Michael
I don’t think I’d ever felt relief like I did in that moment. Haley’s laughter loosened the knot in my chest that had developed the moment she pulled back from me in the warehouse. I’d never felt such loss or fear in all my centuries of life. I’d gone a little overboard when it came to cutting down the thugs who’d kidnapped her, but I’d made the decision about my connection to Haley and they’d attempted to rob me of my choice.
Now all I wanted to do was swoop her up in my arms and haul her to my cabin where we could make love until the sun rose tomorrow. Unfortunately, Loki had other ideas.
“Det er bra. This would be a good time to make a contract, ja?”
Oh sweet glory of all. Loki’s contracts. To sign one was to give one’s life to the club and hope no one found a loophole with which to bleed that life away. I’d seen the contracts Numbers, Scott’s woman, and Eric, Karma’s man, had had to sign. There was almost always a hidden death clause.
“Contract?” Haley sat up straighter and her expression sharpened. “What kind of contract?”
“A contract to ensure you write what needs to be written about our club, but also keep the secrets that need to be kept.” He crossed his arms over his chest and the others around us nodded. I wisely kept my mouth, and my expression, closed, especially when he shot me a narrow look. “It is good to get all the terms down in writing to ensure everyone abides by the rules, ja?”
She narrowed her eyes and tightened her lips. “Including you and the club members?”
Loki smirked as his eyes returned to mine. “Especially me, and ja, the club members too.”
Haley nodded slowly. “All right. What are the terms and will they be written down?”
“Ja, written down, witnessed and signed.” Loki’s smile broadened.
I wanted to tell her she didn’t have to do this. That we could still be together even if she didn’t sign a contract, but I couldn’t gainsay my president in front of the members and my survival, as well as the rest, depended on her not sharing the nature of our club.
And you don’t know if she’s going to give you a chance after she saw who you are.
Bloody hell, there was that.
But now wasn’t the time to pull her aside and ask if we had a chance. And would it even matter? The secret had to be kept whether she chose to continue our relationship or not. I just hoped she wouldn’t resent me for it if she chose not.
Neo stepped forward with a tablet and handed it to Haley. She took it and raised her eyebrows.
“Wow, you guys have done this before, huh? You have it all prepared and everything?”
“Yup. Just sign at the bottom.” Neo handed her a stylus.
“Oh, no no no. That’s not how this works.” She took the tablet but refused the stylus. “I’m gonna read this and I’m gonna amend a few things because I’m not crazy or naïve.”
I didn’t smirk or smile, but satisfaction settled into my gut. She’d thwarted Loki’s easiest play. Now the question came if she’d catch all his loopholes. I shot a look at Luke and Attila and raised my eyebrows. Luke shook his head, indicating he didn’t know what was in the clauses, while Attila raised a pint glass of beer, toasting either my choice in woman or her intelligence.
Most of the other members went back to their amusements while Haley read the contract, but I kept my attention focused on her, trying to sense what she read in the nuances of her expression. Loki chatted with Karma and Neo, though he kept his voice low as if any sharp noise would give away the pitfalls he’d built into the contract.
“Okay, I have a few changes and demands.” She sat up and fixed Loki with a firm look.
He waved his hand regally. “Please share them with us.”
“First, if I’m gonna be your freelance press liaison, I get full membership privileges of this club. If I’m supposed to know what I can and cannot tell the press, I can’t be going in blind.” She never looked away from Loki’s gaze but I felt her testing the waters with her statements.
“Agreed.” He nodded. “What else?”
“Second, I want my expenses covered. If I’m driving up here all the time, I need fuel and mileage covered for my vehicle. Snacks, too.”
A chuckle ran through the members watching the negotiation. It was hard to argue with snacks.
Loki grinned. “Fine.” He nodded to Neo. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, I’m my own person. As much as Viper, Calhoun or Quan-Yin. No one’s going to treat me like the honeys you have wandering around here. They signed up for that, I haven’t. Anyone violates that, I’m gone.”
