Chapter 1

Selene’s POV

The night smelled like rain and gasoline. I locked the café door and pulled my jacket tighter as the desert wind slid across my skin, sharp enough to make me flinch.

It had been a long shift. Too many customers, too many stories I didn’t care to hear, God, I was exhausted.

I stepped onto the gravel road. It was quiet, the kind of quiet that made you hear your own heartbeat and wonder if something was listening back.

My boots crunched softly as I walked. Arizona nights usually felt safe but not tonight. Something felt off, like the air was watching me.

One engine growled behind me, then another. The sound thickened until the air vibrated, like it was warning me.

I stopped walking without meaning to. “Not tonight,” I whispered to nobody.

Headlights exploded across the road. Bright white swallowed me whole, like a punch of light straight to my chest.

My throat tightened. My legs refused to move.

Six motorcycles slowed to a circle around me. Leather, chrome, and rumbling engines trapped me in place like a cage closing in.

Every jacket carried the same emblem. A serpent coiled around an iron blade “Iron Serpents MC.” The sight hit harder than I expected.

My heart dropped hard into my stomach. I’d seen that emblem once before, hidden inside a shoebox my father thought I’d never find.

The leader dismounted. Tall, and broad-shouldered, moving like someone who expected obedience the way other people expected air.

He took off his helmet. His dark eyes pinned me instantly, too sharp, and too knowing.

“Selene Carter?” he asked. His voice was rough, deep, and dangerously calm.

“Who’s asking?” I said. My voice tense. A small smirk lifted one corner of his mouth.

“Cassius Draven. President of the Iron Serpents.”

The name hit me like a punch to the ribs, hard, and at the same time leaving a sting that refused to fade.

Cassius Draven was the reason my father ran. The reason he disappeared six years ago. The reason my childhood ended overnight.

My pulse jumped. “What do you want from me?” I asked.

Cassius stepped closer, every move precise, and deliberate, as if he’d planned each one.

“Your father owes me,” he said.

“Owes you what?” I whispered.

“More than money,” he said. “He owes blood.”

My breath shook. “I don’t know where he is.”

“I think you do,” Cassius said.

“I don’t,” I insisted. “I haven’t seen him since I was sixteen.”

He studied my face, as if he was searching for the truth, and looking for something I didn’t even know I had. He didn’t look convinced at all.

“You might know something,” he said.

“You’ve got the wrong girl.”

“You’re wrong,” he said.

One of the bikers snorted. “She’s terrified.”

“I’m not,” I said. My voice betrayed me anyway.

Cassius didn’t look away from me. If anything, his gaze sharpened like a blade being pulled free.

Then he nodded once. “Bag her.”

I barely breathed before hands yanked me backward, and a cloth was used to cover my vision instantly.

I kicked, clawed, and yelled. My voice drowned under roaring engines, swallowed whole by noise and fear.

They threw me into a van, and the door slammed shut hard enough to rattle my bones.

Darkness swallowed me whole, too quickly. I woke to the van rattling across uneven ground.

My wrists were tied. A dim bulb flickered above me, swinging with every bump, casting shaky shadows that crawled across the metal walls.

“You’re awake,” Cassius said from the front seat. He didn’t turn around.

“Let me go,” I said, my voice shaking even though I hated that it did.

“If I wanted to hurt you,” he said calmly, “I’d have done it already.”

“Kidnapping counts as hurting,” I shot back, even though the words trembled out from my mouth.

He chuckled softly. “You’ve got a mouth.”

“Don’t talk about my father,” I snapped.

“I’ll talk about the man who stole from me,” he said. “And got two of my brothers killed.”

My breath caught painfully, like it snagged somewhere in my chest. “You’re blaming me?”

“I’m looking for answers,” he said. “And you’re the only thing he left behind.”

The van slowed, and my stomach lurched, twisting with fear. We drove through a gate, the roar of engines echoing all around.

When the doors opened, cold night air hit my skin suddenly, and I shivered. They untied my wrists but gripped my arms tightly.

We were inside a fenced compound full of motorcycles. Men watched from every corner, their eyes sharp, hungry, and evaluating.

Cassius stood beside me, jaw tight. “You try to run,” he said, “and you won’t make it ten feet.”

He pulled me across the yard. All eyes following us, hungry, suspicious, amused and way too interested. 

“What do you want from me?” I asked again. My voice cracked this time, and I hated that too.

Cassius didn’t answer until he dragged me into a hallway. The noise of the clubhouse faded behind the door.

He opened a smaller room. An office with maps, a desk, and a photo of a younger Cassius beside a row of bikes.

“Sit,” he said.

“No.”

“Sit,” he repeated. “Or I’ll make you.”

My legs gave out faster than I liked. I sank into the chair.

Cassius leaned on the desk across from me. His eyes were sharp enough to cut through bone.

“You expect me to believe you don’t know where he is?” he asked.

“I don’t,” I whispered. “I haven’t heard from him in years.”

Cassius tilted his head. “And you never wondered why he ran?” he asked. “Why he left you behind?”

My throat tightened painfully. “Of course I wondered.”

Something flickered in his eyes, a brief softness,and almost human before it vanished again.

“You stay here,” he said. “In the clubhouse, under my watch.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Until I find him.”

“You can’t keep me here.”

“I already am.”

He opened the door to leave. I stood quickly.

“You can’t do this!” I shouted. “You don’t get to control my life!”

Cassius stopped in the doorway and turned slowly, his stare steady, heavy, and almost too intense.

“No,” he said quietly. “But you’re in it now.”

He stepped out and locked the door. The click echoed like a sentence being handed down.

I pressed my back to the wall. My hands shook uncontrollably, like they no longer belonged to me.

Outside, I heard footsteps. Low voices. The hum of engines idling.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

I sank onto the thin mattress in the corner. A long breath fell out of me, shaky and useless.

But before I could gather my thoughts, a crash shook the hallway, and a shout followed.

Boots thundered toward the office.

Someone pounded on the door. “Boss! We’ve got a problem!”

My heart slammed against my ribs. I stood instantly, every nerve on fire.

The knob twisted violently. The lock rattled.

“Cassius!” someone yelled. “She’s not the only one we found tonight!”

My blood turned cold. My feet froze.

Before I could move, the door burst open.

A man I’d never seen before stumbled inside. His eyes were wild, frantic, and he pointed a gun straight at me.