Ashes Prologue-One Month Earlier

Things were getting more hectic around the compound. We were counting down until the big day—Shain and Daredevil's wedding day. It seemed as if we were constantly preparing for a wedding. What the hell would the club, especially the old ladies, do if all of us ended up settling down? They would have to get new hobbies.

I snickered, imagining myself telling them this. I'd better not. Not if I valued my life. Besides, there was no guarantee all of us would end up tied down. I might not be opposed to it, but that didn't mean I was willing to jump into a relationship, just to have someone to spend the rest of my life with. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was meant to be someone's one and only. My ideas of what I wanted from a woman were likely not what women wanted. The few times I thought about trying, the woman in question chose someone else.

Loud banging brought me back to what I was doing. I was supposed to be working. Since I patched in, I had only worked at Ares's Forge with Rampage and Daredevil. I was one of the workers and a club member like Daredevil. At the same time, Rampage had the added responsibility of being the manager. That wasn't to say Dare and I didn't help him with some of those duties. We did. Just when it came down to it officially, he was the one who had to report in church on how the Forge was performing and on any issues.

I enjoyed working here far more than I had any of the other club's businesses. When I was a prospect, I had no choice but to go where I was told. After patching in, I was asked if I had a preference, and I immediately jumped on here. I was a welder. I was able to take the skills I learned in the Army as a combat engineer and put them to use. There were other skills I had besides welding, but for me, this was the one I enjoyed the most and I believed I was the best at. I could lay a wicked bead of solder. My joints were seamless when I got done with them.

As I glanced around, I noticed Daredevil was on his phone. Based on his expression, I knew it was unlikely he was talking to Shain, his old lady. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but he was close, so it wasn't my fault I could hear what he was saying.

"Micaela, you're still coming in early, right?" He listened for several moments and then continued, "I can't wait, and neither can Shain. We missed you when Mom and Dad came. This'll be the first time we've all been together in ages. Is there anything we need to do to prepare for you to spend the month here?"

Micaela, yeah, that was his sister's name. I'd recalled hearing him and Shain mention her more than a few times. She was helping his mom and the old ladies plan their wedding. We'd all met his parents, but his brothers and sister hadn't been able to visit since he claimed Shain. He was stoked that she was planning to spend a whole month here. I briefly wondered if she was anything like him.

I knew she was quite a few years younger than Daredevil. He was the oldest at thirty-eight. She was the baby after four boys. There were several years between her and the youngest brother, too. I knew all this due to a conversation a bunch of us had one night. He was two years older than me. Listening to him talk about his siblings made me kinda jealous. In my case, I did have my parents and a brother two years younger than me, but we weren't on speaking terms.

The big reason was my brother, Sam. He was the baby, and in our parents' eyes, he could do no wrong. If he went out and robbed a liquor store, they'd find an excuse for why he did it and why he shouldn't be held accountable. They'd been this way his whole life, which made him into an entitled shithead who, to this day, relied on my parents to keep him. He lived in an apartment the last I knew, but they paid his rent, for his car, insurance, you name it. He'd never had to stand on his own two feet in his life.

On the other hand, they'd been hard as hell on me, overly so, and everything I had, I earned myself. There was no giving me things, even as a kid or teenager. I resented it to a degree, but part of me recognized if they hadn't been the way they were with me, I would've ended up a leech like Sam and wouldn't have amounted to shit. It was due to the unfairness they showed that I went into the military when I graduated high school, anything to get away from them. It put my life on a better path, without a doubt.

At first, when I joined the Army, I stayed in contact. Still, it became my responsibility to keep the connection. They didn't bother to stay in touch if I didn't call or email them. When we did call or write, they only wanted to talk about Sam. If I tried to share what I was doing, they quickly brought it back to them and him, so I stopped after a few years. I had no idea how long it had been since I contacted them.

Sam would still reach out to me occasionally, but only when he was trying to get something, usually money, out of me. Mom and Dad weren't limitlessly wealthy, so they couldn't do everything. He came to me when he wanted something and they couldn't give it to him. I had no idea why because I'd never given him shit. He'd go away pissed off every time. It made my day when he did. The mooch needed to get a job. Despite knowing my answer, I had no doubt they put him up to asking me. Maybe they thought I'd give in one day, but I had news for them. It would never fucking happen.

It was my nonexistent relationship with my birth family that was part of the draw of the Infidels for me. I was seeking a family when I got out of the Army. When Wrecker, who I'd served with in the Army, told me about the MC he'd helped form, I'd initially been skeptical. But as time passed and he kept talking, I knew I wanted to check it out when I got out. Three years later, and here I was, a patched member. I had the family I never had, well, the extended kind. Still had no idea if I'd ever get the old lady and kids' kind, but if not, there would be plenty of family to keep me from being lonely. I'd make it enough.