Page 25 of Bikers & Bars

“Are you serious about not caring about your position in the club?”

“I strove most of my life to work my way up the ladder to become president,” he answered slowly, voice thick withemotion as he grimaced. “It was something I always wanted. But compared to Eliza… It’s no competition. She’s always my first choice. I can, honestly, say that I know that without her everything else is meaningless.”

My stomach twisted at that thought.

Having Eliza in my life and then experiencing her absence. I never wanted to know what that was like and thankfully, it seems that right now Damien and I were on the same page. Granted, we were alphas so that could change at the drop of a hat, right now, though, there was nothing but understanding between the two of us and Bane who nodded slowly.

“We will need to talk to Maximo after the meeting, give him a heads up on the shift of things. Just in case,” Bane said thoughtfully.

“Maximo?” Damien questioned, falling into step behind me with Bane as we headed out to the club house.

“Mafia here,” I replied. “He’s an alpha in Hazel’s pack.”

“Hazel….” Damien murmured before he let out a soft ‘ah,’ “Somehow that makes a ton of sense.”

As he burst out laughing I knew I had to get some stories out of him soon about Eliza and her best friends. I had a feeling that there were plenty of crazy stories that they didn’t want us to know. And I had more than a few questions about Eliza and motorcycles considering the motorcycle we got her was sitting unridden.

By the time we reached the club house everyone else had gathered. There was a clear separation between our men and Viper’s. They stood up when he entered and there was more than a little annoyance on their faces.

“What the hell is going on, Prez?” one of the men asked. The snark in his tone was fucking bold. My chapter would never address me with that level of disrespect.

Viper huffed out a laugh.

“You’re fucking lucky, Cobra. Normally, I don’t let you speak to me that way.” Cobra swallowed hard, revealing just how much he knew Viper meant his words.

“Wait, why now? What’s going on, Viper?” someone else demanded. He walked up to the man in question. The guy was a beefy alpha, long curly blond hair and a beard that made him look angry and gruff.

Viper walked up and shook the man’s hand. “You’ve been an amazing second, Python, welcome to the President Role. I’m out. My omega is here and I’m not leaving.”

The words were said with an attempt at nonchalance but the finality of them had the entire chapter blanching.

“Excuse me?” Python demanded. When they all stood to face him, fists clenched, I moved forward to stand beside him, along with my entire chapter. We easily outnumbered them. We were different chapters of the same MC branch, infighting didn’t happen often.

Cobra took a step forward anyway.

“You’re leaving everything we’ve worked for and are throwing us to the wolves over anomega?” he asked. Clearly, the way he said ‘omega’ meant he thought very little of the idea.

“Watch your tone about my omega,” Viper said casually, picking at nonexistent lint on his shirt. It was honestly a power move. He appeared bored but the moment they took it too far we’d send them home in fucking pieces.

“Let’s go,” Python said, his voice loud and booming. Without a word the others walked out, though I didn’t miss how Cobra slammed his shoulder into Viper. To his credit, the former president didn’t even flinch or give him a second look.

“What the hell is going on?” Kraken called out. He leaned against a nearby table, crossing his arms and giving Viper a strange look.

“Viper is Eliza’s mate,” I said simply. “He’s one of us now.”

Kraken raised his eyebrow at the news. A few quiet murmurs rippled through my men and I raised a hand to silence them.

“He’s not here for my role—” Viper cut me off with an apologetic look that I doubt he even meant.

“I’m here for the girl.”

He moved away and sat down, giving me the floor again. How kind of him to give me, the president, the lead.

Clearly, there would be some growing pains here. But honestly he wasn’t doing anything I wouldn’t do. Especially when it came to Eliza.

“This isn’t how we saw those meetings going, but we had business taken care of already,” I said with a shrug. “If their feelings are hurt they can just grow the fuck up.”

“They aren’t going to just walk away and take this, right?” Bane asked, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t trust that weasley one.”

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