“Lilah never spoke of it, but we always guessed she had had a family outside of us. But they would have shunned her when the prophet named her Cursed. I understand that now. At present, Lilah will give anything to be welcomed back into our faith… for her soul to be saved in the eyes of the Lord. She believes she tempts men because she is evil, truly evil.”

Mae took a deep breath. “Ky, your behavior in the bar has just strengthened this belief. She thinks the devil is luring you in through her. She believes a man will never truly love her for herself until she is rid of her curse, of her temptress nature.”

Another tear trailed down Mae’s cheek. “I have no idea how to make her and Maddie want this life. There is no more commune, no more Order. I am unable to help her… them. What will happen to them if they cannot adjust?” Her huge wolf eyes focused on me as Styx wiped at her cheeks with his thumb, his nose flaring with protectiveness. “I need your help, Ky. Not for you to make this even more difficult. If they left me, I do not know… I do not know…”

Styx turned Mae in his arms and she cried into his chest. His jaw clenched and he glanced in my direction.

Great. He wanted to murder me again.

Running my hands down my face, I jumped to my feet, and Mae lifted her head in surprise.

“I’ll keep the fuck away from Lilah. I swear,” I vowed.

Mae nodded, though her face remained blank. “Thank you.”

But Styx was still looking at me… and I knew that look. He was plotting something. I went to leave the room, when Styx cleared his throat, his infamous take-no-shit look on his face. Styx’s hands lifted to sign behind Mae’s back while her face was still tucked against his chest, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

“Go find Lilah. She’ll be down by the river or in the apartment. It’s the only two places she ever goes. Tell her you’re fuckin’ sorry for practically assaulting her tonight. Right?”

I nodded my agreement rather than say it out loud. He obviously didn’t want Mae to overhear our “conversation.” A lift of his finger made me pause again, and I watched a smirk curl on his lips.

“I’m putting you in charge of her and I ain’t telling Mae. Let’s call it your… atonement for being a whore-assed fuck-up.”

I rolled my eyes at his shit attempt at a joke, but I could tell my brother wasn’t fuckin’ around.

“Watch Lilah, protect her, and for fuck’s sake, get her used to this life somehow. I ain’t losing Mae, and unless those bitches get on board, I’m not sure what she’s gonna do. We both know club life is the complete opposite of what they know. How we live is the complete opposite of Christian good, but we gotta find a way to make it work.”

Styx sighed and pressed his cheek on Mae’s head, but never broke my gaze. “You fuckin’ get the blond bitch on track, Ky. But don’t you dare touch her. Cunt-struck or not, her pussy is off-limits. That’s an ironclad order as your prez. But you’re my best friend, my brother, my VP, and I really need your fuckin’ help right now. I’m outta my depth here.”

I closed my eyes and dropped my head. This was the last fuckin’ thing I needed. The Ku Klux Klan was still a potential problem. Fuck knows what else was coming our way; there was always a new enemy knocking at our door. That cunt Rider was still out there. Ran his pussy ass away. Hopefully he was festering in a pit somewhere, but fuck knows if he was gonna rear his ugly head again. The guy was obsessed with Mae and might try to get her back.

Motherfucker. I was gonna have to do this babysitting shit.

As I opened my eyes, Styx was still staring in desperation, and my heart sank. All his life, the brother’d had it hard. Mute to anyone but his old man and me, son of the hardest, cruelest son of a bitch to walk this Earth, inherited the gavel at twenty-five to the biggest and most criminal outlaw MC in the States. But that all changed for him when Mae turned up bleeding behind a dumpster; she changed his life with one look from her fuckin’ wolf eyes. I’d never seen him so happy, and now he was talking about kids? Shit. The brother deserved a break; he deserved Mae by his side. She was a good old lady, jaded enough by life to accept how we all roll and submissive enough to never question her old man.

I was gonna have to babysit a fuckin’ Bible head case I couldn’t touch and all the time, no doubt, with the world’s worst case of blue balls. Perfect. Maybe there was a fuckin’ God up there after all and he was laughing his ass off at one of the devil’s men hankering for a taste of one of his own.

“You know I will, brother,” was all I signed back, and I saw the relief wash over Styx’s hard features. As I left the doorway, I glanced back to see Mae and Styx kissing. Yeah, it wasn’t gonna be fun looking out for the cock-teasing “pilgrim prude,” but it’s what a brother does, and although not blood, there were no closer bond than me and him. The Hangmen were family and we took care of our own.

Making my way to the bar, the prospect looked my way. “Coffee,” I ordered. “A fuckin’ huge one,” I added.

The prospect frowned but went to get my caffeine without question. The rest of the brothers gave me a wide berth, no doubt thinking Styx had ripped me a new one and I was pissed. They weren’t too far from being right.

“Ky, baby, you coming to play?” A singsong voice called me from the hallway.

Gritting my teeth, I turned to find Jules buckass naked, her shaved pussy taunting me, cupping her fake tits as two arms hugged her waist from behind, the fingers reaching down to strum at her clit. Those experienced fingers belonged to Tiff. My cock was rock hard, painfully hard.