Page 19 of Property of Prowler (Kings of Anarchy MC: Nevada #1)

Yeah, not her finest Karen moment, but his eyes flashed with what she’d thought was a reflection from the sun. He looked at her differently from that moment on. His blue eyes got all seductive and irresistible. That was the first time he invited her to his bed, promising her the time of her life.

Boy, had it been tempting, but she refused to be ruled by her pussy. That went on for weeks. Each and every time, she gave him a reason why not. The next time he’d asked, he’d led with a counter-reason to their last exchange.

If she said she didn’t date bad boys, next time he’d point out he wasn’t talking about dating.

She doesn’t sleep with bad boys … he wasn’t talking about sleep.

They were neighbors … he’d move.

It was kind of their thing, and it was a comfortable routine. Until she’d said she didn’t do relationships, and he countered with offering an arrangement with no relationship possibility.

From that day on, there was a tick-tock in her head. Counting down the seconds until she’d eventually give in.

She knew it. He knew it. Hell, anyone on the street who saw them knew it, but they enjoyed the back and forth.

Prowler enjoyed the chase, and if she were honest with herself, she enjoyed being his prey.

One more check in the ‘shifters may be real, and Prowler is probably one’ column. She chuckled as she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of wolves and her future.

An annoying ringing was trying to pull her from the arms of dream Prowler. Dream Prowler with his, “You are mine, Taylor. Mine to love, mine to pleasure, mine to command.” His voice was guttural and growly. His eyes absent of blue. “Suck my cock like a good girl, and I’ll reward you with my mark.”

“Whoa.” She bolted upright, the pillow landing on the floor. She felt around the couch until she located her phone wedged between the cushions.

Through sleepy eyes, she saw it was Cassidy calling. Instantly awake, she slid her finger over the screen.

Not bothering with a greeting, she blurted out, “How are you feeling? Stomach worse?”

“Not exactly.” Cassidy’s voice sounded off. A little fear mixed with something else.

“What does that mean, Sassy?” She gentled her tone. Concern coursing through her.

Cass whispered, “I got my period.”

Taylor didn’t respond, waiting for Cass to elaborate. A surprise period sucked, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

“I don’t know what to do,” Cass added.

How could she not know … oh.

“You mean your first period?” Taylor had never really given it much thought. She guessed she’d just assumed Taylor had already hit that milestone. Taylor herself didn’t get it until later than the other girls at school, but she’d chalked that up to her home life.

What was she supposed to say? Congratulations? She was so far out of her depth. She didn’t want to screw up, but?—

Cass interrupted her wandering thoughts. “Don’t give me an oh, you’re becoming a woman speech or make it about your first time. If I wanted that, I would’ve told Mom. Please, just be all Taylor about it.”

She could do that. Being Taylor was what she was good at.

“Okay, I’ll come grab you, and we’ll get you situated with a heating pad and the things that shall not be named.

” She spoke in a Dumbledore voice. “Then we’ll make some red Kool- Aid, paint our nails, you guessed it, red, and watch Carrie while eating chocolate.

Sorry, no pun for the last one, but how does that sound? Taylor enough for you?”

The suppressed laughter that echoed through the phone said it was.

“That’s exactly what I need.”

“Be there in five.”

After ending the call, Taylor ordered some period essentials with a shopping service that would be there in twenty. Taylor herself only had tampons and overnight pads, neither of which were fit for a teenager.

Heading up Prowler’s drive, she noticed that Allie’s car was still there. The bottom dropped out of her stomach.

Trust those you love , she reminded herself.

Punching in the code, Taylor entered on silent feet and went straight to Cass’s room. It was empty.

“Cass? You in there?” she whispered at the bathroom door.

“Yeah. I don’t have anything,” Cass whispered back.

Cracking the door just enough, Taylor passed an overnight pad to Cass. “It’s not ideal, but it’ll do to get across the street. You’ll have a variety to choose from in a few minutes when my order arrives. Do you have clean underwear in there?”

“Yeah.” Cass closed the door. “How does this thing work? I was going to Google it, but I was afraid I’d get hit with creeper fetish sites.”

Taylor suppressed a laugh. The kid was probably right on that one.

