Waking Up New Moon

Savannah's Truth

Rowen’s POV

Savannah was finally asleep.

Not just the restless kind of sleep she’d half-fallen into for weeks, but real, heavy, deep. Her breathing was steady. Her fingers, still curled loosely in the blanket, no longer trembled.

We watched her like we were guarding treasure. Because we were.

Her father hesitated at the door, unwilling to leave.

“We’ll stay,” Jace told him. “If anything changes, we’ll link you right away.”

The man looked at each of us in turn, then nodded once sharp, trusting, and walked out.

We waited until the click of the door was soft and final.

Jace glanced at us. “Come on. We shouldn’t talk in here.”

Luca and I followed him into the small private family lounge across the hall. The second the door shut behind us, everything cracked.

Luca’s POV

Rowen punched the wall.

Not hard enough to break it but close.

The sound echoed like a shot.

“Mother of moon,” he hissed, dragging both hands through his hair. “I didn’t think it would feel like this.”

“Like what?” I asked, but my own voice was tight.

He turned toward me, eyes burning. “Like I want to tear someone apart. Like I want to scream and break and grieve all at once.”

Jace didn’t say anything at first. He just leaned against the wall, jaw clenched, like keeping his body still the only thing holding him together.

“She’s ours,” I whispered.

“Of course she is,” Rowen snapped, spinning toward me. “But she wasn’t only ours. Not first. Not the way we dreamed.”

That word first cut deeper than I expected.

It wasn’t jealousy. It wasn’t some possessive alpha instinct. It was the pain of knowing someone had stolen what should have been sacred. What we would’ve treasured.

“Someone took that from her,” I said, my throat thick. “And we never even knew.”

“We weren’t there,” Jace muttered. “We should’ve been. We should’ve felt something was wrong. Anything.”

“We weren't there, Jace.”

“That’s not an excuse.”

Rowen’s POV

I dropped into the chair and buried my face in my hands. “She thinks we’d walk away if we knew the truth.”

“I’d kill for her,” Luca said quietly. “I’d die for her. And she thought we’d leave.”

My fists clenched. “She doesn’t know how much she owns us. Not just now always. We dreamed of being her first kiss. Her first everything. We would’ve worshipped her. Given her the world. And someone took that from her and left her with scars.”

The silence that followed felt violent.

Jace finally moved from the wall. “We meant everything we said to her. That hasn’t changed.”

“But now we live with this hole,” Luca said. “This hollow space where what should’ve been was stolen.”

“And we’ll never get it back,” I whispered.

Luca’s POV

Jace looked up then, eyes glassy.

“We might not have been her first,” he said, “but we’ll damn well be her last. Her only from here on out. And whoever did that to her? He’s breathing borrowed air.”

No one argued.

There was no one to argue with.

Only the quiet, bleeding ache of loving someone so much it broke you.

And the fire of knowing it’ll never be enough to undo the past.

But we’d stay.

We’d fight.

Because even if we couldn’t be her first...

We could be the ones who finally made her feel safe.

The scream cut through the hall like a blade.

High-pitched. Gut-wrenching. Savannah.

We moved as one.

Jace was already at the door. Luca shoved it open. Rowen was right behind him, heart pounding in his throat.

Rouge? Attack? Where is she?

The second we burst into the room, we froze.

No blood.

No enemy.

Just her.

Savannah.

Pressed against the headboard, arms wrapped around her knees, shaking so violently the bed frame rattled. Her eyes were wild blown wide with panic, locked on the man at the foot of her bed.

A doctor.

He stood frozen, hands raised. “I didn’t mean to, I just came to check her chart. I knocked she was asleep.”

He backed off instantly, moving slowly, carefully, like a prey animal sensing predators.

“Get out,” Jace growled.

The man didn’t hesitate.

The door clicked shut behind him, but the damage had already been done.

“Savannah,” Luca breathed.

Her eyes darted to us, but she didn’t see us.

She was somewhere else.

“Kali’s at the surface,” Rowen warned, feeling the crackle of wolf energy spike in the air.

Savannah’s body trembled like a live wire, her nails digging into her arms, her breathing ragged and shallow. “Don’t touch me,” she choked out. “Don’t don’t let him don’t let him touch me!”

“She’s not seeing us,” Jace whispered. “She’s seeing him. The uniform. The stranger.”

Her wolf was snarling beneath her skin feral and frantic. Ready to attack. Ready to kill.

Luca stepped forward, shifting just enough to let his alpha bleed through. “Savannah. It’s us. It’s us. You’re safe.”

Rowen dropped to his knees, lowering his head submissively. “Kali,” he said gently, “we would never let anyone hurt her. You know that.”

