Page 10 of Crush's Fall

“What do you want to do?”

“We need to take it to the table, but we need to relocate, reinforce, prepare… but all of that takes time.”

“Joint church?” Crush stood.

Axle nodded. “Tomorrow morning?”

Crush nodded and headed for the door.

“Crush,” Axle called out. When she stopped and looked back at him, Axle stood. “What are you going to do with Lucifer?”

“I don’t think he had any part in the bullshit. I think he earned his freedom, but I’m not the only president around here. Talk to him. We’ll talk about it at church.”

Axle gave a nod. “We’ll put him up in a room and have it watched.”

She nodded back and left, with her VP and sergeant at arms following her.

Pike and Skull took the seats Crush and Pinky had just vacated. Skull huffed out a sigh. “What in the hell are we supposed to do to prepare? That’s not a small group. Most of them may not be big chapters, but together…”

“First, we need names. We need to gather as much information about the club members and their numbers as possible. We need to find somewhere else to keep our families safe. The compound is too public. We can’t protect it from a group that large. Then we need to rally as many shifters together as we can.”

“Do we know that many shifters?” Pike inquired.

Axle ran his fingers through the hair on the top of his head and down the back until he was able to rest his hand around his nape, feeling his stress level build with each passing moment. “Dad would know more. Gonna have to call in Joker and Thrash.”

There was a knock on the office door.

“Yeah,” Axle called out.

When the door opened, Siren stepped into the room, his phone in his hand. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I gotta go to Florida. Pops is in the hospital. His neighbor said it’s bad and I need to come down there.” Siren swallowed hard. “I gotta go.”

Oh, fuck.Axle stood and rounded his desk. He pulled Siren into a hug and backslap. “Yeah, brother, you have to go. But listen, keep your ears and eyes open. We’ll talk once you know more about Pops, but we’ve got enemies recruiting allies all over this half of the country. Don’t let your guard down.”

“Maybe we should send some members with him,” Skull suggested.

Axle thought on it for a moment. “I think it might draw attention. A single rider, no colors, could be anyone.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll stay alert,” Siren said, then left the room.

Pike sighed. “Pixie’s not getting a wedding anytime soon, is she?”

As grins lightened the faces of his president and VP, Pike chuckled. “I ordered her to marry me during sex, and she basically told me to kiss her ass with that shit. So, I still have to ask her, but it’s going to happen.”

It was his turn for the hug and backslap. “Happy for you, brother,” Axle told him.

Skull gave Pike’s shoulder a squeeze. “Fucking thrilled.”

“Thanks. Think Dorothy would meet me at her shop? Gotta get a ring on my woman’s finger.” Dorothy was the mother of the woman Skull was seeing. They were full-humans and had no clue about shifters, but the Howlers always tried to support others within the family unit or adjacent to it. If someone needed shoes and one of the Howlers was dating an owner of a shoe store, that was where they would go.

Skull nodded with a smile. “I’m sure she’d be happy to. I’ll make the call. When you want her there?”

“In an hour?”

Skull nodded and pulled out his cell, leaving the office.

Pike met the hard gaze of his president and asked, “But seriously, are we really about to organize a shifter-biker army to fight another biker army? That shit’s fucking insane.”

Axle let out a humorless laugh. “About as insane as the fact we can shift into fucking animals.”

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