Rex
Church runs long. Knox called it after I got to the compound—the double threat, Bloodstone scouts and Rickman's crew moving at the same time—and the brothers spend two hours going back and forth on patrol routes and surveillance schedules until Knox closes the table and the room empties.
Finn heads for the door. I catch his arm.
"Hang back a minute."
Knox doesn't move from his chair, which means he already knows what's coming. The three of us sit in the quiet with the last of the sunset throwing long shadows across the floor.
"I want to claim Holly." The words come out rougher than I planned. "The bite. The bond. All of it."
Knox nods once. Finn leans back and crosses his arms with a grin building on his face that I want to punch off him.
"But I don't know how." I stare at the table because looking at either of them right now would kill me. "I didn't grow up in this. Nobody taught me the tradition. My gut says bite her, but I don't wanna fuck it up."
The silence stretches long enough that I force myself to look up. Knox's expression holds no judgment. The grin drops off Finn's face.
"It's not complicated," Knox says. "The bite goes here." He touches the junction of his own neck and shoulder. "You ask permission first. Always. The bond does the rest."
"What does she need to know beforehand?"
"Everything." Knox's voice carries the weight of a man who's done this. "That it's permanent, there is no taking it back, ever. That she'll carry your heartbeat under hers. That she'll feel what you feel and you'll feel what she feels—there's no hiding. That her lifespan will increase. You don't leave anything out, and you don't bite her until she says yes with all of that on the table."
Finn leans forward. "When I claimed Jess, the bond hit us both at the same time. Everything I'd been holding back flooded through at once. It's not gentle, Rex. It'll take you to the floor if you're not ready."
"I'm ready."
"I know you are." Finn grips my shoulder.
Knox stands. "Go get your girl, brother."
Five years ago, standing in this same room, Knox put my cut across this table and saidWelcome home, brother.I didn't cry but I came close. Went to the bathroom after and pressed my forehead against the tile and breathed through my teeth until my eyes stopped burning. I need to remember what that felt like. A man choosing me. A family that didn't send me back.
Now I'm about to choose someone for the first time in my life and mean it.
Colt catches me in the hallway. He adjusts his reading glasses and rubs the back of his neck. "Hey Reckless, does Holly teach photography?"
"She's done some workshops. Why?"
"Ellie Frost, the librarian, organized a photography workshop for kids at the library. She wants to know if Holly would co-teach." He clears his throat. "Lily won't stop talking about it. Brought home six books on darkroom techniques. The kid's ten. I had to Google what a darkroom was."
I catch the way Colt saysEllie.Like he's been saying it to himself a lot and hasn't noticed yet.
"I'll ask Holly."
Colt nods and turns for the door. He pauses with one hand on the frame.
"She's a good one, Rex."
I carry Holly's cut folded over my arm when I walk into the Anchor at sunset. I had it made months ago, back when I couldn't even look at her without my pulse doing something stupid. I shoved it in the bottom of my closet at the compound because wanting it felt like admitting something I wasn't ready for.
Holly stands behind the bar drying pint glasses and stacking them on the shelf. Her hair is pulled back with a clip and theviolet streak falls loose against her jaw. She hums while she works. Sal leans against the far end polishing bottles. A few of the brothers sit scattered at tables: Jax nursing a beer by the window, Garrett at the end of the bar with Nina. A normal night at the Anchor, except for what I'm carrying.
Holly spots me and her grip slows on the glass. Her gaze drops to the leather, then comes back to my face.
I walk to the bar. Set the cut on the wood between us—fresh leather, sized for her, the Feral Sons patch across the back andProperty of Rexstitched below it.
"I don't have a ring." My throat tightens but I push through it. "I've got a Road Captain patch, a Harley with sixty thousand miles on it, and a long history of being the biggest idiot in this club. But I'm done running. You're my family. Will you wear this? Will you be my old lady?"
