Waking up alone was not only confusing, but also upsetting after the huge step that Bryan and I had taken the night before.

Slowly I got out of bed and was shocked at exactly how sore I actually was. I mean I knew it had been a long time but damn.

Not to mention the fact that Bryan wasn't exactly lacking in the downstairs department.

I limped my way to his bathroom and turned on the shower, knowing that the hot water will at least help a little with my sore and cramped muscles.

I sighed contently as the hot water instantly relaxed all of my muscles. It was a struggle but I made myself actually get clean instead of standing under the hot water doing nothing for twenty minutes.

After while I shut off the water and dried myself in a fluffy towel before grabbing my robe that was nearby, putting that on cause I didn't feel like dealing with clothes. And before anyone asks, no it's not one of those silly, sexy robes. It's a longer fluffy robe that I absolutely adore.

I sat on the bed playing Candy Crush on my phone while I waited for Bryan to get back. I knew that he was doing club business and that it was urgent since he left without waking me up, but I was growing bored the longer I waited.

Giving up on the game after I lost all my lives, I looked around his room for something to occupy myself with. There wasn't much; there was only a guitar in the corner but sadly my few talents do not include anything musical.

Deciding to just give up and actually leave the room, I got dressed in something that wasn't my robe before venturing out of the room. Thankfully I wasn't as sore so I wasn't limping as I walked down the stairs and up to the bar where I saw Lilly sitting.

"Hey Scarlett!" She chirped as soon as she saw me. I smiled.

"Hey Lilly, where's Ripper?"

"He's talking with dad. They've been in his office for awhile now. Hacker and Spider are in there now too," she explained.

I nodded curiously but shook it off as Smiles placed a heaping plate of pancakes right in front of me. I raised my eyebrow as I gave him a look.

"What? You always as for pancakes anyways," he teased.

Key sat down next to me and immediately Smiles frowned and went back to tending to other people at the bar. Confused, I turned to Key to see if he had noticed to see him already staring intensely at the other boy.

"You know what that was about?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I was overstepping a line or not but curse me and my big mouth.

He sighed and turned to me. I could see that he seemed to be fighting with himself on the inside but regardless he gave me a bright smile and told me to not worry about it before he walked away, leaving me even more confused.

I shrugged and took a large bite of my pancakes.

Food is the best therapy.

________________________

"So we move out tonight?" Spider asked after we had gone over the plans. I nodded.

"The best way to catch her is if we get her off guard. She won't be expecting us to even know that she's here. If we move our tonight we have the element of surprise with us."

"What if she reaches us before we reach her?"

"If she gets to the club first than she will be outnumbered even more, with even more weapons on our side than that woman could even dream of. Plus she probably wouldn't even be able to lay a hand on anyone before we got to her first," Ripper stated.

Throughout this whole meeting he was almost completely silent, only speaking here and there. I knew that he was remembering what that woman did to him. From experience with watching what Lilly went through, I could tell that his memories were going haywire. It made me want to kill this bitch even sooner and be done with her.

My bloodlust reminded me of when Ripper first did a job for the club, and came back covered in someone else's blood.

"Ripper!" I yelled. The young boy turned and looked at me. I could see that he was about two seconds away from killing the woman that was trying to get his attention and praised myself silently for my timing.

Immediately he stood up and followed me to my office.

Shutting the door behind us, I gestured for him to take a seat.

"Did I do something wrong Alpha?" He asked. Poor guy was so confused.

I chuckled. "No, quite the opposite actually. You see, even though you're only a prospect right now, a lot of the guys have been wanting to take you on jobs with them recently. And I figured that I would ask you first before just sending you off," I explained.

For the first time since he had gotten to the club, he smiled. Although, it looked more sinister than anything.

"What would I be doing?"

"Well, how would you feel about getting information out of someone for us?"

He smirked. I knew this kid had a thirst for blood, but I actually had yet to know the extent that he was willing to go.

