COMING SOON - Revenant's Revenge: A Dark Why Choose MC Romance

***TRIGGER WARNING - Parental death and early elements of bullying in this chapter***

THE PAST - Marlow: Fifteen Years Old

Raindrops running down the sides of the shiny ebony coffin mirrored how hard I was sobbing inside.

But not on the outside.

No. I could never show any signs of weakness. Not ever again. Not if I didn’t want to be the next one buried in the plot beside my father.

As it was, my face stayed passive and blank. I didn’t even bother with an umbrella because if the New Mexico desert were paying homage to my father by storming on the day of his funeral, I’d embrace nature’s gift of mourning, since I couldn’t display my own.

Across from me were... them. The Traitors.

That’s all I could see them as right now. The only way I could even describe them since that fatal night of my quinceañera.

Not the friends and eventual crushes from before. Not the guys I spent summer picnics, holidays, vacations, and other momentous events with.

Not the boys I’d known longer than my memory could hold.

Just... them. Not my protectors. Not my confidants.

And certainly no longer my boys.

“Marlow!”

With a jolt, I realized I’d been staring at the rain pouring off my father’s casket for so long that I didn’t notice the funeral was over. By then, my skin was chilled to the bone from the cold rain, and I was soaked through and through.

Yet I felt none of it.

Not the uncomfortable wet clothes clinging to my skin or the shivers that racked my body as it tried to warm itself. No, everything one could feel in life was bottled up inside me, like a dormant volcano in the hours before it erupts in a volatile explosion no one saw coming.

My mother hissed my name again and made to grab my arm, but I stepped out of her reach.

“What?” I asked in a flat tone.

“We’re going back to the clubhouse for your father’s memorial...”

It took everything I had not to burst out laughing or let out a rage-filled scream at those words. ‘The bastards who murdered my father wanted to hold his memorial at the fucking clubhouse he built?’

With a jerky shake of my head, I barely managed to say “No” without causing a scene.

“You can’t stay here, and I’m not letting you go home alone,” my mother hissed in a low voice, so as not to draw attention to us. We were getting plenty of attention these days. But the joke was on her because we were both the martyrs and the entertainers in this whole fucking facade of a funeral ceremony. It didn’t matter how small and quiet we tried to stay.

All eyes were on us at all times.

With a glance at my twin sister, who stood beside my mother as always, I noticed her distant, unfocused gaze as she stared off into space. I didn’t expect her to fight our mother or to stay by my side to defend me. She never did.

But seeing Melony’s empty, hollow eyes killed something else in me. Something I didn’t even realize I had left until it was gone, wiped out entirely by my sister’s deadened expression.

Hope.

My father was never coming back. He wasn’t here to defend us... to defend me...

‘I’ll never see him again...’

My tears came fast and swift. The sobs I’d buried deep in my chest seemed to burst from their grave just as my father’s casket was being lowered into his.

“... I can’t,” I sobbed quietly to my mother, pleading with my eyes for her to just leave me here and let me be.

“Marlow,” she said in a low voice, angling herself away from the drifting crowd so only I could hear. “Get your ass to the car. Right. Now.”

“Let her stay, Karissa.”

I turned and flashed a grateful look toward my aunt as she stepped away from her family to stand by my side. Aunt Rima was shorter than I, even though I was only fifteen. But my father’s side of the family had always been short. That was fairly common among native Mexicans, from what I’d seen.

Unlike my American mother, whose dark blonde hair began to plaster to her face now that she’d stepped out from under the awning next to my father’s grave.

“I’ll have Julio stay with her until she’s ready to come home,” Aunt Rima continued in a firm tone. Without waiting for my mother’s response, my aunt wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me over to her family.

“Julio, te quedarás con Marlow hasta que ella esté lista para irse.” My aunt’s first language flowed so naturally from her that it was easy to forget she could speak English almost as well as Spanish.

