Page 41 of Emergence: Prequel
“It does,” I agreed. “You wanted to go over a few things with us?”
“I did,” he replied. “What I’m about to tell you may sound fantastical, but I promise it’s all true.” He looked each and every one of us in the eye before he continued, “What do you know about the history of the Queens Wraiths?”
We all exchanged looks, even Dad looked confused. Eventually, I had to answer, “Not much other than we’ve been around for a long time and dropped the queen bit for obvious reasons, because everyone associated it with colonisation and the British.”
“Well, it turns out it was a queen, but not the one everyone thought it was. Let me fill you in on a little visit I had from a group of men known as the Cursed Skulls and what they mean to us, and why the club in Southampton needs to be formed,” Maestro said, sitting forward in his chair, hands folded in front of him on the table.
The next hours were taken up by Maestro telling us about our ancestors, our history, and how it intertwined us not only with the Crow MC in the UK but also with the four Viking-like men we’d seen go into his office last week. Maestro was right, and if I didn’t know him better, I’d say he was losing the plot.
Not only were we related to them through our mother, but it seemed that our ancestors on our dad’s side were part of the original Queens Wraiths, as were the ancestors from the rest of the men at this table.
“And that’s it, our history; make of it what you will. Both the prospects that will be joining you are ex-military, the first being Connor Stone, from the same lineage as your mom’s, Coal, and a descendant of Cai’s and he is a sniper. The second prospect will be your computer guy; his name is Zachary Parker, he’s from Ramzi’s line. Fuck me,” Maestro muttered rubbing his handsover his face in frustration, “We need a fucking family tree, or this is going to get confusing.”
Laughter flowed at his frustration, but he wasn’t wrong; a family tree would be good.
“Any questions?” Maestro asked, looking around the table before stopping on me.
I shook my head, “Not at the moment, but I will have some a bit later.”
“You know where to find me. Now fuck off to celebrate,” he said, standing up to our laughter. I’d take today to celebrate with my brothers because I had a feeling I’d have months of hard work before I was able to take charge of my own gavel at my own table.
TINMAN
Things moved quickly for us once Coal had permission to open a new chapter. I was officially no longer an active member of the Mother Chapter. We’d all received new cuts with Southampton UK rockers on the bottom, and my new position as Secretary had been stitched on.
I can’t lie, it hurt a little to remove my original cut. I’d carefully folded it and packed it away. If I shed a little tear, nobody but Maggie was there to see it. It was the end of an era for us, but I was looking forward to the next chapter because no matter where I landed, I still bled Queens Wraiths.
Three weeks after the patching party found me, Maggie, and Opal arriving in the UK. We hit the ground running. Maggie took over the running of the cidery with a little training, and within the first months, she’d doubled the sales by creating a new website, visiting local pubs with samples, and registering to have stalls at farmers’ markets and weekly markets run by local councils.
Opal had decided to complete her schooling online, as it meant she’d keep to the same curriculum. Her mother and I had been happy with that as we’d been worried about her struggling with the different ways of learning. When she wasn’t doing her schooling, she was helping Maggie and learning the business.
As for me, Coal had asked me to look at the warehouses to see if they’d be any good to convert into a clubhouse or if we could use them as a garage. From experience, I knew what was needed, and he was happy to let me give feedback.
Once I’d seen the warehouses, I knew immediately that they wouldn’t work for a clubhouse, as they were in the middle of a busy industrial area. My view was to keep renting them or turn one into a workshop that specialised in motorcycles only. There were plenty of garages for cars but nothing for motorcycles.
I’d let Coal know my thoughts, and after showing him pictures of the warehouses, he’d agreed with me and had asked if I could find somewhere suitable for a clubhouse.
It wouldn’t be long until they were leaving the US, and then they’d be here to help. I knew what they needed, but there wasn’t a lot of property for sale with the type of acreage that they could use. It was purely by chance that I happened to mention it to the owner of the holiday park next door to our place that my sons were moving and that they were looking for property to buy to develop. He’d asked if they were looking to build houses, and when I’d told him that they’d only be building houses for themselves, not to sell, he’d told me he’d ask around as he may know of something.
Three days later, he asked if we’d be interested in his property. He wanted to retire and didn’t want to run the holiday park anymore. He said he’d had enough of customers and wanted to spend his retirement closer to his daughter on the Isle of Wight. I’d gone to have a look; it was a large piece of land with twenty static caravans all hooked up to gas and electric. There was also a three-bedroom house and a massive barn-like structure. When I’d asked what the barn was for, he’d taken me over and shown me. It was huge, well-built and completely weatherproof. He’d told me that when his wife was alive, she used to rent it out forevents such as weddings, birthdays, and anniversary parties. It was in need of a bit of refurbishment but not a lot, considering. I knew straight away it would make a good clubhouse with a few adjustments, such as a room for church, but it was certainly big enough.
I’d asked if he would give me a few days as I needed to speak to Coal, and I’d get back to him as soon as I could. I thought the price he was asking was reasonable, but I still wanted to do some research.
Messaging Coal to call me when he got the message, I hurried home. Maggie had asked me to help her this afternoon; she was expecting a large party to tour the cidery and was hoping it would mean new business as they owned a pub about forty minutes away from us.
Imagine my surprise when twenty sleds pulled into the parking lot. The insignia on their cuts showed them to be the Crow MC. I smiled. I’d wondered when they’d turn up. I didn’t know them that well, but Cash’s mom, Maura, was an Old Lady in their club, and we’d hosted Cash’s younger brother, Alec, and his friend Sam for a little while last year.
They were laughing and teasing each other in a way that I was a little envious of. I missed my brothers being around. Every single one of them had a woman on the back of his sled, which made me happy. I liked Maura and hoped that the rest of the Old Ladies would be like her. Maggie could do with having some friends to call on.
Maggie’s eyes caught and held mine for a minute, and I saw the worry flash through them. Squeezing her hand, I softly told her, “They’re friends, darlin’. Thor and Maura’s family.”
Relief filled her face. Leaving her, I walked towards the one that had a president’s patch on his cut. He was fairly tall, well-builtwith greying dark brown hair and watchful blue eyes. Seeing me approach, he gave me a chin lift, then held out his hand to help the woman on the back of his sled off. She pulled off her helmet and turned to look at us with a smile. Her man got off his sled, took her helmet, secured it, giving her a smile, and squeezed her hand much the same way that I’d done to Maggie.
I walked forward to meet him, holding out my hand to introduce myself.
“Tinman.”
His gaze was coolly assessing me. He took my hand in a firm grip, “Reaper.”