Dice: Howlers MC Read online

  “Now, why would a single woman wear a skirt like that to work?” He questioned as his grip on her wrist tightened painfully.

  “I thought it looked nice. I’m sorry if it seems inappropriate. I have a pair of slacks in my car if you’d like me to change.” She didn’t look him in the eye, instead she looked at the wall above his head. She felt trapped and her stomach was in knots. When she tried to pull her arm away, he held on.

  “Hmm.” He said noncommittally. “I’m not complaining Miss Blake. I simply wanted to know why you would wear something so provocative to work, knowing we would be spending time together. Are you trying to entice me Miss Blake? I am your boss. What is it exactly that you want from me?”

  “No sir.” She answered plainly and she meant it. “I have not tried to entice you and all I want from you is my job.”

  “Well, you have.” He ran the backs of his fingers from her ankle to her knee. “Yes, I am very interested now.”

  “I’m sorry Mr. Rankler, but I am not. I’d like for you to stop. This is inappropriate office behavior. I must insist that you stop.”

  He laughed. “That only makes it more interesting.” He tugged on her wrist until she fell against him then buried his hand in the back of her hair. His lips crashed upon hers and he forced his way into her mouth. Mallory fought against him, but he was too strong. He took her mouth without regard for her feelings or wants. When he finished, he smiled at her.

  “Do you still want me to stop?” He ran his hand over her breast.

  “Yes.” She tried to push him away. “I want you to stop! Let me go!”

  “Liar liar.” He ripped open her shirt and growled at the sight of her light pink bra.

  Mallory whimpered. How could this be happening to her? His hand slid down her body to find her thigh again.

  “Now then. Let us lay a few ground rules.” His hand inched up the inside of her thigh. “I know where you live. I know you have a son and I know where he goes to school.” She squirmed when his thumb rubbed the edge of her panties. “I know that without this job, you both starve and I know that without a reference from me, you will have a hard time finding anything that pays as well as I do. You are at my mercy Miss Blake and you will be a good girl now. Do you understand?”

  Mallory shook her head and tried to stand, but he held her firmly in his lap. She felt the ridge of his shaft where it pressed against her hip and she tried to move, but he pulled her closer.

  “You will do as I say. You will do your job and you will do anything else I want without complaint.” He ground himself into her hip. “Do you understand Miss Blake?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “You will keep your fucking mouth shut too or I swear I will make damned sure you never see that little boy again.”

  Fear slammed into her heart when she looked in his eyes. Something wasn’t right, they glowed as if he were a demon. She shook her head and when he grinned at her again, his teeth were longer and sharper than they should have been. A scream crawled up her throat, but he cut it off with an iron grip on her throat.

  “Fight all you want, scream even. This office is sound proof and it will only make me want to fuck you harder.” His voice had lowered to a snarl. Mallory knew she wouldn’t survive if she stayed.

  She slammed her head against his face as hard as she could. It stunned him enough to allow her to stand. She ran for the door, but he tackled her to the plush carpet.

  “You bitch. Do you think I don’t know what you are? I can smell it on you. I know you like shifter cock.” He inhaled deeply. “Wolf. Let me tell you something bitch, hyena is way better wolf.” He let out a cackle that made her stomach churn. “Better for me, but I have trouble keeping my playthings alive.” He grinned like a madman.

  Mallory lifted her knee with all her strength and hoped she did permanent damage to her boss’s balls. He howled in pain, but she didn’t care. She stumbled out the door and grabbed her purse and the sweater from the back of her chair. She didn’t need money this bad. This man was insane and he was dangerous. She stuffed her arms into her sweater and buttoned it up to hide her ripped blouse. She should go to the cops. She needed to report this.

  Her hands shook as she tried to fish her keys from her purse. She saw her boss running toward the elevator just as the doors closed. She wasn’t safe, she saw that in his eyes. She pulled out her phone.

