--<3--
Gunner sat on the side of his bed. Athena had got her own room this time. She was probably still sleeping soundly, Gunner thought with a smile. The sun hadn't risen yet, but Gunner had woke up alerted while his dogs lay next to his bed, all sleeping.
Gunner knew today would be a hard day. His parents were responsible for so many feelings in him, and he was eager to let them know just how much he hated them. They had destroyed his life and lied to his siblings and family that he had run away of his free will. He wondered why any parents would do that to their children. He was so angry that they had striped his education away from him. They hadn't given him a chance to see his siblings grow up and now he was an uncle without even knowing it before.
Standing up, he walked over to the window in his room. He could see the mountains in the distance, the same mountains he saw when he was little, but still, this felt different. Today was the day he would know the truth, the one thing he had wanted to know in ten years. What was he going to do after this? Since that day, he had hated his whole family for abandoning him, and after this, he needed to let things go. He knew that. Something that had bugged him so long was going to disappear, and he was a bit scared of that feeling.
Gunner knew that he couldn't be angry at his siblings or cousins now when he knew the truth. They did all think he had left them without a word. But forgiving his parents was something he didn't think he ever could.
Suddenly his phone went off. Gunner turned around and picked it up to see Wyatt's number.
"Hello, Gunner speaking," He answered and got a chuckle from the other side.
"Hello, Gunner. I heard what happened. How is it going?" Wyatt asked, and Gunner sat down on his bed. The dogs had now woken up thanks to the phone going off and were now stretching.
"It is going forward. Meet my younger siblings yesterday. They seemed scared about the mc cut. Should I take it off today?" Gunner asked, leaning back.
"That depends on what you are going to do today," Wyatt answered truthfully.
"Meeting my monsters to parents, got to know yesterday that they lied to my family and probably everyone in town that I had runaway of free will," Gunner said with hatred dripping from his words.
"Then keep it on. They should be scared the moment they see you. They are lying bastards, and they don't deserve to be spared the fear," Wyatt said with a wave of anger. Since they were from the same mc, they were like brothers and hated others when they hurt one in the brotherhood.
"Do you want me to ask Ryder to hack into their computer and give them something bad to bite into?" Wyatt asked mischievously. With a smile, Gunner chuckled.
"No thanks, I can handle this pretty good myself, and if anything happens, I do have Athena that can kick anyone's ass," Gunner joked as Wyatt was smirking on the other side of the line.
"Speaking of the pretty lady, how is it going for the two of you?" He asked, and Gunner could imagine the smirk all the way to him. Gunner couldn't help but smile when he thought back on her saying okay to go on a date with him.
"Well, after a short and not so much of a fight, she said yes to a date with me. I kissed her a few days ago while drunk, not one of my proudest moments," Gunner said and petted Tie's head as he walked over to his owner.
"Congrats, man. If she put up with you as drunk, she's a keeper," Wyatt joked. It made Gunner laugh a little. He already knew she was a keeper but hearing his best friend say it made it real.
"I know," He just answered.
After a few minutes of talking about work, he and his friend ended the call, and Gunner decided to go out with his dogs. The sun was starting to go up, and they started to become restless.
The walk wasn't bad, people around the city were rushing around while others already had started to work. When Gunner came back to the motel, he went over to Athena's door and knocked on it. He heard some shuffling behind it before it opened up, reviling Athena with wet hair. She held a towel in her hand and began to dry her long locks.
"Morning biker, going on a walk?" She asked and looked down at the three dogs sitting by the tall man.
"Nope, already been out with them wanted to see if you were ready to eat some breakfast before going," Gunner said, and Athena wrinkled her forehead.
"Why up so early, are you a morning person?" Athena asked.
"Sometimes yeah, it's just easier to do stuff in the morning at the mc when everyone is sleeping," Gunner answered. Athena smiled light.
"Sounds logical, will be out in five," She lastly said before closing the door. Gunner went to the door next to hers to let the dogs in. He put his long hair up in a bun and put the cut on before packing the few things he had packed up the night before.
When he was all done in the room, he took the bag and the dogs out to the car. While getting them into their cages, Athena turned up and put her bag into the car.
"Ready for breakfast now," She said. While walking into the dining room, Gunner couldn't help but look down at the perfect ass Athena had. All he wanted to do was to slap it and see her reaction. But when Gunner came to his senses, he almost walked right into Athena when she stopped at the end of the breakfast line.
