Happy, safe.
Really, maybe I never saw a gigantic wolf and a dove marked with a crescent moon. I mean, I just opened the floodgates of trauma. My mind was trying to soothe me, giving me the magical fairytale creatures I had dreamed of.
Grim led me into the darkened woods, my head darting behind me, waiting to see if the giant wolf was walking beside us. I held onto the sliver of hope that it was real because swore I felt the wolf alongside me while Grim was on the other. But the wolf wasn’t there.
“Would you like me to carry you?” Grim’s gravelly voice shook me from my thoughts.
“I’m alright.” I snuggled closer into his chest. I held back a smile at the long sigh escaping him. “But if you want to carry me…”
I squealed happily, feeling his arms wrap around my legs and back.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. It gave him a perfect opportunity to pepper kisses along my neck until we reached his motorcycle. As he prepared the helmet, I peered up into the sky one more time. The moon was full, and instead of the usual white light it created, I swear the same blue-gray coloring of the moon that marked the dove’s back shone down on us.
The silence between us wasn’t awkward as we pulled up outside the Iron Fang Bar. It was crawling with people, and the moon still sat high above us, as I marveled at its beauty. It had been so long since I’d really looked at it, and I couldn’t help but thank whatever higher power that was out there for it being so bright this night.
Grim pulled his bike into the one space left available, which had his name painted haphazardly on the pavement in white ink—a reserved spot for the right-hand man of the club.
That was why he said he was bringing me here tonight when he put on my helmet. He hadn’t shown his face in quite some time and had to show the men the enforcer was still around.
He didn’t like it, didn’t like that I was going to be around a bunch of rough men that didn’t have any companions yet. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice because he wouldn’t dare leave me at the apartment alone right now.
My eye twitched, and panic rose in my chest about going in. You could feel the bass of the music from the outside patio, where many of the club members were smoking and taking good long looks at the both of us. I felt safe even with the stares. They were staring more in curiosity, but Grim didn’t see it that way.
One glowering stare from Grim and the men stiffened, turning away and shuffling themselves further away from us.
“Come here,” Grim growled.
He pulled me by my waist and shoved his face into my neck, his teeth grazing my shoulder until he roughly sucked the skin. The heat of his breath traveled down the front of my top. My grip tightened around his biceps as I moaned into him.
His tongue licked passionately at my skin, which caused a squeak to come from my throat. His tongue lapped at the bruised skin, and, with one final nip, he backed away. Grim rubbed his hand through his beard, tilting my neck with the other to review his work.
My cooter was a soaking mess. My clit tingled for more while I leaned into him.
“It will do, for now.”
I shook myself from my stupor, glaring. “What do you mean, for now?” I patted the skin, trying to see the reflection in the mirror of his bike. “This thing isn’t supposed to be permanent!”
Grim chuckled darkly. Wrapping his hand around my waist, he guided me into the bar. “One day, it will be permanent,” he muttered, opening the door into the blazing music and excited yells.
Chapter Twenty
Journey
Grimopenedoneofthe double doors to the bar before I could ask him what he meant.
From the outside, it looked uninviting, gloomy, and cold. Sandstone bricks and marble stones made up most of the building’s outer structure. It was nearly impossible to see through the grimy, smudge-covered windows.
When we entered, I was ready to feel the gloom and depression radiating from the customers along with the bartender, but that was not what I was greeted with.
Servers bustled by us to serve drinks at the tables, and I watched their steady moves. They carried at least ten large glasses on top of a tray and at least one pitcher of beer in the other hand. This balancing act alone should be in a sideshow circus with how many bodies they had to dodge to serve the patrons.
Lights flashed in the bar’s corner, a small area dedicated to dancing and a live band. The band was called theMoonlight Outcastsaccording to the banner that hung behind them. They must be a different breed if they liked hanging out in a biker bar.
The lot of them looked unworldly—black hair, piercings on their faces, tattoos covering their arms, ashen skin with flecks of shimmer on their jaw bones. What stood out the most were the slightly pointed ears and jaws that some had. I tilted my head, watching them play methodically through their set.
The band wasn’t singing. They played an easy listening background noise. I could see their fingers fiddling with the strings and the drummer twirling his stick in his left hand.
Grim, noticing my hypnotic stare, placed his large hand on my lower back and steered me away from the musicians. Something didn’t seem right about them. One of the guitarists smiled at the other and their canines were so long it looked like they could cut his lip.
