked feeling anger rise up in me, mixed with a crippling fear that made me almost feel sick.

"We're not good. We're fucking great."

I felt my smile spread. I wasn't sure he was aware of it, but more and more frequently, his sentences went beyond the five words his father trained and traumatized him into allotting himself his entire life. He still wasn't some sort of wordsmith, but he wasn't as hesitant to express himself with seven, eight, nine, hell... even ten words at times.

"You guys going to need a storage closet too?" Shooter asked as he passed us, arm shamelessly on Amelia's ass. She was desperately trying to discreetly swat it away and he was pretending to not notice.

"Too?" I asked, smiling.

"Lo and Cash didn't make it to their suite," he smiled.

"Too much information," I objected.

"Oh, please. You will get all the gory details later," he said, walking off down the aisle, hand curling harder into Amelia's butt cheek.

He was right; I did get all the gory details.

Wolf and I didn't get a storage closet. But we did get a room. We didn't use the bed. We barely got into the door before he had me up against it, furiously trying to get me out of the romper and I maybe understood the appeal of skirts for two-point-three seconds.

Janie

3 Years-

"We're going to be late, Wolf," I barked inside the front door.

"Keep your panties on," he called back, but his footsteps were coming toward me. He stepped out into the doorway in black jeans and a simple white tee. His leather cut was over it, making the mountain man disappear and replacing him with the biker. "Never mind, take them off," he said, eyes raking over me in my simple jean shorts and black tee.

"We're bringing the beer. We can't be late."

"Fuck the beer," he said, grabbing me and pinning me against the truck. His hand slipped inside my panties and stroked over me as my hand moved to stroke his already hard cock through his pants.

Yeah, we were going to be late.

And he was right.
Fuck the beer.

In the end, we got there about twenty minutes after things got into swing. The Henchmen compound was packed, bikers and club whores (yeah, I still referred to them as that in my head because, well, nothing else was really fitting), and friends of The Henchmen milled around.

Wolf let out a loud whistle and nodded at a few of the probates who came running as he climbed up into the bed to get the kegs down. Five kegs. I thought it was overkill, Wolf told me they would probably need to send out the pregnant Summer and whomever else was sober later.

"Heya kid," Cash called, walking up with an adoring Ferryn trailing behind.

Shooter's, and Reign's, fears were realized in her and she was hardly more than a toddler. She was twenty-five pounds and eight ounces of pretty. Her father's dark hair had stayed dark but started to curl like her mother's, forever escaping whatever bands and bows Summer used to try to tame it. She had a really weird outfit on, paying homage to both of her parents. She wore a black faux leather pleated skirt and a pretty pink floral shirt with a pair of black Chucks on her feet and sparkly butterfly clips in her hair.

"When are you guys going to make one of these?" Cash asked, scooping her up and throwing her under his arm football-style to which her response was to throw her arms out and make airplane noises.

Wolf's arm went around my hip and squeezed reassuringly. "Got time," he said, making me take a grateful breath. I wasn't at that place yet. I was nowhere near that place yet. But while I was barely pushing thirty, Wolf was well on his way to forty. We really didn't have that much longer to think about it. This was evidenced by the fact that Wolf was making plans for an addition to the cabin.

He told me the news and I remembered feeling my belly clench hard. Part of it was the feeling of the end of an era. We had made so many memories in that cabin. I had lost some of my fears in the arms of Wolf. I had found my first nights of dreamless sleep. I had felt a man's hands on my skin in adoration and love for the first time. I found parts of myself I forgot were there, or had never existed before. I found softness and love.

And part of the sensation was fear. I was losing that safety net that three years of stability gave me. Things were changing. Our lives were moving in a new direction.

But I was not the kind of chick to be afraid of change and adventure. And that was exactly what starting a family would be- the biggest change, and the grandest adventure.

So while it scared me shitless, I was also excited.

"Gotta marry her first," Wolf added, making me start.

My eyes automatically went to my left hand where a ring was situated. Not a diamond. When it looked like Wolf was getting the itch to ask me, I'd made sure I threw a well-timed rant about blood diamonds so he knew to steer clear of that. He chose instead a ruby, telling me that red suited me better anyhow. It was round-cut and on a white gold band and I freaking loved the damn thing and what it represented- freedom, but at the same time, protection.

"Well, the fuck you waiting for?" Reign asked, stealing his daughter from his brother. "Hey Repo," Reign called, a smile I didn't trust on his face.

"Yeah?"

"I think Wolf needs some help with these kegs," he said, still doing the weird grin.

"I'll get Maze on it," Repo called back, and I felt my eyes get small.

"Are you guys hazing her?" I asked, my tone sharp and I could practically
feel
the eye roll Wolf was doing behind my back.

"She ain't getting special treatment," Reign said on a shrug. "You wouldn't want special treatment at Hailstorm, would you?"

"That's a completely different situation."

"How?"

"Because Lo would never purposely make any individual life hard just to prove a point," I said, preparing for the fight because everything he was saying was confirming my fears. They weren't giving her a fair shot.

"Look you guys wanted us to give her a shot, we're giving her a shot. She ain't complaining about the treatment so you don't get to either."

"Hey, what do you need?" Maze asked as she walked up, stretching out her legs to keep pace with Repo. She had on black skinny jeans and a black wifebeater, an outfit which only accented her feminine figure. She was slightly pear-shaped, wide of hip and small of waist. She had breasts bigger than mine, but not quite as impressive as Lo's. Her face had a somewhat squared jaw and full lips with dark brows over hazel eyes. Her hair was straight and fell to her elbows, colored in the deepest shade of purple possible.

I liked Maze. I liked Maze the second I laid eyes on her a few weeks before. So did Lo and Summer and Alex and Amelia. We couldn't tell you what it was, exactly, about her that made us all band together and champion her cause, but there was something. And it was more than simply being pissed that The Henchmen were just going to blow her off on the simple fact that she was female. There was a quiet kind of strength about her, a grim determination, and the barest hint of desperation that maybe women were better at picking up on. Or, perhaps, just women who had been there before like we all had been.

"Kegs," Reign said, jerking his head toward the truck where two of the male probates were lowering some down.