Page 22 of Property of Prowler (Kings of Anarchy MC: Nevada #1)

We will wither and die without her. And it won’t take as long as you think.

Kansas says ? —

Kansas doesn’t know. We are different. We cannot survive … and neither will Taylor.

If it was a choice between losing her forever or forgiving her, there was only one choice.

With that understanding, something changed between them. Prowler would be hard pressed to describe it, but they became one while remaining two.

They bonded.

They bonded over pain and impending demise, but mostly they bonded to save Taylor. Wolf had proven himself as a protector, but who protected him?

Prowler certainly hadn’t. He tolerated him at best, used him, and locked him away at worst.

Prowler made a vow to protect Wolf, even from himself.

I will protect you and our mate. This I vow to you . Apparently, that was what Wolf needed to hear.

Wolf gave Prowler his body and retreated, but not as he had in the past. Prowler felt his presence, and it wasn’t intrusive. For the first time, it didn’t feel foreign. It felt right.

And I will protect you and our mate. This I vow.

Prowler hurriedly got dressed before making a quick breakfast.

“Jellybean, breakfast?” he called as he set the plates at the table

She emerged from her room dressed for the day.

“Don’t you mean brunch? It’s a little late for breakfast.”

“Call it what you want, but you need to eat. I made a tofu scramble.” He didn’t add for protein . He assumed since she was, well, you know, that protein was the answer.

They ate in relative silence until Cass had taken her last bite of toast.

“Look, you’re right. I do love Taylor, and we’ll work it out, but I can’t promise we can settle our differences right away and be the traditional family, Jellybean.”

No matter if he could get over it or not, he was compelled to protect her and Wolf. That meant figuring out a way to make it work. Maybe he could sleep through the tough moments, like intimacy. Then he remembered his vow, that would be using Wolf, and he wouldn’t do that anymore.

“Traditional is overrated, Dad. Besides, when have we ever been traditional?”

His daughter’s statement pulled a laugh from him.

“True.”

He didn’t fucking know how he was going to manage, but he would. He would give Cass the family she wanted and Wolf his mate and him his ol’ lady if it killed him.

No pressure.

He realized he was no longer at odds with Wolf but instead with himself.

The look in his daughter’s eyes hurt more than the physical pain Wolf inflicted on him, that he’d inflicted on Wolf.

“I have to be honest, Jellybean, Taylor may not want to be with me.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

He was not about to explain adult problems to his fourteen-year-old child. Not only that, she adored Taylor and badmouthing her was a recipe for disaster.

“Because why?” Cass took a tone with him, and he didn’t like it one bit.

Fuck. It was so much easier as Wolf. Cass seemed taken with the furry side of him. Now, she looked at him with that look. The one she’d normally reserved for her mother—and that was a knife to the chest.

“So, you cheated, she will forgive you.”

Without thinking, Prowler blurted out … “It’s not my infidelity, but hers, that’s the problem.”

He’d fucking done it anyway, he badmouthed Taylor. Cass and Taylor had a beautiful relationship. One that transcended what he had with Taylor or what Cass had with her mother.

Cass stared at him wide-eyed.

“Way to deflect.” Her disappointment was thick and heavy in the air between them. He could practically taste it.

He took a deep breath because he was getting heated, and he didn’t want to add his relationship with his daughter to the pile of things that were fucked up.

“Listen, Jellybean. The thing with your mom was, well, it looked a lot worse than it was.” He had to dance around it somehow, while still being honest. “She was not invited to my bed, nor was I awake while she was in it.”

Her forehead furrow relaxed. “You promise?”

Prowler nodded.

“I knew she was up to something when she packed a bag.”

In hindsight, he should’ve known too.

“Be that as it may, Taylor came to the same conclusion as you did. So, we will have to address that.”

“She’ll forgive you, Dad. Taylor has the biggest heart of anyone I know.” Cass stood and came to his chair, wrapping her arms around him from the side. He leaned into her embrace.

“I know, Bean, but I don’t, and I don’t know if I can forgive as easily.”

“Why … Wait. Is this about that guy on camera you were snarling about the other day? The one you wanted me to ask about but didn’t tell me to ask about.”

Prowler laughed. His daughter had his number. “For the record, you’re far too perceptive. Let’s drop it for now. This is a me problem, and I’ll work it out.”

Cass let him go and scooped up his plate then hers, walking both to the sink. “Well, then, I guess I won’t tell you who he is, since I have to drop it.” Her voice lilted.

Prowler leaped from his chair. “You know who he is?” It took every ounce of restraint not to command her to tell him. But he’d already promised himself he wouldn’t do that.

“Yes, and she most certainly didn’t sleep with him.”

His first emotion was relief, his second was disbelief. How could his daughter possibly know that for certain?

“Who is he?”

She put down the dish towel she was wiping her hands with.

“Her brother. But she told me to run if I ever see him, so he must be some piece of work.”

The emotions that flooded Prowler and Wolf were too many to process and too intense to contain.

They howled.

Long and loud and victorious.

They had a mate to claim.

He kissed his daughter on the cheek and jogged—no, ran—across the street.

She didn’t answer the door. He stalked around back and hopped over the wall. No sign of her. He sniffed around.

Her scent wasn’t fresh. She wasn’t home.

Using the gate, he exited the proper way and pulled his phone from his pocket. His call to Taylor was rejected. She’d fucking blocked him.

“I’ll just sit out front and wait her out,” he muttered to himself.

That’s when he noticed her garbage cans were out.

Trash wasn’t for five days, and she was anal about her cans. Both timing and placement, so he could only draw one conclusion.

She wasn’t coming back for at least a week.

“Fuck.”