The breakfast was uneventful, and it didn't take long before they finished up and went out to the car again. When they sat in their seats, Gunner looked at the digital clock in the car. 8:56. They should be awake now, and if not, they sure will be soon.
Neither of them spoke on the drive to Gunner's parents. He knew the way, and every kilometer closer he came made his stomach ache even more. He felt sick and angry. It almost felt like going to war, the same feeling he had the first time he had to kill someone or the same feeling he had all those years ago when his parent threw him out like trash.
Once he was outside his childhood house, he almost saw red. This was the place he never wanted to go back to. The house was big with 8 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. The front yard looked even more perfect now than ten years later, and it was four cars outside the house already parked perfectly in a line.
"This is it?" Athena asked, looking out at the white house. They saw the family sitting in the kitchen having breakfast together, almost like every other family.
"Yeah," Gunner groans out. Athena put a hand over his hand, a bit unsure.
"I am here, give me the signal, and I will kick their asses for you," She said, and Gunner couldn't help but appreciate the strong woman next to him. They got out of the truck and let the dogs out. Gunner was aiming to scare the living hell out of his parents. The mc cut was clearly visible, and he had on sunglasses. The few tattoos he had were on full display, and his whole aura screamed danger. The two of them walked up to the door and Gunner knocked hard three times.
It took some time before the door flies open and showed a young girl, maybe ten. She was staring up at the two of them with wide eyes, this threw Gunner off guard. While looking at the girl, he took his glasses off to get a better look at her. While he did, a woman steps out of the kitchen. Gunner looked up at the woman and saw his cousin Ally stare at Gunner.
"Who are you?" She asked, sounding scared as she pushed her little girl behind her. Athena laid her head to the side to get a better look into the house.
"Ally, it's me, Gunner. I'm here to speak to my parents, "Gunner said sternly. Ally took a closer look at the biker and indeed, under all that beard she saw a replica of Jacob.
"Oh god, Gunner?" Trissa said as she came out of the dining room. This made more and more people come out to look at the lost son. Without him being able to react, Trissa had thrown her arms around him in a big hug. Gunner didn't expect this, he felt her pregnant stomach against him. He hugged her closely, not wanting to hurt her.
"Look at you Trissa, pregnant and all," Gunner looked down saying to his sister. She smiled and placed her hands on her stomach. Her eyes wandered all over Gunner and suddenly saw the cut he was wearing, her smile fell.
"What have you gotten yourself into?" She asked, horrified. Trissa hadn't noticed the woman standing behind Her brother yet.
"Gunner?" A deep voice said from the back of the mass of people staring at him. Two people pushed themself forward. Right in front of Gunner stod his mother and father staring disbelievingly at their now really tall and dangerous son.
"What have you done with yourself?" That was the first thing his mother said. A wave of anger bubbled up inside him, after ten years that was what she was going to say. The dogs felt the difference and started to growl. Without thinking, Gunner had alerted them to danger. He changed it as quickly as he picked it up.
"Down," He growled, and the three dogs fell to the ground with their heads between their legs.
"After ten years, that is the first thing you can come up with," Gunner said with a deep voice that he knew was scary. He saw Jacob look over him with a shake.
"After ten years, you didn't feel the need to contact me, not even an 'I'm sorry for throwing you out,'" Gunner said, now angry, and the dogs started to growl again. He saw how kids in the house looked at him with scared eyes. The grown-ups looked like they had a gun pointed at them. Athena saw Gunner shake with anger and knew she needed to calm him down before he accidentally gave the dog a sign to attack. Athena placed a hand on Gunner's shoulder. He jumped in alert and almost threw his hand in the air ready to fight.
"Gunner," Athena whispered. He let his eyes go from his family to the woman beside him. He breathes out when he saw his angel's face, the one person who could make him calm with only a look.
"The dogs are reacting," She said before looking over at his family. Her look went from warm to cold in seconds. Gunner looked down at them, thinking about what to do.
"Athena, could you please let them in the cages. It will be screaming, and risking them hurting anyone is not an option," Gunner said. Athena gave a short nod before whistling for the dogs to follow her. The three of them looked up at their owners.
"Go on, go down to Athena," He said. They slowly stood up. General looked back at his parents once like he was giving them a warning before walking down to Athena.
"You have trained dogs," Jacob said and broke the silence.
"Yeah, in my field of work, it is important for them to listen to their owner," Gunner said with a deep voice that commanded respect.
"They are killer dogs," Gunner's dad said more as a fact than a question.
