“Don’t run away from me, you little cunt,” Raven seethed. “I saw you trying to go into Colt’s room. Is Raider in there? Huh? You think you’re going to try to cause trouble? I’ll be damned if I let you fuck up this day for Quinn and my brother.” Raven’s leg moved, her foot going from Whitney’s stomach to her throat. “You’ve been slithering around this clubhouse trying to cause shit for too damn long. I’m tired of it. Get your shit and get the fuck out. Don’t you ever let me see your face here or at a club function again, because if I do—”
Colt’s door opened, surprising me further, and Raider walked out, confirming Raven’s suspicions. I didn’t even have time to think before Raider was pulling his sister off the woman whose windpipe she was trying to crush under her heel.
Raven struggled, her legs kicking out as he lifted her and placed her on her feet away from Whitney.
I stood there, dumbfounded by the whole episode, my emotions in a whirlwind. I was angry and hurt that my sister would still try to chase after Raider even now that we were married. Those two emotions were the most intense of the ones trying to fight for dominance in my head at that moment.
Flick’s soft hands touching my bare back jerked me out of my momentary stupor, and I stomped down the hall to where Raven was still trying to get past her brother. Whitney remained on the floor, coughing and silently crying.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Raider demanded. “Whitney just told me she was sorry for all the shit she’d been doing lately. I told her to fuck off. I don’t care if you beat the hell out of her, but could you please not kill anyone on my wedding day? I don’t want to ruin this for Quinn.”
“Then why did she run from me when she saw me?” Raven snarled.
“Probably because you look a little psychotic right now, Rave.” He shook her shoulder firmly, trying to get her to control herself. “You have to calm down, Raven.”
“But she… She…”
I wrapped my arms around Raven from behind, putting my head on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Raven,” I told her, my voice soft and soothing. “I believe Raider when he says she was just apologizing. Although she should have been apologizing to me, not to him.” I shot my sister a glare, not feeling even an ounce of sympathy for her. “Get up, Whitney.”
“I-I really am s-sorry,” she stammered, scrambling to her feet. “Please, Raven. Don’t banish me.”
“Just go, Whitn
ey,” Raider snapped. “You mess with Quinn even once more, and I’ll break your neck myself. I know that’s what you were really hoping for, so be thankful I don’t want to go to jail before I have my honeymoon.”
She turned and ran, and even though my arms were still around my new sister-in-law, Raven tried to go after her.
“Raven, you have to chill out,” Flick urged her in a quiet voice, pushing between Raider and Raven from the front.
All the rage seemed to deflate from her, and she went limp in my arms. “I can’t help it,” she whispered. “I’m just so damn angry all the time, Flick. All this rage, all this pain, I can’t contain it, and I have to for Lexa’s sake.”
The other woman wrapped her arms around Raven from the front, the two of us trying to infuse all of our love for her into our hug. “I know, honey. I know,” Flick told her, stroking a hand over her hair. “It’s going to be okay, though. Lexa is going to be just fine, with you to help her through this.”
“I just want to fix this for her, and I can’t,” she sobbed, burying her face in Flick’s chest.
“She doesn’t need you to fix it,” Raider told his sister, standing there protectively. “She just needs you to love her. The rest will fix itself eventually.”
She lifted her head, tears and snot running down her face. “When did you get so smart?” she tried to tease.
His green gaze caught mine. “It took a hell of a lot longer than it should have, but I eventually grew a brain.” He turned his focus back on his sister. “Flick is right. Lexa will be just fine because you have her back, Raven. You’re the most amazing mother I’ve ever seen. Maybe if she didn’t have such a strong, loving mom to help her through this, I would be concerned, but she has you. So I’m not worried about her.”
“I don’t feel strong. I feel like I’m failing her.”
“Well, you’re not,” a new voice growled, and I looked up to find Bash walking down the hall.
Seeing him, Raven quickly started wiping her face, trying to get rid of the evidence of her tears. But there was no hiding them from her husband. He saw them, and his blue eyes darkened. As he drew closer, I released her, and he gathered her in his arms. “You are the reason Lexa is even able to leave the house without having a panic attack. You are why she hasn’t been crying herself to sleep since she left the hospital. You, Raven. You are her happy place, just as you are mine.” He lifted her off her feet until their gazes were even. “Please don’t cry, baby. Don’t doubt yourself.”
Flick and I shared a look, and we both nodded. I grasped Raider’s hand, tugging him with us as we moved discreetly down the hall, letting the two have a moment of privacy.
“I-I think I just needed to beat the shit out of someone,” Raven said with a shaky laugh.
“That’s okay. Whitney deserved it. But next time you feel like you’re about to explode like that, how about coming and finding me and we can just have really rough sex?” I heard the teasing in his voice, but I knew he was being completely serious.
Raider growled something under his breath, and Flick and I both laughed at him as we walked out of earshot of the couple. It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t see them again for a while.
“Can we go yet?” Raider complained as we reached the main room where everyone was eating, dancing, or just sitting around talking and having a good time.
A quick glance around the room told me Whitney had left, which was a good thing, because I was fairly sure Raven would have gone after her again if she saw her. My heart warmed at the realization I now had a sister who would have my back.