Page 2 of Knot my First Rodeo

“You haven’t talked to him in years. What the hell could he want?” I ask. Hunter went to school with us, but after graduation, he moved to Virginia and joined the local MC there. He’s too busy with club life and his brothers to keep in touch, so the fact that he’s calling now is strange. In fact, I didn’t think he even still had Tripp’s number.

“No clue,” he shrugs, still holding the phone.

“Well, answer the damn thing,” I bark.

Tripp accepts the call and puts it on speakerphone, so we can all hear whatever it is Hunter has called for. “Hello?”

“Hey, T-dog, it’s Nitro.”

“Nitro?” I mouth, trying to suppress the laugh that is bubbling out of my throat. I forgot that the MC gives all its members road names. Usually they make sense, but I’m not sure where they got Nitro from. Tripp shrugs, a look that mimics mine on his face.

“Hunter?” he asks.

“Yeah, man. Nitro is my road name. Only my sister calls me Hunter now.”

“I won’t be calling you Nitro. Sorry, man. It’s just weird to call you a nickname I didn’t give you or know its origins,” Tripp tells him.

“Actually, that’s a funny story. So, this one night we were—,” Hunter starts, but my cousin doesn’t let him finish.

“Hunter. What do you want? I’m not trying to be a dick, but we haven’t spoken in years, and I’m kinda busy right now.”

“Well, alright then. Ya see, the club is going into lockdown and while everyone else’s family is comin’ here, my sister can’t. Well, more like won’t. She was seein’ one of the prospects, and caught him with a club whore. That didn’t go over so well, and now she said there's no way in hell she’s comin’ ‘round anymore. So I need someplace for her to stay until lockdown is over, and I was hopin’ she could stay with you?” Hunter rambles as the three of us just stare at each other in confusion.

We’ve never met his sister. All I know is that she is younger than us and a mouthy little shit. I remember Hunter bitching about her all the time when we were teenagers.

“We don’t need no trouble. You’ll have to find somewhere else. Whatever your club got into, you all can deal with,” Briggs tells him gruffly.

“Briggs,” Hunter grinds out. “The club isn’t in trouble, just our Prez’s omega. She’s got someone lookin’ for her, and they’re not good people. My sister won’t come here ‘cause of a prospect, and she’s an omega, so she can’t stay with just anyone. We ain’t talked in a while, but I know she’d be safe with you. I can drop her off next week. Please.” His voice goes tight, words coming faster than they should, like he’s trying to get it all out before we hang up.

“No. You’ll have to find som—” Briggs begins, but I reach over and smack him in the back of his head.

“Omega,” I whisper.

“Hunter, can you give us a minute to discuss, and I’ll call you right back?” Tripp asks.

“Yeah. Just don’t take too long. I need to get this figured out, and quickly.” He hangs up, and the three of us are left standing together, just staring at the phone.

Chapter

Two

Briggs

What in the hell is Clint thinking, even contemplating letting some strange omega come here? We don’t need any trouble, and taking in Hunter’s little sister, who has ties to a motorcycle club, is definitely asking for trouble. We have the ranch to worry about, and if I lose my edge because I’m babysitting some omega, I’ll be the one eating dirt come the first stop on the circuit.

“We don’t need no omega coming here and bringing trouble with her.” I grab the last bag of feed from the truck and throw it on the pallet. “We got enough going on with the ranch and keeping in shape for the next circuit. Last thing I need is distractions when I’ve got a steer to drop in under five seconds.”

“He said she’s not the trouble, it’s the President’s omega. We’ve been looking for an omega. What if this is the universe’s way of setting us up to complete our pack?” Clint argues.

We file out of the corn crib and head to the tool shed. It's routine for us when there’s a storm coming our way to make sure we have extra fuel for the generator.

“Yeah, and what kind of alphas would we be if we turned away an omega in need?” Tripp pipes up.

“An omega who won’t listen to her older brother is not what we need around here. We already have Tripp, who listens about as well as the kids who visited the Wonka factory,” I growl.

“This is a pack, and we decided when we made our pack that we would treat it as a democracy. Therefore, I think we should take a vote. If you want to tell Hunter his sister can come here, raise your hand.” Clint raises his hand after he asks, and so does Tripp.

“I vote no.” I raise my hand.