There were no options that didn’t tear me to pieces. There was no decision except staying that didn’t leave me broken. And staying came with its own terror.
Memories of my father and his controlling grip paraded through my mind. I saw him, King Declan, with eyes that matched mine in shade but held no warmth. There he stood, always looming, a tyrant in the guise of a loving parent. Even across the country, his power extended like claws. My thoughts flitted to Bronwyn, my gentle mother, who couldn’t summon the strength to help herself, let alone me. Griffin, my younger brother, was sympathetic, but he knew the danger of trying to aid my escape. My older brother Callum believed in duty above all else, and his obedience to our father was absolute. When I’d sought freedom, I was on my own.
My life in Martha’s Vinyard was little more than a gilded prison, with a future planned by others. Shipped off to private schools, where I begged to earn a music degree and allowed it only because it served the family’s prestige. I was a bargaining chip,promised to another pack’s king as a strategic pawn. I didn’t see a way that I could ever escape it.
It was almost too similar to what Juliet had just lived. Granted, her fiancé was a madman, but as far as her false identity and hiding in plain sight were concerned, the parallels were uncanny. If only my father didn’t care where I was, like hers.
The minutes stretched out. I tried to busy myself by reading a book I’d found on the bookshelf.Pride & Prejudice. Even Mr. Darcy couldn’t ease my worries. My options of whether to stay or run kept streaming through the back of my mind. Running became increasingly dangerous. A lone wolf would eventually turn feral. The cards were stacked against me.
It would be another cowardly retreat. And before being tortured in Harrison’s lab, I was no coward. I’d faced down men in alleyways in New York and held my own. I didn’t like this frightened version of myself. But I was afraid for more than just myself. With Menace and Iron Valor in danger, there was no time to waste. My resolve to stay weakened like the dying daylight on the walls.
The remnants of my old life lingered heavy. Those eleven months on the run before landing in Harrison’s clutches had been a horror show I didn’t want to repeat. First Manhattan, trying to stay alive on the streets of New York. My every footstep seemed to echo with my father’s anger as I ducked down alleyways and into shadows, always looking over my shoulder for the men he sent to find me. Each day stretched into eternity, weighed down by fear and loneliness. I kept moving west until I’d wound up in the Ozarks. I thought I’d be safe among the pines. Then I’d had to shift to keep my wolf from losing her mind. Apparently Harrison’s men had seen me. That’s when the true nightmare began. It was only Menace breaking down the door and busting my chains that gave me my first glimpse of hope after months of anguish.
Dairyville was the last in a series of desperate grasps at freedom, and the first place I had started to believe it was more thana mirage. Until Lucia Kozlov. Until girls’ night and that sickening sense of fate crashing down. How could I leave? How could I stay? I was at war with myself, and both sides were losing. The bindings on my heart grew tighter. My father’s shadow loomed. It left no room for hope.
This town and these people were the love song I had given up on. A few precious weeks of pretending I could live my own life. Everyone I’d encountered here had been gentle with me. Kindness like I’d never experienced in my life. I’d only ever known people treating me with deference. Like a princess. The freedom of a false name and a new identity opened my eyes to what life could be. Each piece fit together into a puzzle of lies that only my own foolishness could believe. But I wanted to believe it. I wanted Menace. I wanted the life and love he seemed to offer without words.
For the first time, I could see it: a reckless, blinding vision of a future that I didn’t want to surrender. The way he looked at me. The warmth of his presence. The steady force that held me together when I should have shattered.
Sawyer Galloway. Not quite a lie, not quite the truth. A girl who thought she could run forever but couldn’t even manage another day.
Ms. Pearl had been a savior of sorts. I remembered arriving, wrapped in a blanket in Menace’s arms. Her warm eyes had seen the empty horror in my eyes. She knew I needed something that felt safe. Something that felt like my own. She mothered me in a way that even my own sweet mother could not. Was never allowed to.
Leaving her would be another tearing in a heart already split wide. I wanted to believe in my strength. In Menace. That I could choose to stay and protect the dream I had barely begun to live. But I was my father’s daughter, bred for flight and the preservation of his empire. The cowardice that threatened to consume me felt ingrained, a legacy of running.
