Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

A ngel curled further into the fetal position in her bed with a groan. She'd been too nauseous to eat a large dinner and had only snacked on saltines. Now her stomach was cramping—except this cramping was growing more and more painful. The longer she stayed awake, the more she sensed that something wasn't right.

The image of that damn pregnancy test floated around her head like a sadistic cartoon halo. She did not blame her baby—how could she, when he or she was completely innocent?—but she wasn't sure how she felt about being pregnant. Pregnancies in her family were a bit of a sore subject growing up. Her twin, Amber, had gotten pregnant when she was sixteen and their parents had not handled the news well.

Angel winced at the memories. Not well at all.

Another cramp seized her center and Angel had to muffle her low moan with her pillow. No, something was not right at all.

As Angel reached for her phone, hating to call Tessa in the middle of the night but needing medical help, she felt a wetness between her legs that she hadn't noticed before in her attempt to remain immobile in the fetal position. Angel threw off her covers and let out a shocked gasp.

She was covered in blood. So much so, she had no idea how she hadn't noticed it until then. Her pajama bottoms, sheets, and mattress were soaked.

Angel reached for her phone, in even more of a hurry.

Tessa picked up on the first ring, thank God. "Angel, what?—"

"Come now," Angel rushed out. "I'm bleeding."

Tessa, being the trained emergency room doctor that she was, did not hesitate. "On my way." She hung up.

Angel was tempted to call nine-one-one too. Her only hesitation was that the others would then know something was wrong and come running. The ol' ladies knew about her pregnancy. She'd told them the day before at their ol' ladies' night, but Angel's club brothers didn't know.

Her daughter, Bree, didn't know.

While she knew her health, as well as that of her baby's, was not worth keeping her silence, she also knew that Tessa would arrive faster than any ambulance. Tessa and Bear lived in the house next to hers. Plus, she had a key. Not that Angel needed to lock her door—she lived on club property—but she knew the locked door made Bree feel more secure. Angel would do anything to keep Bree happy and healthy. She'd spent too many years in her own personal hell. Angel would not allow her to feel fear again.

Tessa burst through Angel's bedroom door. Angel was both thankful and not that Bear wasn't with her. Bear likely was home with their infant daughter, Maggie. Both parents couldn't leave her alone in the house. But Bear also had a very soothing presence, which was belied by his very large stature. Bear was a giant teddy bear in disguise. If Bree woke up and found Angel bleeding like this, it was Bear that Angel would want with her daughter.

The two had a close bond since Bear had rescued Bree off the side of the road. That friendship was only rivaled by that of Cage's with Bree.

Cage was Bree's personal Superman. Her teenage crush on him was obvious, though no one ever mentioned it. Bree looked at Cage like he was infallible. Angel got it; the man had selflessly donated a kidney to Bree, who at the time had been nearly a stranger, and saved her life. Didn't mean that Angel didn't wish Bree's new kidney had come from anyone else .

Tessa immediately went into doctor mode. "We need to call an ambulance." She put her bag on the end of the bed, putting exam gloves on.

Angel winced. She should have known better. "Bree," she said with a grimace as an extremely sharp cramp shook her insides.

Tessa carefully leaned over and pulled Angel's pajama bottoms off. "Give me a second to examine you and then we'll call someone to stay with her. Get emergency services on the phone and put them on speaker."

Angel tried not to feel embarrassment as Tessa, one of her closest friends, started to examine her most intimate parts. For some ridiculous reason, Angel worried she'd left a scrap of toilet paper in her pussy lips or if Tessa was judging her for not keeping up with trimming her pubic hair.

"It's a vaginal bleed," Tessa confirmed. She pulled gauze pads out of her bag and started to wipe up the bleeding. "How far along are you again?"

That dreaded night at the club's bar came back to her. Angel had to tighten her jaw to keep her chin from trembling. "Just over five weeks."

"And your last period?"

Angel swallowed hard. "It was supposed to start last week. That's why I took the damn test. I know it was early but I'm never late. Not even when I was fighting a damn war." Angel forced herself to look down her body at Tessa. Her friend's grave expression said it all. "My baby?" she practically choked over the question.

