Blood and Promises

RAVEN

Mom's SUV pulled up exactly at nine, right when my shift ended. I considered running, I'd gotten good at disappearing when her relationships went south, but something about the way she gripped the steering wheel stopped me. Her knuckles were white, her lipstick perfect, and her smile didn't reach her eyes.

That's when I knew this wasn't just bad. This was catastrophic.

"Hey, baby." She tried to cheer and missed by a mile. "How was work?"

I slid into the passenger seat, my apron still smelling like coffee and grease. "What's going on, Mom?"

"Can't a mother pick up her daughter without an interrogation?" She pulled into traffic too fast, her laugh brittle. "I thought we'd go somewhere nice. Talk."

"We never go somewhere nice to talk." I watched her profile, the way she kept checking the rearview mirror like someone might be following us. "You're scaring me."

Her hands tightened on the wheel. "I met someone."

"I know. Dominic stopped by the diner." I didn't mention the electric shock or the way his eyes had seemed to glow. "Another biker, Mom? Really?"

"He's different." She said it too quickly, too desperately. "He's stable, successful. He owns a legitimate business, has a house, and a family of sorts. The MC isn't what you think it is."

I'd heard versions of this speech before. They were always different. They never were.

"How long this time?" I couldn't keep the bitterness from my voice. "Three months? Six? Until he gets bored or you get scared?"

"Forever." The word fell between us like a stone. "Raven, I'm getting married."

The world tilted sideways. "What?"

"Next week. Small ceremony at the clubhouse. I know it's fast, but when you know, you know, and I—"

"Are you insane?" I twisted in my seat to stare at her. "You've known him for what, three months? And you're marrying him? Moving us into his house with his biker family?"

"It's complicated." She wouldn't look at me. "There are things you don't understand about Dominic, about his world"

"Then explain them!" My voice cracked. "For once in your life, stop running toward disaster and explain why you're dragging me with you!"

She pulled over abruptly, the SUV jerking to a stop on a dark stretch of road outside town. When she finally turned to me, tears streaked her makeup, and I saw something in her eyes I'd never seen before.

Fear.

"I'm trying to protect you," she whispered. "Everything I've done, every choice I've made, has been to keep you safe. You have to trust me."

"Safe from what?" Frustration burned through me. "Mom, you're not making sense."

"From him." She grabbed my hand, her fingers ice cold. "From Dominic. From what you are. From what's coming."

Before I could demand answers, headlights flooded the car. A motorcycle pulled up beside us, and my heart kicked against my ribs when I recognized the rider.

Dominic cut the engine and pulled off his helmet. Even in the darkness, his eyes found mine through the window, and that same electric current hummed through the air between us.

"Diana." His voice carried warning and something else. Possession. "You weren't supposed to tell her yet."

Mom's face went pale. "I didn't. I wouldn't."

"Then why do you look like you're about to run?" He moved closer, and I felt the temperature spike even through the glass. "We had a deal."

"What deal?" I looked between them, dread coiling in my stomach. "What the hell is going on?"

Dominic's attention shifted to me, and the intensity of his stare made my breath catch. "Get out of the car, Raven."

"Don't." Mom's grip on my hand turned painful. "Dominic, please, she's not ready"

"She'll never be ready." He opened my door himself, and suddenly he was right there, close enough that I could smell leather and engine oil and something wild that made no sense. "But ready or not, it's happening. The blood moon is in three days, and she needs to know what she is before she shifts for the first time."

The world stopped spinning. "Before I what?"

"Baby, listen to me." Mom was crying now, really crying. "I love you. Everything I did was to protect you. Please remember that."

"Diana, go home." Dominic didn't raise his voice, but command rolled through every word. "I'll bring her when we're done talking."

"You promised you'd let me tell her my way." Mom's voice broke. "You promised you wouldn't—"

"Your way was running out of time." His eyes never left mine. "Get out of the car, Raven. Now."

I should have been terrified. I should have locked the door and told Mom to drive. But something inside me, that wild thing that had stirred in the diner, responded to his command.

I got out of the car.

Mom made a sound like a wounded animal, but she didn't stop me. Didn't fight. She just sat there crying as I stood in the dark with a man who looked at me like I was both prey and prize.

"Good girl." Dominic's voice dropped lower, intimate. "Now, let me tell you what you really are.”