CHRIS Read online

“You wouldn’t fucking dare.”

  “Wouldn’t I?” Chris threatened. “You just watch me. For years we’ve all watched as you suffocated her, both you and Annette. Loading her down with so much work it was a wonder she didn’t have a goddamn nervous breakdown, and all under the fucking guise of keeping her close to home. Well, the slavery ends. She’s going to have a life whether you want it or not. She’s going to have a say, whether you like it or not. And she’s going to do what she wants, whether you agree or not. Because, Mars, your opinion no longer matters. We have to listen to your guidance as our Prez, obey fair rules, but that’s it. Anything personal is down to us. Whether we make mistakes or success, that’s on us.”

  “You take her back to Michigan, and I’ll...”

  Chris snapped, “What? You’ll do what? Why aren’t you fucking listening? I don’t want to take her back to Michigan. I hate my home Clan, for fuck’s sake. That’s why I’ve been down here even though it’s hotter than the bowels of hell for the past thirty years.

  “I’m just telling you to butt out. Because even though I do hate it up there, I’ll endure it to make Ava happy because she sure as shit hasn’t had much of that in her life so far.”

  “We’ve given her everything,” Mars retorted, obviously offended by Chris’s comment.

  “And you’ve sucked the life out of her. You’re blind where she’s concerned, Mars. You always have been.”

  “She’s my baby girl,” was the immediate response.

  “Lots of men have lots of daughters and they don’t keep them tied to the apron strings the way you have.” His sigh was tired. “Look, I don’t want to argue. I checked in and now I’m off of duty, and now that’s done I want to go be with my mate.”

  “How is she?”

  Chris heard the hissed question in the background on the line. “Tell Annette she’s fine now. She was exhausted and hungry, but we’ve fixed both and she’s brighter. Naturally, the shift and the aftermath took it out of her but she’s okay because she’s focusing on us.”

  Mars relayed that to his concerned mate, then demanded, “What the fuck did that MC want? They’ve never had a problem with us before.”

  “They wanted to talk to you,” he explained.

  “And they thought kidnapping Ava was the best way to go about that?”

  The astonishment in Mars’ voice was enough to make Chris’s lips twitch; that is if the situation had been in anyway funny.

  Where his mate’s safety was concerned, nothing was amusing.

  “Yeah. Apparently so.”

  “What the fuck were they thinking?” Mars asked, but the question was more aimed at himself than back at Chris.

  He answered regardless. “I don’t have a clue but I think someone should set up a meet with them.”

  “Meet them?” Mars bellowed. “Are you fucking mad?”

  “No, I’m being practical, dammit. Do you want Ava to still be in danger? Arranging a meet is a sure-fire way to get them off her back. They want to talk to you, and they’re willing to go through her to achieve that. Take her out of the picture and meet with them, then the problem’s solved.”

  “See,” he heard Annette retort. “I’m not the only one who thought of that.”

  “Why should we bend to their demands?”

  “You’re not bending to them. You’re just taking away the threat to Ava. That’s all that matters, surely?”

  “If we cave in once, then any other MC might think that’s a way to get to us. We all know she’s my Achilles’ heel, but we don’t want the rest of the world to know that.”

  “She’s your daughter, of course the world thinks she’s your weakness.” Chris huffed. “Look, talk about this with the Council, I want to get back to Ava. She needs me.”

  Mars gruffly retorted, “Look after her.”

  “Of course.”

  “And tell her we love her, even if she thinks we’re hard asses.”

  Chris barely refrained from snorting. Managing an, “Okay, Prez. I’ll talk to you later;” he cut the line before he could get himself into deeper shit.

  Sitting down on the sofa that overlooked a pretty impressive vista of Houston’s skyline, he ran his hands through his hair after he tossed his cell on the cushion beside him.

  “They managed to turn you gray yet?”

  The voice came from the doorway, and as he turned his head to look at his mate, he felt his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth.