Uncle Julio cast a dark glance over my shoulder, likely eyeing the members of his precious Motorcycle Club, the Deslizars, before replying in a quiet voice, “No quiero dejarte a ti y a los niños solos ahora mismo, amor mío.”

Before my aunt could reply that he would have to suck it up and leave his family with his MC brothers so he could watch me, I jumped in to spare us all an awkward fight. “It’s okay, Aunt Rima. Uncle Julio can stay with me until everyone leaves so my mom thinks I’m not alone.”

“I don’t want to leave you out here by yourself, Paloma,” my aunt said soothingly. “No girl should be left alone in a cemetery, especially on one of the worst days of her life.”

“I just...” I bit back the sob rising in my chest and cleared my throat before trying again. “I just want to say goodbye. Without anyone watching me...”

The rain had lightened a bit, letting my aunt hear me better as I murmured only for her ears.

With pain-filled eyes, Aunt Rima nodded, biting her lip as if trying to keep from crying. “Reyes was always so proud of you, Paloma. You know how much he loved you... So please, take care of yourself. If not for anyone’s sake, then for your father’s.”

I hated that she felt the need to say those words, but deep down, I knew people lost in their grief could make stupid choices they wouldn’t normally make.

“I will,” I nodded quickly, slowly feeling the pressure in my chest lessen now that most of the cemetery had cleared out.

Soon, I’d be left alone with only ghosts for company.

“I promise I’ll get home safely when I’m done. It’s not a far walk from here,” I reminded her quickly, gratitude evident in my tone.

She glanced at her husband, who nodded in agreement before reaching out to take hold of his wife’s shaky hand. “You know Reyes’ reputation still carries weight. No one will dare mess with the daughter of the murdered MC leader, especially not at a time like this.”

His reminder helped put my aunt more at ease with her decision to leave me there, and I was glad for it.

Although I fucking hated the facade that the entire community believed an outside enemy murdered my father, a lie the Deslizars gladly let everyone else believe.

No, only the tight-knit MC community knew the truth.

And since the patch members didn’t want their enemies thinking there was a dissolution from within or the cops breathing down their necks over the murder of their friend, they played along with everyone else, saying my father’s murderer was an unknown assailant with a heavy price on his head.

My aunt gripped my face and planted a surprisingly warm kiss on my cheek before turning to walk away with her family.

As I let out a breath of tension and the heavy weight on my shoulders lifted, I turned back to my father’s grave to try to bury the horrors of the past, hoping I could make something, anything, of my future.

“Well, if it isn’t the traitor herself.”

I froze at the words spoken in the familiar voice of a boy I once thought I knew so well.

Kinda like the blade his father shoved into my dad’s back.

“Saying your last goodbyes to Judas, little liar?”

I turned so quickly that my dark, wet hair whipped through the air and slapped my face. Ignoring the strands clinging to my cheek, I screeched, “Shut up, Link!”

I had no clue how long I’d been standing alone at my father’s grave, but I was shocked to find out I wasn’t alone. I had had enough of a shitty day, and the last thing I needed was the boy I used to love taunting me mercilessly. But it wasn’t just Lincoln standing there.

No, it was never just him.

All four of them stood side by side, glaring at me with varying shades of hatred and loathing. I didn’t even think it was possible, but my heart splintered even further at the sight of my former friends’ hate-filled gazes.

“What do you want?” I croaked, doing my best to hold back my sobs as my father’s casket was lowered into the ground behind me, and before me were the four boys I would’ve sworn a week ago were the loves of my life.

Lincoln Whitmore, the ringleader of the four and the son of my father’s former best friend, stepped forward and growled, “You weren’t at the clubhouse.”

My scoff sounded more like a sob I was fighting so hard to hold back before I replied, “Why would I want to be there? After everything that’s happened, you all expect my family to act like nothing’s changed?”