  “Nancy, I need help.” Her voice trembled as she spoke to her best friend. “I’m so sorry to ask, but I need you to get Sam. Go now and get Sam. He’s in danger.”

  “I’m on my way. I’m two minutes from him. We can talk later. I got this, you take care of you.”

  Mallory tried to breathe easy, she knew she wouldn’t until she held her baby in her arms, but at least she knew Nancy would keep him safe.

  Nancy owned her own flower shop just down from where Sam went to preschool. Law school had been a nightmare for Nancy so when Mallory found out she was pregnant and everyone turned their backs on her, Nancy had bought the flower shop instead, to be close to the new baby.

  Mallory hated to ask her friend to drop everything, but in true best friend style, Nancy hadn’t asked questions. She never had. She had stuck with Mallory even when no one else had and she hadn’t asked questions. She’d been in the delivery room, cursing and swearing she would never have a kid. She had gone to the appointments and baby shopping and everything, she had been the best and Mallory loved her dearly. She would protect Sam.

  The elevator door opened and Mallory walked straight to the security desk. The officer was always kind to her, but when he looked up she saw concern.

  “Miss Blake, are you alright?” Officer Carver asked, his brows furrowed.

  From the corner of her eye she saw her boss rush out of the stair well. He walked toward her with a look that said murder.

  “Officer Carver, will you please escort me to my car. I don’t’ feel safe walking alone.” She tried not to look as frightened as she was, but she knew she failed when the man looked over her shoulder to see her boss headed her way.

  “Yes, ma’am. You do not have to be afraid.” He stepped out from behind the desk. Mallory marveled at his impressive height, he was at least a foot taller than her and she wasn’t a short woman. He stood several inches over six feet and the width of his shoulders rivaled a linebacker in the NFL.

  Mr. Rankler seemed to consider her protector. His eyes narrowed to slits. “This doesn’t concern you... officer. This woman is an employee and we had a misunderstanding, if you will allow me to escort her to the conference room I will explain everything to her and I am sure she will be less…”

  “I think I can decide for myself what concerns me, sir.” The officer cut him off and led Mallory to her car. He didn’t say a word until they reached her car. His eyes looked worried. He checked the inside of her car and seemed to pause at her son’s car seat. “If you need anything, give me a call. That guy is dangerous.” He looked over toward the door that led back inside the building and lowered his voice. “You need to call your mate and tell him what the hell just happened and get the hell out of town.” He handed her a card. On one side was his number, on the other was something she’d never thought to see again, the logo of the Howlers MC with a number. “I don’t know why you are here, but it’s no longer safe for you.”

  The officer closed her door and stood guard until she was out of the parking garage. She still held the card when she finally pulled up to the flower shop. It had taken her more than an hour to get out of the city and back to the little town where she lived. She and Sam shared a small house not far from where Nancy lived in an apartment above her flower shop, but her friend was a socialite and Mallory was more of a home body, especially since most of her friends and family had turned their backs on her when they’d learned she was pregnant. Now she had Sam and Nancy and her work. It was enough, usually. She tapped the fuzzy dice that hung from her rearview mirror.

  “I wonder what life would be like if I’d st
ayed.” She whispered to herself. It was a question she had asked herself many times over the last five years. There had been many sleepless nights spent crying over what could have been, but it couldn’t have worked. River had made it very clear that she wasn’t wanted and if she stayed Dice would suffer for it. She had left, for him and she’d stayed away for Sam.

  “Get out of town.” She whispered. How in the world could she do that?

  Those words swam in her head as she got out of her car and locked it. Maybe it was time. She looked at the card. She would think about it. She ran her thumb over the number on the card. Dice had a right to know he had a son, but then what? She didn’t even know him. She had spent a week with him five years ago. A lot could change in five years. He lived a dangerous life, who knew if he was even still alive? What if he wanted to take Sam away from her?

  She shoved the card into her purse and walked in to find Sam.

