Selah’s Wish (Imperial Knights MC #1)

Chapter 2

TWO

Selah

The women and I are in the kitchen scraping pots and pans, laughing while sharing stories of our men and children after a communal meal that took place in the Roanoke’s clubhouse. We try not to intrude on their group activities, not wanting to wear out our welcome, but when we’re invited, we accept the invitation without a second thought.

Belle and Rory, Jingles and Banshee’s old ladies, blast Christmas carols on the speaker, shaking their hips and bumping ours when we don’t immediately join in on the dance. When the song switches over and Candy Shop by 50 Cent projects throughout the kitchen, her eyes widen in surprise as she gasps.

“Someone’s messed with my playlist! Jingles! You’re in so much trouble, mister,” she bellows out a growl as she stomps out of the room.

“How much trouble do you think he’s in right now?” Harper inquires. None of us answer because it’s not often that Belle gets angry so there’s no telling what she’s going to do or how she’s going to react. But we’re all willing to help her get a little payback if the situation calls for it.

“She’s not going to take this well,” Ryleigh professes. “Her playlists are sacred.”

“No doubt about that,” Rory snorts. “She acts meek and shy, but I promise you, when the situation calls for it, that woman can hold a nasty grudge and in response becomes as mean as a rattlesnake.”

Now, that’s a surprising turn of events. My interactions with her, even when Moira was missing and it was discovered she was my M, never lost her cool. She’s so damn sweet that it nearly gives you a toothache.

“Well,” Laney drawls out, “I say we don’t let a good beat go to waste.”

The other women and I glance at each other, our faces alight with beaming smiles as we nod in agreement. From there, we begin shimmying our hips and crouching low to the ground as we enthusiastically sing along with the high-energy lyrics.

We're so invested in the music that we don’t hear the kitchen door swing open. “Hell, yeah. This is where the party is happening at,” Prowler whoops. He rushes over to us and jumps in the middle, shaking his ass and dipping down low with us.

I’m not surprised in the least when Scythe refuses to let Prowler be the center of attention and rushes over, leaping into the fray of the pulsating beat. These two guys can dance, but that shouldn’t be surprising considering they use their hips in more provocative ways from what I’ve ‘accidentally’ overheard during drunken rumblings in the club.

Intoxicated men can’t hold their tongues, constantly joking about things that I’m still not used to being so freely spoken about. That’s what happens when you grow up in a community full of religious zealots. Sex is not something you hear spoken about openly over a campfire or a communal bar. Making love is a foreign concept to them, bedding is for breeding—nothing more than that.

It chaps my hide that they’re still out there, doing what they consider as making the world a better place to live by providing it with strong, impenetrable soldiers, and beautiful, perfectly submissive breeders. Yuck, their way of rationalizing their beliefs makes me gag. Women, men, and children are not belongings, they’re human fucking beings. I can’t wait until the day comes when they’re obliterated from the planet and I’ll do whatever it takes to help that come to fruition.

“Hey, sexy,” my man whispers in my ear as he tightly pulls me into his front, grinding on me. “I can’t wait to get you home. The way you’re moving your body is giving me dirty thoughts.”

“Hmm,” I hum, lifting my arm over my shoulder and wrapping it around his neck, anchoring him to me. “Good to know that even when I’m not trying you find me sexy.”

This man is good for my ego. I never believed I’d amount to anything more than laying on my back and delivering children to the cause. My girls may not have been brought about from an affectionate, committed relationship, but they’re mine and I couldn’t love them anymore than I do. In my opinion, they’re perfect no matter what.

“Harper and Wrecker are keeping the kids tonight,” he informs me.

“Are they?” I ask, glancing over at Harper and seeing her wink at me. Wrecker wasn’t a part of the girls' lives, as a matter of fact neither was I outside of brief passings in the hallways, but he’s making up for the lost time with them by injecting himself in their lives as much as he can now that they’re home. There are more sleepovers at his house than not and it makes me happy that they love him and their aunt as if the sun rises and sets because of them.

Gabriel has also stepped up. They know him better than Wrecker because he worked it into the schedule as much as he could to be the guard of the kids room. He made a point to let them know who he was to them, and he made a pact with them that no matter what, he’d see them safely removed from the facility. It’s a damn good thing my kids excel in keeping secrets.

My eyes lift, and when they meet Harper’s, she winks at me again, a smirk playing on her lips. I shoot her a smile in thanks as I tilt my head sideways and capture Butcher’s lips with mine. After he lays a scorching kiss on me, he pulls back and the look in his eyes has my knees weakening. My man has one of the best poker faces you’ll ever cross, but when it comes to me, Nitro, Hannah, Amelia, and Faye, he’s an open book with his feelings.

“When do you think it’d be acceptable for us to make our escape?” I ask, clenching my legs together to ease the throbbing ache that’s suddenly made itself known between them.

“We’ve got this, Selah. Y’all get out of here and enjoy a kid-free evening,” Laney tells me. “It’s already basically done; all we have to do is finish loading the dishwasher and putting away the things we washed by hand.”

“Thanks,” I say, my voice coming out huskier than I intended it to.

“Come on, baby girl. You heard the lady, go say goodnight to the kids and let's get out of here. I have plans for you and this delectable body of yours.”

Stretching my limbs as I climb from the bed, my mind begins to wander back to the reason behind why I’m feeling spent. A smile spreads across my face as I recall the way my old man barely let me cross the threshold of the house before he pressed me up against the door and ripped my clothes from my body. He took me there first, then decided that every surface in the house was an acceptable place to touch and possess every inch of my body.

The kids excitedly bid us goodnight last night when we sought them out but other than that, they ignored us completely. Wrecker had them enthralled with the promise of a slumber party in the living room, sleeping bags and all, accompanied by popcorn and movies. Harper and he actually bunker down with them when they have nights like that. He’s going to make a good dad. Harper will be delivering their son in a few short weeks. I should’ve known they’d be taking the kids seeing as they’re worried they won’t be able to until they establish a routine. My kids can be a handful by themselves, adding a newborn baby into the mix will have them pulling their hair out by the roots.

The couples have had too much free time on their hands. We’ve had an influx of new old ladies joining the group, which means all the pregnancies and births in the year that we’ve been here is something no one saw coming. Some of the men met their old ladies in Roanoke.

Python had a one night stand with a hairdresser in town—that one time romp between the sheets produced a baby that’ll be here after the holidays. If they know what they’re having, they’re not sharing that information.

A woman by the name of Audrey stole Beast’s heart via online. She came to town for a conference and after the two of them met, she never went home. They’re like two peas in a pod, they complement each other well. They have the most beautiful baby girl that they named Remi. She’s the quietest, easiest going baby I’ve ever met. She’s simply adorable and the men fight over who gets to hold her whenever her parents bring her around.

With everyone ‘wifing up’, Prowler and Striker tossed their black book into the fire and have steered clear of any single woman who enters the same room as they’re in.

I can’t wait until a woman comes along and knocks them on their ass. There are bets going around between the men on if they’ll share an old lady, or if they’ll become possessive and claim one individually.

My money is on them finding their own. They’re good at sharing their belongings, but I doubt their heart will end up being something they’ll openly share with a singular lady between them. I guess we won’t know the answer to that until fate reveals itself.