Tessa licked her lips and shook her head. "We need to get you to the hospital to confirm, but…"

Angel squeezed her eyes shut, wishing and praying harder than she ever had before that this was a dream, a nightmare. She just needed to wake up.

Her baby… A single tear escaped her right eye. Her chin quaked uncontrollably as her heart shattered into a million tiny pieces.

Tessa didn't have to say it. She knew. A part of her had known as soon as the cramping had started.

She'd lost her baby.

Angel was numb. She barely listened to the OB doctor as she explained that Angel's pregnancy had never been viable. It was a chemical pregnancy. Angel would have Tessa explain later what that meant in more detail. At the moment, it didn't matter. She didn't care that the pregnancy had never been real , as the doctor explained. If it wasn't for her taking the pregnancy test, Angel likely would have never even known about the baby and would have just had an unusually heavy period that lasted slightly longer than normal.

Angel hated how the doctor kept calling it a false positive or a fake pregnancy. To her, her baby had been real. She'd only known about him or her for a little over two days, but they'd been very real.

Tessa stayed with her the entire time, holding her hand and speaking with the doctor on her behalf. Tessa had been the one to call Bear, who had called Cage to stay with Bree. Angel had been panicked to learn it was Cage coming over, but Tessa had assured Angel that Bear had made it sound like it was Tessa who had needed to leave unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Angel knew that would never fly with Cage. He'd never believe that Bear would allow his wife to leave like that without him, even if he did have the excuse of needing to stay home to watch Maggie.

Angel wasn't sure how much she cared. Cage would care and protect Bree. That much was certain. But for Cage to learn that she'd been pregnant? That she'd lost her baby?

No. Angel was not ready for Cage to learn about that.

Cage was… Well, Angel didn't know what Cage was to her anymore. When she'd first arrived in Mount Grove to prospect for the Via Daemonia , Cage had already been a prospect. He'd been so cocky and self-assured. She knew his type well. The kind of guy who could snap his fingers and have anyone with boobs fall all over him. She'd seen it many times with Cage and the Honeys, Cage and the club's hang-arounds, Cage and the women in town…

She could grudgingly admit that he'd been different since their quick fuck in the hospital bathroom. Angel was still ashamed that she'd had sex with Cage with only a wooden door separating them from her new daughter. Thankfully, she knew Bree had slept through it and didn't suspect a thing.

Despite Cage's proclamation that he wanted to date Angel, to see what they could have together, Angel had seen him many times with other women since she'd turned him down. It only proved to her that she had been right in saying no. He was not a one-woman kind of man. That knowledge, though, did not stop the hurt. It didn't stop the want .

It certainly had not stopped her from getting so blind drunk at Demon's that she didn't even know who the father of her deceased baby was. She only had flashes of that night, but the most prominent was seeing Cage in the corner of the bar with some blonde. Using their tongues to check the other's tonsils. That had been what had prompted Angel to challenge Pumpkin to a drinking contest.

She recalled being horny and feeling the hands of the man on her body. She knew the sex had been consensual. Beyond that, though… Not much.

Hell, there'd been a few heart-stopping moments when she'd tried to figure out if one her club brothers had been the father. After Angel had confessed to the ol' ladies about her pregnancy, Tessa had pulled her outside to Harper's back porch.

"Was it consensual?" Tessa had asked.

"What? Yes, of course."

"If it's the night that Bear told me about, a good number of you got drunk. Is it possible it's…one of the guys?"

Horror had struck Angel and her jaw dropped open. She had a flash of memory where she was in Pumpkin's arms. He was lifting her up and she had the vague recollection that he'd motorboated her. But Angel's memory felt humorous , not sexual. It felt like the action had been revenge for something. Fuck, Angel wished she hadn't had so much to drink that night.

Still, the possibility was there. She was only positive of one brother it wasn't , because he'd been off with some blonde slut. "It's…possible," Angel finally admitted. But it didn't feel right.

If she and Pumpkin had slept together, he'd have mentioned it. Someone would have said something . It would have gotten out. The club brothers were worse than gossiping women when it came to secrets.

Tessa gasped at Angel's confession. "You have to tell him."

Fuck no! "I can't. Even if it is possible, he can never know."

Thankfully, Tessa had let the subject drop soon after she'd questioned whether Angel had gotten herself tested, which Angel had assured her she had.

