Chapter 1 New Blood

The bus hissed as it came to a stop, brakes squealing against the cracked asphalt of the tiny station. Zuri adjusted the strap of her worn backpack and waited until the doors folded open. The driver gave her a flat look when she lingered.

“You getting off here or not?” he grumbled.

Zuri pulled her hoodie tighter around her face and stepped down into the late-afternoon heat. The air smelled of oil, cigarettes, and fried food from the diner across the road. Behind that, something heavier lingered, like iron and dust. She’d smelled it in places like this before.

She glanced around. The town wasn’t much to look at. A single strip of stores lined the main road: pawn shop, liquor store, laundromat, then a bar with a flickering neon sign shaped like a spade. To the left, the blacktop stretched toward hills dotted with dry grass and scattered houses. To the right, the highway curved out of sight.

It wasn’t home. But it would have to do.

Zuri kept her steps steady as she walked, though her chest ached with the weight of moving again. No roots, no rest, just another place to disappear. She could already hear her brother’s voice in her head, mocking her: You think you can run forever, little sister?

She swallowed hard and forced the memory back into its cage.

The diner bell jingled when she pushed inside. She slid into a booth, tugging the backpack close, and ordered coffee from a tired-looking waitress with chipped red nails.

The coffee was bitter, but it gave her hands something to hold. She let her gaze sweep the place. Two truckers sat at the counter, talking low. An old man in coveralls read the newspaper. The waitress kept glancing out the window toward the bar across the street, her jaw tight.

“You don’t get many strangers here,” Zuri said, her voice casual.

The waitress shrugged. “Depends what kind of stranger.”

Zuri tilted her cup in question.

“Some folks pass through, nobody notices. Others?” The woman’s mouth pressed thin. “They notice. And you don’t want them noticing you, sweetheart.”

Zuri gave a small nod, like she understood. Because she did.

The waitress didn’t say the name, but Zuri had already guessed who she meant. Motorcycle clubs carried weight in towns like this. Sometimes they were a shield. Most times, they were a storm.

Zuri finished her coffee, left a crumpled bill on the table, and stepped back into the fading light.

Across the street, the bar sign buzzed. Spade’s. Beneath it, a row of gleaming bikes stood in a neat line, chrome catching the sun. The sound of laughter and music spilled from inside, sharp against the quiet street.

Her pulse skipped. She hadn’t come here to make noise, but some force tugged at her, a pull she couldn’t shake. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was the dangerous promise that always came with men like them.

Her sneakers crunched against gravel as she crossed. The closer she got, the louder the bass thumped from the speakers inside. The air changed too, thicker, humming with energy.

She paused at the door, fingers brushing the wood. A dozen voices tangled in her head. Don’t draw attention. Stay quiet. Keep moving.

But another voice cut through, low and certain: You can’t run forever.

Her hand closed around the handle. She pulled.

The bar hit her senses all at once. Smoke. Sweat. Leather. The tang of spilled beer. Music vibrating through the floorboards.

Dozens of eyes turned her way. Men in cuts with black and red patches leaned on pool tables, crowded booths, or lounged at the bar. The patch read: Bloodfang MC. The wolf’s head stitched in white bared sharp teeth.

Zuri’s breath caught.

She forced her chin up, pretending her heart wasn’t trying to climb out of her chest. If she showed fear, they’d chew her alive.

The music dipped, just enough for her to catch the scrape of a chair.

Then she saw him.

At the far end of the room, leaning back in a chair like he owned every inch of it, sat a man with skin the shade of rich earth and dark eyes that cut through the haze like a blade. His hair was braided close, his jaw rough with stubble. A heavy chain rested at his throat. His cut bore the same patch as the others, but above it stitched in bold white letters was one word: Enforcer.

His gaze locked on hers.

Zuri felt the world tilt, as if the floor shifted beneath her.

The corner of his mouth curved, not quite a smile. More like a warning.

And in that instant, she knew two things.

First: she should never have walked through that door.

Second: it was already too late to walk back out.