“When you open the pouch, it kinda peels off, exposing a sticky strip. Stick that to your underwear and just pull them up. While you’re doing that, I’m going to let your dad know where you are.”

“Please don’t wake him. I’ll be mortified, and he’ll go into that weird dad mode. Just leave him a note.”

“Okay, kiddo.”

Tiptoeing back into the living room, she grabbed a pen and paper and jotted a quick note. She was going to leave it on the counter but didn’t want to worry him if he realized Cass was gone before getting to the kitchen. Deciding his pillow or nightstand was best, she crept down the hall.

Moans started to fill her ears, and her blood chilled.

Trust those you love.

She tried like hell to swallow the lump in her throat, but it wouldn’t budge.

With a trembling hand, she opened his door ever so slowly, and the moans got louder. Feminine moans of pleasure, to be exact.

The only light came from the plug-in air freshener plugged into the far wall, casting the couple on the bed in silhouette. The note fluttered to the floor as she watched Allie undulating atop the man she loved.

Her back was to the door, with one leg thrown over a prone figure on the bed.

Allie breathlessly whispered into the dark. “Oh, Riley. You feel so good.”

A masculine half-groan, half-sound of agreement followed. Taylor closed the door and retrieved the note from the floor.

She loved.

She trusted.

She broke.

Dashing away tears that escaped even though she fucking ordered them to stay put, she almost ran Cass over.

“Ready?” she asked a little too clipped as she slapped the note on the counter.

“Yeah. Taylor? What’s wrong?”

She got herself together before turning.

Hell, she’d lived in a perpetual state of suck it up and don’t let them see you cry since she was Cass’s age.

What was one more night? She could push her heartbreak aside for Cass.

Tonight was all about her, not Taylor. Tomorrow she would break down and make some life changes.

She couldn’t live there, not after that. Not after the worst betrayal of her life. Not after he said he loved her mere hours before. If that was his love, she didn’t want it. Billy’s fists hurt way less.

“Nothing for you to worry about. Let’s get to my place before the delivery. I got the heating pad all ready for you.”

She put her arm around Cass’s shoulder and led her outside. Fuck Prowler and his growly, high-handed, alpha male bullshit. The thing she’d miss the most was right beside her. She’d grown to love Cass long before Prowler, and she’d love her long after he was just a bad memory.

Taylor sneered at Allie’s car when they passed it. She’d thought it was more metaphorical than audible, but Cass proved that wrong.

“They’re not together. Mom just tricked him into letting her stay in the guest room. She’s never given up the idea of them getting back together, but he’s not the least bit interested in getting back with her.”

She wanted to say bullshit, but instead, she made a non-committal sound that was neither belief nor disbelief. It was the best she could do.

“Really, Tay. We … talked, me and Dad. He told me a lot of things, and one of them was that you’re his. So, see. Mom’s tricks won’t work. He loves you. I know he does.”

Everything Cass just said ripped her heart to shreds. Even she’d believed his bullshit. Taylor took a fortifying breath. She’d never badmouth Allie to Cass, and she wouldn’t do that with Prowler either.

Shoving all her pain and anger into a box labeled LATER, she mentally taped it closed and placed it in a closet in her mind.

“Okay, Sassy. No arguments here. However, tonight isn’t about your dad or me.” Then she shifted to a teasing tone and embraced Cass as they walked. “It’s about you becoming a woman.”

“Ugh. Whatever, Boomer,” Cass responded with yet another way to call her ancient, but Taylor still joined in on a laugh at her expense.

The thought of how much she would miss Cass tried to creep in, but she pushed it down.

Tomorrow, Taylor. Just wait until tomorrow.

The delivery came just moments after they returned.

While Cass was doing her thing in the bathroom with no less than five boxes to choose from, Taylor spread a garbage bag over one seat of the couch then sat on the other end like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Suppressing her giggle was a little harder when Cass walked in and stopped dead in her tracks.

“Very funny. I’m dying from laughter.” Walking over to where it was, she smoothed the plastic before sitting down very ladylike and tucked the heating pad into her stomach.

“Too much?”

“Nope. I expected as much from you. However, I am surprised you don’t have your couch covered in plastic already. In movies from the late nineteen hundreds, all the old ladies do that.”

