Page 1 of Emergence: Prequel

PART ONE

MAESTRO

QUEENS WRAITHS

STACEY

I hated that he got to watch me hit rock bottom. The one man that, if I was the type to cheat, I’d happily have done it with, but as I wasn’t a cheater and he’d not make moves on another man’s wife, neither of us had done anything about the attraction we’d felt for each other.

Once my children came along, it was easier because I wasn’t around the clubhouse much. It was bad enough that I knew Grudge used the club whores; I didn’t want to see it or put up with their pitying looks.

Maybe I should have felt sorry for the whore that Thor was currently berating, but I couldn’t find it in me to give a flying fuck about her feelings.

I hadn’t been able to keep quiet and had asked my questions and found out some hard truths about my life.

It was that night that I realised that while I was able to put up with Grudge treating me badly, I wasn’t able to put up with his shit when it affected my kids. That might have been the night I hit rock bottom, but it was also the night that my life started again. Albeit starting over at forty-three wasn’t something that I’d ever expected to do, but if there was one thing I knew, it was that I was strong, and I’d do anything to make sure my kids didn’t go without.

In the end, it hadn’t been an issue because life caught up with Grudge, and I slowly put my life back together. And ifI happened to have dreams about a certain man, there was nobody to judge me for it.

MAESTRO

President of The Queens Wraiths wasn’t what I’d ever envisioned I’d be.

Our club was mostly known as the Wraiths. Over the years, our cuts had changed and while we still portrayed the word ‘queen’ on them, it was much smaller and almost hidden in the skull. I’m sure that was due to history more than anything else. Staring blankly at the tapestry that was said to portray our history, I looked at the depiction of what our symbol used to be.

We still had the skull and roses with the wraith tendrils; it was just the writing that had changed. I’d often wondered over the years what the tapestry said, but none of us could read the language. Some had tried to remove the tapestry, but there was a story told as a warning that those who did had ill luck befall them. Apparently, many years ago, definitely before my dad’s time, a president had tried to remove it and have it thrown out.

He'd been found the next morning as white as a sheet, tied to his chair, staring at the tapestry. He’d not said what had happened, just that it was never to be moved. When he’d seemed to experience a run of bad luck, he’d sworn it was because he’d moved the tapestry. I didn’t have a clue if that was true or not, but the tapestry had stayed enclosed in glass on the wall in our president’s office.

Personally, I didn’t mind it; I liked that we had our history close to us, and I often wondered about our ancestors and how we’d ended up here. It was said that my line was from one of the originals and that’s why in our bylaws we had that the presidency was handed down from father to son, always of the Ivor bloodline. But as I was last in my line with no potential children in my future, I wondered what would happen when I was gone.

It had never been a worry for me because I was never going to step up, not when my older brother was next in line. But then he was killed on a run that went bad.

That’s when my dad, Red, who was president at the time, started to make changes and had us going legit. I can’t lie; it was nice not to have to worry about the feds constantly up our asses, but I did miss the rush of being out on a run. I understood, though, and when my dad had wanted to step down, I’d been the next choice.

There’d been the usual upheaval and those that weren’t happy with the changes. Those had been offered the chance to leave with no consequences.

Surprisingly, there weren’t that many who were unhappy about the change. For the most part, it was the older members that weren’t happy, but they’d been offered retirement instead, which they’d taken. And Grudge.

‘Jesus, I hated that fucker.’

I’d quite happily put a bullet between his eyes, and not just because of what a shithead he was.

He’d continued to deal drugs long after we’d stopped, even knowing the consequences of doing so, as it went against our club’s rules. The other reason I hated the very air that he breathed was because of the way he’d treated his wife.

I knew it was wrong, coveting another man’s wife, but there was something about Stacey from the first moment I’d seen her. She’d burrowed her way into my heart. I remembered the first day I’d laid eyes on her so clearly it seemed like it was yesterday.

I’d walked into the clubhouse with my best friend, Cash, who was already seeing my sister, Lizzie. Both Cash and I’d not long had our rockers, and we were still doing some of the grunt work until we found new prospects to replace us.

And there she’d been. The woman of my dreams, standing at the bar, dark hair loose around her face, hanging long to the bend of her knees. Long legs encased in skintight jeans, a dark red T-shirt that lifted as she bent over the bar towards the prospect whose eyes dipped to her cleavage, making me grind my teeth. Her lush ass was pointed towards me, and I could imagine holding onto her hips tight as I thrust into her from behind. My cock jumped to attention, and I shifted my stance slightly to ease the ache.

Totally unaware that I’d stopped in the doorway, Cash had continued on towards the bar and had taken a seat next to her. I’d been about to follow and see if I could persuade her to take a ride on the back of my sled and then maybe a little later a ride on me.

She smiled at the prospect as he handed her the drink she’d ordered. That was when I’d caught sight of the flash of gold on her finger.

Inhaling a deep breath of disappointment that she was taken, I still walked towards her. She turned towards me as I bellied up to the bar. She smiled and it lit up her face, her blueish-green eyes sparkling with the force of it. She held out her hand to me, introducing herself, “Hi, I’m Stacey.”

My breath caught and held at the sheer beauty of her. It felt like I’d been hit in the solar plexus, and it had taken all my breath away.