  3

  Dice crouched in the thick undergrowth and swallowed down the growl that he could no longer control. The red-head, Trish, hadn’t been lying. Her kid was an anomaly, but what she had been wrong about was who had taken her. Dice could smell the bastard and while he was as deadly as the hyenas, he was not the same sort of threat.

  “Cool it now Dice or he will know we’re here before that’s really convenient.” River spoke over the com link they all had in their ears.

  “He already knows.” Dice breathed. “He knew the moment he took the kid. This was his plan all along. He knew I’d come here.”

  Dice couldn’t go in there, not even to save this girl. He knew what he’d find, he knew because he’d lived in a hell just like it for eight years of his life. He saw the man that had haunted his dreams since the age of six. He hadn’t changed in the years since Dice had last seen him. He still stood straight as if he was the ruler of the whole damned world. His hair was still as jet black as it had been years ago although it was now getting white at the temples. Lucian Everly walked calmly toward where Dice crouched. He walked as if he knew exactly where Dice hid, and he did. His eyes were steady and calm as he approached and they never left Dice, not even for a second.

  “Hello Samuel.” Lucian spoke in his bored voice. “I think we know each other well enough that you could have just walked up to the door and knocked like a civilized person, but since you are in the weeds I suppose you still have much to learn.” He looked disappointed.

  Dice stood and faced the monster that had tortured him to life. That was the way things had happened, it made no sense, but that is actually the way it had happened.

  At the age of six Dice had come down with the Sickness, it was and illness without name because it was so feared no one spoke of it unless already afflicted. Dice had become so ill that his mother had feared him. He was locked in his room with the windows boarded up. The Sickness was not like a normal illness, no, it was much worse. It causes a disconnection between a shifter and his animal. When that separation takes place, the animal literally devours the human from the inside out. When the human side becomes too weak to fight off the beast, the animal takes over the body. No one knew what triggered the deadly illness and there were no treatments. If a child became ill, he was usually killed before the illness ran its course. Dice’s mother hadn’t been able to kill her child and his father had been long gone. He was her weakness.

  Dice wondered if he had killed the woman, but no one had ever told him and he had almost no memory of that life so he didn’t know how to even look for her. All he had was a blurred image of her that he held in his mind, an image that seemed to smile so sadly that it almost broke him just to remember. It was all he had of that life.

  Lucian had found him though, broke him out of the tiny bedroom and put him in a cage. For eight years, Dice had been tortured. He had endured every manner of horror, but in the end, he’d been healed of the Sickness and he’d escaped the lab where he’d been held. He had escaped into a forest that he didn’t know and wandered for almost a year before he’d stumbled upon River and found the only family he could remember.

  The memories of that life flooded his mind. He shook with rage as he looked at Lucian.

  “Must we do this Samual? I think we have more important matters to discuss, although your lack of memory is a concern, it is not the one that is at the top of my list at this time.”

  As Lucian spoke, Dice watched his fangs grow. Lucian housed a killer inside him, a tiger that had taken vengeance upon unknown numbers of humans and shifters alike. He was an enigma. He fought as hard for the good side as he did for the bad, but Dice knew him. Lucian only fought for what suited him. He had no noble ideals, only self-serving ones and he was a curse that walked the earth.

  “You took a girl from her mother. We are here to take her home.” Dice said simply. He felt his brothers at his back and was able to relax, if only a little. Their strength reached out to him, holding him in check.

  Lucian looked bored. “I took a girl from the clutches of a hyena cackle, a notorious one, you may know them… They call themselves The Scavengers and it is an apt description if you ask me. Happy was having a bit of fun with her, but she seems to be as well as can be expected.”

  “So why didn’t you just bring her to us or take her home?” Dice asked. He didn’t know why River just hung back and let him deal with this walking nightmare, he was alpha, this was his fucking job.

  Dice could feel his wolf churning inside him, it took all his strength to keep the beast contained. His animal wanted Lucian’s blood.

