Blood & Bones - Dodge (Blood Fury MC 10)

Jesus fuck.

“You know what that means, right?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

“Yes. Are you?”

“Nothin’ I want more, Syn. Okay, I’m wrong, there is.”

“What’s that?”

“Want you to be happy.”

“I am,” she whispered, a smile flirting with her lips.

“Also want you to feel secure.”

“I do. And…”

“And?”

“I also feel very loved.”

A strange pressure expanded in his chest and then exploded, almost dropping him to his knees.

No, it wasn’t strange. He knew exactly what it was.

She brushed her fingers over the shiny black leather encircling her neck. “I love it. It’s perfect for us. Thank you for expanding my world.”

“Thank you for acceptin’ me into yours.”

Epilogue

A Full Tank

Dodge kept an eye on Syn and Maya as they walked ahead with Red through the Super Walmart parking lot. Sig was walking next to him, doing the same thing.

Maya needed some more clothes, as well as some stuff for school.

He and Sig both hated shopping and would rather jam splinters under their damn fingernails but the fuck if they were letting the ladies go alone. The only problem was, the women had been doing a lot of shopping lately.

Nine-year-olds seemed to need a lot of shit.

Once inside the store, he would remind Syn that she better get everything Maya needed today because the hell if he was doing this again in a couple of days.

Suddenly, Sig slowed down to a crawl and called out, “Yo.”

Dodge stopped and glanced over his shoulder at the VP. “What?”

He turned back to keep an eye on the women as they continued through the busy parking lot, unaware of what was going on between their men.

Sig stepped up to him and growled, “What the fuck’s on her neck? You put a leash on my sister?”

Christ. He forgot that Sig hadn’t seen Syn collared yet. Like they’d discussed when he gave it to her, she hadn’t worn it on the farm and, if it wasn’t for getting strong-armed into going shopping today, Syn’s brother might not have seen it for a long time.

But here they were.

Now Sig knew. And, no surprise, the man knew that it was more than a decorative choker.

“I haven’t yet.”

Sig stared at him. “But you plan on it?”

What he planned on doing with Syn was none of Sig’s fucking business. Brother or not.

“That collar’s no different than the tattoos Trip and Stella got on their ring fingers. No different from the cut Red wears with your name on the back statin’ very fuckin’ clearly who she belongs to. Same shit, different execution.”

Sig’s beard-covered jaw shifted as it always did when his temper began to spike. “Ain’t the same.”

Dodge didn’t give a fuck about the man’s temper and leaned closer to say, “Prove otherwise.”

“You think you own her, is that right?”

Dodge wasn’t going to answer that question because Sig already knew the answer and would just have to fucking deal with it.

However, Sig wasn’t done making his unwanted opinion known. “We don’t do that shit here, brother. You officially want her to be your property, you claim her at the table like the rest of us did. That’s the way of our world. You’ve been a part of it long enough. Don’t act like you don’t know.”

“I know, and who said I wouldn’t? Know what you’re into, Sig. Just ‘cause you no longer do it, don’t mean you don’t think about it. Well, same with me. It’s been a long time since I found the right partner.”

Sig’s nostrils flared and his jaw jutted out. Dodge had no doubt the man was grinding his teeth to control his temper. What he used to do with women used to help with that. Now he no longer had that outlet.

The man struggled—some days worse than others—but he lived with it. For one reason and one reason only.

Red.

“We wanna do this here in the parkin’ lot? In front of Maya and our women?”

In truth, Sig couldn’t say a damn word because that collar wasn’t much different than wearing a “property of” cut.

When Sig didn’t respond, Dodge continued, “You know she’s happy now, right? You’ve seen it. That’s all you should be worried about. Along with makin’ sure she remains that way and that her and Maya are taken care of.”

Sig’s jaw visibly unclenched and he yelled out to the women, “Red, wait up. Don’t go any further.”

The women were about to cross the travel lane that separated the parking spots and the curb to the store’s entrance.

The three turned to face them, but waited. Neither Dodge or Sig wanted them to disappear from their view.

“Now,” Dodge started, “we done talkin’ about this? Or you wanna waste more time on shit you got no control over?”

“Do it the right way.”

“Already claimed her, brother, but I’ll do it at the table, too. Don’t got a problem with that. But like that fuckin’ collar, she needs to want it, too.”