Wolf.e: A Dark MC Romance
Wolf.e: Chapter 61

Two Weeks Later

“Oh my god, it’s so beautiful,” I tell Gabriel with tears in my eyes as I dismount from his bike in my driveway. My father’s pickup truck sits perfectly restored, a beautiful robin’s egg blue. “It looks brand new,” I tell him, running my hand over the glimmering paint.

“It virtually is. Mike made it run like a dream too.”

“I had no idea you were so close to finishing it, you said another… wait—” I turn and face him. “This is where you’ve been at night when you said you had club business this last week? In the shop with my truck?” I ask instantly, judging the look on his face.

He nods, looking way too serious for having just surprised me.

“And you aren’t selling it. It’s too pretty to sell,” he says.

I look to the front lawn where the for sale sign already sits, my only connection to my parents.

“I won’t need the money.” I wager the idea of keeping it in my mind.

“Some mean, gruff biker did fix my porch for me and won’t take a penny,” I say as I eye the beautiful new cedar wrap around that will draw in any buyer, my realtor says. Layla and I have been decorating it up with Edison lights and furniture for the last week. I move toward my big strapping, secretly caring man and wrap my arms around his cut, the leather of my own pressed against his.

“I want you to keep it. It’ll be the last piece you have of them after this house sells. No arguments,” Gabriel says.

His thoughtfulness hits me as I turn to look at it. Not a soul outside this life would believe Gabriel has this side to him, I have no idea how I’m the lucky one who gets to have it all to myself.

“Besides, you’ll look hot as fuck driving it.”

“I will, will I?” I ask, reaching up on my tiptoes to kiss him, his words igniting me like they always do.

We wait for the realtor to come for the open house and chat for a few minutes. He’s already had interested parties; he says he thinks it will sell in no time. As he sets up and we do a final sweep of the house, I feel a pang of grief wash over me for the first time. I was never really close with my parents but just letting this place go is a final, but necessary step in order to move toward my dreams.

“The realtor thinks I can get upwards of a million,” I tell Gabriel as we stand in my childhood bedroom, now staged as a sitting room.

“Good enough for your store and to keep a good savings for anything else this beautiful brain can dream up,” he says, wrapping his strong arms around my waist from behind me.

“Come on, there’s one more thing I want to show you before we head home,” Gabriel says.

Home. With him. Right where I know with every fiber of my being, I belong.

“Okay. Now I’m really stumped. Why am I here?” I ask as I watch Gabriel unlock the door beside the coffee shop twenty minutes later. It feels nice to travel around town with him and not worry about a thing. All has been quiet since the club settled and formed a truce of sorts with the Disciples of Sin. It’s given Gabriel lots of time to catch up in the shop for a few of his high profile clients—and of course, now I know, work on my dad’s truck.

It’s not very often we make middle of the day trips to the downtown area on my day off, so I know something is up. Normally, we spend my days off in his bed, with no clothes or in his shower, the kitchen, the gym… anywhere we can be together.

So, the last place I thought I’d end up was here, across the street from the job I already go to three days a week.

“This is the building we bought the first day I saw you,” he tells me with a smirk.

I look around. The street is still bustling with tourists in mid-August and people are hanging a banner over the town street, advertising a fall fair.

“Yes, but why am I here?” I laugh, looking up at him. His broad shoulders in his white t-shirt under his cut and his strong upper arms flexing. Goddamn, he is a fucking specimen of a man.

I stare up at him.

“Are you even going to take a look around or are you just gonna push me into the corner the second we get in here?” Gabriel asks, swinging the door open.

I blink to stop my stare, he’s smug as all hell.

I squint up at him in the afternoon sun. “Not sure yet.” I shrug honestly, patting his cut on my way by.

He chuckles. “Get your pretty little ass in there before you tempt me too much and ruin my surprise.”

When I step inside, my mouth falls open and I gasp. “Been working on it since you said you wanted your own space. Called in some favors to get the work done quickly,” he explains. The space has been fully renovated. I can smell fresh paint and new wood. The floors are thick barn board and all the walls are covered in a white shiplap with inlaid shelving and basket weave lighting. The ceiling is vaulted and white with wide walnut wood beams extending from one side to the other. A cash bar lines the back wall and above it, smack in the center, is an intricate and stunningly beautiful pink neon hummingbird.

I look at him then back to the windows that flank either side, facing onto the courtyard between the buildings.

The whole front wall is windows facing onto Main Street. It’s bright and airy and so beautiful, and I still have no idea what he’s done.

“This space is yours, the club’s numbered company owns the building but the lease is in your name, solely. Nothing to do with the club or me,” he says proudly. “Welcome to Hummingbird Design Inc. Also registered solely in your name.”

“How?” I ask in a gasp, my hands covering my mouth in shock.

Gabriel shrugs.

“Kai is really fucking good at what he does and the permit office was thrilled to have a new business take over. Not to mention, Crimson Homes is happy to refer their clients to you and they want you to freelance and still help them with their design build projects.”

“What? I-I don’t know what to say.” Tears fill my eyes.

“You heard the realtor, he thinks we’ll get an offer or two before the end of the weekend so I can pay you—” I start to panic when I think of how much this must have cost.

“No.” He shakes his head “I don’t want to hear it. This space is yours. For the first time in my life, I thought I might actually die in that cabin, and you saved me. I’m done living like a closed book, hoarding my money away. I want to live. You make me want to live.”

I shake my head and blow out a breath, taking the space in again with fresh eyes, as mine.

“A legitimate business that’s just for you. Your money can go into it from here on out. It will cost a lot to stock it, yeah?” he asks.

I look around still amazed. “Yeah…” I whisper.

All the ideas I have saved on my computer run through my mind as I think of the specialty shops I can order from and pieces I’m already in love with.

“I can see it all, samples along this wall…” I say excitedly with tears brimming over. “I bet I could reach out to Benjamin Moore and become a preferred seller.” I touch everything as I make my way through.

“Maybe local artisans’ pieces here to sell to clients who want unique decor.”

I continue through the space and replace the bathroom and private office in the back.

I’m full out crying when I’m done exploring this beautiful space that’s all mine thanks to him. And through it all, Gabriel trails behind me with a look on his face I just can’t place. Pride?

“I love you!” I cry, launching myself into his arms. He holds me tight and lifts me right off the ground. “I love you, I love you.” I kiss his face, his lips.

He pulls his hands up and swipes the tears from my eyes.

“And I love you. But I’m gonna need you to prove it,” he says.

I pull back to look at him as his mouth turns up into the smirk I love.

“Right here?” I ask as he hoists me up onto my new cash counter and loses his fingers under my blouse. They’re warm on my skin and I instantly begin to heat. No blinds cover the windows, it’s broad daylight outside. Gabriel reads my mind before I can say it.

“The windows are tinted; I’ll keep you covered… don’t worry and don’t think about it, little hummingbird. Take what you want.”

“Right,” I convince myself. “Don’t worry… take what I want,” I tell myself as my head falls back with his lips on my neck.

Gabriel makes the choice for me as his hands squeeze my hips then slide up the back of my shirt, the feel of his lips on my skin taking me past the point of stopping. I ask myself how I got so lucky as to fall into the path of Gabriel Wolfe. The biker club king with the haunting gray eyes who managed to end the life of Brinley Rose Beaumont, the good girl who always did the right thing, but was never happy.

This ruthless man the world calls a criminal is the best man I’ve ever known. He’s brought to life the woman I am now, and I silently vow from this moment forward to be his queen. To be the woman I was destined to be. The thought frees me.

I’ll feel happy and alive, with my arms wrapped around my king, riding faster than our angels can fly.