Page 12 of Rebel's Fairytale

Bri’s heart broke at his words. Drugs were so destructive to more than the person using them.

“When my mom found out, she had a heart attack. We rushed her to the hospital, but…” As he trailed off, he shook his head.

Bri reached across the table and took one of his hands in hers. “I’m sorry to hear that. That had to have been rough.”

Rebel gave a nod. “My sister… She couldn’t handle it all and took off. Dad keeps an eye on her, but she doesn’t want anything to do with us, and I can’t say I blame her. She’s living in Colorado, working at a store that sells local goods. I hear from her around my birthday every year, but that’s about it. She seems happy.”

“Rebel…” She gave his hand a squeeze, unsure of what to say. She hated that his family seemed to have fallen apart at the seams.

He winked at her. “It’s okay. Really. I always wanted to have a family that was supportive andtherefor everything. That’s why I joined the Howlers. They gave my dad a place to belong, since his childhood wasn’t much better. I knew how the club operated and the way they rallied around their members. I saw it, firsthand, when Mom and Patrick died. So, as soon as I was old enough, I prospected.”

“Prospected? I think I know what that means, but will you explain that?”

He nodded. “It’s basically like the period of time where you’re proving yourself to the club, and they are evaluating whether you’re a good fit. You do all the shit jobs and anything else they order you to do, with the intention of proving your loyalty.”

“If he’ll do all of this, he’ll do anything for the club.”

“That’s the idea,” Rebel confirmed. “When you patch in, you get your cut, but you also get a family. We’re not just friends and business partners. Every member is my brother and would do anything for me, just as I would do for them. And their women are my sisters. Their kids are my nieces, nephews, etc. We depend on each other in ways that are hard to explain unless you’re a part of our world. You’ll see what I mean.”

She raised a brow and stared at him. “I will?” While she liked the idea of spending time with him and his club family, she thought it was awfully presumptuous of him to assume they would make it to that point.

He tried to hide his smile behind a sip of his coffee, but she caught it. “Yeah,” he confirmed as he set his mug back down, “you will. So, besides books, what are you into?”

Bri debated on whether or not to tell him the truth about her hobbies. On the one hand, it was a way to show him another side of her, but she worried it would make him look at her differently. With a mental roll of her eyes, she reminded herself that it didn’t matter. He had two choices — accept her for who she was or move on to someone else. What she wouldn’t do is change or hide herself to please a man.

Lifting her chin a bit, she looked him square in the eye and answered, “I take pole dancing classes for exercise.”

She didn’t think you could actually see a man’s brain shut down, but the expression on Rebel’s face proved her wrong. He blinked twice, shook his head, and looked at her like she lost her mind.

“Wait. What?” Another hard blink. “But you’re a librarian.”

Bri narrowed her eyes on him, not too happy with his words, because they sounded a lot like judgment. “And you’re a biker who reads romance novels and can turn into a wolf. If we’re going on stereotypical assumptions, would you even be able to read?”

Rebel’s brow raised. “Fair enough.” A smile slowly grew on his face. “So, pole dancing… okay.”

Her ruffled feathers were smoothed a bit by his easy acceptance and admission that at least his phrasing was bad. “I was taking classes at Heat, but I guess I’ll have to find somewhere else, now.”

“Heat? Really?”

Still not completely appeased, Bri rolled her eyes. “Yeah. And?”

“Give me a minute to process, Sweetie. My brain is recovering from the visual of you swinging around a pole.” As she laughed, he lifted his mug and took another sip. “And it’s a good thing we can’t leave until after we eat, because I can’t stand up from this table just yet.”

“Oh really? Why would that be?” Bri smirked at him as she took a sip of her drink.

Rebel’s gaze met her own and lit with lust as he replied, “Reasons.”

Chapter five

Messer

StellaMesserwassurprisedby the speed at which the Black Forest Academy was put together. Within a day of the first video being released, maybe eighteen hours, she had received a call from a well-known billionaire about teaching and working for a security group he was putting together. The goal was to do what was necessary to keep civilians safe from the monsters that had come out of the shadows.

She was aware that her job duties would cross the line of what was considered legal, but she had never felt those lines were solid. To Stella, those lines were opaquer than most people knew. If you knew the right people and had enough of the population on your side, your ability to break the law grew at an enormous rate.

In the world they were all living in, money talked. Working for a billionaire whose mission was to keep humanity safe blurred those lines like nothing else would. Did it matter if it was right? Stella shrugged. It was a job, and a well-paying one at that.

When she had arrived at the address that was given to her in the packet of paperwork, she was impressed. It was an old boarding school. It had the pretentious columns and arches with the outdated decor and gaudy wallpaper. None of that really mattered, though. What mattered was the state of the gym, dorms, and utilities. The water was clean and hot, and the radiators seemed to heat the place well enough. The rest could be changed if the owners decided to do that in the future.