I take a breath, hold it, and slowly let it out. "OK. So… what do you want me to do, Legion?" Because clearly, he needs me to do something.
My suspicion is confirmed when he smiles. "That's the spirit. And it's not even a big ask. Just… " He pauses. Like he knows he's lying. Whatever he’s about to say, it's a huge ask, but he wants to convince me it's not. "Ya just… make them like ya, baby." He leans forward and kisses me. His hand wrapping around my head, fisting my hair.
And it's so nice, this kiss. This touching. It's so much of what I need, that I kiss him back. Grabbing his head now too.
I hear the laughing. The remarks—the approval—all around us.
"See," Legion says. "That's all you got to do. Make them like you by loving me. By accepting my protection. By beingmine."
I don't quite understand what this means. My confusion must spread across my face because Legion sits down next to me and pulls me into his lap, making me straddle his legs.
I don't like turning my back on the room, but Legion's got my face in his hands now, so I can't look back. He stares up at me, eyes pleading for my understanding. Nearly begging.
“What?” I whisper. “What aren’t you saying?”
"We're gonna fuck, Savannah."
"What?" I try and look behind me, but Legion holds my face in place.
"You heard me. I'm gonna fuck you on this couch and mark you as mine. Everyone's gonna watch and get the hint. You are one ofusnow. You are choosing me, and by choosing me, you choose them."
"Choosethem?"
Legion must see the panic in my face because he shakes his head. "Not like that. Youaremine. And if you fuck me here, they'll know it. Because if you're mine you will do everything I say, even this. In front of them."
"This is what they want?" I scoff again. "Voyeur sex?"
"It's your surrender, Savannah. That's what they want. To know who's side you're on. Mine? Ours? Badlands?" He narrows his eyes at me. It turns him into someone I don't know. "Or the Ashby's."
"You, the man who saved me? Or them, the ones who hate me?" I let out a breath and place my hands on his face now. "It's not even a choice. It's you. It's always been you."
This does not make him smile. Instead, his face grows harder. "You have to own it, or none of this is gonna work."
Very complicated things are happening in this clubhouse that I do not understand. Whatever went on in that back room he just came out of, didn’t quite land the way he hoped.
He wants me to prove something here.
Prove to these men that I am… owned.
Controlled.
Oh. I nearly laugh, that’s how suddenly the understanding floods into me.
Fucking me here on this couch, in front of everyone, is a claim. But more than that, it’s… a pecking order.
Men.Thenwomen.
Right.
Well, I came up in a matriarchy. My mother ran our family the same way she ran our ranch. It was a business. She used me like a product. Turned me into content. Took everything from me.
What more could these men take?
My soul was sold long before I rode into this compound on the back of a bike.
Legion is asking me to submit to him under the watchful gaze of his biker brothers. To convince them I am his. I will obey. I will not be a threat, or a liability, or a weakness.
I will be a good girl who does as she’s told.
I will fit in.
Fine. If this is the cost, it’s a price I can pay.
I reach down, grab the hem of my t-shirt and hoodie, and I pull them up over my head.
No bra, tits right in his face.
The approvals all around me are immediate.
Legion's smile, and his relief, also happen instantaneously. He looks me in the eyes and says, "This is just part one, just so you know. The sex, it's just part one."
