“Haught,” I whimper in relief to see my mate is here. Caught off guard by my voice, he misses Trick and slides to my side. The giant rubs his face along my cheek and licks away my tears, his purring settling something deep inside me. “You came,” I whisper and wrap my aching arms around his neck. Burying my face in his warm, silky fur, I begin to tremble as reality sets in.
Haught gently climbs up on the mattress and curls his body around mine, protecting me while providing comfort at the same time, and I let him.
My home.
359
Hacker
“I’m so sorry, little bird,” I whisper into Lark’s neck. Carrying her frail body into our room at the clubhouse, I’m thankful one of the ol’ ladies thought to come in and straighten up, turning the bedding back while doing so.
“Please, no,” she cries when I lay her down on the clean sheets.
“Shhh,” I purr her back to sleep while smoothing her matted, dirty hair away from her face in order to get a better look at the damage that’s been inflicted. Having been manhandled, abused, and fuck knows what else, she has bruises, cuts, and scratches everywhere.
Trick had to give her a sedative shot before I could shift from my animal form. She held onto me so tightly, it broke my heart further. The doc on our payroll has only given her a brief exam for her external injuries until she wakes up.
A knock on the door pulls me from thoughts of the torture I plan to deliver to the piece of lynx scum that caused all of this.
“Come in,” I say quietly, knowing that anyone in the club can hear me with their enhanced hearing.
“Hey,” X steps inside and softly shuts the door behind him. “She okay?”
“As far as we know,” I reply, frustrated over not truly knowing what she endured while being held captive.
“Fuck,” he winces when he gets a good look at her face. “That rich son of a bitch really did a number on her,” he growls and I give him a pointed look to calm down.
“Not now,” I warn, then turn back to the other half of my soul. “I hate to leave before she wakes up,” I confess, but I have some business to attend to. I run my fingers over the bruises that seem to be multiplying before my very eyes. That only adds to my already extensive list of things to make Dupree pay for.
“Trick’s waiting outside in the hall,” he nods that way. I didn’t even hear him out there.
“He’s the reason she was taken,” I growl as quietly as possible.
“He’s also busted his ass to find her. He won’t screw up again.” My hands squeeze into fists as I take in his words.
“I’m not done with him,” I look over my shoulder at X. His eyes linger on her before meeting my stare.
“You’ll get your due. It wasn’t exactly a stick-to-her-like-glue situation, though.”
A low growl emanates from me, the tension in my body easing slightly when he continues. “Roark’s waiting on you. Let some of that anger out on that lynx prick. We don’t need a dead prospect.” He chuckles and claps me on the shoulder. Fucker.
“Don’t tempt me or you’ll need a replacement, too.” Responding with laughter, he leaves me with Lark.
“I love you, little bird,” placing a kiss on her forehead, I leave her asleep and head to do what needs to be done.
Arriving in the basement beneath the club’s shop, Niles’ Tuneups and Parts, my delight at seeing the two lynx assholes hanging from the ceiling has me cracking my knuckles in anticipation of the blood that’s about to be shed.
“Well, boys,” X says after he punches them one more time. “Looks like the birthday boy just arrived.” His maniacal grin grows wider as I pass Roark and step to his side.
“Did I miss all the fun?” I smile in delight when Dupree attempts to stand up to me.
“You’ll never get away with this,” he gloats. He thinks he has the upper hand, but his sense of law and justice means nothing to the Dark Leopard MC. Normal societal rules don’t apply in our world. You cross us or what belongs to us, and you pay. Painfully.
My brothers and I laugh heartily at his false bravado. He actually thinks we give a fuck what happens to him.
“That’s where you’re wrong, asshole.” I walk a circle around him, noticing his hired hand is frightened into silence. Guess he’s smarter than his boss in this case. “I already have.” Taking the knife from my belt, I hold it to his throat, just like he did to my mate. “It’s you that won’t get away.” My pressing the blade into his skin until blood seeps out makes him braver.
“Do it,” he spits, the cold steel of the blade biting deeper with the movement. “Go ahead. Kill me. But if you do,” he warns uselessly, “There will be nothing left of your club.”
Slowly dragging the knife across his skin I remove it from his neck to stab him in the arm as he hangs helplessly in the air, wiping off the blood from my weapon on his face. My brothers laugh hysterically when the sorry excuse for a lynx cries out from the pain like the sorry sack of shit he is.
“Please,” the other man whimpers when I turn to face him with a smile.
“Have you been a good boy and told my friends here what they want to know?” I run the tip of my knife down his cheek and throat, taking special care to leave a shallow cut along the way.
“Yes,” he answers quickly, eyes wide when Trick wraps an arm around his neck causing me to cut a little deeper than intended. It’s funny how easily he takes
