Chapter 4 Zane

Zane POV

The meeting room smelled like stale smoke, old leather, and restless wolves.

I sat at the head of the long table with my arms crossed, the PREZ patch heavy on my chest like a reminder of every rule I'd ever made. My split knuckles ached under the table. The wood in front of me was scarred from years of fists and knife tips, every mark a decision somebody had regretted, and I'd never once thought I'd be the next one to sit here regretting.

The brothers were talking about the last shipment, the safe, tightening security on the cash. Words, numbers, plans. Normally I caught every figure. I'd built this table on details, on knowing who owed what and who was lying about it. Tonight I heard none of it.

All I heard was her. Ember.

Out there behind the bar in that cropped top and those shorts that barely covered her ass. Every sway of her hips, every laugh she handed some prospect, hit me like a fist to the gut. Little sister. I'd said it like a warning, and the warning was for me.

My wolf clawed at my ribs. I was thick and aching against my zipper, and when I shifted in the chair to hide it, it didn't help. Every wolf at this table had a nose. I kept my face blank and my breathing slow.

The door to the main room stood cracked open. Under the music and clinking glasses I heard her voice, low and sassy, teasing some brother who'd gotten too close.

Then Colt's boots hit the floor hard. I tensed.

His voice cracked across the bar. "Ember!" The room went quiet for a second.

Her answer came light and defiant. "Hey, bro."

"What the hell are you wearing?"

My jaw locked. Colt got louder. "You hid that under a jacket to fool me? You think I'm stupid?"

Max tried to step in. "Colt, she's doing fine."

Colt cut him off, yelling now. "Why the fuck did you let her pour for the whole floor? I said keep her behind the counter! Don't let her flirt! Don't let anyone near her!"

Around the table the brothers traded looks. Someone muttered, "Trouble." I didn't care. All I cared about was her.

Through the gap in the door I could pick out her heartbeat under the noise, fast and furious, a drum only my wolf seemed to hear. Leo glanced toward the door, then at me, and quickly looked away. Whatever he saw on my face, he didn't want it.

I could picture it: her standing there with her chin up and green eyes flashing, refusing to back down. That cropped top baring her stomach, the shorts hugging her thighs, her nipples probably tight under the fabric because she knew I was close.

I gripped the table edge until the wood groaned.

Colt's voice dropped, but not enough. "You think you can dress like that? Show your body to every prospect and brother in here? Smile and flirt like you're free?"

Her reply came fast and sharp. "I am free, Colt. I'm an adult. I wear what I want. I serve who I want."

"You're my sister. You're not some club girl."

"And I'm not your little kid either. Stop treating me like one."

Not some club girl. He was right about that, and it was the worst part. A club girl I could have looked at and walked away from. Ember was the one thing in this building I couldn't treat like anything casual.

The meeting dragged on. Ryker said something about rogues sniffing around the cash drop, then stopped and looked at me, waiting for the call. I hadn't heard the question. I gave a grunt and a nod, the kind a president can get away with, and he moved on. I only heard Colt through the open door, rising, angry, possessive.

Then Ember, loud and furious. "Stop protecting me! I already told you, those days are gone!"

My fangs dropped a fraction. I forced them back. Leo was talking now, about passcodes and safes and security.

I stared at the table, but my mind was out at that bar. Imagining Colt's hand on her wrist. His face close to hers. That too-protective tone he always used with her. Mine.

I remembered her in that doorway last night, wet and bare and not looking away. She hadn't reached for the towel. She'd let me look. That memory was going to be the death of me.

Colt was being too harsh on her, and it was hurting me.

"Prez, you good?" Leo asked.

"Continue," I said.

But my wolf was done listening. He wanted to storm out of the room, kick the door wide, rip Colt's hand off her, pin her to the wall, and knot her so deep she'd never forget who she belonged to.

I wasn't going to make it through this meeting. I wasn't going to make it through the night.

And Colt. God, Colt. One of my officers, the man I'd trusted at my back for years, the one who guarded his sister harder than he guarded the safe. I was sitting at my own table planning to take the one thing he'd never let anyone near.

I'd written the law to keep the pack strong. One rule broken by the man who made it, and this room would start weighing every other rule I'd ever set. Wolves follow a leader who doesn't bend. I knew that better than anyone, and I knew exactly what it would cost me if the pack ever smelled my doubt.

But Ember Kane was breaking it, one look at a time, and I was letting her.

No. I was helping her.

Because the second I got her alone again, I wasn't stopping at touches and stares. I was going to claim her. Knot her. Mark her.

And fuck the law.

Fuck Colt. Fuck everything. She was mine, and I was done pretending otherwise.