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“Take off that fucking cut, you don’t deserve it,” Wolf said.

Tiger scoffed. “What the fuck is this?”

“Take off the fucking cut,” Jimmy said.

Tiger grimaced as his agitation rose. For a full year, he’d been inconvenienced by these fucking bikers. Challenged in every damn way and they had a lot of fucking nerve telling him that he didn’t deserve to wear their cut. He’d gone above and beyond as far as he was concerned.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve telling me that I don’t fucking deserve to wear this cut,” Tiger said, expressing his feelings as he snarled.

Wolf stood up and walked over to Tiger, staring him down, but Tiger wasn’t a man easily intimidated, not even by someone as terrifying as Wolf with all his muscles and tattoos. He stood his ground and kept his cut on. If they wanted it off of him, they’d have to take it off with force.

“Take. It. Off,” Wolf commanded.

“You want it off, you take it off,” Tiger snapped.

Wolf snapped his fingers and several bikers rushed Tiger to do just that. Tiger put his fists up to defend himself, but paused in his confusion when he saw the other men start to laugh. Some passed each other money and shook their heads.

“What the fuck?” Tiger looked around for answers.

Wolf clamped a huge meaty paw on his shoulder, smiling as he did. “Some of the brothers made a bet that you wouldn’t give up your cut when we asked you to.”

“You didn’t ask nicely,” Tiger shot back, but lowered his fists. He looked at Ze, who was counting the money he’d won in the bet and smirking. He huffed and ran his fingers through his hair. “So, what’s really going on?”

“We really do need you to remove your cut… please,” Wolf asked as nicely as he was going to.

Tiger gave him a side-eyed look, but removed his cut nevertheless, handing it over. Wolf laid it on the table and the men around the room were all watching them.

“You don’t deserve to wear this cut with the word ‘prospect’ on the back. No, brother, you deserve to wear it with these patches now,” Wolf said, then he took the patches from Jimmy and placed them on the back of Tiger's cut. The top rocker, “Lords of Chaos”, the middle patch of their emblem, and the bottom rocker, “Southside Chicago.” There was one more patch for the front that said “5th Chapter” and a pin in the shape of a shield.

“What’s this for?” Tiger asked, holding the pin up.

“It means you’re our enforcer. But since you’re all high-society with your double life, we don’t want the outside world to know if they happen to see you with your cut on. You two were already in the news three weeks ago,” Jimmy explained.

“Ah, yeah, that’s wise. Thank you, I’m honored,” Tiger said.

Everyone began clapping and the brothers all came over to congratulate and welcome their newest member. Tiger was smiling now with a sense of pride he didn’t think he’d experience at this moment. He hugged all the men he’d been pretty much pledging to for a full year. He’d taken their commands, ribbing–to a point–and attitudes in order to prove his loyalty to the club. For Tiger, it was also to prove his loyalty to Ze, because that was who mattered most to him. In the beginning, the club was just something that came with the package. But during his year, he found himself wanting to be a member, to belong to another family, and that was why this moment was special to him.

Ze was the last to congratulate him and when his cub hugged him, he made sure to claim his mouth at the same time. There were some whistles and cheers from the brothers and both he and Ze laughed after they broke their kiss. “I told them you’d fight before you removed your cut if they came to you in the normal approach.”

“You know me well, cub,” Tiger said.

“You’re one of us, brother. Cut that prospect patch off and make it official,” Jimmy said, smiling and patting Tiger on the back.

Tiger took his knife and cut the old rocker off to more cheers from his new brothers.

“Now, here comes the fun part,” Wolf said, handing Tiger a needle and thread. “We’ll leave you to it.”

Tiger sighed as he took the tools he’d need to sew on his new patches and a pin.

“Time to party,” Jimmy declared and all the men left the meeting room to Tiger and Ze.

“Are you happy?” Ze asked him.

Tiger sat down and began threading the needle. “I am. I’m finally done with that prospecting shit. I’ve got to say, that was rough.”

Ze chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, I remember. And truth be told, they were still taking it light on you. Probably because they didn’t want to get killed.”

Tiger laughed. “There were some instances when I was weighing my options.”