What Else

Damon

Dax can’t seem to get the fuck out of my way. Fucker followed me all the way to Savannah’s.

Even though he kept his distance, that doesn’t matter.

I get he wants to make good on his promise and does whatever the club needs just like I have done and any of my brothers, but he saw it today first hand.

How Savannah is.

How she fights for me.

How she fights for the people she cares about. She showed him how she thinks.

I know shit’s shifted in his mind. Dax can play the playboy all he wants, but he still has a fucking brain and can think for himself. He might have fought it like I did.

~But he knows now, doesn’t he?~

Savannah isn’t what they want us to believe.

Dragging the door behind me, I don’t wait for dad to send anyone to fetch me like the good little dog he pegs me to be.

I’ll jump ahead of this before he has a chance to work any votes in his favor.

I go straight to church, Darrion coming right behind us. It looks like I’m leading a fucking troop when Dane tags along.

“Know what you’re doing?”

Darrion knocking my hand away before I walk in and face this shit.

“No not really, but I’m still doing it.”

I can hear Savannah in my head. Feel her against me. Smell her.

She takes leaps when it comes to matters she cares about.

Savannah’s fearless and wild.

~All or nothing.~

Church falls silent when we walk in.

Every chair with a member sat in place, no one missing under this state of chapel.

My father at the front like always.

Uncle Lawrence on his right.

Uncle Leon on his left.

My brothers behind me, even Dane pulls on his big boy pants to act like he is on some hard-core shit for once in his life.

A united front of shit stirrers.

“Have some fun last night?”

His eyes slit when he looks at me.

The rest of the pack members give us their undivided attention.

“A blast. Grams says hi.” Teenage sarcasm.

His face hardens like stone.

“No she didn’t.”

Other members of the club look away.

Our only step in privacy.

“You’re right.”

We stare at each other. The same look on both of our faces. I’m not backing down.

I need to make a stand for her.

~How else are we going to make it if I can’t bring her home?~

Sneaking around won’t work.

Especially with a girl like Savannah.

“Want to tell me what you were doing all night?”

My brothers hanging around the door, the other members look anywhere but at what’s going on with him and me.

Unlike what’s supposed to be going on, this isn’t a king talking to one of his back-talking soldiers. This is a father talking to his son.

“I was fucking Savannah for most of it. Went to see Grams. The three of us had breakfast together.”

We lock in.

I know that pissed him off.

I’m not supposed to be around either of them. For different reasons, but same amount of pissy bullshit from him.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING THROUGH YOUR GODDAMN MIND, DAMON?!”

His chair flies back. Coming to meet me at the front of the room before he gets done talking.

“A lot.” My expression doesn’t change.

As cold as he is when he has a handle on his shit.

Father like son type.

“A lot?” His face is in mine, daring me to make a move, fall out of line any more than I already have.

I’m positive if I were anyone else, any other low-ranking member, I would have been stripped of my patch for disobeying.

“A lot? Do you have a lot on your mind, son?”

The mocking he gives to the caring tone he plays off of like I couldn’t have a lot on my mind. As if I couldn’t be capable of my own thoughts and wants.

I didn’t before her.

Savannah may have been a bitch about it, but she was right all the same.

I did let him think for me. She called me out on my shit and spoke the truth. I was mindless and looked to him for my next move. Not for what she thought, but it doesn’t matter.

She was still right.

I thought I would serve my purpose by dying for the club one way or another.

Behind bars or on the street.

I wasn’t taking over, I’m three seats down.

I’m just muscle and work.

I didn’t have any other choice.

Then my gym clothes were stolen, and she started my life. A real one.

A life worth living for, for the next day, and making plans for a future I actually want to see. One I want with her.

“Is her pussy so good it got you blinded and deaf? I told you to stop fucking her. I told you to stay the hell away from Gail. Filling your head with nonsense.”

His finger jabbing at my temple, poking on the middle of my forehead.

Still, I don’t react.

My fists coil at my side. I push on.

“I didn’t come to church to get another one of your lectures. I have something to bring to the table.”

He scoffs, pissed with me. He’s going to get a lot more pissed before I get out of here.

“Keep digging your damn grave, boy. That’s what she wants.”

I don’t give in. I could scream in his face that Savannah isn’t like that, but it wouldn’t matter. She has the Madis last name. Nothing would convince him otherwise.

He backs up, going to his spot as alpha.

My uncles sharing the same look.

“I have taken a lady.”

“THERE IS NO GODDAMN WAY SHE IS BECOMING A LUNA!”

He’s across the table and has me against the wall. Still, I show no reaction.

“You can’t deny her.”

I remind him of our laws. Ones he wrote himself and can’t do a damn thing about.

“Do not FUCK with me, BOY!” He spits in my face as if I would change my mind.

Darrion is the first to step in and come to my aid. The firstborn and next in line showing his problem-solving skills.

“He’s right. She has to pass the initiation trials before that. Our laws are clear. Savannah will have to prove herself worthy before she will be given the title.”

Darrion speaking our logic pulls him off my throat and out of my damn face.

“Church is over. Get the fuck out.”

My uncles filing in with my pack members to come and herd us in. My brothers at my side. It’s Dane that whispers congratulations and smiles his approval.

I nod back a thanks for now.

The last of the members leave us. The door closing to leave the blood-related to our own demise.

“You’re not going to talk him out of this. Don’t waste your time.” Darrion works to keep this to minimal bloodshed.

“If you think I’m letting that girl in this goddamn club, giving her a title and allowing yo—”

“I’m not asking.”

Darrion backs up, his head hung in submission. I’ve used the last of his help.

“She will never pass the trials.”

Uncle Lawrence adds in, shaking his head with the same disapproval that sits in Uncle Leon’s eyes.

“We’ll see. Savannah will pass.

I have no doubt in my mind that she will.

“Get him the fuck out of my face before I kill him myself.”

Dax steps up this time, nudging me towards the door. Ignoring the onlookers, I move down the hall and into my room without a second thought.

~I did what I came to do.~

~I put her at my side.~

~I took our step.~

~I made my leap for her.~

~All or nothing.~

“Damon, what the hell was that? You can’t believe a Madis will be a titled Luna.”

All three of my brothers are right behind me.

“She got one of the pigs to show respect. The mixed one, he called him by name. Savannah did that.” Dax steps up again, sharing this morning’s news with the other two.

Dane claps with a fist pump in the air.

Darrion looking between Dax and me.

“What do you know about this?”

Darrion starts his schoolboy-like shit.

I start undressing. I need a shower.

“She will be my Luna. That’s what I know.”

All or nothing.

All or nothing.

All or nothing.

~I can hear you, Shortcake.~

~I’m in your corner too.~