Chapter 7
Savannah
The cabin was almost obscene in its warmth.
Juliet and I settled in the dining area, where pastries and coffee sat waiting, ever the perfect hostess.
She pushed a stack of porcelain plates in my direction and gave me a sweet smile that set my pulse sprinting.
My thoughts tumbled between my father and Menace, between honesty and terror, until her Luna intuition broke the silence.
“What’s going on, Sawyer? It’s not like Menace to drop you off like an delivery.”
My hands trembled. I barely tasted the pastry as I bit into it, chewing on it and her question at the same time. The courage to answer was in short supply.
I wondered if she knew already. If Menace had said something to Bronc. If word had spread through the pack, through the town, like a wildfire set to consume us. What would they do to me once they knew?
“I don’t know where to start,” I finally said, a hollow laugh escaping my lips.
“Start with Menace.” Her eyes were sharp, too sharp. “Something’s happening. He’s concerned.”
Concerned was an understatement. Terrified was closer. My voice trembled as I spoke, each word dragged up from the pit of my stomach.
“I’m not who you think I am.” The confession clawed its way out, ripping me apart.
I watched Juliet’s expression shift, her breath catching as I explained who I was.
“I understand you’re new to our world and the politics of it.
You’ve probably heard of the Supernatural Council and the territory kings.
” She nodded her head slowly in understanding and some confusion as to where this was going.
“My real name is Savannah Calloway. I am the daughter of Declan Calloway, King of the Eastern Territory. Princess Savannah Calloway, if I’m being official. ”
“Oh, fuck,” she whispered. Her surprise morphed into comprehension, and I could almost see the gears turning as she repeated. “King of the Eastern Territory.”
“I never meant to endanger anyone.” The words tumbled over each other, desperate to explain. “Once Menace rescued me…”
“You fell for him,” she finished. The knowing in her voice cut through my shame, laid me bare.
I nodded, the movement feeling like defeat. Her gaze held mine, waiting for more. I struggled to find a beginning that wouldn’t betray my heart as much as the end would.
“I know this will sound somewhat familiar to you. It’s not that I know exactly how your life was, but I understand you had similar struggles.
My entire life, I never had a moment of freedom,” I started again, the words stained with the taste of my past. “Everything in my life was planned, orchestrated. Every class I took, every person I met, was part of his agenda.” My father’s shadow stretched long over every memory.
“My father groomed me as a political pawn. I was going to be his key to the Midwestern packs.”
“An arranged marriage?” Her voice held a note of something like pity, but stronger, as though she understood too well.
“King Dominic.” His name felt foreign on my tongue after so long, a relic of another life. “My father’s big move.”
Juliet absorbed it all, her presence an anchor I didn’t know I needed. “And you’ve been running from it.”
“From him.” My hands were fists on the table, shaking as I held on to something she couldn’t see. “I thought I was safe in the Ozarks. I thought I could be a new person. Then Harrison’s men found me, and you know how that ended.”
“What did Menace know?” Her question was gentle but unyielding.
“Nothing. I just gave him the name Sawyer Galloway, Juliet. I thought I could just start a new life. Be her. Then Lucia came through your door.”
Her eyes lit with the remembrance of that night. “Oh stars, that’s why you both were acting so strangely!”
“Yes. She recognized me. We’ve known each other since we were children.
At first, I thought my father had sent her.
But her father hates my father. And I saw how much she loves you, so I knew it was just an awful coincidence.
But she told me my father had so many men looking for me.
I realized it was just a matter of time.
He just hasn’t made it public because it will embarrass him. ”
I was staring down at my hand. “I still was delusional enough to think I could hide here. But Menace told me I had to be productive. He asked me what skills I had. The only honest answer I had was that I was a certified music teacher. Then, he excitedly took me to the elementary school and introduced me to the principal, and they showed me around. I got caught up in the moment. Saw the music room, played the piano. The thought that maybe I could have this life entered my mind and heart. I wanted it so much. Menace offered me the job, and I foolishly accepted. I knew I had to tell him the truth. And here we are.”
