Warren City Penitentiary

Fresh, warm evening air had never smelled so good to Shane McMahon. During his prison sentence he had been allowed into the yard for exercise almost every day, so it wasn't that he hadn't experienced fresh air for a long time. It was different today because it smelled of freedom. After nearly four and a half years, he was walking out of the gates of Warren City Penitentiary. He was a free man. Why his sentence had suddenly been reduced was a mystery to him, but he honestly didn't care what the reason was. His time inside was behind him; that was all that mattered. His release could have happened a lot sooner, if he had taken any of the numerous deals that the cops had offered him. Taking a deal would have meant becoming a rat though, and Shane would rather have spent the rest of his life inside than sell out a single member of the organisation he was a proud member of. The name Helmsley meant too much to him to even consider selling out. Loyalty was everything in this life. Now, he supposed, he wasn't just a member of Helmsley, he was the second in command. His girl, his secret lover, the love of his life, was now the boss.

Ronda's rise to power had been predestined ever since Hunter and Stephanie had decided to adopt her, but no one could have imagined that it would have happened this soon. It had taken Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner to make that happen, by having Stephanie raped and tortured in a revenge attack against Hunter. Shane would have loved nothing more than to have been able to strangle Scott Steiner with his bare hands and watch the life drain out of him. Of course, that would have been impossible from in prison, and in any event both Steiner and Nicole were already dead, both of them shot with a sniper rifle by Ronda, before Shane was even told about what had happened.

It took a lot to make a man like Shane cry, but sitting across a table at visitation time and hearing Hunter tell him about what his sister had been put through had done it. All Hunter had been able to say was that it had been taken care of. Although Shane had known what that meant, he had wanted, needed, more. The next time Ronda had come to visit him, he had seen in her eyes that she had been the one to do it. Something had changed. Ronda had always been a killer, and she was proud of it. On that day though, there had been another even greater level of intensity in her eyes that he had never seen before. "They're all going to pay, baby," she had whispered to him. And so they had, in time.

After Hunter and Stephanie had left for Barbados and retirement, every single member of the Reigns organisation that hadn't been wise enough to flee Warren City had been hunted down and killed at the hands of Ronda and her men. Her promise had been fulfilled. While Shane was of course glad that those responsible for Stephanie's suffering had been dealt with, he was also concerned. Helmsley had to go on. Stephanie had been the one to emphatically stress that to Shane, when she had eventually felt up to visiting him herself. It was then that he had learned that she and Hunter would be leaving, and Ronda would be taking over. Neither Hunter or Stephanie knew about his relationship with Ronda, but they had still intended him to be the new second in command. "When you get out of here, I need you to take care of my niece, Shane, please," Stephanie had almost begged of him. "She thinks she's invincible, but she's not. None of us are. She'll also need help with the business side of things. I wish I could stay and train her some more, but I can't. I just can't. I have to get away from here."

"I'll take care of her," Shane had promised his tearful sister. "And I'll help her rebuild Helmsley. What you and Hunter have built will no fall apart. I promise you that."

Those were his missions now: Take care of Ronda, and help to rebuild the Helmsley business. This was day one. Recognising one of the Helmsley trademark black SUV's with tinted windows which was parked nearby, Shane walked over to it and opened the passenger side door.

"Am I really supposed to call you boss now?" Brock Lesnar grinned, offering his hand to Shane.

Shaking hands enthusiastically, Shane said, "Let's stick with brother, huh?" Part of him was disappointed that it wasn't Ronda who had driven to pick him up. It wasn't really a surprise though; she was the boss now after all.

Shane got into the SUV and Brock pulled away as he said, "It's good to see you, man. Did you know we renamed the bar Hunter's? It seemed like the right thing to do."

The main front business for Helmsley was a food processing company, which had until recently been run by Stephanie. The offices of what was supposed to be a legitimate concern were hardly the place to hold meetings to discuss the affairs of a meth manufacturing and distribution operation, so Hunter had also purchased a bar, one of the most expensive in the city, and he'd had a private boardroom of sorts constructed in the back. This room, referred to as the back room, was where all of the important decisions were made and sometimes voted on if it was deemed to be necessary.

Getting no response from Shane, Lesnar had continued, "Everyone's waiting there for you; Ronda's closed the place to the public today and organised everyone to come out for a celebration. It kind of got started without you though. Half of them were already drunk when I left to come get you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Shane laughed. Seeing the rest of the guys would be great, but Ronda was all he could really focus on. For the first time in four and a half years, he would be able hold his girl, make love to his girl. ""Put your foot down, man," he ordered.

Hunter's Bar

The party at Hunter's had spilled outside onto the deck area in front of the bar. The excessively loud, pounding dance music and raucous merriment stood no chance of attracting attention from the police as it would at any other establishment; Sheriff Perez would see to that. Standing alone near the bar's entrance with a bottle of beer in her hand, Ronda wasn't really focused on what was going on around her. Having only had a couple of drinks, she wasn't drunk, unlike almost everyone else. Waiting for Shane to arrive was eating away at her. She wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy herself until her man was there with her. One thing she had decided for certain was that she wasn't going to be keeping their relationship a secret anymore. She was the boss now, so she didn't have to justify herself to anyone. Shane was not just her second in command, he was also her partner in life, and people needed to respect him as such.

