STORY EXCERPT

Mayhem

Swear, the male was a walking mixed signal. Around the shop, Ramos was fine. Close quarters, in the bays, reaching past each other for tools. None of it seemed to register. But catch him somewhere without a car between us and the shutters came down. Group setting, he was all jokes and easy banter. One on one, the conversation narrowed to whatever was under the hood and nothing else.

I still wasn’t sure if it was because of how we’d started off—grabbing him roughly and talking to him like a drill sergeant—or if the male was fighting his attraction to me. With Ramos, it was hard to tell. I was a very perceptive wolf, but he wasn’t an easy read.

“There’s a sweet spot right about—” I positioned the socket, found the angle, and gave the wrench a sharp tug. The bolt broke loose with a satisfying crack. “—there.”

Ramos made a sound between gratitude and irritation, making me hide my grin.

“Because I loosened it first,” he muttered.

“We’ll call it team effort.” I stepped back, giving him room. I also needed to breathe air that didn’t include his intoxicating scent. “Now you just need to—”

“Line up the marks, set the tension, and pray to the car gods that I don’t have to do this twice.” He was already moving, getting back into the groove despite the earlier frustration. “I know the steps, boss. I just couldn’t get the leverage.”

Boss. Ramos was frustrated that he’d needed help in the first place. His stubbornness and pride were both a gift and a pain in my ass. “Or you could’ve just said thanks.”

Those hazel eyes glanced up at me, filled with rebellion. “Thanks, boss.”

I smirked. He wasn’t gonna get under my skin, no matter how bratty he acted. If he kept it up… You are not spanking him. Get that thought out of your head.

Now I stood there half-hard.

“Everything’s good,” I said, trying to redirect my thoughts.

“Good?”

“You’re learning. Fast.” I picked up my coffee from where I’d left it on the fender, taking a sip that had gone lukewarm. “Most guys take six months to get comfortable with timing belts. You’re three months in and already arguing with the tensioner like it personally insulted your mother.”

Ramos’ mouth twitched. “It did.”

“How’s that?” I moved a little closer, his coconut and shea butter scent drawing me in.

“Implied she raised a quitter,” he said, and I caught the slight tension in his voice and wondered what that was about. Since the night Ramos had his reckoning and the family came clean about their trauma, I thought they were doing okay. Calvin had started treating Ramos like his big brother again, and Ramos had fallen back into his own role. Since I was never around the mom, I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure they were getting along.

Not that Ramos would tell me.

“That was a bit harsh,” I replied.

“The tensioner plays dirty.”

A low, unexpected laugh built in my throat. Most jokes were just part of Ramos’ personality, but some were deflections. Little smoke bombs he threw out whenever someone got too close to the soft parts he was trying to protect.

I understood the need to protect that side of myself. I’d spent my childhood doing the same fucking thing. A wolf’s life wasn’t easy, harsher than a human. Some lucked out, like Preacher. My alpha might’ve lost his dad, but not before the guy had taught our prez how to be a leader.

My dad had taught me to watch everyone’s movements. Not a lesson a pup should have to learn. Or how to take a punch. But the son of a bitch regretted teaching me when I’d finally learned how to punch back.

Merk wandered back through, this time carrying a box of oil filters. “You two gonna stand around flirting all day, or are we actually gonna fix some cars?”

“I see your blind ass found those filters.” I jerked my chin toward the load in his arms. “Ten bucks they were right in front of you the entire time.”

Harrumphing, he dug a ten out and slapped it into my hand. “You don’t know me that well.”

I gladly pocketed the money, grinning widely at him. “Nice doing business with you.”

“Don’t gloat, jackass.” Merk set the filters on a cart.

Ramos was smiling, but hid the expression when he caught me looking. He ducked his head back under the hood. I was determined to figure him out. Hopefully this century. My gaze slid to his ass before I forced it to focus on my cold coffee. “Gonna get a fresh cup. Anyone else want one?”

“I could use one,” Merk said, standing by the counter while flipping through invoices.

“Wasn’t asking you.” I dumped my cup over in the shop sink.