"Who, where, and when?"

~~~~~

"Yo Alpha!" Butcher called as he walked back into the clubhouse hours after he and Ripper had left to go do the interrogation.

I set my beer down and raised my eyebrow at Ripper, who was covered head to toe in blood.

"This kid is fucking insane! He got information out of him in no time, plus some!" Butcher gushed, I could tell that after this day he would want Ripper going on all of the missions with them, which only patched members usually get to participate in.

Ripper grinned when I made eye contact with him, only serving to prove what I already knew about him.

This kid enjoyed killing.

"Well," I started. I lifted up my glass and finished off the rest of my beer before standing up, turning to face the two men before me. Butcher already knew what I was about to say, but I could tell that Ripper was slightly confused.

"What do you say we officially patch in our new killer?"

That night Ripper became an official member of the club, taking an oath that all patched members before him have taken. From then on out he has only proved time and time again that patching him in was the right decision. He did absolutely anything for the club, and it was time to repay him by taking care of the only person that still haunts him to this day.

And knowing that he probably went through worse than what Lilly did, made it even worse for me to think about.

I looked at the time and saw that it was already 2pm.

"Get ready. In four hours we'll move out. Make sure everyone is geared up and ready to go by then. We need to have the handcuffs and everything on our side. If we can help it, do not kill her. We want to torture this bitch for everything that she's done first," I chuckled darkly. The more and more I spoke the angrier everyone in the room seemed to get. They weren't angry at me, they were angry at Rippers mother.

"Myself, Ripper, Spider, Ace, and Key will be going. I do not know for sure if she is armed, but I would assume so. With that being said make sure you men put on your bulletproof vests because we do not need to risk anyone getting injured if we can help it. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Yes Prez."

"Sure thing Alpha."

"Where is Key?"

We all looked around and saw that Key was indeed missing.

"Is he out near the bar?" I asked. Spider rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I'll go look for him," he said as he stood up and walked out of my office. I shook my head with a smile, but on the inside I was worried.

How was Ripper going to react to seeing her again?

_____________________

After getting Key and informing him of what was going to happen, we dismissed from my office and the five of us went downstairs to socialize before we left.

Ripper immediately went to Lilly but I stopped him before they could disappear down to their room together.

"Can I talk with her for a minute?" I asked.

He nodded reluctantly and Lilly followed me to a secluded area where I knew no one was listening.

"Is everything alright?" She asked.

I shook my head. "I'm going to need you to be the first person he sees when we get back. I don't know how he is going to react to seeing his mother again but I know that as long as he has you he will be able to work through it. And honestly you are probably one of the few people here who can actually relate to some of the things that happened to him. I care about this man Lilly and I know damn well that you do to, so I'm going to need you to be waiting for us to get back. He's going to need your comfort. Can you do that for me please?" I asked. I knew she was going to do it either way but I wanted to make sure. Ripper meant a lot to the club, and now that he was my future son-in-law my protectiveness over him had only grown.

She smiled and hugged me tightly. "Honestly if you would have told me no to waiting for all of you I wouldn't have listened anyways. I planned on it from the start," she laughed. I chuckled and wrapped my arms tightly around her, giving her a small squeeze before letting her go.

"You make me so proud," I told her softly.

She laughed but I could see her eyes get slightly watery.

"It's all thanks to you guys dad. I don't know where I would be without you."

I blinked before my eyes got too watery and laughing, we walked out of our little area with our arms hooked together, and smiles on our faces.

The next person I saw was Scarlett. And to my luck she was already staring at me with a gaze that made me want to take her right up to my room and not come back for hours. I rolled my eyes when I noticed Miranda nudge her with her elbow before she went over to join Jessie and Kali.

Lilly broke off from me and went to join Ripper as they continued down to their room. However I continued my journey up to the bar before I stopped right in front of Scarlett, smiling down at her as she craned her neck to look all the way up at me.

She smiled and wrapped her arms around me, laying her head on my chest as she pulled me close.

I leaned down and buried my face in her hair. I could feel the eyes of the guys around us, but I didn't care enough to shoo them away. Her touch did wonders to calm me down, cooling my skin and erasing the anger from my heart.

This is definitely how I would love to spend the rest of my life. Right here, with this woman in my arms.