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She grinned. “You sound old.”

“I feel old.” I smirked. “And just remember, you are not that much younger than me.”

Sighing, she nodded. She knew I was right. None of us were as young as we once had been. While we had age and wisdom on our side, that didn’t mean shit when our lives were hanging in the balance.

I sat back in my chair as she processed this new information. The silence amplified the frantic drumming of my own heart. There was a lot of shit going on behind the scenes she didn’t know about—mainly the last twenty-something fucking years she missed while gallivanting free, doing her own thing. I respected what her club, the Nyght Nymphs, did, fiercely even, but that didn’t mean she knew the score. And the fact of the matter was, Bane hadn’t been completely truthful with her from the beginning. That secret was about to bite him in the ass, andme too, if I didn’t figure out a fucking way to get him the hell away from the Brotherhood.

But how? My gut screamed at me to tell her everything, to lay bare the years of deceit and the price we’d both paid for it. It was the honest thing to do, the only thing that aligned with the principles I’d always tried to uphold. Except... telling her would shatter her world, destroy the fragile trust she’d placed in Bane, and potentially unleash the fury of the Brotherhood upon us both—a fury I knew, from bitter experience, was capable of unimaginable brutality.

My loyalty to Bane, twisted and born from years of shared hardship, warred with my conscience. He was a flawed man, yes, but he was my man, bound to me by something far stronger than simple camaraderie. To betray him now, to hand him over to the Brotherhood, felt like self-mutilation. But keeping silent, letting him face the consequences alone, felt like a far worse betrayal—a betrayal of the very idea of truth and justice I’d always sworn to uphold.

I was damned if I did, damned if I didn’t. The choice was agonizing, a slow, agonizing death by indecision. And in that moment, I knew I was already making the wrong choice, choosing the path of least resistance, the path of self-preservation, even if it meant condemning Bane to a fate worse than death. The weight of that knowledge, the certainty of future regret, settled heavily on my shoulders, crushing me under the burden of my own cowardice.

I was doing my best, but the situation with Bane was complicated. My hands shook, a tremor I couldn’t control even with years of training. I didn’t trust Morpheus as far as I could fucking throw him; his oily smile and carefully chosen words reeked of manipulation. The irony gnawed at me—I’d always prided myself on my loyalty, my unwavering commitment to my friends. Yet here I was, forced to rely on a man I despised, a manwhose past actions screamed betrayal. To believe Bane could handle whatever Morpheus threw at him felt like a desperate act of faith, a clinging to hope that bordered on delusion.

Worse, the only way to ensure Bane’s safety, the only leverage I possessed, was information I’d sworn to protect—a secret so dark, so damaging, it violated everything I believed in. Revealing it would shatter the trust of others, people I considered family. The thought of betraying them, of staining my honor, twisted my gut. But the alternative—Bane’s suffering, possibly his death—was unbearable.

My blood boiled, but it wasn’t just anger; it was self-loathing. This wasn’t some heroic battle; this was a moral quagmire I’d stumbled into, and I was already sinking fast. I had to make a choice—a choice that felt inherently wrong, a choice that would damn me regardless of the outcome. To protect Bane, I had to become the very thing I swore to fight against. The weight of that realization pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating, promising a future I didn’t want, a future filled with the bitter taste of regret.

“Fine,” she conceded. “But I’m holding you to that. If anything happens to Bane, I’m holding you responsible.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “I get it. And I promise I’ll do everything I can to make sure he survives. But for now, we wait.”

She nodded, knowing that was the best we could do for now.

As the meeting drew to a close, I couldn’t shake the feeling of uncertainty hanging over me. The air hung thick with the scent of stale beer and unspoken anxieties. With my club, the Soulless Sinners, in disarray and war with the Death Dogs looming, the future felt precarious. I barely trusted Reaper’s judgment—his recklessness had gotten us into this mess in the first place—and the thought of my club patching over to the Golden Skulls, or worse, disbanding, was something I genuinely couldn’t stomach.It violated everything I believed in: loyalty, brotherhood, the unwavering code we’d sworn to uphold.

But the stark reminder of our vulnerability gnawed at me. Cubs came and went like the wind, as the old-timers always said, but this felt different. This felt like the end. And a sickening wave of self-doubt washed over me. Had I been the problem all along? My stubborn refusal to compromise, my blind faith in traditions? Had it all been a recipe for disaster?

Reaper whispered promises of survival, of a merger that would secure our future. He painted a picture of strength in numbers, a united front against the underworld. But the price... the price was a betrayal of everything I stood for. To align with the Golden Skulls, to share territory, to accept their ways—it felt like selling my soul. It meant abandoning the very core of what made the Soulless Sinners different—the code we’d bled for.

And yet... the alternative was annihilation. The faces of my brothers flashed before my eyes. To condemn them to death, to watch them fall one by one, was a fate I couldn’t bear. So I sat there, trapped between the Devil and the deep blue sea, knowing that whatever choice I made—to accept Reaper’s offer or to stand defiant—would be a choice I’d regret for the rest of my life. A choice that would stain my soul and damn my legacy, regardless of the outcome.

Nothing was forever, but the weight of this decision felt eternal.

I knew Reaper was doing his best, but the fate of my club, and Bane’s safety, hung in the balance.

?War was coming, and I feared the worst was yet to come.

Watching Meredith leave, I sighed, raking my hands down my face. Fuck me, this was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Shaking my head at her retreating form, Mercy walked into the boardroom and asked, “Well?”

“She bought it.”

“Gotta say, I’m surprised. Bitch didn’t strike me as gullible.”

“Well, I did lay it on pretty thick.”

“You used Tessa and York?”

I nodded. “You would have too.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said, taking his seat. “So what now?”

“We stick to the plan.”

“You think Bane can hold out?”

“He better,” I said, looking at my VP, “because if he doesn’t, we’re all dead.”