Chains of Loyalty

Chapter Seven

The word kneel tore through Raven like a whip.

Her knees locked, as every bone in her body screamed to resist. Wolves don't kneel to anyone but their Alpha and Reed weren't hers.

But the Fangs had closed in around her like a noose. The alley reeked of smoke, gasoline, and suspicion. Cole stood grinning in triumph, knife still gleaming in his hands as Sabrina trembled, her wide eyes darting helplessly between them. The hunters muttered, wounded but eager to watch her fall.

And Axel simply leaned against his stone wall, golden eyes molten with amusement, his bond tugging at her like an invisible chain.

“Mine”, her wolf whispered. 

She snarled back at her.

“Not his, Never his”.

But Reed’s voice cut sharper than claws. 

“On. Your. Knees.”

Raven’s pulse thundered in her throat as she pondered on what to do. If she obeyed, she’d look guilty and If she refused, she’d be branded disloyal. 

Every option was a blade aimed at her chest.

Sabrina lunged forward, her small frame almost laughable against the circle of hardened bikers.

 “Reed, please! She’s not the enemy!”

“Stand back, Sabrina,” Reed snapped.

“No!” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t move. “She’s saved me twice. You don’t see it but she fights for us, not against us!”

Cole barked a bitter laugh. “Open your eyes, Sabrina.

She’s been hiding claws under our roof. That glow, didn’t you see it? She’s tethered to him.” He jabbed a finger at Axel.

 “You’re letting a traitor sit at your table.”

Axel smirked, not denying it. 

“Maybe she is mine and maybe she isn’t. Funny, how she bleeds with you, yet you treat her like vermin.”

 His voice curled like smoke around the Fangs. 

“I wonder how long it will take before she decides you’re not worth the leash?”

Raven’s stomach lurched. She hadn’t spoken, but Axel’s words planted poison just the same.

Reed’s cold gaze pinned her down.

 “Last chance, Raven. 

Kneel or walk away now and never come back.”

Her wolf snarled in protest. To kneel was humiliation and to leave was exile.

 Both paths reeked of indescribable doom.

And then, slowly and deliberately, Raven bent her knees.

The ground was cold and filthy beneath her palms as she lowered herself, rage and shame curdling in her chest.

Her wolf growled in protest, claws scraping at her insides but she kept her head down, forcing her breath steady.

Gasps rippled through the Fangs, Cole’s smirk faltered as disappointment flashed instead of triumph, he had wanted her to fight, to prove him right.

Reed’s face was unreadable. He only said, 

“We’ll settle this inside.”

They dragged her to the clubhouse, not as family, not as a Fang, but as a prisoner.

The long wooden table that usually roared with laughter and clinking bottles felt like an execution chamber now. 

Raven sat at the far end, Sabrina gripping her hand tight, Cole looming at her side like a guard. 

Axel hadn’t followed,thank the moon goddess but his presence lingered, heavy in her chest, gnawing at her bones.

Reed paced at the head of the table, his shadow stretching long across the room. 

“You have one chance to tell the truth,” he said, voice low and deadly. 

“Who are you, Raven? And why are hunters calling you theirs?”

Her throat burned. She thought of the nights she had shifted alone, terrified of her own skin and of the whispered warnings from her dead mother: hide what you are or you’ll be hunted down like an animal.

“They’re lying,” Raven said finally, voice steady despite the quake in her chest.

 “I don’t know them. They came for me because I fought back. That’s all.”

Cole slammed a fist on the table. “Liar! You shifted. I saw your eyes glow gold. She’s hiding something, Reed, you know it.”

“Enough!” Sabrina burst out. “She’s not lying! She’s been scarred, yes, but she’s never once turned on us. If you hurt her, you’re proving you’re no better than those hunters!”

Reed’s gaze flicked to Sabrina, softening a fraction, then back to Raven. “If you’re innocent, prove it. Shift. Here and now.”

Her heart plummeted.

Shift? In front of them? The secret she had bled to keep hidden, laid bare on the clubhouse floor?

Her wolf surged eagerly at the thought, claws raking her skin. 

“Yes,let them see us.”

But she knew the truth. If they saw her wolf; its size, its power and capacity, they’d never trust her again. They’d fear her even more.

“I… I can’t,” she whispered.

Cole sneered. “Convenient.”

Reed’s jaw tightened. “Then until you can, you’ll stay under watch.” He turned to Cole. “Guard her.”

Sabrina shot up. “No! Not him. He hates her… he’ll…”

Reed’s glare silenced her.

Raven sat frozen, fury and despair clawing at her chest. Cole’s smirk returned, slow and cruel. This was exactly what he’d wanted; power over her and a leverage to twist the knife deeper.

The hours dragged. Raven was locked in a back room, Sabrina slipping in whenever she could, whispering comfort that didn’t soothe. 

Outside, she could hear murmurs of the Fangs, voices rising and falling in arguments that fractured like cracks in glass.

By nightfall, she caught Cole’s voice near the door, low and hurried. 

“We don’t need her. Reed’s soft. If we take her to the hunters, they’ll give us protection.”

Her blood ran cold.

Betrayal.

Sabrina hissed back, “You can’t! She’s family, Cole”

“She stopped being family the second she lied.” His words dripped venom.

 “Better her blood spilled than ours.”

Footsteps shifted away.

Raven’s claws dug crescents into her palms. She had to get out, but if she ran, Reed would brand her guilty and If she stayed, Cole would slit her throat in her sleep.

And beneath it all, Axel’s bond tugged harder, whispering promises of freedom, safety and peace.

Seven hours later, the clubhouse shook with an explosion. Windows rattled, smoke curling in from the hall as shouts rose, with boots thundering on wood.

The Fangs were under attack.

The door to Raven’s room blew open. Sabrina stumbled in, coughing, eyes wide with terror.

 “They’re inside! Someone let them in!”

“Who?” Raven demanded.

But Sabrina shook her head, tears streaking her cheeks. “I don’t know, Reed’s fighting them. 

Cole… And Cole's gone.”

Raven’s chest clenched. Gone? Gone where?

The smell of gunpowder and blood filled the

air as her wolf surged from sleep, claws itching to tear through the walls.

And then a new scent hit her; sharp, familiar and very wrong.

He is here.