Page 1 of Wolf's Whisper

Prologue

Onyx "Wolf" Dawson

Being sixteen is hard.

Coming out as a lesbian in a small town is even more challenging. Everyone has an opinion and tries to introduce me to their sons since this is a phase. But havingthisconversation with Dad might be even more problematic since he’s a deacon. I’m pacing my living room, waiting for him to get home from his factory job.

I hear his beat-up truck pulling into the driveway, and my heart rate quickened.

“Honey, I’m home.” He yells the same thing every night, coming into the door and bringing a smile to my face. “Where are you, peanut?”

“I’m in the living room,” I holler back at him. I close my eyes and listen to the sounds and know precisely what he’s doing. I hear him hanging up his baseball cap, the one representing my school. The next is his jacket. He sits on the bench he made to take off his steel-toe shoes. He groans as he stands up to come into the living room.

“You look nervous. What’s wrong?” he asks.

I motion for him to sit down in his reclining chair.

“Dad, I need to talk to you about something important.” I sigh before lowering myself onto the sofa directly across from him.

“Honey, you are starting to scare me. Just talk to me. Nothing you can say will ever make me love you less.” He smiles at me, trying to reassure me.

“I don’t know about that, Dad.” I sigh again. “Dad, I’m a lesbian.”

He leans back in the chair, closing his eyes and muttering. Is he praying or trying not to swear at me? He opens his eyes, and all I see are tears. The stinging of my eyes, and if he rejects me, I don’t know what I’d do. He’s my only parent—the single person who loves me unconditionally.

“Onyx, I love you. Nothing could make me stop loving you. I wouldn’t care if you came out as a unicorn. You are mydaughter.” The tears flow down my cheeks as I launch myself into his outstretched arms.

I’m a sixteen-year-old girl sitting in my thirty-six-year-old dad’s lap, crying like I did when I was seven and fell off my bike. He kissed those booboos away. Now he is leaving butterfly kisses on my head, telling me how proud he is of me and how much he loves me. He’s the best dad anyone could ask for, and I’m glad he’s mine.

***

Dad has always been there for me, with everything I have accomplished or failed at through life. He was—and is—my biggest champion, so when I joined the Army at eighteen, it was hard to convince him this was what I needed to do with my life. I had a calling to make a difference in the world. I think he cried harder at me being sent off to boot camp than he did at my graduation ceremony. I knew it killed him to tell me I had to keep my true self quiet since some wouldn’t understand.

I shipped out to boot camp and it was tough, but I made it. The Army was a place where I could make a difference. After the testing and other requirements, they stationed me in Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri because I wanted to be in the Military Police. I felt like I was making a little mark in the world.

I served in the military for a year before being sent overseas, but my gender prohibited me from serving in a combat position. I was a part of the steady rotation, keeping everything secure within the base, of which I was proud to do. The people I served with became more like family to me. I can still feel the deep emotions of being deployed and away from the comforts of home. I was about to embark on an incredible adventure that taught me about life, death, and the power of love. I remember parts of the day that changed my life completely. It was the endof my deployment, and my unit was traveling to the airfield to return home when suddenly my world blew up around me, and everything went black.

I woke up and felt like I was lying on hot coals, confused where others were. No matter how many times I asked the nurses, no one said anything to me until my dad arrived and let me know I was the only survivor.

The news of my fellow soldiers losing their lives and me being the only one to live still takes a toll on me mentally. I’m barely surviving most days, and my whole back is covered in scars from the burns. I’m twenty years old and don’t know what I’m going to do with my life after this. I fight every day through recovery in the hospital and the Army has now medically discharged me.

Going home to my dad’s house made the most sense so I could figure out what my next step is now that I am no longer in the military. I make a promise to myself I won’t let the lives lost of all my brothers and sisters in arms that day be in vain, and the survivor’s guilt is eating at my soul.

I spend the few days when I don’t have physical therapy just staring out the window then weeks in a daze until one day my dad tells me about the Wild Jesters MC. They are a group of men and women from all walks of life and different careers. They help men, women, and children who are in abusive situations get justice when they can’t get it for themselves. They try not to break the law because they need everything to be legitimate so that their cases stick. That is true justice for their clients, ensuring those hurting them can’t hide behind money, connections, or even the law. He tells me I’m tough, and how I can use my Army training to help the Wild Jesters…

I’m hesitant at first, but when I meet the other members of the MC, I know this is a place where I can make a difference—like when I first signed up for the military. I became a prospect withthe club while getting my bounty hunter license. I proudly stand with the Wild Jesters.

I remember when Mouthpiece stood beside me and said, “Buckle up, because you’re in for the ride of your life; listen for the call of the Wild Jesters.” That’s precisely what I did.

Chapter One

Wolf (Onyx)

My bounty hunting business is on the other side of town. I try not to bring clients to the clubhouse, but I will bringmy paperwork here. I don’t like taking cases while working for the Jesters, but sometimes it happens. I’m known in this town as a bounty hunter and part of the MC, so they can find me in either place.

I’m sitting in my office at the clubhouse reviewing the file for our recent intake, Janelle Pierce and her three children. The file shows her now ex-husband has a real temper, and from the medical records, he likes to take it out on his family. My blood boils with hatred for people like this, and I’ll never understand how someone can hurt those they claim to love. It makes me feel stabby. The Wild Jesters never turn away a person or their kids fleeing from an abusive situation, and we have to keep her safe, so we accept the case.

The first thing I do with each case is assess the danger and take stock of their current situation. Most of the time, the abuse is an isolated incident, like a one-time deal and the person leaves so they don’t need our help but in Janelle’s case, it’s every day and didn’t stop with just her. The reports show the dickhead also hit his three kids. When kids are part of the abuse, it’s even harder. Jack Pierce, Janelle’s ex-husband, hates it when someone takes control from him, and he is not one who likes losing his possessions which means his wife and children.

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