Page 75 of Wolf

And then alongcameAnna.

She had burned down my walls and etched herself into me in a way that I could never remove. I would never have wanted to. She was hard work, but she was worth it. She put back in me the thrill of getting in deep with someone, and it was something I didn’t wanttolose.

Now, all of that was in danger. I could lose Anna. I could lose everything she had given me thus far, and everything she might hope to have given me. But even so, first and foremost, I was president of this club. This club was everything, not just to me, but to my brothers, too, and it wasn’t up to them to make that kind of sacrifice. It was for the president, so the brothers who chose to follow me wouldn’thaveto.

My body slammed hard against the wooden walls. My lip split as the metallic taste of blood filled mymouth.

“Hunter!” Jax yelled as he struggled to drag Hunter’s huge weight back. Ripper lunged onto Hunter’s free fist that had just dished me the throbbing ache, and no doubt crack in my jaw, as he leaned his weight against hischest.

“What the fuck are you thinking, Wolf?” Hunter roared, not giving up his fight against the two barriers until Pretty had no other choice but to jump in and help drag Hunter’s 6’4” body as far away from me as they could. I noticed they were the only brothers forced to action as everybody else justwatched.

“You didn’t hear the phone call, Hunter,” I growled, standing myself back upright as I faced mybrothers.

“Then tell me what was so fucking important about that phone call that you’re ready to chuck a twenty-something girl into the mouth of her abusivefather!”

At that point, I saw Pretty stop trying to hold Hunter back; instead, his eyes cut to me and stayed hard as he constructed a carefully formed mask onhisface.

I realized by this point that Hunter must have heard the story from Mallory, who must have heard it from Anna or Ash herself, though I wasn’t too sure on either possibility, considering how tight-lipped the two of them had been abouttheirpast.

Expressions hardened throughout the room, some mixed with outright glares in my direction, while others were defended by caution as they hung onto my awaitedanswer.

“Polo,” I said, turning toward the older member as one of the ones giving me a hard glare. “Where’s youroldlady?”

“Amanda?” Polo’s voice instantly dropped, his old, weary face now a mask of viciousness and anger. “What has she got todowith—”

“Just answer me, Polo,” I snapped, shoving a stick straight up his arse as his eyes flashed with fury at my tone. “I’m your fucking president, so answer me!” I yelled, losing mypatience.

Anger at my disrespect to an older, honored Black Angels member didn’t go amiss, and I saw Polo stew for a long few seconds before, through tight lips, he opened his mouth to spit out, “She outatthe—”

“Hair salon?” Cutting him off wasn’t taken as disrespect this time. No, Polo’s eyes grew wide for only a second before they furrowed withconfusion.

“Howdidyou—”

“She’s there right now, with Sofia and Roxy,” I elaborated, some of the brothers showing recognition at hearing the names of two retired members’ oldladies.

“Mia, Chloe, and Alistair.” I spun, turning to Ripper, whose hand was tightened in Hunter’s shirt. “They’re out at Redwood Middle School. Mia and Chloe are playing hopscotch, while Alistair is playing soccer with hisfriends.”

Ripper’s face lost all its color, the scar across his face becoming a brandished dark pink, almost smooth across his square, jaggedfeatures.

“Adair.” I turned at last, looking at Hunter. “Is drawing in the second-floor classroom of the elementary school. He’s drawing his dad’s bike. A ruby redmotorcycle.”

By now, my words had lost their harshness as the anger swept from the room, replaced by shock and devastation as one by one they all understood howIknew.

“You wanted to know what I was told on that phone call?” I replied, making sure to meet each and every single brother’s gaze. The brown, the blue, the silver, the green, the blue-green, the blue-brown, the copper-colored, the mixed. Every single one of their eyes was looking to me now. To theirpresident.

But what they probably didn’t know was, underneath the shock, and the no doubt coming rage, was a helplessness that hung in the air around me, that weighed down on my shoulders, that quelled any hesitationIhad.

“So, you’re asking me why I’m ready to throw a twenty-something girl who isn’t even a part of our club into the hands of a guy who will no doubt kill her, then there’s youranswer.”

“ButAnna—”

“Anna,”—I turned, looking to where Jax stood staring at me, his eyes hard with conflict that I didn’t want to bestow upon my brothers, that had made me not want to tell them the sickening truth about what that phone call had revealed—“will get the same answer you all did, and she willunderstand.”

With that, I turned to reach for the door, and just as my huge hand engulfed the handle, the cold of it freezing against the clammy heat of my hands, a voice stopped me. “What if shedoesn’t?”

I didn’t have to look over my shoulder to know it was Lamb. I knew he wouldn’t be looking at me with a biased expression on his face. He wouldn’t be saying it as a way to make me stop and reconsider. He was saying it assimplefact.

“Then she doesn’t,” I said, my voice a hollow even to my ears. “That’sall.”

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