Dragon Prologue-Two Weeks Earlier

Damn, the common room looked like an explosion had occurred. The women had laid out piles and piles of decorations and materials needed for Shain and Daredevil's wedding on the tables. I swear, it got worse with each wedding. You'd think I'd be used to this by now, but I wasn't. They always went all in planning a wedding, no matter how large, small, elaborate, or simple. The club had a whole shed dedicated to things for weddings and parties. What I could say was they did recycle a lot of things when they were able. They didn't waste money. I was always amazed to see what they reused. You rarely recognized it was used in a previous event. They refurbished shit and were crafty.

They had it all out to ensure nothing had been overlooked and to do counts. I knew this not because I asked or had a vagina, but because I'd overheard them talking. Daredevil's mom, Evita, and his dad, Sal, had come earlier than the rest of his family. His mom wanted to be here to help with the last-minute preparations. His three brothers and sister would arrive a few days before the big day. We had the trailers ready for them. With most of the club settled down with their own houses, most of the trailers were empty except for the three Ashes, Vicious, and I had. The prospects had rooms in the clubhouse.

This meant all of his family would have their own space. Even if we didn't have enough, there were the old apartments the club bunnies used to occupy if we needed them. With this wedding, we'd end up using them too. Shain's cousin, Moose, and his club, the Devil's Regulators MC from Nebraska, would be coming. There was no way they'd miss out on it. They were our newest allies and friends.

Not long ago, we decided it would be wise to branch out and become acquainted with clubs in other states. We never knew when we might need them. It was actually due to Vicious that we found this one. His cousin Crash was a Regulator, too. Daredevil had Vicious to thank for ever meeting Shain. Moose was giving her away. Both Pitbull and Fang would stand up with him since they'd known him the longest from their days in the Marines.

"Hey, Dragon, how was work today?" Trident asked as he took a seat next to me.

Next to Ashes and Vicious, who had been my best friends since we had prospected together, Trident was the next closest to me. He was the one who brought me into the club, which I'd forever be grateful to him for doing. Even though he'd been in the Navy and I was a Marine, those two services were closely knitted together. He loved it when he told me the Marines worked for the Navy. In a way, we did, but I'd never admit it.

I'd been part of the Marine Raiders, an elite group of Marines, which put us in close contact with the Navy SEALs during my time in. Trident had been the commander of one of their teams. He knew Sin, our club president, through his role with the SEALs. Sin was one of his former SEALs and had gotten Trident to prospect for the club after he retired. When I was coming up on my terminal leave to get out, Trident and I ended up talking, and he encouraged me to come check them out to see what I thought.

Lord knows I'd never thought of myself as a biker, even though I had one and rode. I'd been hesitant, but in the end, I did it, and I haven't looked back. I had nothing to lose. Of course, my dad wished I would've settled in Oklahoma, close to him, but it wasn't that far away. I went to see him as often as I could. So far, I hadn't gotten him to visit me, but I'd keep trying. No matter how much I assured him the club was a family and we weren't outlaws, I knew he still wondered and worried.

"It was good. Busy. It seems like no one knows how to do their own electrical or plumbing work, which is good for us. Hell, we have more work most weeks than we can handle," I told him. I worked at Ares's Voltz, the club's plumbing and electrical business that Torpedo managed. I'd learned how to do plumbing from my dad, who was a plumber.

"Nothing like staying busy."

"What about you?"

Trident technically had two jobs, if you asked him. One, he worked with Fang at a security business run by the other MC in town. When he wasn't working there, he was helping his old lady Sara with her work. She was a romance author. According to him, he not only helped her write a series, but he served as her muse for all the sexy, hot, badass men in her books. This earned him shit from all of us, smiles from her, and glares from Sin. We all felt sorry for our president. Sara was his mom, and Trident was a kinky fuck with no filter. One of his favorite things was to make Sin cringe whenever Trident talked about their sex life or the special room they had in their house. I'd lost track of the number of threats made against him during the time I'd been here.

"Good. I spent it with Sara, so that's always a great day for me. Is seeing all this got you thinking?"

"Thinking about what? The mess?"

"Nah, about finding yourself a woman and settling down. You're not getting any younger. The sooner you find her, the longer you'll hopefully have to be with her. If only I'd found Sara years ago." He was fifty when he met her.

"I've got time. I'm only thirty-seven. Hell, who knows, she could walk through that door any second, and boom, I'm done for," I joked.

He gave me a sly smile and acted as if he knew something I didn't. I ignored him. He soon moved on to other topics, but my mind wouldn't stop returning to what he said and my reply. Would I ever find someone? If I did, would I be fifty or even older when it happened? What would it mean for having a family? Maybe I'd have stepkids, but none of my own. More and more questions whirled around in my head and were still doing it hours later when I crawled into my bed. Damn that Trident.