“Everything’s changed, Marlow! Fucking everything,” Link yelled in my face. If it weren’t for the heavy drops of rain running down my skin, I would’ve felt the spit flying from his mouth. “And on top of all that, the club is still trying to take care of you, your mom, and your sister. We don’t owe a goddamn thing to any of you, yet we’re being the better people by continuing to protect you.”

I laughed.

I actually laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all. The grim look on Link’s face proved how wrong that move was on my part. But I didn’t care anymore.

I didn’t give a fuck about anything or anyone.

“You’re serious?” I asked, disbelieving. “Your dad and his friends stabbed my father to death just days ago, and you want me to show up at the club my father built to play house with his murderers?”

Link’s hands shot out and gripped my upper arms so tightly I knew he’d leave bruises. “Our dads didn’t murder your father in cold blood, Mars. They took out the fucking trash of the Prez who betrayed all of them. It’s club first. Always has been and always will be. Your father knew that better than anyone since he made that the first fucking rule. So it’s no one’s fucking fault but Viper’s that he sold out his own fucking people for greed.”

“My father didn’t sell anyone out!” I screamed. His grip tightened on my arms, but I ignored the pain shooting through my limbs and kept yelling defiantly in his face. “He didn’t do anything wrong, but did anyone bother to ask him or get to the bottom of his supposed crimes before murdering him? No! And now I have to live with the people who killed the best person I ever knew and be fucking grateful for it?”

“The club did their due diligence, Dove,” Cowan muttered in a low voice as he stepped up next to Link. “They spent time investigating behind his back until the evidence became too obvious to ignore.”

Yes, that’s what they’d told everyone afterward.

But it was still fucking garbage. I knew better, even if no one else would believe me.

“My dad wouldn’t rob his own club,” I moaned, staring at Cowan, begging for a chance to explain what I knew. “He loved the Deslizars more than his own fucking family! He practically merged the two because he saw them as one and the same. And he wouldn’t do that to the people he loved.”

“You’re the only one resisting the truth, Muse,” Slater said as he walked up to Link’s other side. With cold, wet fingers, he gently brushed the strands from my face that still clung to my cheek. “You and your dad were close. Everyone knows that. You were his favorite. So we’re being as patient as we can while you mourn and come to terms with the truth of the situation.”

“Slater,” I sobbed, squeezing my eyes shut tight against the sight of these boys completely trivializing my words and justifying my behavior as akin to an unruly child throwing a fit at being told no.

This was more than that. So fucking much more than that.

“I was there that night,” I whispered, scared to say the words out loud. I’d never told anyone, and I’d been living in fear for days that the club members would find out and want me killed, too. “I know what I saw...”

“You shouldn’t talk about that,” Link cut me off briskly. His grim face deepened into a scowl as he glared coldly at me. “That’s club business and shouldn’t be spoken aloud. If anyone finds out you were there that night, Mars...”

He didn’t need to tell me. None of them did. I would be fucked if the club members found out I’d witnessed them commit first-degree murder.

That was a worse offense than overhearing anything said in church. I’d be labeled a liability immediately, and, well, we all know what the club version of “liability insurance” was.

“You can’t ever breathe a word of this to anyone,” Link continued, scolding in a grave tone. “I mean it, Marlow. Fucking nobody! Not your mom, your sister, a fucking stranger...”

“Or you,” I said softly. “Any of you.”

None of them said a word to dispute my statement. And that didn’t surprise me.

Even though we were all teenagers, the boys were already wearing their leather cuts as prospects for the club. Their fathers were high-ranking members, and they didn’t want to risk losing their chance to be bled in by learning club business before they were meant to.

Just as the Deslizars MC pledge goes, “From first blood to last breath, the Deslizars come first until my death.”

And my boys took that to heart.

But then so did my father. Fuck, he created the club and that fucking rule. And look where that got him.

“So that’s it, then?” I muttered listlessly. “I play the role of the grateful teenage girl to the men who killed my dad... and what? Will everything be right in the world again?”