Since she'd become a mom, that night out with the guys had been the only time she'd drunk more than one beer in a sitting. Bree was her priority since the second Angel had stepped into her hospital room. She'd forever be grateful that she'd seen Bear's text that night, that she'd decided to respond.

Bree was the best thing in her life. Her daughter was so strong, to fight her way back from the brink of death as she did. Angel knew she owed Cage for that. She never had and never would regret her decision to adopt Bree. Her schedule might be different, her expenses might be tighter, her life not her own anymore, but Bree was worth every worry, every late night, every expense.

As would her baby have been.

Angel tried to push back the tears. She refused to cry—especially not in front of Tessa. She was a patched member of the Via Daemonia . She was a retired Army sniper. The other women and her club brothers saw her as a strong badass. She would not cry in front of Tessa.

A tear ran down her cheek.

She quickly wiped it away.

Angel wasn't sure how long she stayed in the hospital bed, just staring at the ceiling. Eventually the doctor left and it was just her and Tessa again.

Tessa squeezed Angel's hand. "I'm so sorry." Angel could hear the grief in her friend's voice, which only made the pain in Angel's heart sharpen.

Angel could only nod.

She turned her face into her pillow, not wanting to look at Tessa or share her pain. Her baby's loss was her own. No one else's.

"It's not your fault."

Angel was only half-listening to Tessa. She wanted to ask Tessa to leave but knew Tessa would be on the phone with Bear as soon as she did. How would her club brothers look at her now? They'd always treated her as an equal and Angel had also always acted like an equal, never hesitating to go toe-to-toe with them. She wasn't butch, but she also didn't act feminine. She liked what she liked and she was who she was. She'd been called a tomboy all her life. She had even been called a dyke on more than one occasion, even though Angel had never been attracted to her own gender.

Bree had made her a mom. Angel was very proud of that fact. She'd never thought she would be a mom and certainly not a good one. Her own mother had not been a good role model in that department.

But there was a difference between being a mom and being pregnant. At least in her mind. Pregnancy was extremely feminine and would make her stand out from her club brothers. While there was a female prospect, Angel was currently the only female patched member. She'd fought for her right to be "one of the boys" since she'd turned eighteen and joined the Army.

As much as she wanted her baby, she'd been dreading how being pregnant would change her relationship with her club brothers.

Angel squeezed her eyes closed, hating her train of thought. There was no part of her that was grateful she was no longer pregnant. The doctor could claim she was never pregnant to begin with, but she'd loved her baby. Even if only for two days.

But there was relief, no matter how small and intangible it was, in that none of her club brothers would ever know about her pregnancy.

A relief that Angel hated herself for feeling.

Tessa kept talking, probably assuming incorrectly that Angel would find comfort in her words. "The fetus would have never survived, Angel. It never attached itself to your uterine lining. Most women don't even realize they have a chemical pregnancy. The fact that you knew about the pregnancy is very rare."

Angel wasn't sure if she was supposed to feel better about that. She'd only taken that pregnancy test because she'd been concerned about possibly having unprotected sex with a stranger. Her period was never late, which was another sign something was off. She'd already gone to the clinic to check for transmitted diseases. Thankfully, as a tattoo artist, that was something she regularly did and had an open account for herself and her employees to get tested regularly or as needed.

"I've already spoken to the charge nurse. We can stay as long as you need."

Tessa had not summoned an ambulance. Angel had begged her to drive her instead, not wanting the lights or sirens to draw attention. The club would swarm like bees to their queen if that happened. No secret would be safe then. While the doctor had claimed that Angel's bleeding had been substantial, she had also informed Angel that it was normal for this sort of miscarriage. The large blood clots that had concerned Tessa and made her believe Angel had lost her baby were also normal.

Angel knew she should leave and give her hospital bed to someone who actually needed it. Tessa had brought clean pants and a pair of her boy-short panties for her. The heavy-duty pads the hospital had given her were waiting on the over-bed table beside her like a bad omen. But she had no desire to move.

