Page 76 of Crush's Fall

Lucifer

As the Howlers took their seats, Lucifer stood next to the door and crossed his arms over his chest. Before he met Crush, he would have thought it was a sign of weakness to be wearing a property cut in a room full of patched members of a club, but he felt nothing but pride wearing Crush’s property cut. There was nothing to be ashamed of. His woman was a badass and was hot as fuck. The men in that room knew Lucifer was a lucky bastard, and Lucifer was willing to shout that shit to the moon.

He just waited patiently while the other men settled in their seats. Eventually, Axle slammed his hand down on the table and cleared his throat.

“We brought you in here to talk to you about prospecting for the Howlers. Since you arrived here—”

“You mean since I was kidnapped and brought here?”

Axle gave him a hard stare, but continued, “You’ve spent months proving that you are willing to put our family above yourself. That is rule number one of this club. Our family should always be protected. If it wasn’t for you, we might have lost Sugar. And you fought next to us in the war when you had no responsibility to do so. Because of all of that, and the fact that you are mated to the president of our closest ally, we are extending the offer to you to prospect for the Howlers. Keep in mind, the prospecting period will most likely be shorter than most since you’ve already proven yourself.”

“I will be your sponsor,” Trip added. “Do you accept?”

The smile on Trip’s face told Lucifer that they expected him to be grateful and excited. They were about to be disappointed.

Lucifer shrugged. “I’ll have to think about it.”

Axle blinked hard. “What?”

“I said I’ll have to think about it.”

As Bullet started angrily mumbling under his breath, Skull asked, “Is there a reason why?”

“Yeah.” He looked around the room, making sure to meet the eyes of each and every member before he said, “I won’t be a part of a club that questions the strength of my mate or her club. You all have a habit of expecting them to cow to your decisions, to depend on your guidance, to let youhandlethings. They don’t need that. They are capable women, who, quite frankly, could teach you a thing or two if you took your blinders off long enough to pay attention. So, yeah, I’ll have to think about it. In the meantime, maybe you should think about how good of an ally you’ve been to them. When you can promise me that you’ll learn to be better allies, I’ll promise my loyalty to you.”

Without waiting for an answer, Lucifer turned and walked out of the room, knowing he could have just destroyed any chance he had at being patched in to the Howlers MC and completely at peace with that.

Crush

Sipping her beer, Crush was surprised when Lucifer returned to the main room without a Howlers MC prospect cut on. She had been positive that was what they wanted to talk to him about. When he stopped at her side and looked down at her, she met his gaze and raised a brow in question.

“I’ll explain.” He nodded to her hand wrapped around the bottle. “We need to clean those up.”

Crush glanced at the cuts on her knuckles and shrugged. “They’re already healing.”

Staring hard into her eyes, he replied, “Humor me.”

It wasn’t often that Lucifer was serious about anything. Curious, and a bit concerned, Crush nodded and released the bottle. She stood and followed him out of the clubhouse, continuing to follow him all the way to their apartment. Once inside, he pointed to the stool by the island in the kitchen area, indicating he wanted her to take a seat.

She had been sitting there for only a few minutes before he walked out of the bathroom with a couple damp washcloths and a small, white box in his hands. The red logo on the front of the box let her know it was a first aid kit. He set his bounty down on the island and sidled up next to her side.

Letting him lift her hand in his and get to work on cleaning her already healing wounds, Crush examined his face. His jaw was tight, and his brows were pulled together. It could have been concentration, but she suspected it was more than that. She was just about to ask him what was wrong when he opened his mouth.

“They offered me a prospect cut with the understanding that the prospecting period would be shorter due to what I’ve already done for the clubs and the family.”

She nodded, not surprised at all.

Wiping away the dried blood with a washcloth, he said, “I told them I had to think about it.”

That surprised her. “What? Why? Think aboutwhat?”

He set aside the washcloth and pulled a packet out of the first aid kit that looked to contain an alcohol swab. After ripping the package open and pulling out the wipe, he met her gaze and answered, “I told them I didn’t want to be a part of a club that would disrespect my mate or her club. I told them that until they could see and treat the Claws as equals, I couldn’t promise my loyalty.”

“Lucifer,” she breathed, suddenly filled with more love and appreciation for him than ever before. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did.” He began to run the wipe over her wounds. She ignored the sting as she waited for him to continue. “My loyalty is to you, and by extension, your club. Making a loyalty promise to the Howlers without them changing the way they treat you and the Claws, that would go against my promise to you. I may be many things, Sugartits, but a liar and someone capable of betrayal are not among them.”

“Fuck. I love you,” she expressed for the first time without it being practically pulled from her.

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