My heart pounded, reckless in my chest. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. But I can’t imagine being without him.” The admission left me hollow. My secrets spilled between us like shattered glass.
Juliet watched me closely, her eyes a mix of caution and compassion. “Does he know how you feel?”
“Yes.” I looked down, unable to hold her gaze any longer. “He’s afraid I’ll run again. But I’m out of options. He doesn’t understand what my father is capable of. Now my greatest fear is for the pack.”
The room seemed to close in; the warmth suffocating as I waited for her to say something, anything.
She reached across the table, her hand warm on mine. “Declan’s not the only one with power,” she said, her voice firm. “Menace is Bronc’s right hand, his brother. If Declan comes for him or you, he’ll have to answer to the entire pack.”
I wanted to believe her, wanted it more than I’d ever wanted anything. “You don’t know my father. He’s ruthless.”
“He’s not the only one.” Her smile was fierce, a promise more than a reassurance. “We’ve faced worse than him before.”
Juliet’s hand squeezed mine, pulling me back from the edge of despair. “You’ll have to show Menace you’re not too scared to stay,” she said.
“Even if it puts you all at risk?” My voice was barely a whisper, my fear laid bare.
“We can handle the risk,” she replied. “Can you handle losing him?”
I couldn’t. I knew that now. Knew it with every frantic beat of my heart.
“I’ve only ever belonged to one person,” I said, the words slipping out before I could catch them.
“And that involved physical chains. I never want to feel that way again. I’d rather be soul-bound to Menace than any physical chain. ”
“He’d never hold you against your will.” Her eyes met mine, steady and unwavering. “Be with him because you long for him. Because you’d die without him. Not because you’re running from something else.”
The truth of it settled into me, deeper than I thought possible. It took root, growing past the fear, past the doubts that had chased me halfway across the country.
Our words stretched through the morning, past the coffee and pastries, into the uncertain light of a future I never imagined having.
Menace and Bronc arrived with the weight of doom hanging on their shoulders.
I’d barely digested my confessions to Juliet when Bronc’s icy glare made me shrink back, his disapproval a storm cloud in the room.
He loomed over the table, blunt and impatient, as Menace laid out their plan.
Declan’s name vibrated in my chest like a dull ache.
They were going to King Rafe Mayfield, looking for allies in Birmingham.
The cabin felt tight with tension as we left.
Instead of driving me back to my apartment, Menace veered onto an unfamiliar road, the questions loud between us.
The silence spread, swollen and ugly, until I couldn’t stand it. “Where are we going?” I finally asked, the uncertainty raw in my voice.
Menace’s eyes stayed on the road, his face carved in stone. “Somewhere safe.”
The words did nothing to calm the storm inside me. The flat Texas landscape blurred past as my pulse thudded louder and more erratic. I watched him, searching for a clue, but he was unreadable.
We drove longer than I expected, each mile pulling me further from the certainty I thought I had. My fingers fidgeted in my lap, twisting my fear into tangles I couldn’t undo.
When he finally turned onto a quiet street lined with sprawling trees, I stared out the window, my breath catching. He parked in front of a stately colonial house, its black shutters standing in stark contrast to the crisp white siding. Boxwoods trimmed to military precision marched in neat rows.
He got out of the truck, his stride purposeful as he moved to the door.
I hesitated, my unease blooming into full-blown suspicion. The interior was just as pristine, with gleaming hardwood floors and crown moldings that felt both oppressive and elegant.
Then I saw it. My things, stacked neatly by the door. I turned to him, a storm of emotion in my chest.
“What is this?” The question came out sharper than I intended, my confusion laced with the beginnings of anger.
Menace’s voice was as blunt as his expression. “You’re living with me now.”
The shock left me momentarily breathless. It echoed inside, the way Bronc’s declaration of war had—too loud and final. My mouth opened, then closed again, my thoughts tangled and uncertain.
