Wild and Free (The Three #3)(166)

Abel looked to Cain.

“From the look of your woman, not to mention you.” Abel tipped his head to the familiar uniform Cain was wearing. “I take it you got a bike.”

“Fuck yes,” Cain said firmly. “Harley. Vintage. Got my first about a week after you got yours.”

It was a hit, knowing this and learning it so far after the fact.

But it still felt good just knowing it.

“Pop would have loved motorcycles,” Cain said quietly. “Ma said the minute you got one, then I did, she wasn’t surprised because she knew if he had the chance he’d get one too and his boys were both just like him.”

That was a hit too.

But this time, it felt f*cking great knowing it.

“How about we share over bourbon?” Delilah suggested.

“My baby likes Kentucky’s finest, but you got vodka, this sister will be grateful,” Teona said.

Delilah gave her a huge smile, moving around and tucking her arm through Teona’s.

“We’ve got everything. Let’s get you set up!”

Then she led Teona out, and as she did, Teona threw a sexy, happy grin over her shoulder.

Delilah threw just a happy grin over hers.

Abel tossed out an arm and muttered, “Let’s get set up.”

His blood brother jerked up his chin and moved forward.

Abel followed.

And he did it knowing he, too, was wearing a happy grin.

*

“It no longer matters,” Jian-Li whispered to the window.

“Sweetheart,” Abel whispered to her profile.

“It no longer matters,” she repeated, not looking to him.

Abel had just told her about Ming.

“Ma—” Chen, close to her other side, started.

But he stopped when she suddenly turned her head and tipped it back to look up at Abel.

“He would die for you.”

Abel clenched his teeth to beat back the emotion her words caused, emotion that was threatening to bring him low.

“He would, tian xin, for all of you boys,” she told him gently. “He’s at peace having died for you, Abel. And you know this is true.”

He knew it was true.

Wei and Xun, who were at their mother’s back, close to their huddle, got closer.

They knew it was true too.

Abel lifted his hand and touched her chin with his finger. When he did, it was the first time in a long time sadness didn’t sift into her eyes. Her gaze simply held his steady.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“You had no control over it,” she replied.

“It was senseless,” he told her cautiously.

“Nothing is senseless,” Jian-Li returned. “We may not be able to make sense of it, my Abel, but that doesn’t mean it was senseless. We moved soon after that. We moved to a place we were all much safer for we were all possible targets. If that’s the only purpose of my husband’s death, and he knew it, he would die a million times to make that so.”

That was true too.

Knowing it, Abel swallowed and slid his finger along her jaw to curl his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her into his chest.

She wrapped her arms around him.

Her other sons drew closer. Chen lifted his hand to rest it on the small of his mother’s back. Wei drifted a finger through her hair, over her ear, to the bun at the base of her neck. Xun pulled one of her hands from around Abel so he could hold it.

Jian-Li allowed this affection for a few beats before she pulled away from all of them and looked through them, saying, “Enough sorrow. There’s a celebration happening. Sorrow has it’s time. That sorrow has had its time. Now, we celebrate.”

As ever (well, mostly), when Jian-Li spoke, her sons listened.

This time, she made them do it by promptly walking out of the room on a trajectory to rejoin the party, which was in full swing.

After exchanging looks, her sons followed.

*

“Can you believe Teona is ninety-eight years old?” Delilah asked, leaning heavily on Abel as he opened the door to their bedroom.

His woman was sloshed.

Suffice it to say, a biker and the queen of werewolves could throw together a f*ckuva party. It was three in the morning and Ryon, Moose, Jabber, Poncho, Calder, Caleb, Regan, Jian-Li and the boys, Hook and his vampire, Ursula, Barb, Ruby, Jezza, and Flo were still at it.

The rest, having mates, decided to take their parties elsewhere.

Cain and Teona had taken off five minutes before Abel and Delilah.

Abel knew why he stayed as long as he could. He wouldn’t have guessed it, but getting to know his brother and hearing about his parents far from sucked.

What also didn’t suck was the fact that Cain, even while getting cues from Teona like Delilah was giving him that they were in the mood for a different kind of celebration, stayed as long as he could.

This meant Cain thought sharing with his brother far from sucked.

Abel liked that.

But a brother was a brother, long lost or not, and a mate was a mate.

Eventually, you couldn’t ignore the call of the wild.

“Yeah, *cat, I was there when she shared that tidbit,” Abel murmured, a smile on his face as he guided his mate into their room and shut the door behind them.

He watched Delilah take two unsteady steps in front of him before she turned, whirled (his hands flew out when she started teetering, but she got herself sorted), then planted her fists on her hips and tipped her head saucily to the side.