  Lucian looked disappointed by the question. “I allowed you to find me. My only interest in the girl was scientific. I admit that I ran a few tests, took some samples, but she isn’t what I was looking for and serves no purpose of mine. You are free to take her to her mother, but I would advise you that she will only be taken again if she isn’t well guarded. From what I understand, Happy had a buyer willing to pay more money than you boys have ever seen, just to have a good time with the little lion girl. After that… who knows.”

  Dice heard something in Lucian’s voice that made his wolf grow quiet. There was a note of sadness, but also a degree of hatred that betrayed the monster Lucian was. There was more to this than Lucian was willing to say. The situation was dark, but it shouldn’t have pulled such raw emotions from the man known to be a soulless killer.

  Dice hated hyenas, anyone with a shred of decency did. They were the lowest of shifters. They ran every sort of illegal operation known to man and some that weren’t. They sold children, ran internet porn sites that catered to the raunchiest customers, drugs, guns, sex, women, children… there was no limit to the depths hyenas would stoop to earn a dollar. The Howlers were formed because shifters got tired of seeing good people afraid and heartbroken. They got tired of seeing the evil bastards doing as they pleased and nothing being done about it. The Howlers were now the consequence any shifters faced for exploiting the helpless. They were the police of the shifter world supplying justice to the hopeless, it wasn’t human justice, but even vigilante justice was better than nothing. There were no shifter courts. Shifters could smell deceit and hear a lie. Justice was served quickly and it wasn’t questioned. The Howlers MC, along with help from other shifter organizations across the world, tried to keep their brothers safe without allowing the humans to know the kind of monsters that lurked in the shadows of the world.

  It was a balance kept stable only by the violence men were willing to execute in order to allow others to find a sort of peace in life.

  Rogues like Lucian upset that balance as much as they tempered it.

  Dice watched Clothesline walk into the building and within a few minutes he walked out holding a girl. She was small, looked to be no more than thirteen.

  “Someone should really teach Happy some manners.” Lucian hissed.

  When Clothesline walked by holding the girl she reached out to Lucian. “Thank you.” She sniffled. “Thank you for saving me.”

  “It was my pleasure princess. I only wis
h you’d been the one I seek. You are everything I could have hoped for. If you ever need me...I will be there.”

  Dice watched the evilest man alive as he bent his head and kissed the little girl’s hand. Nothing made any sense.

  “Have you recovered your memories yet Samuel?” Lucian asked quietly.

  “I remember enough.” Dice snarled. He hated that this man knew his weakness.

  “I’ll take that as a no.” He looked almost sad. “One day you will. One day you will understand that there are things bigger than us, things that are worth suffering for, but as for today…” He bowed his head and turned to walk away, but he paused. “I have gotten word of a hybrid child in Georgia. The hyenas are interested. He’s a wolf.” He looked back over his shoulder at Dice. “Know anyone who might have lost track of his little human mate?”

  Dice felt the blood drain from his face. “If you find her…”

  “I’ll return her. I’ll return them both.” Lucian finished and walked away.

  Dice couldn’t breathe. Georgia. Mallory was from Georgia.

  “He is one strange son of a bitch.” Pie did a full body shiver. His white-blonde hair flopped over his forehead like the whip of meringue on a pie. He wasn’t your usual biker most of the time, but he had a hardness to him when pushed that made even the toughest men take a step back.

  “Do you think it’s true what they say? You think he really did eat all those hunters in Africa? Posed as their hunting guide and just fucking ate them?” Ricky wondered. His dark eyes narrowed as if he would like to see how he would do against the notorious tiger. Ricky was a brawler and would take almost any opportunity to test himself.

  “I’d bet on it boys.” River said from where he leaned against a tree. River knew Lucian in a way none of the others understood, they had a mutual respect and Dice hated it. Lucian was a monster and deserved to be treated like one.

  “Then why don’t we take him out? He’s bad. Aren’t’ we supposed to be like fucking super heroes or some shit?” Ricky crossed his arms and frowned.