Page 56 of Claimed By the Damned

Once he reached the table, he found Drake holding a pocket knife and Knox with his hand flat on the table. Drake brought the knife down quickly, but Knox pulled his hand out of the way in time, and the knife embedded into the wood.

Zeke frowned as he set the shots down, but Knox barked a laugh, held out his hand to Drake, and said, “My turn.”

“You two are idiots,” Zeke grumbled. He slid the shot glasses in front of each of them and squeezed into the booth next to Drake. Once he was settled, he said, “What are we toasting to this time?”

Knox picked up his shot and proclaimed, “To a lifetime of a tight pussy and mind-blowing blowjobs.”

Zeke shook his head, knowing that Amara meant more to him than getting laid. In fact, she was his world right now, and he didn’t see that changing for Knox any time soon.

Lifting his shot, Zeke clinked it against theirs. Together, they downed the shots and slammed the glass back on the table.

“Seriously though,” Knox said after clearing the sting of alcohol from his throat with a cough. “I’m regretting getting wasted without Amara here. I’m horny as hell with nothing to fuck but my own damn hand.”

“So, this is really who you are?” Drake smirked. “It wasn’t just the drugs?”

“Can take the drugs out of the man, but that doesn’t change the man,” Zeke replied for Knox with a small shake of his head.

“Damn right,” Knox agreed, jabbing the table with his pointer finger.

Zeke leaned forward, and even though his mind was fuzzy from the alcohol, he grew serious. “Now that we are all on the same page about all of this, I think we should discuss our next steps.”

Drake slapped him on the shoulder in a joking manner. “Is that really smart to do while we’re drunk?” It’s been a while since Zeke had seen the guy so carefree. It was clear that he was the one Amara had changed the most.

“Would you rather go another day without a plan? Leaving Amara at the hands of her father?” Zeke countered.

Knox’s face grew serious. “We should have never let her leave this morning.”

“We can’t exactly keep her hostage,” Zeke replied.

Knox’s lips were tense. “Sure we can.”

Leaning back against the back of the booth, Zeke crossed his arms over his chest. “That was before we were all in this, when she was still trying to fight the bond. I think it would be different now.” At least, he hoped it would be. Every time she left to go home, he got a terrible feeling in the pit of his gut. He didn’t know exactly how bad things were with her father, and he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Not when they could have prevented it.

“So what do you propose we do about it then?” Drake asked after a pause. Zeke was sure they were all probably thinking about the possible horrors that could happen if they weren’t there to protect her.

“I say we kill him,” Knox said simply. Zeke shouldn’t have been surprised by his response. That had been his solution since the beginning.

Zeke raised an eyebrow at him. “We need to convince her to at least move in with us.”

As soon as he finished the words, Knox stood and gripped the edge of the table to steady his sway.

“Where are you going?” Drake asked.

“To convince her to move in with us.”

Zeke chuckled. “I didn’t mean now, you idiot. She’s on pack territory. We can’t go there.”

“The hell we can’t,” Knox grunted. “I’ve done it before, remember? Multiple times.” He rapped his knuckles against the table. “Stay here and be a pussy if you want. I’m going to go see our girl.”

“This is a bad idea,” he murmured as he climbed out of the booth, Drake right after him.

“Possibly,” Drake agreed.

They followed Knox as he moved through the bar and out the front door. Only when he started making his way toward his truck and pulled out his keys did they stop him.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Zeke demanded. “You can’t drive right now. None of us can. Are you trying to kill us before we even get there?”

“Besides,” Drake interjected. “We can’t exactly drive up to pack territory.”

---