“Like I was trying to tell you, Ark,” Tricks interrupts, her tiny body planted firmly between Jake and her president, “Abbie isfine. Wings has been texting me, and her heat broke a few hours ago.”
“But you still left her,” Ark insists, his gaze boring into mine. “You’re her alpha, soldier. Your place is by her side.”
The title tugs at me, a leash my hindbrain is only too happy to remember. But we’re not in the desert now, and I’m not the screwed-up killing machine that he left behind. “I’m one of her alphas,” I say evenly. “She’s with Pitt right now, so unless you picked the wrong enforcer for your club, she’s in safe hands.”
He jerks, the truth hitting him hard enough to make him flinch. I sigh, dropping my bag at the bottom of the stairs. “Wait here.”
I circle around a wide-eyed Jake and head into the sunroom, plucking a wiggling puppy from the pile in the playpen. When I return, Ark eyes me suspiciously, but Tricks’ eyes are as wide as moons. “This is for you,” I tell Ark, handing him the two-month-old chocolate lab.
“It’s… what?”
“A puppy,” I say, watching him hold it like a grenade with a twitchy pin. “His name's Jedi. And before you roll your eyes, we both know if you had a kid you’d call him Skye and change your surname to Walker.”
Tricks smothers a giggle in her elbow, but Ark is as steely-assed as ever. “Why? Are you cleaning house? Dumping your excess stock on strangers?”
Jake stiffens at that, but I place a calming hand on his shoulder. “Don’t be a dick. It’s a courting gift, Ark. And no, we don’t dump puppies in this house. In fact, Jake wasn’t keen to part with this one until I convinced him that the Iron Flyers aren’t as bad as they sound.” I cock a brow at his scowling face. “Of course, then you had to come storming in here, barking at the puppies like you’re the big, bad wolf.”
Tricks has sidled closer to Jake, like she can sense his distress, but Ark retreats a step, shame burning on his cheeks. “Well, I didn’t know you were here for a courting gift.” He drops his gaze to my duffel bag, his scent harsh enough even for me to pick up on it. “Are you planning on bringing her back here?”
“What do you think?”
He looks like I’m giving him a migraine, but I’m pretty sure I’ve cornered the market for that particular ailment. “You can’t take her out of the club, Bluff.”
“You really think I’d do that? To Wings? To you?”
He looks away again, this time down at the squirming puppy in his hands. “I’m not sure you’re thinking straight about any of it.”
“I did, actually. I tried to give her up twice. Pretty obvious I was fighting a losing battle, so I sat down, puppy in my lap, and decided it needed to be a fast infil, take-no-prisoners kind of mission.”
Jake snorts, but Ark looks up at me, eyes bruised and defensive. “And was I the enemy in this scenario?”
“You’re always my brother, my CO, and my best friend. Here, back there, in the club and outside it.” I let that settle for a beat, then nod at Jake, who turns and wheels down the hallway to the storage room. While he’s gone, I reach out and claspArk’s shoulder. It’s like gripping the side of a mountain, but he doesn’t shrug me off. “I just didn’t ask your permission this time, because I knew you’d say no, even though it’s obvious I did this partly for you.”
He laughs, low and bitter. “You bit the woman I've been in love with most of my life - forme?”
“Well, it didn't look like you were ever gonna get around to doing it yourself, Pres,” Tricks says matter-of-factly. “At least this way you know Abbie isn’t against the whole mating idea.”
Ark swings her way, stunned. “Seriously?”
“You’re still looking out for everyone but yourself,” I tell him. “This isn’t the desert, Ark. Let them fend for themselves, at least until you’ve got your own life sorted.”
Something complicated passes through his eyes and he hands the puppy off to Tricks. “We can’t all walk away from our responsibilities.”
“Hell,” I snort, “I had to be choppered out from mine.” I sigh, because I don’t want his guilt and I know some part of him regrets not being there to be ambushed alongside me. “Look, I get feeling responsible, Ark. What I don’t support is lying down and quitting.”
Instead of pouncing on me, as I expect, he rubs a hand over his face. “Fuck. I know what you sacrificed, Bluff. And I know how hard it’s been in recovery.”
“Yeah, it sucked, but I’ve put a time limit on my suffering.” I take the puppy off Tricks, ignoring her pout as I hand it back to Ark. “Now I’m back in the land of the living and the courting.”
Ark rolls his eyes at me. “You grin any harder, you'll snap the staples holding your brains in.”
I laugh, since even when he’s being funny, he’s still a stubborn fucker. “You can resent me for getting there first, but we're still a unit.” I push the puppy his way again, relieved to see Jake wheeling back into the room with the dog crate and starter kiton his lap. “Now, I expect you to hurry the fuck up and woo the woman we both adore, even if we don’t deserve her.”
Ark’s eyes widen as Jake drops the crate at his feet. “When you said a courting gift…?”
“Romance 101,” I tell him. “Give her something cute and cuddly and she might not notice what a grouchy asshole you are.”
Chapter Twenty: ABBIE
