Page 21 of Pope’s Purgatory

No sooner do I get the last word out, Manic steps in front of me with a malicious smile and swings.

“Gladly,” he snarls, needing this as much as I do.

Before I know it, we’re all brawling against each other, violence being the only way we know to express the pain we’re feeling.

Tomorrow dawns a new day.

A new chapter of a new story.

One of a man who’s about to set the goddamn world on fire to protect the woman he loves.

Until then, brother against brother, we’re going to fight out our pain.

There was a timewhen I could say with absolute certainty that Apollonos would never hurt or betray me—something I couldn’t even say about my own blood.

Until the Steel Slayers interrupted our lives, and he started changing.

The change from Apollonos to Pope happened so fast, it left me reeling.

Despite how it may look to others, I’m not a stupid person. I know there must have been a reason for him to turn against me so drastically.

I begged him to talk to me about it until I was blue in the face only to be left crying in a shower stall as he walked away.

Then we had the family gathering at the clubhouse yesterday, and I thought things were getting better. I thought whatever was bothering him was finally taken care of because we were the couple we were before the Steel Slayers MC started their shit with Pope.

Last night, there was so much intensity between us, I felt like he was trying to make up for the way he’d been treating me.

But then I woke up alone and there was just this feeling inside me. One that left me empty because that feeling . . . it was trying to tell me that my life was about to veer off course. It was a warning that I was about to learn something about my man that would change me to the core.

It was terrifying, so I started texting Apollonos. The longer he went without replying, the more that warning grew until it expanded so much that my lungs were closing down on me.

Then it came—that text that sounded as if it was taunting me.

I should have known from the seriousness of it that what was waiting for me on the other end would obliterate the life I knew.

The love I had for my beautiful beast blinded me to how vicious he could be when he assumed he was doing the right thing.

Other signs were glaring around me when I made the trip to the clubhouse. The way the prospect manning the gate looked at me without expression. The way he refused to automatically let me in. The signs were in the way everyone in the club was staring at me with mixed expressions. Anger, sadness, pity, sorrow—they were all emotions I couldn’t understand until Dimples delightfully pointed me in the direction of where I could find Pope.

As soon as the word ‘playroom’ came out of her mouth, a sour taste built at the back of my throat.

There’s no fucking way, I told myself, so sure he’d never betray me.

Then pieces from the last few weeks floated through my mind. Pope pulling away, the way we hadn’t had sex for two weeks until yesterday, the way some people avoided my eyes when I was near, the way the club girls would giggle whenever they saw me, but more prominently, the way Diamond went out of her way to avoid me. They all glide together, creating a storyline that’sthreatening to break me into so many tiny fragments, I’ll be lucky to find all the pieces.

And then Gavel was there in front of me, telling me no good was going to come of me going back to the playroom, pleading with me to just turn around and walk out. Out of love for him and my grandfather, I almost listened.

Almost.

I’ve never really been one who ran from confrontation, though.

If Apollonos was going to be so dumb as to betray our love, he’d need to have the guts to face me head-on as he did it.

Sometimes, though, we’re so sure we’re stronger than we really are.

A part of me hurt when I walked into that playroom and saw Diamond grinding her pussy against him, but an even bigger part withered away when he ordered her to remove her underwear and show him her pussy.

That wasn’t the man I’ve been in love with since I met him.

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