In the Arms of the Beast (Kings of Hell MC 5)

Beast clenched his teeth. “You’re not a member. You don’t have a voice, and you don’t get to have opinions on the things we do.”

He must have finally driven the point home, because Laurent shut his mouth, blinking time and time again. “But…” he drifted off, as if for once he didn’t know how to continue the argument.

Beast took a deep breath to calm himself in the face of his husband’s stare. “You need to understand that this world might offer more freedom than the one you come from, but everyone still has their place. Everything you do reflects on me. If you don’t show me respect in public, people won’t respect my authority either. And if someone attached to a member does something really bad, then it’s the member’s job to deliver punishment. That’s what happened with Gray and Shadow. Believe me, if we were like most similar organizations out there, both of them might have ended up six feet under. But punishment is still necessary. They took away the weapon we all worked so hard to steal. The weapon that was supposed to protect everyone. Don’t you understand this?”

Laurent watched him, wide-eyed, but Beast had the feeling something was at last sinking into that stubborn head. He clenched his hands. “You should have told me about the ruby going missing. Even if in private.”

Beast briefly shut his eyes in frustration. “I would have, but I needed to deal with this mess first. I would have told you once I came back home. You need to trust my judgment.”

“We are two men. Husbands. I understand it is hard to navigate such things. But I am not a wife to follow my husband’s lead. I have opinions of my own, and when you married me you knew that. I would hope you love me for it, not despite it.”

Beast couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “Promise me you’ll never say this again. Especially with women around, because it’s the twenty-first century, and they will claw your eyes out.”

Laurent pouted and shook his head of perfect hair. “Duly noted.”

Beast stepped closer and tried to touch him, but Laurent stepped back. Fine. They didn’t need to reconcile then.

“I do like it that you have your own opinions, of course I do. But the fact is that you’re not a part of the club. Does the first lady have any input into the president’s policy? Maybe. But she doesn’t actually voice her thoughts in public when they’re contradictory to his decisions. It’s not her place, and this situation is the same. I will listen to what you have to say, and I will take it into account, but you won’t talk like this to me in front of others. Only the members get to have a vote.”

Laurent looked away and wrapped his arms across his chest. “Maybe I should prospect then, so I’m not just someone’s responsibility?”

He only said it out of spite because Beast knew damn well Laurent had never before expressed an interest in becoming a member. And he wouldn’t last a day prospecting, because servitude was precisely one of the things he’d wanted to flee when he first became involved with William Fane in the early nineteenth century. One didn’t get to avoid obligation while gaining rights. It was either one or the other.

“You don’t even have a driver’s licence. And if you were a member, I assure you, you would have to do things you don’t agree with. It’s my protection that offers you the freedom you want without having to carry the burden of difficult decisions. I think having to keep some of your thoughts to yourself is a small price to pay. I recall you knew when to bite your tongue back in your time.”

The war going on inside Laurent emerged to the surface in the dark flush and hard set to his pretty lips, but he was at least listening. “I will get a driver’s licence soon. But perhaps I might have been hasty with my words. I do not actually wish to prospect. It rattles me that so many things around me are out of my control.”

Beast sighed and petted Laurent’s head. “Well, Gray and Shadow really took control out of all our hands.”

Laurent exhaled through his nose. “Baal visited me, threatened all of us and our child. I was afraid, but when I came to seek consolation, it was only blood and uncertainty that I found. What are things coming to, Beast? Is this really the position I am in? Would you hurt me if our friends decided I needed discipline?” Laurent’s voice became softer, less confrontational, and he wouldn’t meet Beast’s eyes.

Beast swallowed hard, and his arms itched for Laurent’s warm presence. Laurent was so small compared to him, so frail, so different from anyone he’d ever known. The only thing he felt was tenderness, and the fact that he didn’t immediately know how to answer struck him to the core. “I’d do anything in my power to keep that from happening, but it’s our secret. Don’t take unnecessary risks, because whatever you do affects me as well. We need to be a united front.”