Wolf.e: A Dark MC Romance
Wolf.e: Chapter 21

“You’re not hungry?” Wolfe asks as he carves his own steak.

I’ve been pushing my food around on my plate and listening to everyone at the table talk about random things that show just how well they all know each other.

“Just wondering why I’m here is all,” I say, looking up at him. “Every woman in this room has their eye on you.” And some bold ones have already approached him, to which he’s said “no,” and if they don’t listen, “fuck off” but I don’t bring that up.

He chews and swallows his bite, pondering what I asked.

“Do you ever say no, Brinley?” Wolfe asks, observing my expression as I blink at his question.

“Do you ever answer a question without a question?” I ask, taking a bite of my salad.

“Yes,” he says pointedly. “Now your turn. Do you ever say no?”

“Yes,” I answer immediately before I even consider it.

“You’re either misunderstanding me, or not answering honestly,” Wolfe says with an all-knowing smirk as he pulls a bottle of whiskey over from the center of the table and pours some into my glass, then his own.

“How so?” I take a sip, needing something—anything—to take the edge off.

“When people who are important to you—your parents, your friends, a boyfriend perhaps, maybe a coworker—if they asked you to do something, something you don’t necessarily want to do. Something that would make them feel happy or more comfortable, but compromises what you want, would you say no? Or would you say yes, only because you think you should do what you’re told?”

I look up in his hypnotizing eyes, the candlelight reflecting off their silver flecks, and for some reason, I answer honestly.

“I would probably do it so I didn’t disappoint them, but…” I start to defend myself. “That’s what you should do for people you care about.”

“Maybe,” Wolfe says, picking up my unused knife and toying with the sharp tip against the table.

“Sometimes you can say yes to help out, I suppose. But if you always do it, you start to lose the person you are and you start living for them. You aren’t your true self anymore, you’re who they want you to be.”

“And your point is? I like being nice,” I retort, my glass of wine and half a glass of whiskey giving me a little fuel.

I lean back in my chair, cross my ankles and fold my hands in my lap. I watch his eyes follow my actions.

“When you knew I wanted you to come and sit here, you didn’t hesitate to deny me,” Wolfe says, angling the point of the knife against the rustic wood table, the light glints off the blade as he speaks. “You said no right away, even though I’m sure you understood that I wanted you to sit with me.” He sets the knife down and waits for me to answer.

I gulp and think for a moment, trying to grasp at what he’s getting at so I can get ahead of it.

“I don’t know you, I guess I don’t feel like I owe you anything,” I say boldly. Looking up from the discarded knife, I lift my chin.

Wolfe smirks, and his eyes never leave mine as he grips the bottom of my chair with both hands and pulls me to him in one swift motion. My breath hitches when our knees touch.

He leans forward and places his broad hands into my lap over both of mine, without looking away from my gaze he separates them, leaving them to rest against each thigh all on their own. Without thought I take a deeper breath.

“Or… maybe with me, you simply aren’t afraid to be yourself, even if that looks a little different than everyone else expects.”

I look down feeling flustered, then back up at him.

“Okay… so? Even if you’re right, what’s in it for you if I am different from what people expect? Why do you care?” I ask, looking up at him then letting out what I really want to know.

“Why me?”

He smiles like he knows a secret I don’t. It seems he’s just about to say something as Jake taps him on the shoulder, muttering something low in his ear.

Wolfe nods at Jake but says nothing. I watch as Jake stands and nods to the door at Kai and Robby.

Wolfe looks back at me as if he’s thinking through his next words carefully then leans in. My heart beats thunderously and I wonder if that will ever not happen when he’s this close. He replaces his hands over mine and my stomach drops.

“I want to replace out who Brinley Rose Beaumont is when, for once, she chooses herself. I want to be there when she finally lets herself be as wicked as she craves.”

I blink and my mouth falls open, registering how he knows my full name, not that I should be surprised. He said he knows everything about everyone, obviously that includes me. Wolfe lets go of my hands and stands as the crowd’s chatter grows louder with the end of dinner. He looks down at me before leaving the room with most of his men.

Sean whispers something to Layla as the DJ starts some music up.

“He’ll be right back,” she says to me in explanation.

I nod, still processing that entire conversation.

Is he right? Am I not myself because I aim to make everyone else happy first?

Layla moves to pull me up to the dance floor, and instead of questioning my life’s existence, I pour myself another shot of whiskey from the bottle still in front of Wolfe’s seat, knock it back, and go with her. I wonder for a brief moment where half the club went in such a hurry. But just as quickly, I remind myself it’s not my business, this isn’t my world, I’m just visiting.

In order to force myself to forget how much I liked the thought of being called wicked, I start to dance with Layla and her girls and that’s how we spend the next two hours. The crowd is thick and Sean is in and out periodically to check on Layla and talk to guests. Dell even joins us as we dance to all our favorites.