  She wore one of the complimentary robes. Though it swamped her, the thick white toweling was a gorgeous contrast to her golden coloring. It bared her slender calves and pretty feet, while cutting low on her chest and still keeping everything hidden and demure.

  Her hair was wet and lay in long ropes about her shoulders. Her face was free from artifice, and she looked even younger than she had earlier.

  He sighed at the thought.

  Jesus, he wished they were closer in age. How must she feel being mated to someone as old as him?

  Then, as that thought hit him, he realized her mother had been a few years older than Ava when she’d met Mars, and he’d been in his early two hundreds back then.

  Compared to that age difference, Jesus Christ, theirs was nothing.

  He cleared his throat as a frog had settled there in reaction to the sight of her. “Not gray yet.”

  “They wanted you to bring me back to the clubhouse, didn’t they?” When he nodded, she peered at him. “Why didn’t you? He’s your Prez.”

  Chris cocked a brow. “So? He’s not the Goddess. I don’t have to do everything he says.” He grimaced and amended that to, “Just almost everything. But where you’re concerned I don’t have to. You’re his daughter, sure, but you’re my mate first. You know that’s how it works with our bonds.”

  “You won’t hear me complaining. I didn’t earlier, did I? Especially as that works both ways.”

  The way she eyed him made him chuckle. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to threaten me into that. I’ve been waiting to Claim you for long enough. I’m not going to throw out any part of that Claim.”

  She snorted. “That’s good to hear.”

  He eyed her. “How much of the conversation did you hear?”

  “Enough. My favorite part was, “Ava’s my problem now.””

  He groaned. “Just my luck you’d hear that bit.”

  She surprised him by laughing and climbing onto the sofa beside him. The split in the robe parted to reveal sleek thighs that would have been more visible in a pair of shorts, but somehow, that peekaboo felt a thousand times more elicit.

  Withholding a groan, he sank back into the cushions and let her lean against him.

  “Did you mean it when you said you’d take me to Michigan?”

  “If they try to pull rank on us, absolutely. I’m not having it, Ava. I’ve never approved of the way they’ve treated you, but I kept quiet because I didn’t want Mars to suspect I was your mate.”

  “I never understood that,” she whispered softly, ducking her head as she started pleating the hem of the toweling robe.

  He reached for her chin and nudged her into looking at him square in the face. “If he’d known, he’d have kicked me out of the Clan. I wasn’t going to do anything that put my place in the MC at jeopardy. I couldn’t have you as my own but I could watch over you. Even if it was so damned torturous, I wasn’t sure if it was easier to go live in another Clan until you were old enough to Claim.” He shook his head at the years of misery they’d both endured. All of it wasted. None of it recoverable. He said as much, “What a damn waste.”

  “Do you really think he’d have thrown you out of the Clan if he’d known?”

  Her timid question had him eyeing her. “Don’t you? The man is trying to control us now and he agreed to us going and my Claiming you. When you were fifteen, there was no way him knowing was going to do any good. He would never have trusted me to wait the way I have.”

  “I guess you’re right.” She sighed. “Shifters spen
d lifetimes searching for their mates, and we’ve had to waste ten years because we found each other when I was too young.”

  “The Fates can be wicked,” he agreed. “But we’re both young in Shifter years. That means we’re blessed too. We have a long and happy life ahead of us, Ava. I promise you that. We can put the past behind us and move on.”

  She smiled at him, ducking her head again so she could anoint the palm that cupped her cheek with a gentle kiss.

  “I like the sound of that.”

  That night they dined on room service and enjoyed a peaceful night together.

  Chapter 7

  “I want to be there,” Ava spoke up from the bathroom door as she listened to another one of Chris’ conversations on the phone.

  Her second day as a mated woman, even if she wasn’t Claimed yet, began in a way that sucked ass.

  Yet another freaking call from the MC. This time they were talking about meeting the MC that had tried to kidnap her to figure out what had influenced them to be so reckless if just to speak to her father.