The smirk Cass delivered was a dead ringer for her dad’s, and a twinge of pain crept in. It was short-lived as Cass scooted off the plastic and tucked into Taylor’s arms.

Without another word, she hit play on the remote.

They’d just gotten to the blood-dumping scene and Cass spoke again.

“I told Dad about my wolf theory.”

“Oh yeah?” Taylor didn’t want to dime out her dad if she didn’t know he’d told her.

“Yeah, and guess what?”

A prickle ran across her neck, causing goose bumps to rise in its wake.

“What?”

“I was right.”

And there it was. The elephant, or rather shifter, in the room.

It was true. Shifters existed. Prowler may be a dirty rotten manwhore who can’t keep his dick in his pants, but he would never lie to his daughter.

If Taylor’s world hadn’t been turned upside down by what she’d witnessed in his bedroom earlier, the realization that werewolves were real would have done it.

“So, your dad is a wolf.” It wasn’t really a question.

“Yeah, and so are Kansas, Monster, Golden, and Hunter.”

“Interesting.”

She dropped her voice low, almost in wonder. “But Bulldog is a bear. An actual freaking bear, and can you guess what Ghoul is?”

“What?” What could be more fantastical than an MC full of shifters, including a bear?

“A mountain lion.”

Taylor had to laugh at that. The jokester of the bunch was a mountain lion.

“Oh, that’s rich. I am cueing up the cougar jokes as we speak.”

Cass sat up with a look of worry in her blue eyes.

“You can’t. Well, not yet. Only family can know they exist. It’s like their code. I just told you because, well, you are family to me. And as soon as you and Dad get together officially, and he claims you, you’ll be even more family.”

Taylor’s brain couldn’t even process her words because she was too busy reminding herself there would be no more joking with Ghoul or any of them.

“Okay. Mum’s the word.” She tucked Cass back into her side and stared at the TV, not really watching.

That brought on a whole other host of questions. Questions she didn’t want to ask. Questions she wouldn’t ask because the answers may sink her too deep into their world to get out—and get out she must. She couldn’t stay and watch Prowler with woman after woman.

He’d said she was his, but he never used the word mate. Oh god, what if Allie was his mate? Taylor could no more watch that than watch him go through women searching.

Isn’t that what the men in her books did? They knew instantly who their mate was. She and Prowler had been having sex for months, and he never went feral over her or tried to bite her.

That realization was like a gut punch. He knew Taylor wasn’t his mate, but he’d kept sleeping with her anyway. Did that mean when he found his mate he’d toss her aside, no matter how many times he said he was all in?

She really, really couldn’t do this.

“Taylor?”

“Yeah?”

“Who was that man the other day? The one who came to the door during Tombstone?”

“Technically, he’s my brother, but I don’t consider him that because he’s not a good person. If you ever see him around, run, Cass.”

“Oh good. I mean about him being your brother and not about him being a bad person.”

“Why?”

“Because Dad was asking if I knew who it was.”

“How did he know about that?” It was a stupid question. She’d seen one of his brothers out in front of his house when Travis left.

“The front camera picked it up, and he was jealous.”

Wait, what?

Great. Not only was that a violation of her privacy, but he was jealous when he was the one sleeping around.

Double standard much?

Her first thought was to just sell her house and break away from everything Prowler, shifters, and Kings of Anarchy.

Besides, now that Travis knew where she lived, it probably wasn’t the worst idea she’d come up with.

“Thanks for everything, Tay. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you. I wish you were my mom,” Cass confessed sleepily.

Tears sprang to Taylor’s eyes. Another thing she never wanted but couldn’t imagine life without now that she’d had it.

As Taylor sat there with Cass asleep against her, she revised her plan.

Why should she sell her home for a man?

It bothered her that her mind was reverting back to running instead of fighting.

Fuck that. She would fight, but not for Prowler. She’d fight for herself.

She’d end things with him but come up with a way where he wouldn’t try to woo her back as he did last time she tried. She’d stand firm and make him want to end it. That way, she’d still be able to spend time with Cass.

And when seeing Prowler with other women or even Allie got to be too much, or she got to be too weak, she’d spend a few nights at her rental property across town. Lucky for her, it was currently vacant.

She breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn’t running. She was fighting, just on her own terms.