BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) (81 page)

Chapter 7

              When Morgan woke her world was still nothing but black. Darkness and pain. There was another jolt that sent her crashing into the carpeted wall of whatever she was enclosed in and it helped to clear her fuzzy brain a bit. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots that shattered like points of light in front of her eyes and finally just gave up and closed them again.

              She felt out with her fingers first, tentatively, and gasped as she felt along the small space she was crammed into. Her knees were pushed up into her chest, her neck bent at an odd angle that did nothing to alleviate the pounding pain that stabbed repeatedly through her head.

              Morgan tried to remember what had happened, how exactly she had come to be locked in what seemed to be the back of a trunk but as she tried the pain throbbing in her head exploded like a shower of fireworks and she cried out as the car hit another bump. It was bigger this time and she flew up, bounced around like a rag doll by the poor shocks in the car

              “Ooouch.” She hissed the word through gritted teeth as she finally landed, fully feeling every bruise and sore spot on her body, of which there was a lot. She didn’t know how long they had been driving or how long she had been unconscious, but she was suddenly glad she hadn’t been away for most of it.

              Just then the car began to slow and her heart rate directly increased until they finally stopped moving. Morgan tried to catch her breath, to calm herself. She had to get out of there. She had to try and escape because somehow she knew that whoever had knocked her over the head and taken her had no intention of letting her go.

              Panic spiked to full on terror as she heard the driver’s side door open, then slam shut with a heavy thud. Morgan tried to think, tried to breath but could do neither as the slow, steady footsteps made their way towards the back of the car. Towards her!

              With a jolt, she did the only thing that she could think of to try and survive long enough to escape. Morgan squeezed her eyes shut tight, trying to calm her panting breaths and racing heart and pretended to still be knocked out. Hopefully whoever it was who had kidnapped her wouldn’t be looking at her all that closely because they would be sure to see the pulse beating madly at her throat. It took every ounce of willpower to make her body go limp and just as the door was opened and she knew it wouldn’t work, knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up the act, a wave of the most powerful love and strength flowed through her.

              She didn’t understand it, or know where it came from but she turned all of her attention to that feeling, focusing only on that and it wrapped around her like a warm cocoon, offering her the strength she needed to survive.

              The trunk popped open with a rusty squeaking sound and she could feel the cold, disinterested touch of her kidnapper as he reached in and none too gently dragged her out and threw her over his shoulder. Morgan just barely bit back the scream of pain as he jostled against ribs that felt cracked by the tumultuous car ride. She swore she felt blood in her mouth but again, focused only on the wave of love that kept flooding her body like a beacon from heaven.

              Cautiously, she cracked open one eye to get a look at her surroundings and the familiarity of it hit her. She had been here before. That first night that Adrien had asked her to be his pretend fiancé. It seemed like ages ago when they driven out here to the large wooden building to have dinner with his people. When they walked out into the clearing where the Choosing ceremony took place.

              The sense of déjà vu gave her chills but she made sure to remain boneless as the man carried her like a sack of potatoes inside the building. She barely had a chance to look around inside before she was tossed heedlessly in the corner, the hard wood of the floor boards making her once again want to cry out at the pain. She wasn’t sure which was worse now the ache in her ribs or the one that kept on pounding relentlessly at the back of her head.

              She kept her eyes closed, but that didn’t stop her from instantly recognizing the voice of the second man who was there.

              “Why the hell did you bring that whore here, Theo? What were you thinking, you idiot!” Harris voice ricocheted through her and she clenched her jaw as fear threatened to overwhelm her at the venom he was spitting at the other one. The one who had kidnapped her. Theo.

              “She’s your problem now,
sire
,” Theo’s word dripped with hatred, “I’m done doing your dirty work. It’s time to get your own hands bloody.”

              As they continued to argue, their voiced getting louder and louder, Morgan had a sudden epiphany. Now was her chance! While they were distracted with each other, she could make her escape. Morgan didn’t give herself another moment to think about her plan. Well, she couldn’t exactly call it a plan. Mostly, it was run. And that’s what she did.

