Page 19 of Gunnar

Hannah hugged me close and whispered next to my ear. “Take care of my big brother.”

“I will.”

When we parted, Hannah smiled and wiped her eyes again. “Are you waiting on Dad to get here?” She spoke to Gunnar, who had been talking to Pops. The two men shook hands, clapping each other on the shoulders.

“No,” Gunnar said. “If Pippa’s rested enough, I want to get on the road. I’d like to reach Nashville before daylight.”

“Why the hurry?” Angel was back to wringing her hands. It was obvious she wasn’t comfortable with Gunnar leaving. Not yet.

“Because, like it or not, there could be half a club full of angry bikers ridin’ for my head. I told Ice and Cyclone I had no intention of letting this touch Bones, and I meant it.” As if on cue, the men in question entered the house.

“Christ on a crutch,” Mama swore under her breath. “Angel, did you not raise these boys to know it’s rude to enter someone’s home uninvited?”

“She did, Mama.” Ice continued into the house without so much as pausing. Cyclone closed the door behind them and both brothers went to Gunnar, enveloping him in what was probably an embarrassing hug, but it didn’t seem like any of the men cared. This was two older brothers welcoming home a brother they thought was lost to them.

Hannah openly wept while Angel hugged her close. Mama put her arm around me and I started. The older woman raised an eyebrow and I smiled back at her.

“You’re a remarkable woman, Pippa.” Mama kept her voice soft, for us alone. “You’re the perfect woman for Gunnar. You’re what he needs in more than one way. I have a feeling that, unless you curb him, that one is going to live his life to please you and fuck everything and everyone else. You’re either going to need to rein him in, or let him run amok, in which case he will eventually take over your life.”

I shrugged. “He will anyway. It’s what overprotective cavemen do. Besides, he would never take over my life to control me, but to keep me safe and happy. And how do I know this?”

Before I could answer, Mama waved me off. “Pfft. You know it because you’ve been paying attention to the man who’s had you in his care.”

“He’s done nothing but what he thought was best for me, Mama. I don’t think he wanted to come here at all, but was afraid I was hurt worse than he could tell.”

“I know it was.” Pops moved to Mama’s side and put an arm around the older woman. “That’s who Gunnar is. He has more of his father in him than either of them will admit. At least in public.”

“Did they have a strained relationship before everything happened with Hannah?”

“They butted heads from time to time, but that’s just because they’re so similar. I think Gunnar needed to get away from Cain so his father didn’t smother his personality. Gunnar is too much of an alpha to roll over. It’s hard for an alpha father to let his own alpha son be his own man when he raises the kid.”

“I’m sure there could have been a better alternative than prison.” Mama slapped at Pops’ chest, a gentle chastisement. “He was going to the Marines. They would have straightened him out.”

Pops turned to Mama then. “Really. Do you honestly think the damage wouldn’t already have been done? One of two things would have happened. He and Cain would have come to blows, or Gunnar would have submitted out of respect for his father and been a shadow of the man he is now.”

“Dramatic much?” Mama raised an eyebrow.

Pops crossed his arms over his chest in a belligerent stance. “You tell me I’m wrong, I’ll admit to being a drama queen.”

Mama grumbled. “Shut up.” Yeah. She knew Pops was right.

It wasn’t long after the guys broke it up. They continued to razz each other and do that strange male bonding thing all men seem to delight in. I watched intently for my own reasons. I could see the force of personality Gunnar had. I hadn’t noticed before, because I’d been too focused on merely surviving, but if I had to judge the three of them, there was no doubt in my mind Gunnar was the natural alpha. It was in the way he took charge of me in that awful place where he’d found me. And how he did the same with his brothers when he first arrived with me at this place. Now, though they hadn’t seen him out in the wild in more than a decade, it almost seemed like the president and vice president of Bones deferred to Gunnar. It was subtle, to be sure, but I could see it.

“She gets it,” Pops said, nudging Mama. I glanced at them to find the couple smiling at me.

“Of course she does.” Mama sniffed. “That boy would never pick a woman who wasn’t intelligent.”

“It’s not about how smart I am. That man’s a predator. And not just any predator. He’s an apex predator. There might be men who could fight him, but I don’t think there are many who could best him.”

“I’m impressed.” Mama didn’t look impressed. She looked wary. Which was odd.

I checked Pops, then went back to Mama. While Pops was relaxed, he still watched me intently. “What?”

“You have training?” Mama tilted her head. “Because you were very specific in your description. That’s a lot for someone to pick up in no more time than you’ve been together, especially when you were at least partially messed up from the drugs you’d been given when he first found you.”

“I was going to school to be a zoologist and to study sociology in animals. I’m literally trained to recognize social traits in animals, including identifying the alpha.”

“You couldn’t be that trained.” Mama shook her head, frowning slightly. “You haven’t been out of high school that long.”

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