Roses and Vipers

Blood in the Room

"Raven?" Jaxon's voice cracked through the heavy air, raw and disbelieving.

The room detonated.

"She's the Rose girl!" someone bellowed from the back.

"Kill her now before she talks!" another shouted.

Boots pounded on the floor, fists slammed against tables, and the clubhouse filled with a storm of voices — rage, bloodlust, loyalty to the Vipers above all.

Raven's heart raced, but she forced her chin up, eyes darting between the men closing in. She wouldn't give them fear. Not here. Not in front of him.

Jaxon's mother raised her hand, and the room fell to a low rumble. Her voice sliced through the tension. "Quiet! We finally have the Roses' hidden heir in our hands. Don't be fools. We don't waste leverage."

"But she's poison!" one of the bikers barked. "Her father slaughtered our brothers. You really want her breathing in this clubhouse?"

Raven flinched, the words striking harder than the ropes biting her wrists. Every muscle screamed at her to run, but she was trapped in the eye of the storm.

Jaxon hadn't moved. He stood rooted to the floor, staring at her like the world had been ripped out from under him. He saw her — really saw her — but his silence tore her open.

Say something. Please.

But his mother stepped in first, holding up Raven's sketchbook like a weapon. "She's been watching us. Watching him." Her eyes flicked to Jaxon. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this could be?"

The room went dead silent. All eyes shifted from Raven to Jaxon.

He finally moved, jaw clenched so tight a vein pulsed in his temple. "She's just a girl."

Raven's chest squeezed. Just a girl. Was that all she was to him now?

"Just a girl?" a biker snarled, spitting on the floor. "She's the enemy. Same blood as her father. The same lies in her veins."

The chaos sparked again — men shouting for her execution, others growling that she was worth more alive. Chairs scraped, fist slammed, the whole clubhouse teetering on the edge of violence.

Raven couldn't hold back anymore. Her voice ripped through the noise. "You want me dead? Do it!" she shouted, lifting her chin. "I'm not afraid of any of you!"

That stunned them — if only for a heartbeat.

But Jaxon heard the tremor in her voice, saw the fire in her eyes. His chest twisted painfully. She was terrified, and still stood like steal.

He stepped forward before he even realized it, putting himself between her and the advancing crowd. "Enough!" His voice thundered across the room. "Nobody touches her."

Gasps, curses, mutters filled the air. His mother's eyes narrowed dangerously.

And Raven... Raven's heart shattered all over again, because even in the middle of the chaos, even knowing who he was- she could still see the boy she had trusted.