Chapter 40: The Sweetest Gift

Harlow

“You like it?” Cyrus asked as if he couldn’t tell by the expression on my face.

In front of my trailer, next to Cyrus’s bike, sat a vintage motorcycle with a paint job that matched my car exactly.

“I LOVE it! Is that a Triumph Thunderbird?”

Cyrus nodded. “1956,” he said with a smile.

“And the paint?”

“Wilderness green, just like your car.”

“Where the hell did you get this?” I started to get teary-eyed.

“It was my dad’s,” Cyrus replied. “The paint job I called in as a favor from a body shop in Skeetwood County.”

“Are you sure you wanna give this to me? I mean, if it was your dad’s?”

“I want you to have it,” Cyrus said, pulling me to him.

At this point, I couldn’t stop the waterworks if I’d wanted to.

“This is the most incredible gift anyone’s ever given me,” I said, wiping a tear from my cheek. “Thank you.” I pulled Cyrus down to kiss me. Then I asked, “Can I sit on it?”

Cyrus laughed. “Of course. It’s all yours.”

I walked over to the bike and ran my hand along the smooth, green paint before throwing my leg over and taking a seat. I couldn’t believe Cyrus had given me such an amazing gift.

“Do you wanna take her out on the highway?” Cyrus asked.

“Actually, do you know what I would love?” I said. “If we could go on a ‘run’ together.” I couldn’t go on a real run with Cyrus the way werewolves did, but this was the next best thing.

“I’d love that,” he said with a smile.

I quickly ran back inside to change into jeans and a hoodie with my cut over the top. Then I pulled on my helmet, and Cyrus and I started up our bikes and rode out into the desert.

It was early, and the sun was just coming over the horizon. We passed by several wolves who’d been out on their way back home. I recognized Red and Gunner in their wolf forms and gave them a wave as we sped by.

They turned and began chasing behind us and eventually caught up, running along beside our bikes. Red let out a howl. Others must have heard because we were soon joined by Goldie, Wyatt, Shorty, Brat, and Liam in their wolf forms. They all continued to let out howls as they ran along with us. In the open desert, the wind whipping in my hair on my beautiful bike, and with pack members all around me, I almost felt like one of them.

We circled back after a little while and headed toward the trailer park. When we came to a stop, my friends shifted and stood around, naked, admiring my bike while Cyrus put his arms around me, hugging me from behind.

Eventually, the other wolves returned to their homes to get dressed and begin their day.

“Don’t you need to get to work?” I asked Cyrus.

“Nope,” he said. “Took the day off. This is your day. Oh, except for a meeting with the elders this afternoon. Sorry, Red and I didn’t know it was your birthday when we scheduled it, but then there’s a huge party planned at the bar afterward.”

I couldn’t help but get choked up that everyone else was making such a big deal out of my birthday. My father had always treated me to a big pancake breakfast at whatever greasy roadside diner we were near, but I hadn’t had a party since I was about five years old. The last birthday my mom had been alive.

“So…whaddya wanna do first?” Cyrus asked.

We began with breakfast at the Gnaw Bone Diner, then rode our bikes for hours. We drove into Skeetwood County and stopped at a cute town square near the college. We wandered around an autumn farmer’s market, and Cyrus got us an assortment of food and wine for a picnic. Then we rode out to the Bone Hills to our spot overlooking the town for lunch. Cyrus laid down a blanket he’d had in the top box of his bike, and we spent the next several hours eating, lounging, and enjoying our time together.

Eventually, the sun got low in the sky, and I leaned my back against Cyrus, his arms around me as we looked over the tiny town of Gnaw Bone. It had been a lovely, simple day, and I closed my eyes, basking in how happy I felt.

I was brought back to reality when an alarm sounded on Cyrus’s phone.

“Ugh. Gotta get to the meeting,” he said. “It shouldn’t take more than an hour, then I’m all yours again.”

We packed up and headed back into town. Cyrus kissed me on the steps of my trailer before driving off. I wondered what they would be deciding at the meeting.

As I began to open my trailer door, my phone buzzed with an incoming text. It was Madoc.

“Can you come to my office in exactly 45 minutes?” it said. “I have something that’s quite time-sensitive.”

The sun was still peeking over the horizon, so I knew he couldn’t come out.

“Sure,” I texted back.

After I’d showered and changed for the party, I headed for Madoc’s office, hoping whatever task he had for me wouldn’t take too long. As I passed the bar, I saw Brat and Stella hanging string lights in the window for my party. They saw me walk by and gave me a wave.

When I arrived at the cellar, I opened and closed the door behind me quickly to keep out what little daylight was left as much as possible.

The vampire stood in the middle of the room. He was smiling.

“Happy birthday,” he said.

“Thanks... You have something you need me to do?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I have your birthday gift coming soon.”

“My— You didn’t have to—” I began, but I was interrupted by a call coming from a burner phone in Madoc’s hand.

“Right on time,” he said as he answered.

A voice on the other end said something that I couldn’t fully make out. I heard the words “inmate” and “accept the call.”

“Yes, I accept,” Madoc said. Then he handed the phone to me.

“What’s this?” I asked, confused.

“I pulled a few strings,” he said as I took the phone in my hand. “I thought you might like to speak to your father.”

I let out a gasp, and my eyes began to water.

Cyrus

I sat at Blayze’s left in the small civic center, which wasn’t really much more than a tin shed. Surrounding us were the other remaining officers from the Howlers and Blood Dogs.

Across from us sat the four elders. Jedediah Goode was to the right of Arthur Reed, who’d been the Gnaw Bone mayor for generations. Beside him was the founder of the town of Gnaw Bone, Ernest Hewlett, who was 205 years old and looked like a sleepy raisin fighting to stay awake. At the far left end of the table was the youngest elder and superintendent of the school district, Eleanor Clifford.

This was the first meeting with all four elders since the big split. The tension in the room was heavy over our heads, but what was even heavier was the topic at hand.

“We’ve been under Sunrise Corp’s thumb since my father was Alpha,” Bonnie said. “But the MCs are slowly being turned into its foot soldiers. If we steal this cargo and give it to them to distribute, we’re personally responsible for each person it touches.”

“I understand that, Alpha Black,” Arthur Reed said, “And I hate it as much as you do, but Sunrise Corp owns most of this town. Hell, they built the school!”

“That doesn’t give them the right to force our Alphas to participate in the transportation of drugs on their behalf,” Eleanor Clifford replied. “I run that school and the people most harmed by the drug trade are children. I’m interested in hearing any solutions the Alphas have.”

“Agreed,” I piped in. “Sunrise Corp will never stop. What’s next? We become their personal hit squad?”

“We need to show them that we’re not their pawns,” Blayze said.

“And what do you suggest, my Alpha?” Goode asked.

“I say we hit ‘em where it hurts: in the wallet,” Blayze responded. “There’s supposed to be $500 million worth of skag in those trucks. This heist is supposed to happen in a month. We should go through with it, but instead of handing over the heroin to Madoc, we destroy it. Have a big ol’ bonfire, and then they’ll know we mean business.”

“No,” Bonnie said. “We need to go even bigger than that to show them we’re a force they can’t control.”

“What’s bigger than a heroin bonfire?” Goldie asked.

Bonnie leaned forward. “We burn the drugs, and we kill that f*cking vampire living in the Howlers’ cellar.”