Free Gonzo (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 7) by Candace Blevins Page B

bother bringing a cooler full of bison or venison as tribute. I knew I couldn’t buy my way out of whatever was to come, and offering it today might be seen as an insult.
    He didn’t interrupt as I told him the story, though he asked several questions about my intentions with the twins when I finished.
    “I’ve put an attorney on retainer, and the first step is to have my name put on their birth certificates. I don’t want to rip them from the only home they’ve ever known, so I’ll do it gradually. I hope to have them living under my roof within four to six months, but I’m prepared to let it draw out a few months longer if I feel it’s in their best interest. I want their aunt to continue to be in their lives, and I’m not sure how that looks, but I’ve already talked to Duke about binding her so I can let her know what’s going on. She knows they can see in the dark better than most, and she knows they have really good hearing. So far, she hasn’t picked up on anything else.”
    “Did you make any attempts to find Sandy after she didn’t show up again?”
    “We sent her away for using drugs after I caught her doing a line of coke in the bathroom. I figured if she was pregnant she’d miscarry, and she hadn’t smelled pregnant, so I let it go.” I shook my head, looked out at the woods beyond the field, and then back to him. “I asked her friends about her and didn’t catch any scents of worry or concern, and certainly nothing to make me think they needed to keep something from me, as you’d expect if they knew she was pregnant. Now , I know she moved to Atlanta to live with her sister when she found out, so it’s likely her friends never knew. At the time, though — between the cocaine habit and her friends being so relaxed — I wrongly assumed she wasn’t pregnant.”
    He nodded and stood. “Strip, go to the yard, and drop to your hands and knees.”
    Duke leaned forward, “Randall, can’t we—”
    “ Enough , Duke. If he doesn’t leave here showing obvious signs he was punished then others will start getting slack. If you can’t sit and let me do what has to be done then I’ll need to cage you until I’m finished.”
    Duke’s jaw worked, but he sat back and shut up. We’d talked about this ahead of time — I didn’t expect him to rescue me from the punishment I’d earned. His brother makes the rules in this territory and I’d broken them. If we were in a territory without an Alpha then I might be facing the Concilio right now, or a Master Vampire. Creating a situation where humans might find out about supernaturals can be punishable by death. Randall wanted to make an example of me, but he wasn’t likely to kill me.
    Whatever he was about to do was going to hurt, though. I draped my clothes over the chair I’d been sitting in and walked down the steps to the grass. I’d no sooner gone to hands and knees when it felt as if someone’s hand and arm reached into my soul and yanked my wolf until I was turned inside out and was now the wolf. I fell to the ground sideways and whimpered in pain and confusion, and seconds later Randall did it again and forced me to human. There was no change , it was more like flashing from one image to another. One second I was the wolf and a split-second later I was two-legged.
    And then I was the wolf again, and human again. The wolf whimpered, the human cried and begged, but the Alpha kept at it, over and over until I wished I were dead.
    I remember passing out, and then being suddenly wide awake and in excruciating pain once more when he forced me to another form yet again. When he was finally done with me, I’m told Duke put me in the backseat — naked with a blanket over me — to drive me to the compound. I was unconscious so I don’t remember any of it.
    They carried me to my room at the clubhouse, and my brothers and their wives took turns sitting with me round the clock for two days, pushing ice chips in my mouth at first to keep me