Reign (Riders of Apollo #1)

Chapter 5: Peyton Lennox

Okay, so turning up at an MC in the middle of the afternoon to remove a bullet from a God incarnate is not the way I thought I would spend my day.

I'm not mad at it.

His skin was soft and emanates warmth. His strength is undeniable since he didn't even wince, though he was pissed at me for jabbing him with needles with no warning. The reason why I need a drink though is not because of the blood or the bullets, it's the abs and the biceps and the voice.

I need to hold myself together because I was seriously thinking about jumping a bleeding man's bones. I don't even think I'd regret it to be honest. The way his eyes lingered on my face just excites me, he likes to watch me just as I like to study him.

I think we're a lot a like, not in terms of personality. We're both fighters, held together by our trade and we couldn't think of doing anything else. I think that's why he wasn't scared, he knew going in that he could've been shot but he did so anyway. For his brotherhood and for that I admire him.

I've never had to fight for anything besides my own survival. Never a family or an ideal, just myself. But as they say, never trust a survivor until you find out what they did to survive and trust me when I say even he would be disgusted to find out about my past.

I struggle to reminisce myself.

It takes on a dark cast every time, overshadowing everything I thought was real. It's always distorted and warped, hard to understand and all I can taste is blood, all I can hear is breaking bones. So I try to avoid it at all costs. 

Distraction is key.

Runner hands me a vodka on the rocks and I stick my hand in and remove the ice, throwing it into the sink before knocking back the entire thing. "Why did you take the ice out?" Gears asks, his head tilted as he studies me.

"Waters it down." I lick my lips and drop my glass on the bar, "Anyway, here's extra bandage and gauze and I find this cream to be the best for bullet wounds. It keeps them sealed so you can take the bandages off earlier."

"Thanks." I nod at him with a soft smile and accept an embrace from Lexie.

"Thank you for saving his life, Peyton." Bear claps my shoulder in respect and I bow my head to accept the gesture.

"Hold on, I don't even know your name." I spin back around in my chair and fix him with an expectant glare.

"Reign."

"It was a pleasure to save your life, Reign. Though keep it to a minimum or I'll start charging for it." He smiles and nods. "I should probably head off." I stand and just as I'm about to move off a hand clasps around my wrist.

Even a small touch lights my body up and I look over my shoulder at Reign. His eyes are soft and almost begging me not to leave yet. "Stay for dinner!" Lexie demands while him and I continue to stare at each other. I snap out of it first and focus on Lexie, she looks so excited to have a girl over so I agree to stay for dinner.

I don't even know what we're having but within seconds I'm swept away to a different room, Lexie having dragged me there. "My dad insisted that I have room for when I have girlfriends over, thing is I've never actually had to use it."

"Really? But you're so nice, surely you have loads of friends." I drop onto the blush pink sofa and sigh as it reaches out and drags me into its comfy depths. I'm definitely not moving for awhile.

"They come for the bikers, I never realise it until they just up and leave. It gets easier to deal with when it's happened eleven times."

"You're joking" I lean forward in my seat and tug her to sit next to me.

"I don't even know how it happened. My maid of honour at my wedding was Rubble."

"I never really had many friends in general let alone girlfriends. They always seemed to want something, I don't know, I stopped trying a little while ago."

"Well we have each other now, so cheers to that." I laugh considering we don't have any drinks to cheers with. I figured that what she meant by staying for dinner was having a meal with her family when it actually meant they order pizza and she steals some for us. 

I certainly don't mind, love me some pizza. 

"No!" I start laughing so hard that I slide off the sofa onto the floor, "I can't believe you!" I manage to squeeze out, I dash out of the room with her on my tail. Everybody is in the bar and I bypass them and lean against the wall while I'm still laughing.

"It wasn't that bad!" She squeals which makes me laugh even harder.

"Oh my God, please shut up. I can't breathe!" I wheeze and raise my head to gulp in some air. I would've loved to have known her when she was younger, it's weird to think she was right around the corner from me for years and we didn't run into each other once.

"Daddy! Make her stop." She begs playfully and tugs on his arm. "She's laughing at me!"

"You're making it worse for yourself." Gears squeezes her hand while I lean against the bar, finally having gained my breath back.

"We came out here for something, what was it?" I hope she remembers because I forgot the minute she told me that story about her biting some guy's dick when she was younger.

"Wine." I jump the bar and look through all of them like I have a clue what I'm doing. One, I'm already drunk since we've been through two bottles and two, I don't normally drink wine.

"Okay, I need your help. I don't have a clue what I'm looking for." She walks around like a normal human and searches through the bottles for a decent one and cheers when she does. She undoes the cap and drinks straight from the bottle. "Okay, damn. Chill out." I snatch the bottle back and eye her suspiciously, she just grins back.

"Baby, don't you think you've had enough to drink?" Bear asks her and Lex spins around and fixes him with a look.

"I have done this in years, honey. I just wanna have fun with my friend." She pouts and her husband gives in immediately, I yelp when she drags me into the side of the bar. "Oops sorry!"

"I think you just broke my hip!"