  Her supposed honeymoon was being intruded upon by the brothers as per fucking usual.

  “Why do you want to be there? I can tell you’re pissed your dad wants me there?”

  “Because they tried to kidnap me. I want to know what the fuck they thought they were doing,” Ava explained.

  He pursed his lips as he stared down at his cell. She heard the buzz as another notification came and went, his fingers flying as he replied.

  “I really don’t think it’s wise,” he said, finally looking over at her as she stood in the toweling robe once again.

  “Unwise was them thinking it was a good idea to abduct me to manipulate my dad. This makes sense.”

  “Your She Bear might disagree.”

  Immediately deflating at his words because she saw the sense in them, and also saw that he’d been trying to protect her not steamroll over her opinion, she strode over from the bathroom door where she’d been standing watching him text the MC contact—Mundo, probably—and rested a hand on his arm.

  “I appreciate your trying to protect me, Chris, but if my She Bear does try to come out, then I need to work on butting her back into place.”

  His lips twitched. “After yesterday, you really think that’s possible?”

  “I think it’s unlikely, but wasn’t it true that when you came over and roared at me to hold back, I did.”

  He pondered that a second. “That is true.”

  “I don’t want to plead here, Chris,” she half-warned, half-dammit-plead.

  “You don’t have to. I don’t want you to think you have to defend your decisions to me when you don’t. I’m just concerned for you.”

  “And I love that you are, I really do, but in this, I need to hear it too. I need to know why they involved me.”

  He sighed. “Okay, but if you shift, make sure your inner bitch knows to listen to me.”

  She grinned. “She knows. Do you want me to call down to reception for clothes?”

  “Jesus, girl, just how much money do you have?”

  That had her laughing, his astonishment tickled her pink. “They’ll just charge for going to the store for us.”

  He shook his head. “Let’s let the millions look after themselves. We can go in yesterday’s gear and get changed at the clubhouse. That’s where the meet up is after all.”

  She grimaced, but ceded to his wants with a nod. It was a minute point and she didn’t want to start an argument over something that made sense.

  “Is the money situation going to be a problem?” she asked as she turned her back on him and started to tug on her jeans underneath her dressing robe.

  “Why should it be?”

  She took advantage of the fact his attention was still on his phone to tug on her tee shirt. Whether he knew she was commando or not, Ava didn’t know, but even in a desire to keep the peace, there was no way she’d jump into dirty underwear after a shower.

  She turned around, saw his eyes dart away and knew they’d been glued to her butt.

  Not too displeased, she carried on the conversation like she hadn’t just caught him watching her—after all, if she’d really wanted to, she could have gotten changed in the bathroom.

  She wasn’t being a prick tease, but was trying to acclimate to being around him.

  That meant, at some point, being okay with being naked around him.

  “Why should it be? Hmm, I don’t know, maybe because you’ve mentioned it a few times?” She folded her arm across her chest, content when his gaze dropped to her unfettered breasts.

  “I’m not bothered. Not particularly, anyway. Just, I guess, still astonished. As well as proud, to be fair. I can’t believe what you’ve done to be able to afford all this.”

  Warmth flushed through her at his praise; she knew it was heartfelt. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll assume your parents don’t know?”

  “No. And I don’t want them to, either.” She frowned at him. “Promise you won’t say anything?”

  “I won’t but don’t forget, now you’re mated they can’t force you to do anything.”

  “They wouldn’t really have forced me to do anything before. It’s not like they or the MC needs my money. I just don’t want the hassle of explaining it to them.”

  “They’d be proud to,” he countered, but she still shook her head.

  “I’d prefer it to be kept on the down low.”

  “Fine.” He shrugged dismissively. “Let’s set off.”

  “You going in your boxers?” she asked, laughing even as she tried not to gawk at the luscious display of abs before her.

