Page 50 of Bruised MC Bear

“Really, we’re not serious.”

“I was born at night, Alexander. Not last night. Any shifter who knows you can see she’s your true mate.”

Axe laughed.

“What?” she asked.

“I’ve barely been under your roof for a day and you’re playing matchmaker,” he pointed out with a smirk. Nancy stared over at him. “Keep those eyes on the road, sis.”

She shook her head and turned her head to face forward again. “Well I hope you don’t let her slip away just because I like her.”

“There it is. You approve. Bring out the bubbly then. Big brother’s getting hitched!” he announced, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“You’re a cynical assclown sometimes.”

“Thanks, Mom,” he answered, just to provoke her. “This is exactly what I needed this morning. A hefty dose of sibling bickering.”

His sister was miffed now, and taking it out on her stick shift. She accelerated, pulled out on the one-lane stretch of highway into oncoming traffic to get out from behind a slow as fuck minivan driver, and merged back into the right lane. She flipped on her indicator light and turned off the highway less than a minute later. “The building’s a few blocks from here.”

After parking in a nearby lot, he and Nancy headed up the street to the large warehouse. She nodded to the middle-aged man working at the front desk, and he buzzed them into the long, wide, fluorescent-lit hallway lined with metal doors large enough to drive a moving truck inside. She led him to the end of the corridor and stepped into a waiting warehouse-style elevator.

“It’s on the second floor,” she choked out, already upset again.

He reached his hand out and found hers. “Are you sure you want to do this right now?”

“Yes. We need this.” She took a breath and straightened up to get off the elevator. “The best way to get this done quickly is for you to go in and decide what you want. Once you figure that out, I’ll help you clear a bit of space upfront so that once everything has settled down, you can come back to haul them away.”

“I can pretty much guarantee you there’s nothing in there that’ll leap out at me,” Axe said as he followed her. Nancy opened her mouth to speak at the storage room door, but he beat her to it. “Don’t stress out, all right? I’ll check through everything before I decide.”

“Fine.” She found the key, placed it into the locking mechanism, then she stopped. “Are you ready?” she asked looking up into his face.

“Nope, but let’s do this. One and done.”

* * *

Three hours later, Axe was still sorting. Fuck. No wonder Nancy hadn’t gotten rid of a thing. How could anyone let these thing go? He sure couldn’t. All he had managed to do was move things around. The massive locker contained furniture, photos, clothes, keepsakes, trinkets, and even trophies from grade school sports.

“I am not helping, am I?” Axe huffed out, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. He sat on the piece of sectional sofa he had just moved and slumped back to rest his head.

Nancy smiled and sat beside him. They both stared at the semi-transparent plastic containers stacked on the dusty shelving unit against one wall. “I don’t know. I kind of like the sofa here in the center of everything.”

“How about I pay for the next, I don’t know, say fifteen years of the storage lease, and call it even?”

“Nice try.”

A blue and white porcelain oriental vase in one of the containers caught his eye. “Wait. Is that Mom’s prized flower vase?” he asked, getting up to check the box. “It is. Remember how Dad used to hate that thing?”

Nancy nodded. “Yes. He’d bring her flowers, and she would only use this particular one, which would get them bickering every time.”

Axe snapped open the box lid and lifted out the vase. “For some reason, Dad hated it.”

“And they’d go all quiet and cuddly after their little tiffs,” Nancy added.

“Maybe I’ll take this home with me when this is all over. It’s strange…”

“What?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t remind me of that night, I guess. You know, for porcelain, this thing is damn heavy.” He turned the vase upside down to check whether the manufacturing stamp looked mass produced or more like a one-of-a-kind. Something clinked around inside, but didn’t fall out. “Hey, listen to this.” He shook it around. Something metal was definitely inside. “I think this thing has a trick bottom. Here. You try.”