Wrath (Paperback SIGNED)

Wrath

I tipped the beer back, taking a sip as I watched Kate stumble her way back to the bar. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes glassy. 

She's drunk. 

She tripped, stumbling into me, laughing as I caught her. 

"Thanks." She twisted out of my arms, slapping a hand on the bar. "Another, milady!"

"You're drunk," I remarked. 

"Yee-ep." She smacked her lips together, emphasising the p, then reached for the shot Kimi placed before her. 

I shot Kimi a questioning look. She shook her head, placing a hand on her pregnant belly. 

Kate lifted the shot glass, holding it at mouth level. 

"I’m drunk as a skunk in a… in a…." She frowned, dropping her arm as she tried to work out what rhymed with skunk. "Punk? Bunk? Monk?" She slapped her free hand on the bar then pointed it at me, yelling, "Drunk as a skunk!"

She tipped the shot, downing it in one, then slammed the glass on the bar and looked over at Kimi. 

"Another?" Kimi asked, her right eyebrow lifted in question. 

"A cider, my lady." Kate burped then giggled, twirling on the barstool to look up at me. "Where were we?"

I raised one eyebrow. "Nowhere? You just sat down."

She waved her hand dismissively. "Nah, we were talking about something."

Like how I'm about to cut you off and force you to go sleep this bender off?

"That's right!" She leaned towards me, nearly slipping off her seat. My arm shot out, steadying her. She sent me a grateful look, patting my hand in thanks. 

I ignored the way that made my cock harden. I was used to ignoring that reaction around Kate.  

"I was asking why you motorcycle people have an obsession with death and hell and sup-a-nat-a-ru-al"—the word sounded not quite right coming out of her mouth but she pushed through—"beings. Like hell and the devils and grim reapers and shit. You know what’s scary?"

She narrowed her eyes on me, leaning close. "Raptors."

"Raptors?" I asked, ignoring the chuckles from the crowd around us. Kate never got drunk. Hell, she'd declared she wouldn't be drinking until her university graduation—and that was still a fair ways off. 

She nodded her head earnestly. “Raptors. That shit is terrifying.” 

Kimi handed her another drink and she decided to use her mouth to pick it up and chug it rather than her hands. Impressively, she managed to get a quarter of the bottle down before air became a requirement. 

Fuck. 

I shifted, subtly adjusting my crotch. Kate dropped her head, the bottle falling to the bar but miraculously remaining upright, her hands still on her legs. The crowd whistled and catcalled, and I made a mental note of who I needed to fuck up later.

Kate reached out, touching my arm, and recapturing my attention, continuing her rant. 

“Raptors. I have doorknobs all over my house. Not handles. You know why? ’Cause they learn. They learn shit, Wrath. They know how to open doors!” She swung her hands out, knocking my beer. I snatched it, righting the bottle. 

“And once they know that, they can get to you and rip you open from here—” She lifted her shirt pointing at her belly button then dragged both her shirt and her finger up her body. “—to here.” Her finger rested just under her collarbone; shirt bunched right up. 

Fantastic breasts. Lace bra. God fucking help me. 

I reached out, tugging her shirt down. “Pretty sure they’re extinct.”

“But people are trying to bring them back. It’s genetic manipulation, Wrath. Terrifying.” 

“Did you watch Jurassic Park again?”

She shook her head, expression earnest. “Nah-uh. I read it. They want to try and do it. Bring shit that’s extinct back. Dan-ger-ous,” she declared, slapping her hand against the bar. “They do that, before you know it, we’ll be surrounded by zombies and ain’t nobody got time for that.” 

My lips quirked up at the side and she grinned brightly at me before lifting my beer to her lips. “Just saying.”

I watched her throat move as she swallowed. The images running through my head were definitely not kid-friendly. 

Fuck you're a monster. 

“You done yet?” I asked gruffly, wanting to get her home and safe. 

She shook her head. “No. I’m gonna play pool.” She swung around on the stool, beer still in hand, and stopped. 

“Damn. Pope’s using it.” She tilted her head, squinting. “Is that Leslie? I thought she was banned after the last Gus-related incident” 

Fucking Leslie. Seriously. 

I glanced over, my normal don’t fuck with me look back on my face. “She is.”

“Well, Pope’s doing her on the table.” She hopped down. “I’ll dance till they're done.” She started moving to the jukebox. 

I jerked my head at one of the prospects hovering nearby, nodding towards Leslie and Pope. He swallowed but nodded, heading over to break them up.  

“What the fuck has gotten into her?” I asked Ice, who’d been sitting on the other side of me. 

"Anniversary of her mum's death is today. It's been five years since she came to live with Gus." Ice lifted his beer to his lips, pausing as he glanced over at Kate. "She got her acceptance to Oxford today. Just like she and her mum planned. She was all set to go to the UK, study at that fancy-arse school." He shook his head. "Gus refused."

"Fuck." 

Gus may have been a good chapter president, but the man was a fucking dick to his family. Cheated on his old lady (though rumour had it she encouraged it), had a troop of kids to different women—all of which he treated like shit. 

I mean, one of his kids had rebelled by enlisting. Straight as a fucking line, that one. 

Kate was the only daughter (that we knew of) in his brood. By all reports, her mother, Rumi, had been club pussy, only interested in partying and fucking, right up until Gus had knocked her up. Then she'd turned it around, becoming a killer single mum, working three jobs, and still managing to be home to tuck Kate into bed. The club respected her, though she'd never asked anything of us beyond asking Gus to have a relationship with Kate. 

