Chapter 23

Kitty.

We spent two more days with his brothers in Chattanooga. Mostly in the main clubhouse, but I was assured it was safe for me to go to the little wooded area inside the compound. I didn’t expect it to feel so good. So safe. So serene. A tiny patch of protected nature inside the city.

I’d seen the “Property of” vests on the ol’ladies in Birmingham, but there were a lot more of them up here. The concept bugged me because I’d been my father’s property — an asset he could trade. He owned my body, my eggs, my potential for creating more babies, some of whom he’d also own. Part of me loved the idea of the vests, but mostly, they bugged me.

Angelica saw me looking at Harmony’s one night, and she said, “You know that goes both ways, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“It means Harmony belongs to Brain, but it also means he belongs to her.”

“But we aren’t...” I didn’t want to broadcast private stuff, but I needed to know if he hadn’t given me one because we’re so new, or if it was because I wasn’t completely his.

I tried again. “I know wolves are usually monogamous, but that doesn’t work for me. I dance, and there are, well. I’m not exclusively his. I’ve encouraged him to keep using the sweetbutts, too.”

“Horse and I aren’t monogamous,” Gabby said. “That isn’t what it’s about. He’s mine and I’m his. We both have sex with other people, but we always come home to each other.”

The women and I talked at least an hour about the status of ol’ladies, and our place in the club, and monogamy versus not, and the rules for a prop vest. After hearing about when you can and can’t wear it, and how it has to be treated when not being worn, or if you have to take it off for some reason while you’re out, I was even more happy I didn’t have one — for about five minutes, and then I went back to wondering if I’d ever get one. It was screwed up. I didn’t need to go from belonging to one man to belonging to another, and yet, I couldn’t help but hope Squatch would one day want to give me a vest proclaiming I belonged to him.

* * * *

Squatch The lady who does the Rolling Thunder patches and designs doesn’t like to be rushed. Usually, you get things one to three weeks after you order it, and you don’t call and ask where it is.

But I needed this now. Tomorrow. The next day, at the latest. I talked to Duke about it, and he pulled Dawg in.

“Can you work your magic to get a prop vest here in a day or two for Kitty?” Duke asked him.

Dawg grinned at me, obviously happy I was taking this step, and pulled his phone out.

And then he proceeded to sweet-talk this werewolf grandmother no telling how many times over, who is at least in her nineties. Ten minutes later, she told him to send her the correct spelling for everything we needed, and she’d do it that night and overnight it the next day.

Unheard of.

“Is there any female on the planet you can’t flirt with to get what you want?” I asked when he’d disconnected the call.

His eyes went dark. His face clouded over. “One. The most important one, unfortunately.”

We all knew he considered his one true love to be out of his reach. He never expected to settle down, and he seemed to have come to peace with it, but every once in a while, we saw his pain.

“I’m sorry, brother.”

He shrugged. “It is what it is. Life is good, otherwise. Use the app to send what she needs, and give her a big-assed tip when you pay.”

Brain had programmed it so it was easy for us to order shit from her, and easy for her to process it. She made the patches for every Rolling Thunder chapter, and it was my understanding that we kept her pretty fucking busy, but she loved doing it for us.

We threw a party two nights later — the night before Kitty was due to see her father for the first time since she’d escaped. It felt important I give it to her before she saw him. An anchor to her new life, even if she wasn’t wearing it.

Duke, Brain, and Dawg helped me come up with a plan, and they pulled their ol’ladies in to help.

My Chattanooga brothers are close to Mythic Beast — one of the most popular bands in the world. How close? Ghost’s wife is the lead guitarist. The band has been known to give the chapter a private show when they want to try new songs out, but one of those wasn’t planned, so I asked Hailey if she’d enlist Will’s help. Will is known as Lord Byron, and he’s the lead singer of Mythic Beast.

I took my kitten upstairs to a room full of my brothers and their ol’ladies, and Kitty turned to see the lead singer of one of her favorite rock bands.

And she was starstruck. She couldn’t speak. All she could do was open her mouth and close it, like a fish out of water, struggling to breathe.

There’s a rule about not taking pictures in the clubhouse, but there’s a corner in the Chattanooga main room where selfies are allowed. The rule was made because of Mythic Beast. Will walked my Kitten to the corner, pulled her phone from her back pocket, saw it was locked, asked her to unlock it, told her to smile, and took a few selfies with her. They got silly with it, and after a dozen shots, she finally found her tongue.

“I can’t believe it’s really you! I love your music!”

Will smiled and talked to her, giving her his complete attention, and I stood and watched as she went from fan girl to just Kitty, and the conversation turned into a normal one. Animal and Silver, the drummer and bass guitarist, joined them. Introductions were made, and Will asked Kitty to call him Will instead of Lord Byron.

And then Hailey joined them, wearing her prop vest. Hailey is their lead guitarist, and the wife of a brother.

“Suli!” Kitty’s eyes were huge, and they grew even rounder as she took in the vest. “You’re...”

“Please, call me Hailey in the clubhouse.”

“Hailey?” She looked at Will, and then at Silver and Animal, and back to Hailey. Her eyes finally focused on the vest. “You’re an ol’lady?”

And that was my cue. I stepped to her with the gift bag down at my side. Usually, vests are given in a gift box, but I didn’t want to carry a big box. The bag was simpler.

“She is, and all she has to do is turn around, and you’ll know who she belongs to.”

Hailey spun in a slow circle, and Kitty looked five feet behind her to Ghost.

The entire room went silent, everyone watching. Also, Brain was live-casting this to the Birmingham clubhouse over the encrypted app. I needed my home-brothers to see this too.

“Kitten, I know it’s soon, but so much has happened, I find that I want the world to know you’re mine.” I lifted the bag and pulled the handles away from each other, so Kitty could take the vest out. My kitten pulled it out and looked at the front, then the back, and then the front again.

I didn’t want anyone to know I was terrified, but my heart went cold and I knew every shapeshifter within twenty feet could smell my fear. In that moment, I didn’t think she was going to accept it, and my blood turned to ice in my veins.

The next thing I knew, her arms were around my neck, her legs around my waist, and she was attached to me, holding on, squeezing me, tears flowing from her eyes.

My blood began pumping as it’s supposed to again. My body settled. My arms wrapped around her.

“I love you,” she said. “I’ve wanted this, but I was afraid to talk to you about it because I didn’t know if...” She squeezed harder. “So much is up in the air right now. So many unknowns, and you still want the world to know I’m yours. I love you so much.”

“Does this mean you’ll wear it?” I asked.

My question seemed to remind her of how she was supposed to respond. Thankfully, I’d made sure Velvet had the talk with her before all hell broke loose. The ol’ladies have ways of talking about their own experiences, so new girlfriends are clued in to the rules in case the same thing happens to them.

So now, Kitty’s eyes went big, she dropped to her feet, took a step back, and offered me the vest. “Will you put this on me, please?”

The room cheered, clapped, stomped, and whistled when I put it on her, and I turned Kitty to the largest television, which showed the Birmingham clubhouse, with us down in the corner. She looked around, saw Brain with his phone pointing to us, waved to him, and then turned in a circle, showing her new vest off. Birmingham cheered again, lifting glasses and bottles, and Kitty jumped back into my arms. It was a little too catlike, but I couldn’t really remind her that everyone in the clubhouses didn’t know about us.

Velvet stepped closer to the camera in Birmingham and said, “Congrats, Kitty. We can’t wait to get you home so we can throw a big party for ya’ll! Stay safe!”