He tilted his head thoughtfully, but smiled. “All right. Have you more demands?”
“Yeah, I get paid. Well enough to take the time away from my regular job. Well enough that if I get fired from my other job, I still can cover my monthly expenses.”
“Very well. Is that all?”
“That’s all I can think of.” She eyed Loki narrowly.
“Det er bra. Here are my additions. You will be required to live on site.”
While that made me happier than I expected, Haley frowned.
“But I work in Fort Collins. It’s a thirty minute drive on a good day.”
“You work for us, now, and you’ve become an investigative reporter. They travel a lot for work, ja?” Loki tilted his head as his gaze bored into her. “You will remain connected to your office through email, phones, social media, which we will monitor.”
“No, my email and phone are to be mine alone. I can’t be an effective investigative reporter if my sources don’t trust their anonymity.” She raised her chin and stared Loki down. I had to hand it to her, she never flinched though I suspected she knew with whom she dealt.
Loki huffed a short laugh with a half-smile and nodded. “Ja, okay, but you will have a club email assigned to you for club business and sensitive information. You will reveal none of our secrets or sensitive information that governs this club as it is considered club business and could endanger the lives of club members if revealed. In particular, that the club members are anything other than human. Failure to keep these secrets will result in immediate and permanent silencing.”
I swallowed hard just as Haley met my gaze. “Silencing?”
Loki nodded. “In any way we see fit.”
Haley licked her lips and bit the bottom one thoughtfully. “Okay, but I require the freedom to tell family should it impact those relationships.”
“You may tell one trusted family member.” Loki nodded regally. “Family is important, ja?”
He shot a look at me and I swore he winked, but no one else chuckled so I might have imagined it. But I did let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“Do you agree to these terms?”
We all stared at Haley, who’d grown more and more calculating as the negotiation went on. I suspected she weighed all the variables in an attempt to see all the pitfalls. But when making deals with Loki, no one ever saw the loophole until it’d closed around their neck.
“I agree to these terms.” She held out her hand and Loki’s grin widened uncomfortably.
“Are you asking me to shake on it?” Laughter rippled through the watching club members as Neo disappeared toward the offices to collect the printed contract and Loki’s special pen.
Haley shrugged. “That’s one way to seal a deal in front of witnesses.”
“Ja, it is one way. But in the Concrete Angels, we sign. In blood.”
Haley looked at me. I couldn’t read her expression and I desperately wanted to know what she was thinking. Was she debating if I was crazy? Or if I was worth all this trouble? I closed my hands into fists to hide my unease as she shifted her gaze away.
Neo returned with the papers and handed them to Haley. Loki took the pen as we watched her read over the contract carefully. Satisfaction settled into my chest. She was wise to make sure Loki hadn’t added anything to the contract on the sly.
When she finished, she again shot a look at me before she nodded. “The contract looks good. You’re serious about the blood?”
“Ja. It is always been this way. Then there is no forging the signature or pretending the agreement is invalid.” He held up the pen. “For either of us.”
Haley took the pen and considered our president. She nodded slowly then placed the pen on the paper and began to sign. But she hissed as it pricked her finger. Blood flowed from the tip of the pen onto the paper. “Shit, that hurts.”
“A little bit of pain for a lot of pleasure, ja?” Loki’s gaze slid to mine and I barely managed to keep my expression stoic.
She scowled but signed her name in her own blood on the paper. She handed the pen back to Loki who cleaned it with an alcohol wipe, and then signed his own name. The blood shimmered for a moment before settling into a dark red ink on the page.
“There. It is done. Welcome to the Concrete Angels.” He shifted toward his office.
“Hold on a moment. You better scan that puppy and get me a copy. That way we all know where we stand on this.” Haley pointed at the paper with her name in blood. “And I want it in full color.”
Neo smothered a smile as Loki grimaced and handed him the signed contract. “I’ll just get this scanned and emailed.”
“You picked a hard woman, Michael.” Loki’s sapphire blue gaze landed on mine.