She did not want to have to explain to anyone what had happened. She did not want to see the pity in the ol' ladies' eyes when they learned she had lost her baby. If only she'd kept her mouth closed. Why had she even told them? Wasn't there some unwritten rule that a woman wasn't supposed to tell others about a pregnancy until the second trimester? Yet, Angel hadn't even lasted a full day. It wasn't like she could tell the baby's father. She'd never been a blabbermouth before, but Angel also knew she'd need help. It had been a long time since she'd been up close and personal with a pregnancy.

Tessa finally took Angel's silence as a hint and told her she'd be back to check on her. Angel's suspicion that she was going to call Bear as soon as she left the room was confirmed by Tessa reaching into her back pocket for her phone before she closed the door behind herself.

Bear would know soon enough. Steel would too. How much longer did Angel have before the ol' ladies found out? Would her club brothers find out or would she be able to keep her secret with only Bear and Steel knowing the truth?

She shouldn't care. A part of her didn't. She'd been numb to others' opinions of her since before she'd started puberty. She wasn't girly enough. She wasn't pretty enough. She wasn't clean enough. Angel had heard it all.

As she closed her eyes, once more fighting against tears, Angel knew that deep down she didn't care if her club brothers found out. She only cared if a specific club brother found out.

Eventually, Angel had to suck it up and go home. Her abdomen felt like she'd been kicked repeatedly and the thick pad between her legs made her feel like she was waddling instead of walking. It was early enough that hopefully Bree was still asleep and knew nothing of Angel's midnight trip to the hospital. Since she didn't know about the pregnancy, Angel wondered if she should even tell her. She'd promised Bree that there would be no secrets between the two of them unless it was club business. But the question of the baby's paternity would no doubt be asked—and Angel didn't have an answer for her daughter.

She hoped that the universe wasn't so against her that Cage would be awake. Maybe she could slip past him sleeping on the couch and he'd never know?—

But, of course, the universe was not so kind.

Cage threw the front door open and was to Tessa's hatchback the second they pulled into Angel's driveway. Since he lived in the clubhouse, the only vehicles in her driveway were her Harley-Davidson trike and her modified Chevrolet Traverse that Cage had bought for her and Bree as an adoption present. Angel had argued profusely but, in the end, had taken the cage. It was the only way to transport Bree around and Angel had to begrudgingly admit that she hadn't had the money for both the trike and the Traverse. Cage's present had been a godsend, even though she felt beholden to him every time she drove it.

Cage's expression was that of fury and worry. He rushed around Tessa's Subaru to Angel's door and wrenched it open. He looked like a pissed off Greek god. Adonis in the flesh. She'd heard women compare him to a young Brad Pitt, but Angel had always compared him to myth. Untouchable. Forbidden. Too desirable for his own good.

He was a lady's man—and she was no lady.

"What the fuck is going on?" Cage demanded. His dirty blonde hair looked ruffled and unkempt, very un-Cage-like. His blue eyes deepened with his emotions.

Angel put one hand to his chest and pushed him back. He went willingly, though he was not happy about it. It took all of her waning energy to stand without wincing.

"Thank you for watching Bree," she said shortly. "You can go home now."

She could practically taste Cage's fury. If he was a Greek god, she was pretty sure he'd be lighting her aflame in that moment.

"What. The. Fuck." His words were short and clipped. "Angel, you tell me right now why Tessa had to run you out of here in the middle of the night. Hey, Tessa," he added more gently as Tessa walked around the front of the cage to meet them.

"Cage," she greeted with a sweet smile. Tessa looked to Angel. "Do you want me to stay?"

Angel shook her head. Tessa had done enough and, frankly, Angel just wanted to be alone. But first she had to deal with the blonde brute in front of her.

Tessa gave both of them a wave and then walked across the lawn towards her house. Angel could see Bear's large silhouette in the door.

She turned her attention back to Cage. She was still standing in the Subaru's open door. "Excuse me."

Cage threw his arm out, placing it on the roof. Angel was five-eight and muscled. Cage was six-foot-one and more muscled. Any other night, Angel would have put him on his ass for even attempting to block her way. But she was too emotionally and physically tired. She could if she had to but she didn't want to.

"Talk to me, Angel." His voice was lower, coaxing now. She hated how he said her road name like an endearment.

Angel felt her heart start to beat faster at his closeness. His scent had always reminded her of the beach, coconuts, and clean oceans. It was soothing and, if she closed her eyes, she could picture the beautiful tropical view.

