Chapter 4 #2
“More serious than you know,” I said. Every word precise. Tactics honed in on what mattered. She believed me. Her face told me everything. Every shift, every crack in her hesitation. Every nuance of her willingness to step off this cliff with me.
“I don’t know what to say.” Her voice was music. Pure and clear and full of all the things I needed to hear. Her willingness to give this a shot. Her willingness to give me a shot.
“Say you’ll do it.” The words came fast. I couldn’t hold them back. “Say you’ll consider it.” Say you’ll take me. Her eyes met mine. They were weapons. Blades. They pinned me in place.
“Yes.” That was the only word that mattered, and she said it. The sunlit room became our cathedral, a holy place where we were the only true believers. Where nothing else could exist but us. Where we would write our story, long and hot and full of fire.
“Good.” I said the word slow. Savored the taste of it.
My wolf was roaring in satisfaction that we were providing something that our mate wanted.
It seemed ridiculous. She wasn’t my mate.
But something deep inside said she was. “Let me see what I can arrange. You might be able to start in a couple of days.” I leaned back, trying to regain my control.
Trying to mask the burn in my gut as I texted the school principal.
“Really?” She glowed. Her energy set me on a course I couldn’t reverse. A course I didn’t want to reverse.
“There will be a few things to work through, but I can make it happen.” The morning light seemed too bright, our own private universe expanding with each breath. “I’ll take care of the paperwork.”
“I don’t understand how you can offer me this. I thought you owned an auto dealership.”
I patted her hand. “Let’s go to the school and I’ll explain more about how things work with the Iron Valor Pack.”
The sign for Bridger Hardin, Sr. Elementary loomed like a goddamned threat as we pulled in.
Sawyer looked out the window at it, and I didn’t need to have a bond to tell me her nerves were high.
She tried to hide it, but I could tell by the way she wrung her hands together.
I parked and put a steadying hand on her knee.
“Wait, Bridger Hardin Elementary. Is the school named after you?”
“My grandfather actually, thus the ‘senior.’ When I donated the money to build the school, I wanted it named after the greatest man I ever knew. Hunters killed my father when I was very young. My granddad stepped up and even though he was older, he was a stand-in father to me and my siblings. A damn good man.” She listened so intently as I told her about him.
“I’m sorry about your father, but your grandfather sounds like a wonderful man.
The kind of man anyone would love to have as a father figure.
” She spoke quietly. The look on her face led me to believe she didn’t have the same paternal experience.
Tonight I was going to insist she came clean with me about who she actually is.
As we entered the brightly lit building, I caught the hard edge of footsteps before the woman they belonged to appeared.
My ex-Karen’s eyes swept from Sawyer to me with careful control, but I knew what ran beneath the surface.
“Bridger,” she said, lips tight around my name like it was something she couldn’t quite swallow.
“Good to see you again.” This is the woman who had dreamed of being my mate.
After six months with her, I knew that would never happen.
Sawyer stood with a wariness that bordered on vulnerable, the other female bringing out some instinctive caution that would make things interesting for us all.
I introduced them, and Karen’s look turned appraising.
She paused for a long, assessing moment before speaking.
“You’re here about the teaching position? ”
Sawyer nodded, the blush in her cheeks giving more away than I knew she’d want. “Bridger told me you’re looking for a music teacher. I’m Sawyer.”
“Yes.” Karen folded her arms and gave me another unreadable glance. “I’m the principal, Karen Day. And he tends to make decisions for the school at times.”
“Karen,” I said, letting the weight of my voice carry more meaning than my words, “I know she’s the right choice.”
A cold spark lit her eyes. It sent an almost visible shift through Sawyer, who absorbed it with wide curiosity and remained uncertain of her footing. “Well, you should see the music room. Follow me.”
I let Karen take the lead and trailed behind with satisfaction cutting through my veins.
We reached a long hallway lined with brightly colored doors.
The tour moved forward with the kind of tautness I was growing to enjoy.
Karen’s composure frayed a bit when she spoke again.
“Will you be living with the pack full-time?”
Sawyer glanced over her shoulder, eager for the chance to express what she hoped I’d hear in the response. “That’s my plan.”
“That’s a lot of commitment for someone new to the area,” Karen said, each word deliberate and charged.
“Commitment is what she’s all about,” I said, feeling the tension bite like a chilly wind.
“I see.” She opened the door to the music room and stepped aside for Sawyer to enter. Her tone held an edge that could have cut diamonds. “It must be very serious, then.”
I followed Sawyer in and ignored Karen’s last barb.
The walls stood adorned with instruments and a stack of blank sheet music.
Sawyer drank in every detail, an unguarded brightness shining from her in clear defiance of the jealousy I knew burned from Karen’s side of the room.
She walked up to the piano in the middle of the room and sat.
Her fingers flew across the keys as she quickly played a haunting and familiar melody.
“This is perfect,” Sawyer whispered, pure awe in her voice as she stood.
“We do things right here,” I replied, directing my comment to both of them and knowing only one would get it.
