I stood with my back against the door, tears trickling down my cheeks. I’d never wanted anything more than what I had, I loved every single member of this club. I loved how they were a little scary, a little crazy, but that everything they did was with passion and their hearts were always in the right place. They rode hard, they loved even harder.

I’d always been happy to be a part of something so amazing, and appreciative of what these men had done for me, but there was something stirring in my gut that was telling me that maybe my time at the club had come to an end. I promised myself that I would always focus on what was important, the things which would give me a future, but as I stared at my bed covered in books, I knew that had begun to slip. My grades had been suffering the past few weeks with all my focus being on Emerald, and working as many hours as possible at the store. Not to mention a certain brother who had stolen my time recently. The same one who right now I wanted to tell to go and take a flying fucking leap off the top of a cliff, and at the same time leap off the edge after him.

He’d just made it glaringly apparent that I was second class.

I knew that in a few weeks, I would be walking away from these people who had come to mean so fucking much to me, so I could support my little sister and give her a better life and future that neither of us had imagined possible when we were little.

But it wasn’t just that though. I was confused about my feelings for Eagle, how intense they were growing and how I was beginning to resent my position in the club.

I couldn’t stay here and hope to make it through the next month or more, always on edge about whether there would be another brother knock on my door that wasn’t him. That feeling was twisting my stomach, it made me want to throw up because just the idea was already making me feel like I was betraying him, it didn’t even matter that I felt like he’d done just that to me.

I groaned loudly, grabbing my sneakers before sitting down at the edge and pulling them on. I reached for the duffle bag in the bottom of my closet and began filling it up with whatever I could find.

How does one fall for someone so easily?

Just a few weeks and I found myself doing the one thing I promised myself years ago when I joined the club that I would never do.

There was a hard knock on the door.

“Go away!” I called out, my voice cracking as I slipped my hands through the soft cotton sleeves of my sweatshirt and zipped it up to my neck.

The door pushed open, and Eagle stepped inside, softly closing it behind him.

“Oh right! Yeah, I’m a club girl. I’m not allowed to tell you guys to go away,” I sniped, trying to avoid looking him in the eye. I made a dive for the bathroom, closing the door behind me.

“If this were any other time, I would have happily walked away and left you,” Eagle replied, and I heard him take a seat on the edge of my bed. “But I have an apology to make and some things we need to talk about.”

I just wanted him to leave. I didn’t want him to see me this way, didn’t want to see the look on his face when I told him I was walking away from the club because I’d developed some stupid crush.

I knew how this world worked.

The boys saw something they wanted, they stole it with both hands, they claimed their women without a second thought. God, Kit had claimed Harmony without even telling her, and once Leo got his hands on Hadley, he knew there was no way he was sharing. Yet, I was still a club girl, and no matter how much time he and I spent getting to know each other, sharing not just our bodies but our stories, he still hadn’t decided that he wanted me for himself.

Was there something between Eagle and me?

For me, yes, there was no doubt.

Eagle was sexy, and he was intimidating. He was the quiet one who stood in the corner watching what was going on, unapproachable and dangerous. The difference between him and the other men around us—I’d seen him break.

I can’t explain how in my fucked up mind, seeing a man completely and utterly destroyed was somehow attractive. Maybe it’s that vulnerability, knowing that he’s just like every other person out there, that he has moments where he’s not in control. Growing up around so many men, who on the outside came off as so perfect, so untainted and unbreakable, to see Eagle—who is ten times the man that any of them could ever be, have a moment where he was so damaged—it made my heart skip a beat.

I wasn’t one of those girls who was drawn to men because I thought I could fix them. But I was finding that I was someone who could appreciate and was drawn to imperfections and cracked exteriors.

They were real, they told the truth.

I’d heard his story, I’d felt his pain, and I knew I wanted to be the one who was there when he needed someone to lean on. I knew that I wanted to crack jokes and throw sass as he called it, every single day to make him smile. I wanted to protect him from the people who didn’t understand his PTSD. I wanted him to know I would take him exactly the way he was.

The door flung open, causing me to jump. My hand went to my heart when Eagle appeared in the doorway, his hands on the doorframe, looking at me beneath a thick brow.

“Why are you packing?” he growled.

I tried to steal my spine, swiping at the tears on my cheeks and shoving at his chest in an attempt to make him move. He stepped to the side, and I took the opportunity.