Lincoln let out a low growl of annoyance before shoving me away. He turned and paced a few feet away, then twisted back to point a finger at me. “You’ll do what you’re fucking told. Keep your head down and your mouth shut. That’s all anyone fucking asks of you. Don’t cause waves when everyone else is still trying to make it through the storm.”

Indignation flared inside me, and heat radiated from my eyes as I leveled Link with a scorching glare. “Fuck you if any of you think I’ll take this lying down like a good little girl! My dad didn’t raise me to be some kiss-up to anyone, and I’m not going to start now, especially not to the men who’ve claimed my entire life to have my dad’s fucking back! I witnessed last week exactly what they meant by that.”

Link roared in frustration and kept pacing, agitated, running his hands through his dark blonde hair as his black boots squelched across the cemetery’s muddy ground.

“Ace has tasked us with keeping you in check, Dove,” Cowan muttered in a dark tone, indicating exactly how unhappy he was with that order. “Well, Link, to be exact.”

Of course, Link’s fucking father tasked him with keeping me on a tight leash. He’s known how close I am to these boys, or at least how close I was.

But now?

Now, it seems, I was looking at my new keepers.

Well, fuck that all the way to Pluto if anyone thinks I’m gonna play the idle girl who does as she’s told. Someone had to get revenge for my father. Or at the very least, vindicate him and clear his name.

And the only person who seemed up for the task was me.

“I’m not going to play docile to a bunch of murderers–”

“Don’t you get it!” Link stormed back and screamed in my face. “You don’t have a fucking choice! You’ve never had one. So get the fuck in line, or we’ll be forced to make you.”

Mick, the silent giant, stood in the same spot where I first found him and finally moved, crossing his arms over his broad chest. Yet even then, he didn’t say a word. Neither in my defense nor against me.

What’s worse? Being the executioner or being the silent witness?

Right now, my executioner was breathing so hard that his chest rose and fell in heavy, labored pants. Link had a crazed look in his eyes as he stared at me, as if attempting some form of mind control to force me to bend to his will.

Meanwhile, Cowan and Slater stood silently to the side. They tried to be the voices of reason, but their alliance was clearly with Link and the MC.

But Mick?

That big bastard just stood there, glaring at us all, offering not a single word of support for either side.

Well, silence is a form of admission. So if he were gonna stand there quietly after Link made his threats, I’d accept that he stood with the others, just as the blank cut on his back said he should.

“I’d like to see you try,” I breathed, staring up at Lincoln as I drew my line in the sand.

Link froze. They all did.

Why they were surprised, I’d never know. It wasn’t unusual for me to step up to a challenge. Maybe they thought fear of the club would get me in line if nothing else would.

But they should all know by now that I can never be tamed.

The fact that they are trying to do so now would be laughable if not for the circumstances at hand.

“Muse–” Slater began, speaking in a placating tone.

Cowan opened his mouth, too, but Link held up a hand to silence them all. Not that Mick needed silencing, since the giant still hadn’t said a single fucking word.

Link took a deep breath, steadying himself for what he was about to do.

His frosty gaze locked with mine, yet I held firm. The inferno in my eyes did nothing to thaw the ice in his.

“You asked for this,” he said in a deadly tone. With one finger pointed at my face, he repeated, “Whatever happens next, you asked for it.”

Author’s Note:

This is a preview of a book currently under development. I have no specific timeframe to offer for when it may be released, but I know it is one of many in the works as of September 2026. Please add it to your book list if you’d like to read more soon.

XOXO

The Moni-Ster a/k/a MJ Signe

P.S. This is a separate book from my Sterling Pines universe. This is a NON-PARANORMAL book and is potentially book one of a series. Tropes & triggers include: dark romance, reverse harem, motorcycle club, contemporary, cartel, gang life, explicit and graphic violence, parental death, dark themes, guns and knife violence, sex work, and more.