“Then y’all wonder why I get pissy sometimes,” Merk snapped. “Riot does the same shit. You know I got an easy fucking trigger, yet you sons of bitches screw with me anyway.”

“Because your attitude doesn’t faze me like it does everyone else.” An old-timey horn erupted from my back pocket. I’d gotten a text message. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it if Merk’s hadn’t gone off at the same time.

The alerts pinging simultaneously was never good. I pulled my phone from my pocket, already knowing what I’d find before I looked at the screen. Preacher’s name, the SOS tag, and a motorcycle emoji.

What was hitting the fan now? The last time an SOS had gone out, some Iron Vendetta asshole put a bullet in my shoulder while I was on a gun run. Shifting into my wolf had healed my wound, but every now and then, my shoulder acted like it hadn’t gotten the memo.

Ramos had stopped working, his wrench dangling from his fingers. He gave my phone a casual glance, then my face. “What’s up with the double alert?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.” I pocketed the phone, Merk already moving through the access door. “Keep working. You’re doing great.”

Turning toward the exit that led out to the parking lot, I’d taken three steps before his voice stopped me.

“You’re always treating me like an outsider.”

I didn’t turn around. If I turned, I’d have to look at him. If I looked at him, I’d see the hurt I’d put there, and that expression would lodge itself inside my skull and refuse to leave.

“Mayhem.” His voice came out softer, but the edge was still there. “Whatever’s going on… I’m part of this crew now, right? That’s what you said. Family.”

Family. I had said that. Meant it, too. But there were some things Ramos couldn’t be privy to. He wasn’t pack or a mate. He was Calvin’s brother and an employee. That was harsh but true. Right now I needed to focus on whatever disaster was going to ruin my day. Not start a conversation I couldn’t finish, avoiding questions I couldn’t answer.

I really wasn’t trying to be a prick, but I couldn’t figure out another way to say club business was off the table without having to spell it out.

“When I get back,” I said, still facing away from him. “We’ll talk.”

There wasn’t much I could reveal, especially since Ramos was unaware wolf shifters existed. But I wanted to give him something, because nobody should feel like they don’t belong.

“Do not—”

“Finish the work on the Honda.” I walked out, feeling Ramos’ glare burning holes into my backl

ADULT EXCERPT

Mayhem

Gripping his hips, I spun us, reversing the pin. His shoulders hit the wall, and he gasped into my mouth. I swallowed the sound and gave him a better one back.

One of my hands slid up to cradle his jaw, angling his head where I wanted it, and I took the kiss deeper, slower, and more thorough.

He melted.

That was the only word for it. The rigid fight drained out of his frame, and his hands stopped shoving and started holding, fisting in the fabric at my back like he was afraid I’d evaporate.

Ramos yanked back just far enough to grab air, his lips swollen and parted, his forehead resting against mine. Both of us were breathing like we’d just broken the water’s surface after nearly drowning. His fingers stayed knotted in my shirt, and I could feel his heartbeat pounding through the thin cotton where our bodies pressed together.

“The fuck are we doing?” Even now, even wrecked, Ramos had to run his mouth. “This about to really go down?”

Laughter rumbled out of me. My thumb traced the line of his jaw, the stubble rasping against my skin. “You want it to?”

I watched several different emotions flash through his eyes, from nervousness to hunger, but I didn’t see hesitation or confusion. “I think so.” He nodded and swallowed. “Yeah, I do.”

Wrapping my hand around the back of his neck, I kissed him again, slower this time, dragging it out until the tension in him turned liquid. His mouth opened under mine, and I tasted cinnamon and coffee, and a need so fierce my jaw clenched. My wolf pressed forward, satisfied in a bone-deep way I’d never felt with anyone else.

This. Him. Finally.

Walking him backward took no effort at all. He moved with me, trusting me not to steer him into furniture. His hands slid under the hem of my shirt to find bare skin. His palms were warm and rough with calluses—three months of honest work written into them—and every place he touched lit up like he’d struck a match against me.

The backs of his knees hit the bed. He sat down hard, looking up at me with those hazel eyes gone dark and hungry, his hair a disaster, his lips wet. My cock throbbed behind my zipper at the sight of him.