"Could be, not really effective to kill anyone with dogs tho. Gets a lot messier," Gunner said coldly. He saw the look of horror on his mother's face.
"Relax, I'm not here to kill anyone," Gunner said and rolled his eyes.
"I knew you would be a criminal when you grow up," Gunner's mom said with a hand over her mouth looking sad.
"You don't have a right to say that, it is all your fault I'm where I am today," Gunner said dangerously while pointing at his mom. She had gotten gray hair since the day he last met her. His dad was working up a stomach while their sons and daughter looked pretty fit.
"We haven't seen you in years!" The lady in front of Gunner screamed. Athena walked up to the scene with long strands, afraid that Gunner was going to let his anger take over.
"Exactly mom! You and dad throw a teenager out! I needed to quit school to get a job, so I could live somewhere! I needed to live on the streets for months! I was the one who got in the hospital almost dying, you never came to even check that I was alive! I needed to live a life where I couldn't trust anyone because of what you did," Gunner screamed, letting his anger out. Everything he wanted to say to his parents was now coming out. The build-up pain and anger were let out like a stream of water.
"You made me without a family, and you lied to everyone that this was my choice! Do you know how it feels to have nobody to care about you! It was an easy choice when my mc asked me to work a few shifts for them on a boat, I needed money to survive. It was even easier to say yes when they asked if I was interested in joining them, and do you know what?" Gunner said, now taking a step forward to his parents.
"It was even with pride I took a place in the inner circle. I had got myself a family, I picked myself up after you two destroyed every piece of me, I got myself running, and I know what a lying piece of shit you two are," Gunner said, breathing fast. He hadn't even registered the tears that were running down his face while screaming at them. Gunner's mother was now shaking, and tears were streaming down her face too.
"I'm so sorry, Gunner," She uttered, sounding sincere. It made Gunner surprised. He had built up so much anger for this moment, thinking they were going to scream at him just like he was screaming at them.
"We know what we did was wrong now. When it came out to the family that we had thrown you out, we understood what we had done was out of line and that we had destroyed your life. When we had built up the courage to look for you, you had already joined your mc, and we were too scared to approach it," Gunner's dad said. Even he had tears falling down from his eyes. His arms were holding his wife as they sobbed together. Gunner could see his siblings silently letting tears down as a few of them held each other.
"You looked for me?" Gunner asked with hands that turned to fists and then relaxed.
"Yeah, we hired a private detective to find you. You are down in Huston, right?" His dad said. Gunner nodded a bit numbly.
"We know we can never make it up to you, but please let us at least talk about it over breakfast," Gunner's mom said with pleading eyes. Gunner looked down at Athena.
"We have already eaten," He answered low.
"Breakfast sounds fine. We can surely press something down," Athena interrupted. Gunner looked into her eyes. She had a meaningful look that told him to accept the offer.
"Fine, it can't hurt to eat something," Gunner said.
"How else can I keep up with all these muscles," He said as a joke. He didn't know why he wanted to lighten the mood, but when Gunner saw Athena chuckle lightly, he relaxed a bit. They all walked into the familiar kitchen and sat down. Ally was feeding a little baby sitting in a baby chair, and Trissa was caressing her baby bump while her husband got her some food.
"You traveled far," His dad finely broke the silents.
"Yeah," Gunner said.
"When we heard that you had met up with your siblings yesterday, we knew you were coming for us in a matter of time," His mom said and gave Gunner the butter and some bread.
"You make it sound like I was going to kill you," Gunner said while spreading butter over a bread piece. He offered Athena the butter, who was now sitting next to him.
"We didn't know what to expect, you hadn't been contacting us and we thought you didn't want anything to do with us," His dad said. Gunner glanced over at him while taking a bite of his bread.
"I thought I didn't, but when Camilla reached out I couldn't help feeling the need to end this chapter of my life" Gunner said truthfully.
"So you are not coming back?" Ally said. She was looking over at her biker to a cousin.
"You kidding, I wouldn't stay out of that baby's life even if Athena kicked my ass" Gunner said with a small smile. Athena on the other hand rolled her eyes. The whole mc had started to make jokes like that.
"Kick your ass?" Aston asked.
"Don't let her angelic face and body deceive you, this lady can kick some serious ass if she chose to" Gunner said and looked over at Athena with a smirk.
"Then your mc is lucky to have a member like that," His dad said, and Athena choked on the water she was drinking.
"I'm not a part of the mc," She said almost like that was an offensive comment.
"I just assumed you were," Gunner's dad said apologetically.