The air felt thin and useless, each breath barely enough to keep me conscious. My chest rose and fell like an engine out of control. Like my mind, my pulse refused to slow, frantic with the fear of abandoning everything good and true in a hopeless effort to protect it.
But it was a broken knowing. If it turned out wrong, I couldn’t run from myself. The sharp-edged pain of losing Menace would cut too deep. His absence, my failure—each option left me skinned to the bone. The tug in my gut that I’d felt for him. The more I was around him, the stronger it became. It was a constant pull. I felt certain he was my fated mate. He seemed to be a part of me somehow. Beyond feelings, beyond explanation.
The memory of his hands on me—soft and confident, nothing like I’d expected—brought heat to my face. This older, dangerous man, who I’d loved since the moment we met, held back as if I might shatter. As if a twenty-four-year-old virgin, kept pure by her father’s design, was too delicate for him. His restraint was an unsolvable mystery. He couldn’t know I wanted him to let go. I craved the beast he kept locked down. I’d seen him the night he’d stormed my cell. He was a wild man that night. For some reason,thatis what I longed for. Was he disgusted by my innocence? I wasn’t fragile. Goddess knows I’d weathered so many storms.
The air settled around me like a shroud. It held me tighter than any prison. The effort of holding myself together turned each second into hours. Each thought to ash.
Menace was the life I wanted. This town was the family I needed. Lucia’s discovery forced my hand. I didn’t know if I could trust her. Her relationship with Juliet was what I’d pinned my hopes on. She’d never cause her or her pack harm.
In the distance, I heard the song of wolves. I recognizedMenace’s howl. My soul and heart instantly calmed. How could I ever abandon that? Him?
I didn’t know who I was anymore. Sawyer? Savannah?
A coward in two parts.
Water splashed against ceramic like the erratic flutter of my heart. Even the soothing motions of washing the teacup left me hollow and restless. If I stayed, if I dared risk everything, would Menace accept the real me? It would have been easy to believe in fate, in a destined mate, in the strength of our bond, but he was cautious where I was desperate. It wasn’t just my father’s threat I faced. It was my own fear that Menace wanted a woman, not a virginal princess preserved for a loveless match. I set the cup on the drying rack and watched the water drain, feeling as fragile as the porcelain.
I clutched the edge of the counter as if it could keep me tethered to this reckless plan. Staying. Letting the call of my heart, not my father’s will, dictate my fate. The name Savannah felt like a bad joke, as foreign and distant as the world it belonged to. Sawyer was a bolder soul, one I could only hope to embody when I was free from the shadows of Martha’s Vinyard and duty. But the specter of inexperience haunted me as much as Declan’s power. It dogged my every breath.
I believed in what I felt for Menace, in the promise I saw in his eyes. If I stayed, I would have to tell him the truth. About Declan. About being promised to another. He might not even want to touch me after that. Would his restraint turn into a permanent withdrawal, leaving me more alone than ever? The thought that he could walk away at any time and never look back brought me to the edge of despair.
A subtle ache settled deep in my bones whenever he wasn’t near. It grew stronger by the day, this longing that ate away at reason and left nothing but blind, reckless need. Maybe this was what being mated felt like. But if he trulywasmy fated one, wouldn’t he have taken what was his?
I moved through the tiny space, restless and unsettled. Each shadowed corner of the apartment, each carefully chosen piece of furniture, spoke of a home that I could lose at any moment.
Or was it a home I’d neverreally had?
Menace was the constant, the true north that I had to believe in.
Just then, a shadow filled the doorway. Strong. Indelible. I met his eyes and was lost to their heat. His hunger stole my breath away, stole the words from my throat. I stood frozen and wanting. Then he stepped inside. The door clicked shut. The distance closed. A shift in the world. In me. His presence was magnetic, more real than any fear that had gripped my heart. Jeans hung low on his hips. His chest was damp, a hint of sweat. Of man. My father, my past, my every fragile doubt seemed absurdly distant.
“I had to see you,” he said, and I drowned in it. His words. His scent. His need. Everything was Menace.