But Angel refused to be swept away by his concern, his kindness, or his scent. What was happening was none of his business.

"Go home, Cage," she said more sternly.

The hurt that crossed his face almost made her confess everything. The desire of having him to come home to, to let him comfort her in her grief, nearly consumed her. But she wasn't the girl for him. He'd end up breaking her heart.

Beyond that, she couldn't do that to Bree. Teenage crush aside, Bree deserved a father she could rely on. Cage would let her down. It was only a matter of time. Angel wouldn't bring him into their lives knowing that he would eventually get bored with monogamy and the family lifestyle.

It wasn't in him.

Cage stood frozen for a moment, just staring down at her. Angel wondered what he was seeing. Did he pick up on her heartbreak? Could he sense her grief?

Whatever it was that he saw was enough to make him step back without any further complaint.

Angel moved past him, closing the door as silently as she could. She was halfway to the door when she realized he was still standing there, watching her. She felt her shoulders sag. He had come over in the middle of the night to watch Bree for her. She wondered which Honey he'd kicked out to do it. Since Steel forbade the Honeys to sleepover in the clubhouse, he would have had to have sent her home to come over.

Still, she did owe him her appreciation at the very least. "Thank you. For Bree." It felt like all she did was thank him for Bree.

"One of these days you're going to let me in," he told her with no malice or animosity in his voice. "One day soon you're going to realize that we belong together, sweetness. I'm not going to let the best thing that ever happened to me slip through my fingers because you're too stubborn to acknowledge it. We're meant to be together."

Angel's jaw dropped. He'd never spoken those type of words to her before. It was a declaration, plain and simple.

Before she could come up with a response, he walked away. Leaving Angel staring after him with a heavy heart.

She wished his words were true. She really did. But how could they be? He claimed to have feelings for her but still slept with other women?

Angel supposed she couldn't blame him for that though. It would be hypocritical of her, since she'd slept with another man. Not only that, but she'd also gotten pregnant by that unknown man. If Cage found out, he'd never look at her the same way.

Perhaps that was her true fear. Beyond the pity she would receive once the other women knew she'd lost her baby, it was Cage's reaction that she didn't want to see. The hurt, the disappointment… She owed him nothing, and yet she felt like she'd betrayed him.

She was no better than the Honeys who bounced between the club brothers' beds.

Tessa passed the word that Angel had the stomach flu. The ol' ladies came over to help Bree and to deliver soup. None of them wanted to risk catching anything so thankfully none of them stayed long. It helped that Angel looked awful .

She wasn't eating. She wasn't sleeping. She wasn't drinking.

It surprised Angel when she learned that Tessa hadn't told Bear about her miscarriage. She supposed Tessa would be used to keeping things quiet due to doctor-patient confidentiality on a regular basis. Still, Bear had to have questions.

Jenna had tried to ask Angel about her pregnancy, but Angel did not answer. She wondered if the older woman suspected. Tessa was the only one who knew for a fact that Angel didn't have the flu.

The most surprising visit had been from Cage. Regardless of her supposed illness, he crawled onto her bed beside her, remaining over the covers while she was under. Angel wanted to kick him out of her bed, but she honestly didn't have the energy to fight with him. And, she grudgingly had to admit, his back rub had felt nice.

Cage caught her up on the two Church meetings she had missed. It was rare that Steel excused an absence from Church, but the flu was definitely one of those reasons. No one wanted the entire club to get sick. It was hard enough keeping all the club kids separated when one of them got sick; it was probably worse for the adults.

He told her about how Steel, Jumper, Bulldog, and Ghost, who had replaced Scar as the club's Enforcer, had gone to Pittsburgh to offer an olive branch to the Pythons, as well as a warning to remain on their turf. No one had expected them to return with an abandoned teenager named Ollie.

"Scrawny little guy," Cage said offhandedly. "No doubt Jenna's been spending the past few days trying to fatten him up."

Shock had broken through her wallowing at the news that Scar was back. "Not officially," Cage specified. "We're not exactly sure what's going on with him, but apparently he's working with that mystery biker that saved Jasmine and Sophia."