“Sky…” I stormed out of the room, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back toward him, turning our bodies, so my back was pressed against the wall. His eyes flashed in irritation. “Will you just stop for a minute, damn it, and tell me what the hell is going on?”

He braced one hand on the wall beside my head, and the other held me tight, the serious look on his face made me think that running was a bad idea. He took a deep breath, and I squeezed my legs together as I watched him swallow, his beard short enough that I could see the muscles in his throat move and his Adam’s apple bob up and down.

How did I find something like that so fucking erotic? I had no damn idea, but I was suddenly acutely aware of my nipples tightening and the dull throb of my pussy as it begged to be satisfied.

“Fine, you don’t wanna talk, I’ll go first. I know you’re upset ‘cause I didn’t say shit when my idiot brother opened his damn mouth and spewed shit everywhere,” Eagle tried to explain, growling deep in his throat when I attempted to look away. “I did it because when my brother is called out, sometimes he likes to make a complete asshole of himself. And to have him already say that shit, fuck, if he’d have carried on, I would have given you my gun to shoot the sorry bastard.”

Maybe I was being dramatic. Perhaps Eagle was right, and it was better that I left, and he dealt with his brother alone, but I couldn’t help but feel that ache in my chest. Eagle had stood with me against my brother, he’d risked being arrested just so he could give Abel what he deserved for laying a hand on me that day. So to see him not fight for me, it fucking hurt. It hurt more than I expected it to, and I knew it was because I was developing feelings for this man in front of me. I’d tried to play them off, pretend like we weren’t getting in deeper and deeper every single day because it scared me, it honestly scared the crap out of me.

I wanted Eagle so badly, that my body was vibrating with need and I was finding it hard to breathe. He stepped in closer, and I swore in that moment that my heart leaped out of my chest and landed on the carpet at our feet.

His breath brushed across my bare neck as his nose traced lightly along my jawline to my ear. His beard tickled against my skin, delighting my senses. The dull ache between my legs had now started to throb with need and want. He was pushing me without taking what he wanted, but I wasn’t sure why.

“Now tell me why the hell you’ve packed a damn bag and look like you’re about to do a runner,” he demanded, his voice low and scary as his lips drew down my neck, his body holding me captive.

I swallowed my fucking pride and decided to just lay it all out there. “I told myself I’d never fall for a member of the club. I’d seen girls do it before, think that one of the boys will be their knight in shining armor and all he sees her as is a friend who he occasionally fucks,” I tried not to let my voice crack.

“So you were leaving because you like me?” he asked, pulling back with a frown. I pushed at his chest, but he didn’t move, which made me more frustrated.

“Yes! Okay.”

“Thank fuck for that,” he said with a grin before pressing his lips to mine.

I was confused, but I couldn’t do anything but melt into his arms, my hands instinctually wrapping around his waist. We devoured each other, and I loved every fucking minute of it even though I didn’t really understand why. His body was warm, it was comforting, right when I needed him he was there. When he finally pulled back, I was struggling to breathe, and he had a wicked grin on his face.

“I don’t know what just happened,” I said, my breathing heavy.

“I’ve spent the last fucking three weeks getting to know your past, your mind, your heart and your fucking body. I want you that much I know. I don’t want to have to worry about whether one of my brothers might come to you, today, tomorrow, next week, and touch you because I want you to be mine and only mine.”

“I… I… ” I couldn’t help but stutter. My heart skipped, and my mouth fell open. “We’ve only really known each other for three weeks?”

He laughed and reached out, brushing a stray hair behind my ear. “I’m not trying to freak you out, I know the whole idea of having a man own you or claim you isn’t exactly your idea of a relationship,” he said gently, and my heart expanded in my chest at the fact he knew that it would make me apprehensive. “I’m just asking you to give it a go, to see where this might lead without the both of us worried that I’m gonna walk in here one day and have to shoot one of my brothers.”

I already knew what my answer was.

Yes, I wanted to see where this could lead.

Yes, I was over freaking out every time I heard someone walk outside my door.

Yes.

But before I could say the actual words, the roar of a shit load of motorcycles filled the room and shook the walls.

Eagle’s smug face quickly turned into something far more serious, and he jogged to the door. “Stay here!” he ordered, before rushing down the hall, the footsteps of others like a chorus through the building.

Typical, right on my moment.