Karen’s mouth tightened before she could speak again. “You must be eager to start.”
“I am,” Sawyer said, and my wolf sang with her excitement, rough notes that went clean through me. “Will you show me the rest?”
Karen’s reluctance pushed through a thin layer of professionalism. “This way.”
Sawyer turned and followed the direction, giving me a look that sent a flare of satisfaction through every nerve.
We ended the tour with more tension than we’d begun with, and it sparked like live wires the second Karen found another chance to pull me aside. “You’re taking a risk with her,” she said, keeping her voice low. “You don’t know if she’ll stay.”
“It’s a risk I’ll take,” I answered, letting her hear how little doubt I had.
Karen’s eyes moved to Sawyer, who was admiring the layout of the main office like she belonged there already. “Be careful, Bridger.”
“You too, Karen,” I said, the threat as open as a wound, knowing she’d remember this when the day ended.
I walked back to Sawyer, dismissing the possibility that Karen might sabotage what I’d laid out so perfectly, and felt her anxiety mix with fresh confidence as I neared her.
“It’s a lot to take in,” she said, but I could see from the look she gave me that she meant more than the school. “When would I start?”
“I’m thinking Monday,” I said.
She swallowed my suggestion with more courage than doubt. “Whew! That’s fast. But good.”
“That’s the good thing about being independent.”
Sawyer waited for me to explain more, green eyes steady with fascination.
“We own the land, the school. Everything.”
Sawyer’s expression held promise, the emotion of it clear and confident now. She’d found more here than she’d expected, and it showed. “I’d love to be part of this,” she said. “Is it always like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“The Pack. How it works.”
“You’ve only seen a fraction,” I told her, deciding she’d have to know everything if she was going to take the leap I needed from her.
“It’s more self-contained than you realize.
The school is not the only place the Pack exercises independence.
We try to be completely self-sustaining. ” I explained as we left the school.
She absorbed the information, letting it reshape the world she thought she’d entered. “How do you mean?”
“We grow our own food,” I said, testing her reaction to each new piece. “Raise livestock. Run businesses on pack land and in town.”
“And the school?” She sounded more sure of herself now. “I’ll be teaching only pack children?”
“That’s right.”
Her eyes were bright. “That’s as it should be.”
“How independent it all is.” Her words were soft, full of something close to awe.
“That’s the point.” I waited, my breath tight in my chest. “Keeping us safe. Keeping us secret.”
She didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away.
“So, you think you’re ready?” I pushed, wanting to hear her confirm it.
Her determination flared, a wildfire in the dark forest of her eyes. “Yes.”
The force of her answer rocked through me.
“It’s a lot to take on,” I warned, trying to give her a way out. Knowing I didn’t want her to take it. “You’ll have pack parents to deal with. There will be battles to fight at times.”
Her expression was fierce. Full of things she couldn’t put into words. “I know how to fight.”
I pulled the truck up to her apartment and put it in park. My eyes held hers, and I knew I had to say it. That it was too soon to mean everything, but not soon enough to mean nothing.
“You’ll get what you want, Sawyer.” The name burned in my throat. “Everything you want.”
The gratitude and hope in her gaze staggered me.
“Can we talk more tonight?” she asked.
My gut tightened. I had a feeling she was ready. Tonight could be the first step to unraveling her secrets.
“I’ll bring dinner.”
“Okay.” She got out and closed the door, my name on her lips as she did. “Menace?”
I leaned across the seat, breathless and breaking. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.” Two words, and they came closer to destroying me than anything in my thirty-seven years.
I watched her until the apartment door closed. Until I was sure she was safe. Until I was ready to take a deep breath.
The drive to the dealership was a blur of uncertainty. Too many thoughts tangled up in the things left unsaid. Too many things I wanted to do to her.
I pulled into the lot, adrenaline surging when I should have been running calm and steady. The mundane rhythm of business couldn’t distract me. Nothing could, now that I’d committed.
Once I hit my office door, I fell into the rhythm of work. Inventories and payroll, parts orders and tariffs. There was enough business chaos to fill the room. I was thankful I had good people to keep this place running like a well-oiled machine. My general manager was at my door several times.
“Glad to see you boss man. Even happier, Alpha has his Luna back by his side. Lydia says she’s the first one to help when any of the women in the pack have a problem. She’s something else.”
My heart swelled, knowing I was a part of bringing Juliet home. “Thanks Ed. We were sure relieved to find and bring her and Sawyer out of that situation. Juliet has been a pillar of strength that’s for sure.”
He cleared his throat, remembering that Juliet wasn’t the only woman rescued. “Oh hell, that’s right. How is Sawyer?”
I smiled. “She’s gonna be fine. Matter of fact, I think she’s gonna be the new elementary school music teacher.”
“I’ll be damned. That’s fantastic news, man. Love to hear it.”
The ringing of my phone chased Ed back to his office. And put me on high alert. It seems it’s time we handled up on the business of Skeeter and whatever the hell is happening with the money at the motorcycle shop. Tonight, Sawyer. Tomorrow Skeeter.