Dr. Jasmine Sharpe was the town's veterinarian and Jumper's ol' lady. She and her best friend, Sophia, had gotten themselves into a bit of a pickle when they had started investigating dead Pitbull bodies that had been left around town. Unfortunately, their investigation led them right to the doorstep of the McCrery brothers, who had secretly been running an illegal dogfighting ring just outside VDMC borders. Due to their recent partnership with the Black Pythons MC, a one-percenters club out of Pittsburgh, the McCrery brothers had been cleaning house and Jasmine had walked in on them about to burn the evidence of their dogfighting—as well as a body.

The body had belonged to the VP of the Pythons, a man with the road name Venom. He also happened to be the President's brother. The Via Daemonia might not agree with how the Pythons earned their scratch, but it wasn't their business or town. They couldn't solve all the world's problems. They stuck to their town and made sure that Mount Grove was a safe and peaceful place for its residents and their families.

King Cobra, the Pythons' President, had rejected Steel's peace offer and had made a blatant threat against Mount Grove and the VDMC. They had only gotten out unscathed because Scar had shown up in typical Scar fashion—meaning literally out of nowhere.

"Ghost says Bulldog thinks Scar is going to stick around, but no one's seen him since that first Church meeting. Steel was willing to work with him, let him back into the club with some restrictions, but Scar declined."

Angel actually lifted her head off of the pillow at that. The movement sent a whiff of something nasty towards her nose. When was the last time she'd showered?

Glancing over at the corner of her bedroom, she saw that her hamper was no longer in its normal location. Had one of the ol' ladies done her laundry? If so, they would have seen her bloody sheets. Angel had planned to throw them out…whenever she got to doing her laundry.

She needed a new mattress too. All she'd done was flip it after returning from the hospital. The evidence of her miscarriage was only hidden.

His eyes were soft with concern as he stared down at her. "How are you feeling?"

Cage was sitting up against her headboard with his long legs crossed at the ankles. His socks had little red cars on them from that Pixar movie and Angel wondered which club kid had given them to him. Probably Scotty, Lucky's seventeen-year-old son with Down Syndrome.

Angel's eyes narrowed. Cage looked… good . Hell, he looked better than good. He looked right in her bed.

Cage's assertion that he wanted to date her wasn't an issue. It wasn't even the fact that she didn't believe he would be satisfied in a monogamous relationship or that she couldn't see herself being happy with him.

The problem was that she could . She could see it clear as day: coming home to him, sharing a bed with him, loving him, being a family with him… The vision was so tantalizing that she could taste it.

But…eventually…the day would come when he would realize he wasn't happy, that sharing her bed and her life wasn't enough for him.

He would walk out her door…and Angel would be devastated.

Angel buried her face into her pillow again to hide the plethora of emotions roiling through her. "Why are you here?"

"Because you're sick and I want to prove to you that I can be here for you."

Fuck, that was the exact opposite of what she needed him to say. Because that sounded so good. For a moment, she wanted to be sick. She wanted to really have the flu or a stomach bug and she wanted him to be here caring for her.

Angel let out a long, miserable groan. "Go away."

"Why are you fighting this so hard, Angel? I don't even know what happened that day at the hospital. Then I got approved as Bree's donor… Well, that kinda took it out of me for a while. And I wanted to talk to you about it, but you were concentrating on Bree and getting the house ready. I get it. We both got busy. And," he hesitated, "I'll be honest, I was a bit worried at the time that if I asked you out on a date again that you would only agree out of gratitude for Bree."

Angel let out a snort.

Cage chuckled. "Yeah, I should have known you'd never do anything out of gratitude and only because you wanted to. It's been a year, Sweet Angel. I'm tired of waiting. It's time you and I sat down and had a real talk about our feelings. You scared me the other night. I didn't like getting that phone call from Bear that you and Tessa needed to leave in the middle of the night—and don't give me that bullshit that it was Tessa who needed to go. You and I both know that Bear would never allow his ol' lady to leave like that and not go with her if she was the one needing medical help."

Angel remained silent. She just hugged her pillow tighter to her face.

"Please, sweetness, throw me a bone here. I'm begging you. Tell me something , anything. I hate that I'm stuck in this awkward friend-zone with you. Somedays you act like I'm your best friend and other days you act like I'm the spawn of Satan."

Angel shrugged and did not look at him.