“You have any idea how long I’ve wanted this?” My voice came out low and rough. “Watching you bend over engines all day. Smelling you every time you walked past me. Pretending I wasn’t losing my goddamn mind.”

His throat worked. For once, no joke came out immediately. Then his mouth curved slowly into a wicked grin. “I’ve been picturing your hands on me since the day you taught me to bleed brakes. Completely unprofessional thoughts. HR would be scandalized.”

“HR is me.”

“Then I’d like to file a formal request.” He hooked his fingers into my belt loops and tugged. “Get down here.”

Instead of obeying, I dropped to my knees between his thighs and reached for the waistband of his sweats. His breath audibly caught. Lifting his hips without being asked, he let me strip the fabric down his legs, and I peeled them away, along with everything underneath until he was bare from the waist down, his cock already hard and flushed against his stomach.

I just drank him in with bone-dry thirst.

“Giving me an exam?” A flush crawled up his face, burning the tips of his ears. His hands twitched, and his thighs gave a nervous jerk.

“Admiring beauty.” Running my palms up his thighs, I felt the muscles jump under my touch. His skin was warm, dusted with light, russet hair, and the scent of him this close made my cock pulse. “Take your shirt off.”

He yanked it over his head and tossed it somewhere behind me. Then he was naked on my bed, in my room, surrounded by my scent, and my wolf all but howled. I stood only long enough to strip my own shirt off. His gaze inched over my torso with open appreciation, lingering on my shoulders.

“The annoying shoulders,” he murmured. “Even worse up close. Wrecks my concentration.”

“These shoulders?” I rolled them, grinning when his breath hitched. Had I known my mate was into them, I would’ve brushed them against him every chance I had.

“You did that on purpose, asshole.”

Grinning, I crawled onto the bed and pressed him back into the pillows, covering his body with mine. Skin met skin from sternum to hip, and both of us groaned at the contact. His legs fell wide, inviting me to fill the space. His cock lay trapped between us as his hands slid up my back, over my shoulders, then slid into my hair.

He touched me like he was mapping territory he wanted to conquer.

My lips slid over his, my tongue slipping inside his mouth, sucking on his tongue like my new favorite treat. Ramos arched under me, his arms resting over his head as my lips trailed over his jaw, working toward his throat, tasting the salt and sweat of his skin.

His pulse fluttered against my lips. I took my time, nipping, kissing, and licking my way south. One, two, three nips under his armpit. A lash of my tongue over a hardened nipple before teasing the pebble flesh between my teeth.

Ramos gasped, followed by a low, guttural moan. His body writhed under me, his cock grinding into denim.

My lips ghosted over the flat plane of his stomach that jumped when my beard dragged across it, the sensitive skin over his hipbone that made him hiss when I grazed it with my teeth.

“Mayhem, I…” Ramos curled his lips in.

“I know.” He didn’t have to spell it out. The nervous twitch of his fingers, the way his hazel eyes landed on me then skittered away, and the slight tremor he fought but failed to control.

Aggressive against the wall, submissive in my bed, like he wasn’t sure which role fit his skin.

My eyes on him, I parted my lips, licking the sensitive tip of his cock. Ramos hissed, tossing his head back and forth, his thighs clamping my head in place.

“Spread your legs for me, sweetheart.” They fell open. “Keep them right where they are.” I kissed one inner thigh, then the other. “You’re fucking gorgeous spread under me, cock hard and desperate for my mouth.”

Ramos sank his teeth into his lower lips, his eyes squeezed shut.

“Watch.” I nipped his balls, lashing the wrinkled sack with my tongue. “I want your eyes on me while I suck your dick.”

His eyes flew open, but they darted around, taking a full ten seconds to land on me. “Don’t look away, Ramos.”

“I won’t,” he whispered, his body still slightly trembling.

Gazes locked, I lowered my mouth, my hand gripping the base, and suckled the head before blowing a tuft of air over my saliva.

Ramos’ chest rose and fell in quick pants, muscles coiling. “Your eyes are glowing, Mayhem. Is that your wolf?”

My hand tightened on his cock.