              Morgan leapt up from her spot of the floor, grasping at her bruised ribs as the pain of movement shot through her and aimed her body towards where she thought was the door. Her hope faltered as she saw it was shut, and then died completely at the huge dead bolt barring any chance of her escape. She cried out then as she tripped, tumbling forward from the impact of the shove from behind.

              The agony from the fall drowned her, and darkness edged in the corners of her vision as the world doubled and then tripled before finally returning to normal. Except that nothing was normal. She had been hit over the head and kidnapped, thrown in the trunk of a car and taken to the middle of the woods with two madmen. And now she was going to die.

              She could feel it in her heart, in her bones. Morgan could see it in the deranged light shining in Harris’ eyes as he stood over her, a long, wicked looking knife in his hands.

              “Afraid of getting blood on my hands, am I?” He hissed out the words and spittle flew in an arc around him. She knew he was speaking to the other one and her heart stopped in her chest. She knew he would never let the other man get away with challenging him. She could see it in the crazed expression on his lined and haggard face.

              A sudden sound froze them all and before she could even allow herself to hope the lock on the door was blown clear apart and the door slammed open to reveal the one man her heart had hoped for the most. Adrien!

              Theo ran towards him but Adrien’s rage and fear for Morgan fueled his strength and after one massive blow to the jaw the other man slumped bonelessly to the floor.

              Morgan would have cheered except that Harris had grabbed her shirt, hauling her up to use as a human shield. She froze as she felt the sharp tip of the knife bite into the skin at her neck. Shit. This was not good.

              Adrien stopped moving as well as he took in the precarious situation in a single glance.

              “Harris, put the knife down. It’s over. If you give yourself up now I won’t kill you. Just let Morgan go.”

              “No! She ruined everything! Everything would have been fine if not for this bitch.” Harris shook her and Morgan barely held back a whimper of pain. But overriding all of the fear and agony, a flame of anger was starting to grow.

              “No, Harris, you’re wrong. I never would have mated with Sera. Even if I had never met Morgan.” Adrien tried to make Harris understand, but the man was beyond unstable, no longer living in reality.

              “I don’t believe you! It’s her fault, all her– AHH!” Morgan almost grinned at Harris yell of pain as she simultaneously threw back her elbow and stomped on the top of his foot. She wasted no time rushing over to Adrien’s side, hiding behind him as relief threatened to bring her to her knees. Her mate was there. Everything was going to be alright.

              She looked up just in time to see Harris take off for the doors that Adrien had just busted through and Adrien wasn’t far behind him. There was no way he was going to get away for this. But they had only made it a few feet before they realized that Harris wasn’t going anywhere.

              Just outside the lodge stood almost every member of the Long Pines tribe. And they looked pissed. Adrien’s friend Grant stood forward, taking the lead and his voice echoed out through the trees as he spoke.

              “Harris Demarion! We strip you of your title as tribe leader. You no longer have our respect, or our permission to rule. You have twisted everything that a leader should be into something horrible and evil. You are here by banished from this tribe, and any others!” A gasp went through the crowd standing around him and Harris cried out as if struck.

              “No! no, you can’t do that. You don’t have the authority.” Harris spit out the words, and he had never looked more insane as he whipped from side to side. But there was no mercy to be found in the people he should have been leading, instead of trying to dictate over.

              Morgan glanced down as a warm hand touched hers, then followed it up to the most beautiful face she had ever seen. Her mate. He held out his arms and she went into the unquestioning. Finally, she was safe. Finally, she was exactly where she belonged.

Epilogue

Eight months later

              “No. No really, I insist. Thank you for your kind words, Mrs. Coopers, but I really can’t accept–.” Adrien bit off the words through clenched teeth but she didn’t hear him. Intentionally, he was sure. He propped his cell phone between neck and shoulder as his attention wandered. He had heard everything she had to say more than once already.

He stared down at the large desk in front of him, the same desk he could so vividly remember his father working at when he was just a cub. He looked around the office. His now, no longer his father’s, but still the memories haunted him. And still, he held them close to his heart, especially since he had moved into the house he had grown up in. The very house his father had raised him in. Turns out that throwing over an insane, dictatorial leader was all he’d had to do to get accepted back into the tribe all those long years.