I don’t see Wolfe or any of his men again aside from Sean, and by midnight I’m ready for some fresh air and some water. I grab a bottle from the bar and tell Layla I’ll be right back, just needing the cool breeze.

I exit the side door of the dance hall, crack my water and chug, lifting the hair off my neck. The cool ocean breeze feels incredible.

I look around. The moon is full and the sky clear. I watch the water lap the shore below and I swear I can hear dolphins. I begin to walk, just to clear my head. There isn’t a soul out here, but I hear a crew on the outdoor patio on the other side of the building and I smell their cigarette smoke and weed. I wonder if Wolfe is there, I haven’t seen him since dinner.

Before I even know where I’m heading, I’m moving aimlessly toward the water, thinking about the person I am, and Wolfe’s words telling me to be who I want to be. In truth, without Evan, I don’t even know who that is now, aside from who my parents trained me to be. Who Evan wanted. Even who, once upon a time, the church wanted.

The water lapping at the shore and the thousands of stars overhead call to me, and it seems this little path I’m on will lead me all the way down to the water’s edge.

I pass multiple cabins on my way, some have people partying in them. A woman’s moans sound through an open window as I pass by. I wonder if all the HOH members are the ones staying in these. The sounds finally fall silent as I make it all the way down the hill to a trail at the edge of the woods. It’s here, just before I bend to take off my shoes and walk barefoot in the sand, that I hear it.

The kind of blood curdling groan that instantly makes your stomach turn because you just know something is horribly wrong with the person it came from.

I snap my head to the left to see a flicker of light just beyond the first veil of trees. I wait, but hear nothing as the waves crash into the rocks and shore in the distance. The water retreats to the sea and I, once again, hear the muffled cry and voices. It was definitely a person and they’re hurt in that cabin. I begin to move toward it as fast as my sandal clad feet can carry me. Who would even be staying out here, way off the beaten path?

A sickening crack fills my ears as I approach and then that sound again and more voices. The cabin isn’t even elevated, I walk right up to the open screen door and my blood runs cold as I peer inside.

The stench of burning flesh fills my nose, making me gag.

I fall to my knees because there are just no words for what I see before me.

If I had to try, I would say… Carnage. Bloodlust. Torture.

Two men are on their knees, shirtless, one of them beaten beyond recognition, blood-filled saliva running out of his mouth as it pools on the wet, red tarp beneath his body. Both of them are missing fingers. Their faces are swollen, and someone’s teeth are on the ground. The bigger one is cut open in so many places that my mind can’t fully register all the wounds. He’s bleeding from his ears, his eyes… between his legs. Oh my fucking god.

And the man standing before them both, like a gloriously dark and terrifying god, is Wolfe.

He stalks forward and stands over them, looking down at their broken bodies from his full height, holding some sort of butane torch. He has an evil in his eye as he fires it up, and flames flow in a thin jet from the tip.

I watch, frozen in horror, as he grips the bigger one by the hair and yanks his head up. Wolfe slowly brings the torch to the man’s neck, and as his garbled screams fill the air, he burns off the flesh all the way from the ear down to the collarbone. Erasing a tattoo. He’s concentrating like the man’s pain means nothing. It’s like he doesn’t even hear his cries.

The man whispers something I can’t hear, and Wolfe turns down the flames for a moment to listen.

I would almost think the man had just fallen unconscious if it weren’t for the tiny whimpers that leave his lips. His skin still sizzles, as more of the thick, pungent smell fills the air. You’d think I would get up and run but I can’t.

I can’t look away from what I assume is a tattoo associating him with whatever club or gang he’s a part of, now grossly destroyed by Wolfe, chased away by his own charred flesh.

I’m breathing so quickly and so silently I’m not even sure air is making its way to my lungs. My brain screams again to get up and move out of sight but I’m frozen like a deer caught in headlights.

I should be disgusted. I should be in shock.

But all I see is the dark power of the man standing before me. He knows exactly who he is without any shame, guilt or remorse.

It’s… hauntingly beautiful.

I’m so consumed by the horrific feelings rushing through me as I choose to stay there, that I don’t even notice Kai’s eyes on me as I kneel outside the cabin door, the grassy dirt is cool against my skin. Wolfe sets his torch down but there’s no regret on his face for what he’s doing. He doesn’t speak. He just draws his gun.

I feel ready to pass out.

Someone is crying.

“Wolfe.” Kai nods his head in my direction. My eyes flit to him when I hear his name. He turns and his gray eyes snap to mine, holding them for the longest ten seconds of my life.

His gaze is my anchor, and I realize it’s me who’s crying.

“I’ve heard enough,” I hear Mason say.

I see Wolfe’s mouth move but I don’t hear what he says. Then he takes a single shot—

A shot that hits the bigger man square in the middle of his forehead. He falls lifeless to the floor and there’s a sickening thud when his head meets the bloody tarp.

I scream and then somehow, I’m on my feet and running. I don’t get very far when I register the words, he mouthed to me were “don’t look.”

Too late.