Ronda was startled out of her thoughts by Seth Rollins tripping and crashing into the table that she was standing next to. The table toppled over, sending several pints of beer crashing to the floor, fortunately not splashing Ronda as she managed to jump back and out of the way in time. "Fucking hell. Sorry, boss," he slurred at her. "Tripped on something."

"Yeah, your own feet, you fucking idiot," Ronda giggled. Glancing around, she saw her people enjoying themselves and unwinding. It was definitely needed after the past few weeks, which had been intense to say the least for everyone who worked for Helmsley, in any capacity. Aside from Ronda, Alexander Rusev's wife, Lana, was the only woman who now worked for the meth operation. They were both sitting at a table with Wade Barrett and his wife, Paige. Next, Ronda's gaze settled on Paul Heyman. Paul wasn't the kind man that Ronda liked to have around, but she recognised that he was necessary as she knew almost nothing about running a legitimate business herself, and someone had been required to take over the management of the food processing company following Stephanie's departure.

Even more of an irritation to Ronda were the three young, scantily clad women who were surrounding Paul and a couple of other guys who were staff from the factory. The women were all giggling away and drinking as they fawned over the men, particularly Paul. Ronda despised women like them; women who in her opinion wanted to nothing more than to look pretty and be taken care of by someone else, usually a rich, older man. She hated them so much that she had come up with a name for them. "What are those fucking DNB's doing here?" she snarled at Seth. DNB: Do Nothing Bitch.

Seth had picked up the table and was now crouched down, trying to do something about the bigger pieces of the broken beer glasses. Sensing the danger in her voice, he stood up and tried to calm her down before she exploded. "The guys are having a good time, that's all. Let them enjoy themselves." It was a hopeful suggestion rather than an attempt to give Ronda an order.

For a long moment, Ronda continued to stare menacingly at the women, before a smile spread across her face and she turned back to look at Seth. Punching him on the shoulder, she said, "Relax, would you? I'm fucking with you."

"Sorry, boss," Seth said, pretending that they both didn't know that she had been about to go over there and glass one of the women with her bottle. With that, he moved past her into the bar to fetch more drinks.

Ronda downed her beer and set the bottle down on the table. She was about to follow Seth inside to get another, but at that moment a black SUV pulled up in front of the bar, the driver repeatedly blasting the horn. The arrival got everyone's attention within seconds, and they all walked over to form a welcoming committee.

Shane stepped out of the SUV to a loud cheer of delight from those awaiting him. He was almost mobbed as people wanted to exchange handshakes and hugs with him along with their greetings and expressions of delight that he was back at last. One person was noticeably absent from the crowd. As he embraced Wade Barrett, Shane tried to peer over the top of the crowd to see where she was.

Ronda felt herself burning with desire and her hands shaking slightly as she locked eyes with her man. After biting her bottom lip suggestively, she turned and walked into the bar, knowing that Shane would follow as soon as he could.

"I need to go speak to Ronda, guys," Shane said, making his excuses as quickly as he could. "I'll be right back out, and I'll bring more beer!"

Everyone cheered loudly and Shane received several slaps on the back as he made his way through the crowd. When he walked into the bar, the bartender was the only person in sight. Shane looked at him and he smiled and gestured towards the open door to the back room with his head.

Nodding his thanks, Shane walked across the bar towards the open door, noticing that the blinds at the windows had been closed. He could smell Ronda's perfume lingering in the air and he breathed in deeply, savoring it. It only served to fire him up even more for what was to come.

When Shane walked into the room and closed the door behind him, Ronda couldn't hold herself back; almost throwing herself at him. Without exchanging a word, they began kissing passionately, almost frantically, and Ronda went right to work on unbuttoning his jeans. "Oh, baby, I missed you," she gasped out between kisses.

"I'm back, and I'm never going away again," Shane promised her as he roughly pulled her top off and tossed is aside. "I'm back, and I love you."

"Show me," Ronda pleaded. "I need you to show me."

That wasn't a problem to Shane. Grabbing her under her ass, he lifted her onto the table and laid her down. Wasting no time on ceremony, he pulled down her jean shorts and panties. "Fucking beautiful," he groaned, as if the sight was almost so good that it was painful.

Meanwhile, Ronda had used both hands to pull his boxers down and was now gently stroking his rock hard cock. "Don't tease me, baby. Just fuck me. Please."

"Yes, boss," Shane said, not caring in the least that what he had to give wouldn't last long at all; not after four and a half years without sex.

As he entered her and began pounding hard, Ronda arched her back slightly, craving the ultimate and unachievable penetration. Almost as soon as he had started, Shane felt like he was about to unload. There was very little he could do to hold himself back, and he realised that Ronda already knew that as she breathed, "It's okay, baby."

With that, Shane let go and exploded into her with an ecstatic groan. It had been a minute at the absolute most. Feeling embarrassed, he pulled out and said, "I'm sorry."

Pushing herself up to a sitting position, Ronda said, "Sshhh. There's nothing to apologise for. I needed that just as much as you did. Come here."

Leaning down, Shane pulled her into a tight embrace. "I meant what I said, Ronda. I love you and I'm not going away from you again, ever."

"I know," Ronda whispered into his ear. "I love you too. We run this city now, and no one's ever going to change that, no matter how hard they try."