              Adrien shook his head at the tinge of bitterness that still remained, even after eight months had past since the truth had all come tumbling out. That whole time he had felt so alone, so cut off from the rest of his clan, and really it had all been lies and rumors perpetrated by that whack job, Harris. Well, he was gone now, though there was little consolation in that.

              He listened with only half an ear as Mrs. Coopers continued to recite the long list of his positive attributes and he hummed or made an appropriate sound of agreement, but truthfully his mind was a million miles away. Actually, to be more accurate it was really just over ten years away. To that last time he had seen his father alive. It had been right here in this very office where he and his father had argued yet again, sending Adrien off to Grant’s house, again, like usual.

              He had never missed his father more than he had over the past month’s since Harris had been banished. Adrien would have loved to have been able to ask for his advice, to ask his father what he should do.

              His hand just barely rested on the journal, his father’s journal, that lay still and somber on top of the mahogany desk. The journal that had saved his life, and Morgan’s, in more ways than one. He shuddered at he memory of just how close they had come to losing everything, how close he had com. Adrien tried to pull himself back to the conversation at hand.

              “Promise me you’ll give it some thought, dear?” Her elderly voice crackled over the line and he grimaced.

              “Yeah. Yes, of course. No problem. I will think about it.” His gaze was still locked on the journal as he replied as nonchalantly as he could.

Mrs. Coopers finished her lengthy speech before finally letting him hang up. He sighed, then jumped as a voice from behind caught him off guard.

“Are they trying to recruit you again?” Adrien glanced up from the desk and caught his breath as he always did at the sight of her, the sight of his mate. Nothing in this world or the next could make him happier and as Morgan smiled and walked towards him he opened his arms and she fell into them as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And to them, it was. As natural as breathing. As natural as the blood flowing steadily in his veins, well, quickening now that her delicate, womanly scent tangled around him, drawing a seductive veil around them.

“It was Mrs. Coopers again.” Adrien said the words softly into her hair that was pinned up in a messy bun that left tendrils to curl around her neck. They distracted him, making his mouth water to trace the path they made, to see if her skin was a delicious as it looked. He knew it was.

“And what did Mrs. Coopers have to say?” Morgan asked, and Adrien grinned at the sudden breathlessness in her voice.

“Same thing she had to say a hundred times before,” He sighed the words as they came flying back into his thoughts.

“Have you given it any thought, Adrien? Maybe it would be the right thing for you. The right thing for the tribe.” Morgan asked gently, her breath puffing against his skin in the most distracting of ways. He was already shaking his head.

“I don’t think so, Morgan. You know what being the tribe leader did to my father. How could I put you through the same thing?”

“They look up to you. The tribe respects you, and loves you after what you did with Harris. They desperately need a leader, and you are the natural one for them to turn to,” Morgan looked up at him, her eyes gleaming, “And besides, you are not your father, Adrien Black.”

Adrien grinned down at her. She was always so ready to defend him, even against himself sometimes.

“You don’t think so?” He said the words distractedly, his gaze dipping down to her lips.

“I know so. I also know that you love your people, Adrien. You are an amazing mate.  And that no matter what happens you will be an amazing father.” It took a minute for her words to register but as she took a small step back and placed her hands over her still flat belly, they crashed through him.

“
Will
be a good a father,” He said, dumbly repeating her words as he desperately tried to make sense of the emotions roiling through him. “You mean, you mean…” Morgan smiled and there were tears in her eyes as she gazed up at him.

“Yes, Adrien. I’m pregnant.” She laughed the words, and he stared at her for another full minute before the widest grin cracked across his face. She was in his arms in a heartbeat, and he spun her around as they both laughed.

“A baby. We’re going to have a baby,” He said, his voice full of awe and wonder, and above all, love for the amazing woman that had turned his life completely upside down. The woman he loved more than anything or anyone in the whole world. His true mate.

THE END