Page 8 of Reaper
“Bro, we’ve both been here long enough to know how this works,” I remind him. “No one, not even the Valkyries, knows how members are patched into the club. How would he have found out that he’s getting his?”
“Did you ever think he’d make it this far?” Acid asks.
“Fuck no,” I bark with a laugh. “If I were a bettin’ man, I’d have put him in the Fire Pits for sure.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not a betting man,” Viking comments. He sticks his fingers in his mouth and lets out a piercing whistle to get everyone’s attention. “Welcome!”
The largest cage in the center of the arena lights up with flames, and Inferno can be seen in the middle of it all with his arms stretched wide, fire coming from his hands. And Jacob isstanding just in front of him, the startled look on his face worth all the fanfare.
Cheers erupt as Viking moves from his position on the officer’s viewing podium to the cages. As he gets closer, Inferno allows the flames to die down, and the only thing remaining of them by the time Viking is in the center ring with them is smoke.
“As you all know, becoming a Valhalla Rising MC brother is not for the faint of heart. It’s?—”
“We don’t have hearts!” a brother calls from the crowd.
“We might not have hearts in the sense that they are beating and pumping with blood, but make no mistake about it… We have heart. We have loyalty. We have drive and fight. And we have soul… dead as they may be.” Viking chuckles. “But most importantly, we have each other and now, that includes Jacob.”
Jacob’s eyes widen. “What’s going on?”
Inferno grips his shoulders to spin him around. “What’s going on,brother,is you’ve earned your patch.”
“Not only that,” Viking adds. “But the officers have voted unanimously to make you one of us.” He leans down to pick up the box that was sitting at their feet, the one that went unnoticed until now. “Open it,” he orders as he thrusts the box at Jacob.
The former prospect tears into the box like a kid on Christmas morning and pulls out his VRMC cut.
“Jacob, AKA Grump is now the treasurer of the VRMC,” Inferno announces proudly.
“I… I don’t know what to say,” Grump says.
“Figuring that out is going to have to wait.”
All eyes shift to the doors of the arena to see Odin standing there like the god he is.
“All due respect, Odin, but you know these ceremonies are private,” Viking says, his shoulders squared and his body tense.
“And I rule Valhalla, or have you forgotten?”
Inferno takes a step forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Pres. “Was there something you needed?”
“Party’s over!” Odin shouts before focusing his attention on me. “Reaper, I need to see you in my office. Now!”
“What the fuck?” I mutter after he disappears.
“Oh, shit,” Demo says with a chuckle.
I whip my head to the left and glare at him. “What?”
“Well, every time one of us has been called to his office, Valhalla gains another Valkyrie.”
Vigorously, I shake my head. “Nope. Not gonna happen.”
“Aw, c’mon,” Acid says. “Makayla and Emmy are great.”
“Yeah, they are. But I’ve been there, done that.”
“Better go, Reaper,” Viking states when he joins us on the podium.
“I haven’t been privy to what brought the women here,” Grump comments. “But didn’t really seem like Odin was messing around.”
