Chapter 13: Wolf.e: Chapter 12

I pull the blanket down over my head to cover the noise. Things are breaking again; Mom is crying again. I start to hum to myself, the song Mom taught me. “Hotel California” over and over.

“Sing this to yourself when you hear him like that. Close your eyes and it will all be over soon, little warrior,” she would tell me.

The party still sounds in the background, people shouting, why don’t they stop him? Why don’t they protect her? I hear the sickening thud of his fist hitting her face.

“You let him fucking look at you? At what’s mine?”

“No, I didn’t, Shamus.” Another thud.

“Don’t lie to me, bitch.” I hear my father’s angry voice. The one that tells me Mom is going to get hurt. I squeeze my eyes shut and sing louder to myself but it doesn’t drown them out.

My mother falls to the wooden floor and I see her staring back at me, she smiles, her one eye is already swelling.

“It’s okay. Close your eyes. Sing, baby,” she croaks.

It’s then that I see him climb on top of her and before I can stop myself I’m crawling out from under the bed and rushing to plant myself on top of her between them. I’ve never been so scared.

I look up at him, maybe he’ll hit me a few times before he hits her again.

Dad’s fist is raised to come down but he looks at me, like he’s looking right through me. The door opens and my uncle comes in.

“That’s enough, Switch.” The deep voice of my uncle echoes in the quiet room. He uses my dad’s nickname.

My dad drops his fist. I try not to cry, happy my uncle is here. Dad never disobeys my uncle. He smirks at me and it makes me wish I was strong. Strong enough to hurt him. I try so hard not to cry. If I cry, he’ll hit me. I wish I could make him bleed the way he makes her bleed.

“You’ll get your chance, little wolf,” my uncle tells me like he’s reading my thoughts.

I know he’s the boss. They call him Pres. My dad is VP. I look back at my uncle as my dad gets up off my mom and shakes his bloody fist out.

“Stace,” my uncle calls out to my aunt. “Come and help clean Theresa up.”

“She was letting Tank stare at her ass,” Dad offers, but my uncle doesn’t waste one second, he punches my dad in the face and blood spurts from his lips.

“You can rough her up, you can’t fucking render her unconscious. Get some fucking self control.” My uncle is the only man on earth scarier than Dad but I know he’d never hurt me. The blood trickles down my dad’s chin. It makes me… happy.

I smile at the same second my dad’s eyes look to mine. He makes his way over to me quickly and grabs my pajama shirt in his fist.

I whimper.

“One day, you’ll be old enough for me to wipe that smirk right off your face, you little shit.”

My smile fades with his words. He always threatens me when he drinks this much whiskey.

All I can think is when that day comes, I’ll be ready.

“Warrior,” my mother says as she puts her hand over mine beside me. “Gabe. My little warrior.”

I sit up in a cold sweat and rub my eyes with the heels of my palms. 5:45 a.m. It’s been twenty-four years, and I still dream about the night I vowed to make my father suffer. These dreams reoccur, mixed with the day I watched the life drain from her eyes—all because of him.

The sound of thunder rolls out the window. It’s pitch-black outside and I’m still in the chapel with my men; it looks like the sun hasn’t even come up yet. I focus and take in the sight of Mason and Robby sleeping sitting up on the sofa across the desk from me. Kai sits awake at the desk watching the security footage at the DOS safe house, drinking a coffee from a paper cup.

We went in shifts, rotating between watching and sleeping. Word that they’d pull Gator from the safe house after finding us in Lakeshore yesterday spread last night, and we’ve got members on watch in person while we stay posted here, watching the cameras, ready to move if they do. On the flip side, Kai finished up a loop that will run to their feed when we go today, exactly at noon, to get him when he’s the least protected. As much danger as they think he’s in, we’re betting on his detail’s weekly need to get his dick wet.

“Morning, boss,” Kai says to me. “Sleep well?” he asks, knowing I fucking didn’t.

“As well as you did,” I say, my voice thick with hardly any sleep.

“I’m going to get some time in with the bag,” I tell him. I need it. Our clubhouse has a gym with heavy bags and weights, it’s nothing like my usual space but it does in a pinch when I’ve got a million things on my shoulders and I’m already fighting the memory of Brinley from hours ago the moment I fully wake up. I’m instantly hard again with no outlet. Fucking shit is painful, and I’m not used to it.

I want nothing more than to go fuck that tight pussy I’ve been dreaming about since I saw her at that coffee shop ten days ago, but that will have to wait. I can’t be distracted for even one second today.

I clap him on the shoulder. “You good here for a few?” It’s a rhetorical question. I know he is.

“Yeah, I’m gonna wake Robby soon and I’ll sleep for a bit.”

I nod, then stand and stretch, wondering if Brinley listened and stayed in my room. There’s a part of her that wants the darker side I can give her. I saw it in her eyes when she came all over my hand. I know now I won’t stop until I unearth it completely and absorb it all for myself. Her torn panties burn a hole in my pocket as I stake my claim.

Once I make a decision, I never waiver or ask myself why. What I know is, I want Brinley Rose Beaumont in a way I can’t comprehend, and I’m nowhere near done uncovering the darkness in her.