“She’s terrified,” Jace said, his voice trembling. “And it’s not just tonight. She’s been holding this in this fear, this pain, and it’s eating her alive.”

“We’re going to fix it,” Luca said. “But we can’t do it alone.”

Kali growled through her, but her eyes flicked between us recognition, trying to break through the terror.

“You’re safe, Savannah,” Rowen said again, his voice low and unshakable. “This is your room. We’re your mates. You’re not back there. You’re here. And you’re not alone.”

Jace shifted enough to let his wolf’s presence press gently against hers, calming, anchoring. “Breathe with me,” he whispered. “Just breathe.”

For a long moment, the only sound was her ragged sobs.

And then slowly slowly, her posture started to shift. The tension bled out of her limbs. Her claws retreated. Her eyes cleared, if only by degrees.

Her voice was hoarse. “He just… he looked like him. I woke up, and he was just standing there, and I”

Luca reached out, this time letting his fingers brush her hand gently. “You don’t have to explain. We get it. We get it now.”

Silence.

Thick. Heavy. Devastating.

Jace’s voice was rough when he spoke. “She needs help.”

Rowen nodded, jaw tight. “Not just us. Not just pack support. She needs real healing. A therapist. Someone trained.”

“We can’t be the only thing standing between her and the edge,” Luca whispered. “She deserves more than survival.”

They all looked at her.

Savannah curled into herself, trying to steady her breathing, but her hands were still shaking.

They would fight for her. Always.

But now they saw the truth.

She couldn’t fight this alone.

Savannah’s POV

I woke to footsteps.

Soft. Unfamiliar.

I wasn’t sure at first if I was dreaming. The room was hazy with sleep, and I blinked against the light. But then

A man.

Standing at the foot of my bed.

A clipboard in hand. A white coat. A stranger.

No.

Everything inside me screamed. My blood turned to ice. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.

The world tilted and cracked, and suddenly, it wasn’t a hospital room anymore.

It was a uniform. A closed door. Hands that pretended to be kind.

“No,no, get away from me!” I screamed, scrambling backwards so fast I nearly slammed into the headboard. My back hit hard, but I barely felt it. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t see.

Kali was there.

Raging. Ready. Her fury burned through my skin. She wanted blood. She wanted his throat.

The doctor backed away fast, stammering something about charts and routine checks, but it was too late.

He was already "him" in my mind.

I couldn’t stop shaking. My breath tore from my lungs in broken gasps. “Don’t let him touch me. Don’t let him touch me!”

The door opened.

Three shadows.

No three anchors.

Rowen. Luca. Jace.

But even they felt far away. I was trapped in the past, inside my skin, choking on fear. My wolf snarled beneath the surface, threatening to take control. Protect us. Kill for us.

“Savannah.” One of them, Luca, I think, his voice was calm, but firm. “It’s us. It’s just us.”

“You’re safe,” Rowen said from somewhere low. I could feel his energy shift. Lowering himself. Submitting.

Why was he submitting?

“You’re not back there,” Jace said, stepping closer. His voice was thick with something I couldn’t tell if it was pain or panic. “You’re here. With us.”

I tried to breathe, but my lungs wouldn’t obey. Everything in me was locked in panic.

Kali wanted to tear the world apart.

But something… something about their presence began to cut through the storm.

Jace let his wolf bleed through gently, pressing against Kali not to dominate but to soothe.

“Breathe with me,” he whispered.

Inhale. Exhale.

I tried.

Tried again.

Eventually, the tremors dulled. My claws retracted. The red haze began to lift, and I finally saw them really saw them.

My mates.

Their faces carved with heartbreak.

“He looked like him,” I whispered, voice raw. “He was just there, and I, I couldn’t”

“You don’t have to explain,” Luca said, touching my hand like I was porcelain. “We get it.”

They shouldn’t have to.

I felt like I was unravelling from the inside out. My ribs ached from the force of my breath. My soul felt like it had been peeled open.

They sat with me in the quiet, never turning away. But I saw the truth in their eyes.

This was bigger than us.

This wasn’t a wound they could close with love alone.

Jace’s voice broke through the stillness, gentle but solid. “You need more than us.”

Rowen nodded, his eyes locked on mine. “You need someone who can help you carry this the way it deserves to be carried.”

“Someone who knows how to help,” Luca added.

A therapist.

The word didn’t feel like failure.

It felt like something I’d been avoiding out of fear.

But maybe it was finally time.

Because even if I wasn’t broken…

I was still bleeding.

And I couldn’t keep pretending that I wasn’t drowning in it.

I looked at them—all three of them—and for the first time, I nodded. Not because they wanted me to.

Because I wanted to heal.