The Thunder Wolves MC - Clara (Book #3)

2

Clara

My room was filled with light, my mother’s voice filling the room as she shook me awake. “Clara, wake up.” I waved her off, “five more minutes.” The bed shook as my younger sister, Summer, jumped on the bed next to me. “Nope, let's go. It’s already past noon, and your father is back with your birthday gift.” I set up in bed, excitement filling me, replacing my sleepiness. Today was my sixteenth birthday and dad promised me a car. I jumped out of bed, running downstairs and out the front door. I didn’t care that I was still in my pajamas. Sitting out front was the most beautiful powder blue car I had ever seen. It wasn’t a super fancy car, only being a little honda civic, but I didn’t care. It was mine. I wasted no time jumping on my father, hugging him, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” He hugged me back before sitting me down and holding the keys up in the air, just out of my reach. Damn my shortness. I blame my mom for it. She was short, only being around five foot five, and it seemed I would end up being the same height. On the other hand, Summer took after our dad, and even though she was younger than me by three years, she was taller than me. I jumped up, trying to take the keys from him, but he moved them up farther out of my way. “First young lady, you need to go back inside and get dressed. Second, you are to follow all road laws. You get one ticket or get in one accident. I take these keys away from you. Third, you will be home on time every night.” I nodded vigorously, “Yes, yes. I understand.” He eyed me a second longer before finally handing me the keys to my new car. I snatched them, kissing him on the cheek and running over to the car and getting in. “Clara, you need to get dressed.” I waved him off as I looked over everything inside and just enjoyed sitting in the driver's seat. 

Deciding I wanted to take this baby for a spin. I ran back inside, getting dressed as quickly as possible and running back out. “I will be back later.” I didn’t wait for a response as I shut the door and ran down the stairs. Soon enough, I was out of the driveway and on the street, headed to the only place I wanted to be at the moment. Alex’s place, or should I say Gears’ place. I giggled at the name. I found it silly the names the guys all came up with and insisted on being called. My father went by Knuckles which always perplexed me. He was the nicest and kindest person I had ever met, yet everyone claimed he got the name because he used his fists when angered. The man had never been angry in my whole life that I had ever seen. And then Gunner, Alex’s dad, I mean, I guess. He did keep guns in the basement and took them out, leaving with them every now and then. And I know he had been in the army at some point. Alex went by Gears because he was good at working on cars and bikes. He would always be Alex to me. He moved out of his parent's house a few months ago, moving into a little studio apartment that sat above some shops in the small downtown area of our small town. With it being Sunday, I was able to pull out in front of the shops and not be in the way since most of the town still closed down on Sundays. His bike was parked on the side of the building where he always parked it, meaning he was home. I honked the horn a few times until he came out to see what was going on. I climbed out of my new car and ran up the stairs jumping on him. “OH s**t, looks like it's time to stay off the roads.” I smacked him, “I just so happen to be an amazing driver.” He scrunched up his face making me smack him again. “I am way better of a driver than you.” Shaking his head, he snatched the keys from my hands and ran down the stairs. “HEY.” He climbed in, looking around the inside before hitting a button and getting out, and lifting the hood. “Not bad.” I watched him look around the inside of my new car, taking in the fact he was standing there only in a pair of basketball shorts that hung low on his hips. I had formed a slight crush on him for a while now and found that sometimes I would feel nervous around him. It didn’t begin at first because Alex had been a part of my life forever. Then one day, a couple of the girls I hung out with at school mentioned how cute he was after he dropped me off at school. After that, I couldn’t help but notice they were right. He wasn’t the scrawny, skinny kid I grew up with anymore. Over the last few years, he had gained some muscles and filled out a bit. I tried to convince myself I shouldn’t like him, but really there was no reason I couldn’t. He wasn’t related to me in any way. Sure we grew up together, but that was because our parents were friends. And yeah, he was older than me by like six years, but I mean, women dated older guys all the time. I mean, my grandma was something like eight years younger than my grandpa. So six years wasn’t that big of an age difference. Even with all that, I still tried to tell myself I shouldn’t like him. But that didn’t stop my feelings or even the dirty dreams I had about him. 

The hood of my new car slamming closed pulled me from my thoughts. I dropped my eyes, looking away from Alex’s chest before he noticed I had been checking him out. “Not bad.” He threw my keys back at me, making me look up again as I caught them. Laughing at me, he nudged me back towards the stairs, “Come on, kid, I’ll get dressed, and you can take me to lunch.” I scoffed, “You mean you will buy me lunch. It is my birthday, after all.” A gasp behind me had me stopping and looking behind me. “I totally forgot about that. In that case, princess, I will take my wallet with us, and you can order anything you want.” I narrowed my eyes at him, making him smirk. “And I mean since it is your birthday….” He didn’t finish his sentence as he picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder and walking up the stairs. Roughhousing was something we always did, so being thrown over his shoulder wasn’t something unusual. But that didn’t stop the scream that flew from my lips from the unexpectedness of it at that moment. “Alex, put me down.” I was laughing so hard I didn’t know if he actually heard me or even understood what I said. But I soon found he had heard and understood me as he tossed me onto his bed, “As you wish, princess.” I squealed as I tried to climb out of his messy bed as fast as I could. “Eww, Alex.” He laughed at me, “Why would you throw me in your bed? When was the last time you changed your sheets?” Rolling his eyes, he walked into the small bathroom he had in his small apartment. “Oh stop, I changed them last year. You have nothing to worry about.” I shook my head as I stood up, “That's gross.” Laughing, he shut the door to the bathroom. “Hurry up. I’m hungry.” 

Not even a full minute later, the bathroom door opened again, and Alex came out, pulling a shirt over his muscular chest. “Are those clean?” He stopped halfway through, pulling his shirt down, looking at me with one of his eyebrows raised. “You know I don’t know.” He let his shirt fall the rest of the way down, “here, smell um, and tell me what you think.” Before I could move, he grabbed me, pulling me into him. Using all my strength, I shoved at his chest, “Eww, stop it….God, do you have to be so gross?” He let me go laughing at me, “I will have you know, princess, I am far from gross.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Let's just go before I die of starvation.” Grabbing his wallet off the counter, he tucked it in his back pocket while shoving his feet into his boots. “Well, we can’t have that then, can we? Especially not on your birthday.” He opened the front door motioning for me to go out first, and followed me out.