I let her lead me down a path, and then up a steep trail, and a mile later we came to a clearing with a house and what I was certain was a Drake SUV parked in front of it.
“We aren’t far from the Little River Canyon,” she said. “My guess is the keys to the vehicle are in the cabin, and Aaron left it here for us to get home. I need to look at the mailbox before we go in.”
She barely glanced at the outside of the mailbox. I couldn’t believe Aaron would use the address as the keycode to get in the door. I watched, and she input a six digit number that had nothing to do with the five digit address.
“Why did you need to look at the address?”
“Can’t tell you. Sorry.”
“Something on the mailbox told you how to get in.”
“Seems logical.”
Right, but she wasn’t confirming. Clearly, there was a code.
“Okay, I get it. I want you to remember that I didn’t keep asking about it once I realized it’s something to do with your work.”
We went inside, she turned lights on and found a note from Aaron telling us to stay as long as we needed, and to use the SUV to get home.
She put it down and met my gaze. “I’m so sorry. I am mortified that I hurt you. Are you okay? Any lingering issues?”
“It took a few days to completely settle and balance out, but I’m fine now.”
“There’s no way I can possibly apologize. It was unforgivable.”
Looking down at her for this conversation didn’t feel right. I pulled a kitchen chair out at an angle and sat in it. “If Aaron hadn’t stepped in. If it’d just been the two of us without help, you might be right. If I had no assurance you wouldn’t lose your temper again, I’d have probably insisted on some time away from each other. It turns out, Aaron made that happen. I understand you were suddenly given a lot of power, and you weren’t raised to learn how to wield it. You only get that understanding from me one time though. I’ll forgive you a second time, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust you if it happens again. Do you understand?”
“Yeah. It means we’ll probably be over.”
“I love you. I don’t want that to happen.”
“I love you, too. I’m in control now. Aaron was right to send me to be a dragon for a few days after I’d learned my lesson. The dragon and I are in complete agreement now. It won’t be me shutting her up in the future — she isn’t as likely to fly off the handle because she learned the lesson as I did. Eventually, Sophia tells me I’ll always be the dragon. Well, except when I’m a swan. I guess the point is that the dragon will take over more and more when I’m in human form, but now she’s had these lessons in humility and control. It won’t happen again.”
She straddled my legs and sat on them, facing me. “I haven’t had an orgasm in weeks, but I’ve had to give one to countless people. Any chance I can talk you into some playtime before we head back to civilization?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ember
The first night with Dementor was just sex. Rough sex, but no power exchange. A few nights later, he took me to the spa’s dungeon for a marathon session, and I’ve never been so happy to submit in my life. Submitting because you’re a slave and have no choice is completely different than submitting to the man you love.
One of the last things I had to learn before I could go back to work involved physical combat with humans. For this, I spent a few days in Chattanooga, sparring with some of Drake Security’s human operatives who know about shapeshifters.
A few days after the marathon night with Dementor, the MC threw a huge party. It was a bigger welcome than I was expecting, but I didn’t think that made sense. Mad Dog and Bobcat knew there’d been a problem. They had to know I’d hurt Dementor, though I doubted either knew any details. They would’ve figured out I’d been sent away to learn a lesson, so I didn’t understand the welcome.
When night came and most of the guests had gone, leaving only the MC, prospects, and close friends of the club, D jumped up on the stage and turned the microphone on. The new clubhouse was much nicer than I expected it to be — they even had bands come in and play live music for some of their parties.
“Ember and I’ve been together nearly a year. I mean, not the whole year, but who’s counting? We’ve had a few bumps here and there, and a couple of challenges, but now we’re stronger together than ever. I had this made three months ago.” He turned to me and motioned for me to come up. I leapt up and landed beside him and heard a few gasps. Fuck. There were humans here. It wasn’t an impossible leap, just impressive, but I needed to be more careful.
“You are my woman. My love.” D kissed my forehead. “I could go on, but let’s just say you’re mine. I want everyone to know, but mostly, I want to make you official. My brothers accepted you a long time ago, but wearing this means you accept us, too.”
He opened the box and I saw black leather nestled in tissue paper. I moved the paper and my heart went into my throat. I hadn’t understood the “Property of” vests, at first. I’d only seen Velvet’s, after all. However, when we’d visited Chattanooga and Atlanta, or when other chapters visited us, I saw lots of ol’ladies wearing them. Angelica in Chattanooga had done the best job of explaining it. “It doesn’t just mean I belong to Bash, it means he belongs to me. Also, since the club has to vote that a brother can give his ol’lady the patch, it means you’ve been accepted by the club.”
Someone else had explained the center patch for a property vest is different than the center patch for the members, but it’s still an RTMC logo. It means we’re officially part of the family. Sweetbutts don’t get that.
So, when I saw this vest with PROPERTY OF DEMENTOR embroidered around one of the RTMC logos, my eyes filled with tears. I reached for it, but he pulled it back a little.
“You have to ask me to put it on you. It’s important.”
I lifted my chin and met his gaze. “Please, will you put it on me?”
The entire room clapped and cheered when he put it on, and then Velvet was dragging me to the bar for shots.
The rest of the night is a blur, but I will never forget the feeling of belonging I felt that night. Love. Acceptance. Family.
I get it with Sophia, too, but this was my chosen family. It was different.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Dementor
Ember had been back to work a few weeks when she had to go out of town to protect a client. She was supposed to be gone four days, but she came back on the third night without telling me.
Meanwhile, we had a huge promo going at Blaze. The dancers put together some new numbers, and they convinced the bouncers to get on stage for one of them. It meant we stood still while they moved around us like we were the pole. We were legal because dancers can interact with each other in certain ways on stage that would be illegal for dancer and customer — but we were probably skating the edge of legality with some of it.
But it was entertainment. Nothing more, nothing less. We were performing for a wild, happy, ready-to-hand-over-their-money audience.