She felt his hand on her shoulder, rubbing soothingly. "I get that you're sick and not feeling well. I'm trying to be here for you and for Bree. I'm trying to show you that I can be a part of your family?—"

Angel threw his arm off of her and bolted upright. Rage fueled her and, despite her wooziness at the fast movement, she only swayed slightly. Cage put his arms out as if he was going to catch her, but Angel slapped his hands away.

"‘A part of my family?'" she sneered back at him. "In what capacity, Cage? My club brother with benefits? You are not and never will be Bree's father. I'd never allow that. You can be her fun-loving uncle who donated a kidney. Great. But that's it. That's all you'll ever be. You want to be here for me? Great. I appreciate the back rub. But I can't help wondering which Honey you're going to take to your bed tonight. Or how about which one was in your bed last night? How about the blonde I saw you with at Demon's ? Was she in your bed too?"

The hurt was evident on Cage's face, but it wasn't enough to stop Angel. She'd been hurting for over a year. She was so sick of hurting . She didn't have the time or the patience for Cage's bullshit. He couldn't change who he was—and neither could she.

Hell, Angel wasn't even sure she was open to a relationship anyway. Not after losing her baby. It all seemed so trivial in comparison.

What it came down to was sex and pride for him. Had Cage ever been turned down by a woman before?

"I'm not some conquest. I am not some bimbo with no morals. I am a person , Cage. I'm a mom . You are and always will be a womanizing man-whore." Her strength and energy waned, Angel went to lay down again. She made a gesture towards her bedroom door. "Just go away, Cage. I feel awful enough without having to fake being happy to see you."

Angel curled herself into a tight ball around her pillow. For several minutes, Angel didn't hear anything that indicated he'd left her room. Then she heard the click of her door closing.

Tears streamed down her face. She wasn't usually such a bitch. She knew she'd been awful to him, but she needed his advances to stop. He couldn't have it both ways. He couldn't be ‘part of her family' and still be sleeping around like it was his profession.

She was mindful enough to realize that she was putting her guilt on his shoulders, blaming him for her promiscuous night that had ended in a chemical pregnancy and eventually led to her current depressed state.

Her actions weren't Cage's fault. Angel knew that.

Maybe her mom was right after all. Angel wasn't woman enough. With her muscular body and hard demeanor, she certainly wasn't winning any beauty pageants. Cage was the sort of man who needed a Barbie Girl on his arm. That certainly wasn't Angel. She wasn't woman enough for a man like Cage. Hell, she wasn't even woman enough to keep her baby safe past five weeks.

Angel had never cared before. It was her own doing, being ‘one of the guys'. She didn't hate being a woman. There were certain annoyances, sure, like her period, PMS, and she was dreading menopause. It was who she was, and she had no desire to change that.

It hurt, though. Knowing who she was wasn't enough for Cage. He'd find a new woman soon.

It shouldn't matter to her.

Tears fell and her chin trembled. But it did. It mattered a lot. She wanted to be Cage's. She wanted him to look at her like Steel, Lucky, Bear, Bulldog, and Jumper looked at Jenna, Harper, Tessa, Abby, and Jasmine. Like she was his entire world. Like she was his everything .

And Cage?

Well, obviously she wasn't woman enough to keep his eyes from wandering. Which was fine. It was. She'd move on. Life would continue as it had been, as if her baby had never existed. It would be her and Bree against the world. Just the two of them.

It was fine.

It was all fine.

Cage did not like the word sulking . It was demeaning and unmanly—and yet, it was the perfect description of his walk back to the clubhouse. He hadn't gotten drunk in weeks but damn it sounded like a good idea now.

He'd gone out to the store and bought her soup. He'd checked on Bree and made sure she didn't have any questions on her summer schoolwork. He'd cleaned her kitchen and changed out a lightbulb in her living room. He'd cleaned her bathrooms and taken out the trash.

He was utterly pathetic.

From the moment Cage realized he had feelings for Angel, it was like she'd placed a filter over his senses. He couldn't see, hear, feel, smell, or taste anyone but her . Angel.

He'd tried to get her out of his head. He'd tried to move on. But it was always her. Only her.

Cage sat down at the barstool in the clubhouse. Most of his brothers were out at Demon's but there were a few hanging around. Cage had no intention of speaking to any of them.