I tilted my head, an unusual sense of pride and amusement filling me despite dealing with the God of Mischief. “Not hard, Loki. Wise, aware, and careful. As she should be when dealing with you.”
He snorted with grudging admiration and nodded. “Ja, it’s true.” He clapped his hands and smirked. “Good luck with that.”
I ignored the niggling worry his words incited as I caught Viper and Calhoun speaking to Haley. They appeared to be encouraging her and welcoming her to their ranks. Both women were human, but they’d known about the Elder Races of the club since their induction a couple of decades earlier. I hoped they offered her some solace in her choice because I wasn’t sure she’d made the best one for her.
After a bit, the last of the club members meandered away to find something else to do. Calhoun and Viper spoke to Haley for a few more moments, offering their congratulations or consolations, I couldn’t tell which. But eventually it was just us left in the main room of the clubhouse and I didn’t know how to start the conversation again.
“So you’re an actual angel.” Haley rubbed her hand on her jeans.
“Yes. Well, more than that, really. An archangel. You know, the Archangel Michael? That one.”
Her eyes widened and she blinked a couple of times. “Wait, you’re the Archangel Michael? The one people tell stories about in religious texts?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, that’s the one.”
She gave a short laugh. “You’re not serious.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Come on, you’re having me on.” She laughed again.
“No, Haley, I’m not. I’m the Archangel Michael.” I didn’t smile or tease and she slowly lost her grin.
“Sweet glory.”
Now I smirked. “Yeah, you did say that about my loving.”
“Shut up.”
“Perhaps I need to remind you. In case you’ve forgotten.” I reached out to help her stand. “I’d be happy to give you a refresher course right here and now.”
She eyed me with an air of curiosity and amusement. “I really did see wings at the museum, didn’t I?”
I nodded as I tugged her with me out of the clubhouse. “I daresay you did, though I’m not certain how. Most humans can’t see them at all unless I show them deliberately.”
“Maybe I’m just special.”
“Oh, there’s no question of that.” I tucked her against my side and brought her to my cabin. “I’m of a mind to show you just how special you are.”
She snorted as I let her inside but she paused in the entry and frowned. “Loki says I have to live here on site, according to the contract. Where will I stay?”
Rather than blurt out the first thing that came to mind, I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. “I’m hopeful you will stay here, with me.”
She set her bag down next to the comfy chair and hung up her jacket in the closet before she met my gaze.
“I read a lot of angel and demon paranormal romance. In some of them the angelic or demonic main character often knows their one-and-only mate soon after they see them and it becomes a fated mate thing.”
I swallowed hard as she stated my own knowledge.
“Does it work that way with you?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes. Would you like some tea?”
She blinked at me then laughed as she strung the security chain on the door. “Yes, I’d like some tea. Tea makes everything better.”
“That’s right.”
She pulled off her shoes and set them beside the door as I put the kettle on to boil. “You know, I just realized I’ve been drinking more tea than coffee since I met you. Maybe you’re rubbing off on me. Or your grace is.”
“I’d like to rub a lot more than my grace on you.” Maybe the tea could wait. I moved back into the living room to gather her into my arms, but she held up a hand.
“I’m sure you could rub more than your grace on me, but I’m still trying to get my mind around you being the Archangel Michael. That isn’t something I can just take in stride.” She moved past me to the kitchenette to set out two mugs. “Tea and talk first, rubbing grace later.”
I sighed and tried to rein in my desperate need for her. To help things along, I zapped the kettle with a little extra boost so it would boil faster and soon she poured the water into the mugs. She handed me one as she returned to the living room and we both sat down on the loveseat.
“Okay, I’m trying to understand who you are. Everyone knows what an angel looks like and generally what they’re purported to do. The holy books are full of stories of, well, you and your...kind? Siblings? Friends?” She grimaced and sipped her tea a moment, gathering her thoughts. “I guess what it comes down to is why. Why are you here, why with a notorious and not particularly ‘good’ biker club, and why me?”