I'd been new to club life when Rumi'd been killed by a drunk driver. At just fourteen, Kate had moved in with Gus, and, for a little while, he'd seemed to grow a heart. It hadn't lasted beyond a month, and Mama, Gus' old lady, was more like the evil stepmother than a maternal figure. 

I'd been a prospect back then, nineteen and angry at the world for dealing me a shit hand. But nothing had prepared me for the night I'd been told to escort Kate home from school. I'd arrived early, waiting out the front of the schoolyard, enjoying the looks the soccer mums threw my way—a mixture of morbid curiosity, fear, and attraction. 

I may have flexed just for them. 

When the bratty teens had gotten out, there'd been streams of them running out the gates, laughing and chatting, yelling goodbye, and promising to text later that night. In that sea, Kate had been an anomaly. She'd kept her head down, arms crossed tight over her chest as she flowed with the sea of movement but remained somehow apart from it. 

I'd noted that not one person acknowledged her. 

She'd clocked me early, the look on her face a mixture of relief and stoicism. She'd silently taken the helmet I'd offered her, pulling it on. 

"Would have brought a cage if I'd known you weren't dressed for it." I apologized, nodding at her bare legs. 

"It's fine," she'd told me, fiddling with the straps of her helmet. "We don't have far to go."

I'd shrugged out of my jacket, handing it over to her. "At least wear this."

She'd taken it, offering me a small smile as she began to pull it on. She'd glanced behind me, her smile turning brittle, her movements pausing for a moment as she clocked the group behind me. I casually turned, glancing over as I swung a leg over my bike, settling into place. 

The group had consisted of a couple of girls and a few guys. The guys had been making lewd gestures, the chicks giggling and whispering shit. 

I pushed up my sunglasses, glaring. The girls had stopped first, immediately looking away. The guys had lasted a moment longer, ego and false pride not letting them give in. Finally, they'd shrugged, looking away, moving off. 

House cats didn't mess with lions.  

"Leave it." Kate swung onto my bike, wrapping her arms around me. "Just ignore them. They're small-minded idiots."

"They give you trouble often?"

"Nothing I can't handle."

I'd hated that she'd had to handle anything in the first place. I knew what it was like to be the kid others fucked over thinking they were hot shit. 

I'd taken her home then told Gus I'd do the pick-up every afternoon. It'd started out innocently enough, me trying to give her a little slice of good. But it'd slowly changed. Kate had started hanging around the club gym where we all worked out. Then we'd turned those drives home into longer cruises, occasionally stopping for dinner or to visit her mother's grave. 

At some point, over the last five years, I'd gone from thinking of her as the club's little sister to a woman I wanted to fuck. 

And damn if that didn't make me a dirty fucker. 

"He tell you?" Kimi asked, nodding at Ice. 

"Yeah, Gus is a fucker." I glanced at our girl who was currently plugging in numbers on the jukebox. “No wonder she’s looking to get fucked up.”

Kate spun, shooting a grin at Ice as “Ice Ice Baby” pumped out over the loudspeakers. Every eye in the bar swung to the man beside me, laughter and catcalls following. 

It was like a punch to my gut when she pointed at Ice, giving a little shimmy, inviting him onto the dance floor.

He shook his head, rolling his eyes but laughed as she began to sway, her hips swishing as she moved onto the small wooden dance floor, mouthing the lyrics at Ice. 

She wiggled and ran hands over her body in an overly exaggerated manner, as if she were attempting to poke fun at dirty dancing before the white girl rap hand movements began. The boys laughed uproariously as she shuffled her way over to Ice’s seat. Ice shut down; his face impassive as she swung her arse at him—drunk Kate could apparently twerk with the best of them. 

She moved back out to the dance floor, finishing with an MC Hammer move, and taking a bow as wolf-whistles, cheers, and suggestions were thrown her way. Ice’s face was stone cold, not a glint of humour in it, I expected mine was the same. 

“I’m gonna go outside now,” Kate declared, holding hands to her flushed cheeks. 

“What?” Ice asked, but Kate had already turned, moving for the outdoor area. 

I clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Stay, I got this."

I snatched up a jacket, knowing Kate would be cold as soon as she walked outside, and followed her happy skipping backside out into the yard. 

Outside, in the frigid air, she swayed under the moon, arms wrapped around her middle as she moved to blend into the shadows of the Club House. 

I came up behind her, draping the jacket over her shoulders. She sighed, leaning back against me. 

"He said no, Wrath." 

The mournful sorrow in her tone broke me. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her back into me, dropping a kiss onto the crown of her hair. "I know, Sunshine. It's fucked."

She chuckled sadly, her breath catching. "It was going to be easy. I was going to pack up, leave. No regrets."

"What, none?"

She tilted her head back, giving me a sad smile. "Only that I'd miss you."

"Just me?"

God, I was a sick fuck. 

She bit her lip, looking down. "Not just you."

"Who else?" I prompted, needing to have it confirmed. 

"Ice," she whispered, her voice small. "I'll miss him as well."

Her words punched me in the gut, bitterness taking over. "You love him, don't you?"

Her breath caught, but she nodded, remaining silent. 

I didn't say anything, just absorbed the blow. 

"It doesn't matter now," she finally whispered into the quiet. "I know what I have to do."

The next day I went nomad, and when I next returned to the club, she was gone.