  It was the first time she’d seen him in a state of undress. Out at the back of the clubhouse, where her room overlooked, there was a huge yard. An acre or so of barren grass with tufted trees here and there for the men to shift when they wanted.

  She’d be a liar if she said she hadn’t watched out for him; would be struck down if she didn’t admit to knowing his exact routine where it came to shifting.

  He grinned at her, but jumped up and pulled on his jeans, tee, then his boots and cut.

  In less than five minutes, they were both ready. Another five saw them waiting for their bike down in the lobby, and ten minutes later they were on the way towards the city limits.

  Once again, she took advantage of being on the back of his bike. Goddess, the feeling was indescribable. Truly wondrous to feel the wind in her hair, to feel it pull at her clothes and batter the hog into focusing all its energy into pushing against it.

  The sun overhead was molten but she was cold, fresh with the blast of the breeze tugging at her skin.

  She could honestly say it made the tedious journey go faster, and she was disappointed to make it to the MC as well as excited at the prospect of going back to the hotel.

  When the valet had brought the bike around, she’d made Chris promise to bring her back here, and he had with a laugh that told her she was crazy for thinking his intentions fell on different lines.

  She climbed off the back of the hog as the gates to the clubhouse closed behind her.

  Nothing had changed, not even her status in truth, but she felt a lot older. A lot different to the woman who stood here yesterday.

  She’d killed. Not just once, but three times. She’d laid in her mate’s arms last night. Had had nightmares as the She Bear rattled around inside her head during sleep.

  Nothing was the same as it had been this time yesterday, and yet, she couldn’t say it was for the worst. She wished like hell the situation hadn’t happened with the other MC, but changing that meant changing the fact Chris had come to her and would stop her father from catching her.

  To keep that status quo, she’d endure the horrors of what she’d done in her other form. That was how badly she needed her mate in her life.

  When Chris kicked the kickstand into place, he unfastened his helmet and let it hang off one of the handlebars. She perched hers beside his.

>   “You ready for this?” he asked her, eying her for nerves.

  “Course I am. I’ve dealt with the IRS. Spider’s Venom can’t be any worse than them,” she tried to bluster. Succeeding in making him laugh, she smiled at him but was relieved when he just shook his head and reached for her hand to clasp her fingers.

  As a unit, they strode toward the open front door. No one was there, but then, there wouldn’t be. There was a prospect at the gates, and he’d inform them of the other MC’s arrival.

  As it was, they’d arrived with half an hour to spare. They parted at the foot of the stairs, him going to his quarters and her heading for her bedroom.

  He left her with a kiss to the temple that had fire sizzling through her veins in response. That such an innocent caress could set her alight like that made her squirm deep inside.

  Only the Goddesses knew how she’d react when they actually did more than touch lips to lips or chest to chest.

  Shuddering a little at the thought, she hurried towards her room. Frowning when the door was open, she peered inside and groaned at the sight of Jessie lounging on her bed, eating her candy and watching her TV.

  “How the hell did you get in here?” she growled, stalking toward her closet and otherwise ignoring the younger pain in the ass.

  “I asked your mom to let me in.”

  Ava froze, hands mid-level into the trousers she had hanging on rails in her closet. She strode back out and stared at Jessie who hadn’t budged. Her feet were still crossed at the ankle, her fingers were still tinkling with wrappers in the bag of candy she was eating. Only difference was her attention wasn’t on the screen.

  “She has a key?”

  The words were a low growl that had Jessie rearing back a little. Ava knew the little bitch had purposely tried to wind her up, and maybe normally, she’d have just taken it. Just gone with the flow. But after yesterday, everything was different.

  Nothing was the same.

  Shuddering a little with the rage flushing through her system, she whispered, “My mom has a key?”

  Jessie scrambled into a sitting position. “Yeah. I thought you knew.”

  “Why would I know, Jessie?” she snarled. “I wouldn’t bother locking the fucking door if I knew she had a goddamn key. Who the fuck do you think I’m locking out?”