I smile at my sister as she runs across the dusty, graveled driveway. Even before she gets to me, I know what she’s going to say. It’s been the same thing since I announced my leaving. She doesn’t want me to go. I’m going to miss her. She’s the only thing that’s kept me going these last few years. The only reason I can leave her here is because the family loves her and treats her like a princess. I don’t begrudge her their love. She is honestly one of the easiest people to love. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to go.
But it’s been five years since we moved here and I’m not that sixteen-year-old little girl anymore. I feel like I’m stuck, like I have nothing. I have to do this.
She runs up to me, shaking her head with sadness on her face. “You don’t have to do this, Mona. You’re going to get yourself killed.”
I don’t know what to say to her. She’s tried to talk me out of it since I came up with the plan. But she doesn’t know what it’s like. She’s the only one that doesn’t blame me for what’s happened to our father’s club, the Last Omens. My father, the president of the Last Omens, had to give up his prized territory and move the club here to Oregon. The wealth and prestige they once had is gone and now all we have is this small piece of land.
“Millie, we’ve been through this. You’re the only one that doesn’t hate me for what happened. Including myself. I can’t stay here anymore and only be tolerated because I’m the Omens’ founder’s daughter. I can’t.” I don’t tell her the part that if in fact I wasn’t the founder’s daughter, I would probably be dead right now. They have killed people for way less than what I did to them.
I’m not dumb enough to think that I can turn back time and undo what has happened in my past and what it cost me and the Last Omens. But I have to do something.
Millie reaches for me and touches my hand, pleading with me. “Mona, please don’t leave. Not like this.”
I pull my little sister into my arms and hold on to her. I know it will probably be the last time I see her. Who knows what will happen to me? I pull back from her and put my hands on her cheeks, making her look up at me. She has blue eyes just like mine, but hers are still filled with innocence. “I’m not ever going to be able to look at myself in the mirror and be able to stand who I see there. I have to go back and face my past.” Even though she’s sad, I can see the understanding in her face. She knows I’m probably never coming back. There’s nothing for me at the Last Omens.
I have to peel her arms from around me and go to get on my bike. I take one last look at the doors of the clubhouse and then to Millie. She waves at me, and I smile at her before taking off out of the parking lot into the open highway. It’s only a few short hours before I get to California and the place I once called home.
Chapter 2
Klaus
You can feel the tension in the room. Deator, the New Law MC president and my father, has called church. The Eaters MC has been growing in numbers. With all the recent fights between New Law and the Eaters, we knew this would happen. We knew that the Eaters would beef up their numbers to make a move on us. It has Deator and the rest of the club on hyper alert. That’s why he’s called the mandatory meeting and why we’re all crammed into the large room of the clubhouse, listening to him talk about what the club needs to be doing to defend itself.
We’ve brought in some prospects, but it could be months before they’re ready and before they prove their loyalty to the club.
My older brother, Ronan, stands at the front of the room, as my father’s right-hand man and the VP of the club. He looks over at me and I try to appear like it doesn’t bother me, but it does. I used to be at the front of the room. I used to be at the top of the club, like my father and my brother. But not now, not anymore. I’m patched, but that doesn’t really mean anything. I may get a vote, but everyone here knows that my vote doesn’t mean anything. I don’t really have a say in what the club does anymore. Not for the last five years, anyway.
I listen to Deator and Ronan drone on about the Eaters.