He moved past me, setting his keys down with the same kind of authority he wielded everywhere else. I stood there, my feet planted in rebellion, as the full weight of what he said crashed over me.
“You can’t just decide that for me.” My voice rose with the tide of anger building in my chest. “I’ve had people making my decisions my whole life. I won’t—”
I stopped, the fight bubbling too hot for words. The last shreds of my control slipped away, my anger sparking like wildfire.
He watched me, unmoving, as though the storm of my rage was nothing compared to the hurricane brewing between us. “You’re not safe on your own.”
It was all I needed to hear for my anger to consume me completely. “I’m not safe with you, either! Declan will come for me no matter where I am.” I turned, pacing the room in frantic strides. “You can’t protect me, Menace. No one can!”
The space between us was charged with everything I’d confessed to Juliet. The control, the powerlessness. He thought he could keep me here, thought he could claim me like he claimed the rest of his world. But I was done being someone else’s possession.
My footsteps echoed as I marched past him again and again, my frustration at a fever pitch.
He was so still, so goddamn certain. It only fueled my desperation.
“I don’t need you to keep me in a gilded cage,” I shouted, my words ricocheting off the elegant walls.
“I don’t need another man telling me how to live! ”
“Are you done?” His voice was infuriatingly calm, the eye of a storm that I couldn’t see.
I spun to face him, my chest heaving with the force of my rebellion. “I don’t think I ever will be.”
We stared at each other; the tension snapping like electric wires in the air. And then he moved, fast and inevitable, pinning me to the wall.
His mouth claimed mine, a branding more than a kiss. It seared through the anger, through the defiance, through everything that said I didn’t want this.
Because I did. More than I ever wanted anything.
His hands gripped my arms, holding me in place, but it was my need that kept me there. My hunger matched his, demanding and insistent, said with every movement that I belonged to him as much as he belonged to me.
I felt the shift in me, the loosening of the threads that tied me to a life of compliance. Menace wasn’t Declan, and he wasn’t Dominick. He was mine, and I was his, and it scared the hell out of me how much I wanted to be caught in his grasp.
The kiss deepened, rough and wild, his teeth grazing my lip until I moaned into him. I was lost in it, in the ferocity of his need and mine.
The taste of him filled me, more intoxicating than the terror that had driven me for so long. I pressed against him, desperate and reckless, my fingers tangling in his hair as the last of my fight crumbled to dust.
This was what I’d been running from and toward, the intensity of it too much and not enough. He knew it. Felt it. Matched it.
Menace groaned, low and primal, as though he could sense my surrender. His grip softened, pulling me closer, his hands moving to my waist, my hips, branding me in new ways. I arched into him, craving more, craving everything.
His breath was hot against my neck, his lips tracing a line down my throat.
“Savannah.” My name sounded different when he said it. Less like a threat, more like a promise.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t hold on to anything but the press of his body and the demand of his touch. “Bridger,” I gasped, the name almost a plea.
We staggered together, a messy tangle of limbs and lust, neither willing to let go. I pulled him to me with every bit of strength I had, afraid that if I let go I’d lose myself completely.
And I wanted that. Wanted the reckless abandon that only he could give me. Wanted to forget who I was and remember only who I was with him.
He pushed me harder into the wall, harder into the truth of what we were. The intensity was a live thing between us, coiling and twisting, and the heat of it burned away the last of my doubts.
We kissed like it was the only thing keeping us alive. Like every breathless moment was borrowed from the chaos that surrounded us.
My anger melted, consumed by something much more dangerous. I wrapped myself around him, pulled him impossibly closer, wanting the risk of it, the edge of it, more than I’d ever wanted safety.
Menace. His name thrummed in my veins, in my bones, in every part of me that had been empty for too long.
I didn’t care that I was living with him now. Didn’t care that he made the decision for me. I didn’t care because he was right. I wasn’t safe on my own, not with Declan’s reach longer than I ever imagined.
But here, pressed between him and the wall, claimed by the fierceness of his desire, I felt untouchable. I felt wild.
And more than anything, I felt his.