Chapter 35 To The Club
Aria's POV
The van pulled up to a tall metal gate that looked like it belonged to a prison, which made me hold Nana’s hand tightly while the heavy chain-link fence slid open with a loud screeching sound. We drove into a large courtyard filled with rows of motorcycles that looked mean and powerful in the dark, where I could see men standing around in leather vests with patches on their backs showing a wolf biting a chain. Grayson pulled up beside us on his bike, killing the engine so the sudden silence felt even scarier than the noise of the city, because I knew we were officially inside the world he had warned me about.
Jax hopped out of the front seat to open the sliding door for us, giving me a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes since he looked busy watching the perimeter.
"Watch your step, ma'am, because the ground is a bit uneven here and it’s still slippery from the rain," Jax said as he helped Nana out of the van, while she just nodded and leaned on her cane to look at the huge building in front of us.
"It’s very loud in there, isn't it?" Nana asked, which wasn't wrong because the thumping of bass and the sound of men shouting came clearly from behind the heavy steel doors.
"It’s just the guys blowing off some steam, but don't you worry, they know better than to act up when a lady is in the house," Jax replied, just as Grayson walked over to us looking taller and more dangerous now that he was back on his own turf.
"Follow me and stay close, because the main hall is usually a mess this time of night and I want to get you settled before the questions start," Grayson said, grabbing our suitcases to lead the way toward the entrance
When he pushed the doors open, the smell hit me first, being a mix of stale beer, heavy tobacco, and the sharp scent of wet fur that made my own wolf want to crawl into a corner. The room was huge and dimly lit, with old leather couches pushed against the walls alongside a long bar made of dark wood where a dozen men were sitting and drinking. They all stopped talking the moment they saw Grayson, their eyes moving to me and Nana until I felt like a bug under a microscope, since I knew I didn't look like I belonged there in my damp clothes and messy hair.
"Who’s the girl, Alpha?" a guy with a shaved head and face tattoos asked, leaning over the bar to get a better look at me.
"She’s a guest, Miller, and that’s all you need to know, so go back to your drink and keep your eyes on your own business," Grayson growled, causing the guy to immediately sit back down and look away.
We walked through the crowded room, where I saw women sitting on the laps of some of the men, wearing tiny shirts and looking at me with cold, jealous eyes that made me want to run back to the van. It felt like everyone was waiting for me to trip or do something stupid, so I kept my head down, focusing on the back of Grayson’s jacket until we reached a hallway that looked a bit cleaner and quieter.
"This is the living wing, where only the inner circle is allowed, so you'll be safe," Grayson said, stopping in front of a door that pushed open to reveal a room with two beds and a small bathroom. "It isn't a palace, but the locks are solid and I’ll have someone standing outside the door twenty-four hours a day until things quiet down."
"Thank you, Grayson, really," I said, feeling a bit better when I saw Nana sit down on one of the beds to start testing the mattress.
"I have to go talk to the patrol leads, so stay here and don't go wandering off, Aria," he warned, though he seemed distracted by the shouting coming from the other side of the building.
He left the room and shut the door, so I spent the next twenty minutes helping Nana unpack her medicine and her knitting bag until she started to doze off. I was too restless to sit still, so I peeked out into the hallway to see that the guard he promised wasn't there yet, probably because they were still arguing in the main hall. I decided to walk a little bit just to see where we were, following a long corridor that smelled less like beer and more like grease and hot metal.
I turned a corner to find myself in a massive room with high ceilings and bright lights, and my jaw almost dropped when I realized it was a professional-grade garage. There were bikes in various stages of being taken apart, with tools organized on the walls in a way that made my heart skip a beat since I loved fixing things. I walked over to a bike that had its engine completely exposed, noticing immediately that the carburetor was tuned all wrong.
"You looking for something, or are you just lost?" a voice asked, and I turned to see Jax standing by a workbench with a wrench in his hand.
"I was just walking, but I saw this and I couldn't help it," I said, pointing at the bike because the fuel mix was going to be way too rich if he left it like that. "It’s going to stall out the second you hit a hill."
Jax raised an eyebrow while looking at the bike and then back at me. "You know about engines, baker girl?"
"I grew up in a trailer park with a dad who gambled away our rent money, so I learned how to fix our old truck so we wouldn't be stranded," I told him, stepping closer to the workbench since I felt more at home here than I did in the fancy halls of Apex Corp. "That’s a 1200cc, isn't it? The timing looks a bit off, too."
Jax laughed and tossed the wrench onto the table, pulling out a chair for me because he seemed genuinely impressed. "Well, if you're bored of hiding in that room, I could use another set of eyes on this rebuild, since the guys in this pack are great at riding but they're idiots when it comes to the actual mechanics."
I sat down and picked up a rag to wipe some grease off a bolt, and for the first time since I left my apartment, the shaking in my hands finally stopped. I was still in a house full of wolves and I was still being hunted, but talking to Jax about gear ratios and spark plugs made me feel like I could handle whatever was coming next.