Sara, one of the club's three prospects, handed Cage a beer without having to be asked. Cage lifted his chin in thanks. She'd make it far in the club if she could predict who needed a drink and gave it to them.

Cage's first beer disappeared fast. He wasn't a big drinker. He drank socially and wasn't prone to overindulging because he didn't have the endurance he'd had in his early twenties anymore. Additionally, going to work at a construction yard with a hangover was pure torture. He had no desire to ever do that again.

After he donated his kidney to Bree, he'd been under orders to not drink heavily. Drinking high doses of alcohol constantly put more strain on his remaining kidney. He'd followed that rule except for once a few weeks ago.

But the temptation to forget Angel was so tantalizing. To forget her harsh and yet accurate words. Despite that he'd been celibate for the past year, he couldn't erase his past. He was a healthy male with a healthy sex drive. The fact that women found him so attractive didn't hurt his cause either. He'd had a lot of sex in his life. A lot . Angel calling him a man-whore was, well, the truth.

And that hurt.

Cage couldn't change his history but…damn. He wished he could.

Arms snaked around his shoulders as he nursed his second beer. Cage had been debating on asking Sara for a shot of whiskey but stopped himself at the feel of a female body being pressed to his back.

For one fleeting second, Cage thought it might be Angel. It was a stupid gut reaction because Angel was sick with the flu in her bed. Even if she did feel bad for what she had said, she wasn't going to be chasing after him.

A glance up at the mirror behind the back bar told Cage who was leaning into him. He turned his head to tell Evette, one of the club's Honeys, to leave him alone when she took his earlobe into her mouth and sucked on the skin.

A year ago, the action would have gotten him so hard and horny that there was a good chance they would be fucking up against the wall. He was one of the brothers who didn't care if he had an audience or not. Bear had been one of the biggest exhibitionists before he'd knocked up and married Tessa. Even now, two of the Honeys were making out with two brothers on the couch. Gracie wasn't wearing a top.

The feel of Evette's body, her hot breath, even her teeth scraping against his lobe… Cage felt gross. He wasn't turned on or tempted in the slightest. His stomach roiled and, for a moment, he thought he might throw up.

He rolled his shoulder, pulling his head away from her mouth.

"Hey!" she protested with a whine that grated on his nerves. God, her voice was like nails on a chalkboard. "Baby, what's wrong?"

Cage slid off the stool he'd been on and took the one to his right. "Not in the mood, Evette. Go hang out with one of the others."

Instead, she slid onto the stool he'd just vacated. She picked up his beer bottle from the bar and took a long swallow. "Don't be like that, baby. We can have some fun."

She tipped herself forward, making her tits nearly fall out of her low-cut dress. Cage looked—of course he did—but his body didn't react. Was he sick? Was he dying? What the hell had Angel done to him that he could no longer get aroused by the sight of a woman's tits? Tits that he'd been well acquainted with over the years.

Hell, he'd slept with all the Honeys countless times. Occasionally, he'd had more than one at once. The Honeys were fun. A convenience without the hassle of a pickup line or an excuse at the end of the night as to why he would not be calling her…

Fuck. He was a complete and utter asshole. No wonder Angel didn't want anything to do with him.

Evette ran her tongue along the rim of his glass beer bottle. It should have been sexy. Instead, all he could think about was Angel miserable and alone in her bed with the flu.

Cage got up. He knew where he wanted to be, and it wasn't here. Unfortunately, he couldn't be where he wanted to be because he'd been kicked out. Ignoring Evette and the others, he headed towards his clubhouse apartment.

Demo was in the hallway with Monica, her hand suspiciously out of view. As Cage entered, Demo picked his head up. He'd been shot less than two weeks ago. His gut wound was healing nicely but Cage knew that his shoulder wound was giving him a lot of problems. The navy blue sling, that rested his arm across his chest, also had a strap around his torso to hold his arm in place.

"You good, brother?" Demo asked. His eyes narrowed upon seeing Cage.

"No," Cage answered truthfully.

"Getting sick too?"

Cage shrugged as he unlocked and opened his apartment door. "Possible," was the only word he said before closing himself inside. Unfortunately, his type of illness wasn't one that a bottle of Dayquil could cure.