The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(109)

I lift my hands to her face, run my thumb over that pouty lip of hers and lean my forehead against hers.

“You see your father?” I ask as her hand travels down the front of my jacket and her fingers graze the gauze wrapped around my midsection.

“Barely, I’ve been with Reina the whole time,” she lifts her gaze to mine. “My dad can’t hear, Blackie. The doctor’s say its temporary but aren’t a hundred percent sure.” She pauses to assess my features. She informed me of Jack’s diagnosis but her eyes are looking to me for answers.

“You got something you want to ask me, girl?”

he shook her head.

“The answer is in your eyes,” she whispers as she grips the ends of my jacket and diverts her eyes downward. “My dad won’t be able to ride with deaf ears. He will step down until he’s better and someone else will step up. That someone else is you. Even if you weren’t the vice president, it’d be you, you’re already plotting how to make this right. I see it in your eyes.” She lifts her head and stares back at me.

She was right and there was no sense in denying it or making excuses. When I accepted my role within the club, I knew one day this could happen. At one point I even wanted it—to be next in line for the gavel. It wouldn’t have been a forced decision like it is now, ideally, my brothers would’ve voted me into the head of the table after Jack retired.

The Satan’s Knights haven’t gotten this far in the game by letting our enemies win. Our creed isn’t one that accepts defeat. They strike, we strike back. They kill, we extinct. If Jack is in as bad a shape as Lacey is saying he is, he won’t be able to lead our club and it will be my duty to do so in his place.

Glancing around the emergency room I decide it would be my fucking honor to take down the motherfuckers that did this. But, looking back at Lacey I question if retribution on this disaster is worth her sanity. As strong as she is there is only so much her mind can withstand.

I’ll take the gavel, lead the ride in our quest for retribution and leave Lacey back home with her demons. I struggled back there for a minute, denying the drugs the doctor was ready to feed me because I have a handle on whether I succumb to a relapse. Lacey is different. She can take her meds daily but they won’t always silence her maker. She’s fragile and sitting home, knowing I’m risking my life to pay back the people who took life from our club, well, I fear that’ll send her over the edge.

I won’t be there to comfort her, won’t be there to turn on the radio and dance with her under the porch lights. Her mind will feed her lies and she’ll believe them. not because she wants to, but because I’m not there to prove her maker wrong.

“I get it,” she says, dragging me out of my won head. “It’s part of the package.” She forces a smile.

“You remember what I promised you?”

“You promised me a lot of things.”

“Gonna make good on all those promises, girl,” I say as I bend my knees, grinding my teeth through the pain as I stare into her dark eyes. “Gonna marry you. Gonna fill that house with a bunch of babies. Gonna grow old long before you but with you right by side, keeping my ass young.” I wink at her. “But the promise I will keep before all of those is the one I keep telling you.”

I pause, watch the flicker of hope spark in her eyes and know that she’s on the same page. She knows the words I’m about to say. She lives by them. Just as I come alive when I say them.

“Girl, I’m coming back for you,” I confirm.

And I will.

I’ll always come back for my girl.

“Reina!” Jack’s screams echo off the walls of the hospital, shrill and unnerving, demanding attention.

Lacey’s body grows rigid and I force her eyes back to mine.

“Go back to Reina,” I watch her struggle, biting her lip as she decides whether she will listen. “I’ll go to him,” I assure her, prying her hands off my jacket and kissing her quickly.

Hesitantly she starts for Reina’s room and I question why the fuck I denied Motrin, knowing that dealing with Jack ain’t going to be any kind of easy.





I’ve been poked and prodded and still I can’t hear fucking shit. It feels like someone is holding my head under water and I don’t fucking like it. Not one fucking bit. I need to get to Reina. I need to make sure she and the baby are okay. Without a fuck left to give, I maneuver myself off the stretcher, leaving the plastic surgeon working on my back behind me.

Swiping the curtain back, I stumble out of the cubicle and into the chaos of the emergency room. Doctors try to grab me and usher me back to my stretcher but I push them out of the way.

“Reina!”

I know her name sounds like a scream because of the burn in my throat but to my ears it’s less than a whisper.

Another doctor steps in front of me and before he opens his mouth, I fist his scrubs in my hand and glare at him. Ignoring his moving lips, I shove him to the side as a hand closes around my arm. I go to shrug the person off me, no one will stop me from getting to my woman. Forcefully, I’m spun around and meet Blackie’s worried eyes.

He says some shit I don’t comprehend and I lift my hands to my ears.

“Can’t hear shit. I’m fucking deaf,” I growl, well I think I growl...