Page 36 of Brutal Reign
She sucks in a shallow drag before handing it off to Ace, turning her head to blow the smoke right in my fucking face. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, boys,” she purrs, her ponytail smacking me in the face as she pivots on a heel and steps down off the curb.
My hands curl into fists at my sides as I push away from the wall, ready to go the fuck off, but then River walks right up to that vintage Indian and plucks the helmet off the back, my brain short-circuiting. It feels like time moves in slow motion asI turn to meet Ace’s eyes. We exchange a look, and my stomach bottoms out.
Since when do we keep secrets from one another?
Ace is the one person I trust implicitly. He’s always watching– while I bask in the spotlight, he thrives in the shadows– so there’s no way in hell he didn’t know that bike belongs to her. The realization that he chose to conceal it only highlights my own unease over not telling him about what happened in the locker room last night, and suddenly, it feels as though everything I thought I knew is slowly starting to crumble down around me.
Ace and I are a rock-solid team, but River Jacobsen is the wrecking ball that threatens to demolish it all.
“Do you even know how to ride that thing?” I sneer, aiming my anger in her direction as she swings a leg over the motorcycle and settles onto the seat.
“Duh,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes as she plonks the helmet onto her head.
I stride toward her, jaw locked and shoulders bunched tight. “Where’d you get it?”
“Family heirloom,” she replies flippantly.
“Does it even run?”
She glances over at my crotch rocket with a smirk. “A lot better than yours, I’ll bet. How many times have you sloughed off maintenance and blown up the engine?”
The vein in my neck throbs as I clench my jaw tighter, hating the way this girl has always been able to call me on my shit. “Care to test that theory?” I challenge, my voice a low growl. “C’mon, I’ll race ya.”
River rolls her eyes, dismissing me with a wave as she turns at the waist and starts up her bike.
“Dare you!” I call out over the roar of the engine, and I know she hears me because her spine goes rigid.
“C’mon, Seb, we just toked,” Ace sighs, knowing full well that with how wound up I am, this’ll only end badly.
“I had one hit, you know as well as I do that a single hit doesn’t do fuck all to shifters,” I growl back at him, my eyes still on River’s back. “Well?” I call out to her.
She slowly turns to look back at me over her shoulder, a smirk playing at the corner of her lips. “Fine.”
“Fuck,” Ace mutters under his breath, but there’s nothing he can do to stop this from happening now. I’ve never backed down from a challenge in my fucking life, and I can’t wait for River to eat her words when I wipe the floor with her.
A heady spike of adrenaline spears through me, excitement pulsing through my veins as I jog over to my bike and throw a leg over the seat. By the time I’ve pulled my helmet on and started it up, River’s already backing out of the parking spot, no doubt trying to give herself a head start. She’ll need it. My Kawasaki tops out at speeds she probably can’t even fathom, and I’ve only blown the engine once by trying to exceed it,thank you very much.
River peels out of the parking lot, and my wolf pushes forward the moment I shove off after her. Speeding through the forest on a motorcycle is a lot like shifting to my animal form– the rush I get is similar, and it seems to satisfy my wolf in the same way a run does. Maybe even more. He’s coiled with just as much anticipation as I am when I pull in the clutch and release the throttle, gaining speed on River as she pulls onto the main street, then predictably veers onto the road that leads up to Pine Mountain.
I’ve driven it before. River used to talk it up, boasting about motorcycle rides she took with her dad, so as soon as I got my own bike, Pine Mountain was one of my first destinations. The road up is narrow and winding, but I’ve driven it enough times that I’m familiar with the blueprint. I know when to accelerate,when to ready myself to lean into the curves. The steep drop-offs don’t make me nervous; they excite me.
I didn’t fully anticipate how well River would know this road, though. She flies around the turns ahead of me, handling her bike effortlessly. Based on the specs of our motorcycles alone, she shouldn’t even be a contender in this race, but she manages to keep ahead of me despite my best efforts.
I can’t let her win.
The final curve before the peak is the riskiest, the road clinging to a cliffside so narrow that it’s unfathomable to try to pass her on it. So naturally, that’s exactly what I do. She yells out to me as I hit the throttle, my tires gripping the pavement as I swing out in an effort to skirt around her. The last thing I see before she hits the brakes and eats my dust is the panicked look in her hazel eyes, and less than a minute later, the road bottoms out at the crest of Pine Mountain and I’m basking in my victory.
River pulls in right behind me, skidding to a stop as I remove my helmet and ease off the seat of my bike, a shit-eating grin plastered across my face. She hops off her own motorcycle, and a laugh tumbles from my chest as she yanks her helmet off and stomps in my direction.
“What the fuck, Seb?!” she snarls, hurling the helmet toward me.
I dodge out of the way, still laughing while I bask in the taste of sweet, sweet victory. “What? Don’t be a sore loser.”
“Sore loser?” she repeats, huffing and puffing as she closes the distance between us. “You could’ve fucking killed us, you maniac!” She slaps her palms against my chest, shoving me back a step.
“Calm down,” I laugh, stumbling as she comes at me again and shoves me even harder.
“What the hell is your damage? Do you have a fucking death wish?!”