I could have answered flippantly, spinning a fun tale to get her to smile, but I recognized I could also lose her in an attempt to deflect her questions. I took a few moments to sort through the answers she needed versus the answers I could give. But she was my One-and-Only, and that gave her privileges beyond the norm.
“You don’t ask simple questions, do you?”
“I’m a reporter. Simple questions don’t get me the answers I want.”
“Oh, I’ll give you what you want and more, but first the answers to your questions.”
She snorted and shot me a dry look as she sipped her tea. I took my own fortifying sip.
“I’m here to balance the chaotic neutral that is Loki Odinsson. Now that you know who I am, I’m sure you recognize who Luke is. We’re the weights on either end of the balance beam resting on Loki’s pivot point.”
Haley swallowed. “So Loki is the Loki from Norse legend?”
I nodded.
“And since you’re the Archangel Michael, then Luke is...is...”
“Luke is my older brother, the darkness to my light, balancing out my strengths.”
Her eyes widened. “Does he have wings, too? Big, leathery bat wings? And horns and a tail?”
I laughed as I recalled Luke dressing up in a cheesy Devil’s costume for Samhain.
“No, he’s an angel, like me, with a great set of feathered wings. No horns or tail, though I reckon he could wear them for effect. I suspect my brother takes on the appearance each being needs to see when the time comes.”
Haley nodded slowly, her thumbs rubbing her mug. “That’s why you’re both here with the Concrete Angels?”
“Yes. No one is all angelic good.” I winked and some of her unease slipped away. “Nor are they all demonic evil. The apparent bad things the club is into are balanced out by the good things they do.”
“What good things do they do?”
“Is this an interview, Haley? Do you want a rundown of our charitable donations?”
She grimaced and ducked her head. “No, not really. I’m just trying to figure out how actual angels come to be in a motorcycle club in Fort Collins, Colorado.” She frowned. “How does that work, exactly? What about all the people who pray to the Archangel Michael? How do you help them if you’re here?”
“How does Santa Claus visit every home at Yule?”
She snorted. “Santa Claus doesn’t exist.”
“Doesn’t he? Yesterday, you might have said the same thing about angels.”
Haley opened her mouth but closed it as my words filtered into her understanding.
“What do you really want to know, love?”
“I want to know if this is a big joke. If you’re just having me on. I know what I saw, but in my world, those sorts of things are products of hallucinogenic drugs and imagination. If you’re really the Archangel Michael, you always have to save the world. That’s your job, isn’t it?” She set her mug down and rose, pacing away from me with her fists tight at her sides. “I want to know if I’m always going to come second to everyone else.”
I set my mug beside hers and stood. Then I held my hand out to her. “Come with me, love.”
She let out a big sigh and took my hand, but followed me willingly enough into the bedroom. I never thought I’d have to prove my devotion—I was the Archangel Michael, for the Goddess’s sake, no one was more devout than me—but Haley was human and had learned angels existed for real. Normal rules no longer applied. We were in new territory and neither of us had any idea of how things were supposed to go.
I drew her to the bed and had her sit down before I shut the door and turned to face her.
“I know you think I’ll always be on call, like a doctor or a firefighter, but the magic of prayers and angels doesn’t quite work like that.” I shrugged out of my cut and tossed it in the closet. “Their prayers are heard and answered, though not always in the way they expect, and I’m rarely required to make a physical appearance.”
I removed my shirt next and her gaze riveted to my chest. My cock responded with the kind of salute I’d come to expect when around Haley, and I didn’t bother to hide it from her.
“You keep looking at me like that and this explanation will get cut short.”
Her gaze jerked to mine. “It’s not my fault a hot guy is getting undressed in front of me. What, am I supposed to pretend I’m not interested? Heh, not gonna happen.”
I grinned. “I like to hear that.”
She snorted. “Doesn’t change my interest in your explanation.”
“There’s not much else to tell.” I shrugged as I unbuttoned my jeans. “When I’m with you, my attention is on you. Only you.” I dropped my jeans and let my cock support my statement with emphatic punctuation.