Gray's Shadow (Kings of Hell MC 4)

Two months. Two more months with this monster invading his space. He would endure.

A knock on the door had Gray dropping the curtain, so startled he reached for his gun, only to realize that last night’s events must have rattled him more than he thought.

“It’s me!” Beast said from the other side of the door.

Gray rubbed his face and was about to invite his prez in when his gaze met his reflection in the mirror, and the view of the empty side of his body struck him so hard he was rendered speechless for a couple of seconds. The stump was healing well, neatly bandaged, and it only hurt sometimes, but he couldn’t stand the sight of it.

“A... just a sec,” he said and quickly retrieved a longsleeve. He’d practiced dressing back at the hospital, but without one of the arms he’d had since… since forever, even such menial tasks posed a challenge. Cursing beneath his breath, he eventually succeeded in pulling on the thin sweatshirt and once again looked at his image in the mirror. With one of the sleeves sadly floating in the air, it wasn’t the best of sights, but he wasn’t bare at least.

“Come in,” he said.

Beast walked in and nodded at Gray, but his eyes were inevitably drawn to the mountain of fabric by the radiator. Shadow rattled the chain against the pipe, as if to communicate his misery. Boo-hoo. Poor rapey monster, chained to a pipe.

Fortunately, Beast wasn’t swallowing the bullshit of the pathetic display. “Is he trouble?”

Yes.

“No. He’s just erratic, but I can handle him,” Gray said, meeting Shadow’s gaze when it glinted from under the blanket, just to make sure the creature knew he wasn’t afraid. “You’ll be good from now on, right?”

Shadow nodded. When he raised his face, and the hood-like fold of wool uncovered more skin, Gray spotted bruises prominently discoloring his cheek and forehead.

Beast curled his lip. “Ouch. Did you have to do that?”

Gray scowled. “He didn’t listen, but I’m working on it. I’m sure he can be trained as efficiently as a dog,” he said, even though he’d never had to use brute force to protect himself from a dog. But it sounded just the way he wanted.

Beast nodded. “Hound was a very unruly puppy. I can give you some tips if you want. Anyway, I brought some clothes for him. It doesn’t really matter, but Fox’s kids come over from time to time, so we can’t have him walking around naked. Unless you just rather keep him here?”

Gray looked at Shadow, who at this point was only a pile of blankets with a gap left for eyes. “No. I’d rather keep an eye on him. Um, will you call the others for a meeting? He needs to be introduced.”

“Sure.” Beast wanted to hand Gray the clothes, but Gray was already holding the curtain again with the one arm he had, so Beast put the bundle on the bed, pretending he’d meant to do that all along. At times like this Gray cursed his perceptivity.

Gray quickly tossed the curtain over Shadow’s head. “Take the clothes and change in the bathroom. We don’t have all day.”

Shadow released a deep breath, but then violently rattled the chain attaching him to the radiator and growled.

Beast cleared his throat. “I think you need to—”

“I know!”

Gray took the keys from his bedside table and approached the moving tumble of fabric. He didn’t want to touch Shadow, but the creature was his responsibility, so he fought off the unease of being back in the vicinity of those four strong arms and opened the cuff.

The key was to avoid showing his fear, so he backed off without hurry, but when the man-monster got up, it was hard not to notice his size. Gray’s heart skipped a beat, his fist was ready to fend off a possible attack, but Shadow walked past them without a word, heading straight for the bathroom under the cover of the thick black curtain that dragged behind him like a cape.

Beast rubbed his face with a deep sigh. “We’ll talk once Vars joins us.”

That meant they would be discussing things that needed to remain a secret from Baal—things that could undermine the demon’s plans—and Vars had the unique ability to distort whatever was being said with his sheer presence. Vars didn’t appreciate being used as a signal blocker, but there was nothing he could do about it. They were lucky to have him.

The meetings room was unusually silent as the club members listened to Gray’s retelling of last night (excluding Shadow’s assault). With so many eyes pinned to him, he was glad he’d chosen to wear his leather jacket indoors, because the stiff sleeve made the lack of arm slightly less noticeable. He didn’t like being in the spotlight like this. Years back, Mike was there to keep him in the shadows—because they used to do everything together—but now, he was left as the only part left of a set of two, with no one to share the unwanted attention with.