Chapter Three: Savage Hollow
938 Words
The drive to Savage Hollow was long and silent, interrupted only by the rumble of tires on gravel roads and the occasional gust of wind howling through the mountain passes. Kael didn’t speak again. He sat still as stone, his profile carved with ruthless lines and unreadable shadows.
I watched him from the corner of my eye, my heart thundering in my chest like it might tear itself apart. Nothing about him made sense. He’d purchased me like a slave, then said he intended to marry me. Not use me. Not break me.
But why?
Every instinct screamed at me to be afraid of him. And yet… I wasn’t. Not in the way I should be. There was something else beneath the fear. Something deeper. A tug I didn’t understand.
I hated it.
I hated how calm he seemed, how steady. Like everything around him could burn and he wouldn’t blink. He was a storm inside a man’s body, and somehow, I was caught in the center.
I glanced down at my wrists, still raw from the ropes. “Do you always buy your brides off a stage?” I muttered bitterly.
His head turned slowly, eyes locking with mine.
“No.”
“Then why me?”
His voice was low, dangerous. “Because you were about to be sold to someone who would’ve destroyed you.”
My throat tightened. I looked away.
“I don’t need saving.”
Kael didn’t respond right away. Then he leaned forward slightly, voice like gravel on steel.
“Everyone needs saving, Luna. Even me.”
The way he said my name—like he’d known it forever—made my skin break out in goosebumps. I curled into the seat and stared out the window. The city had vanished hours ago. Now the world outside was wild and endless, all dark forests and jagged cliffs. Nothing like the Moonlight Kingdom.
This wasn’t home.
It was something colder.
More brutal.
By the time we reached the gates of Savage Hollow, night had fallen again. Two massive wolves stood guard, their silver eyes flashing as the SUV approached. They parted without a word.
And then I saw it.
Kael’s estate wasn’t a castle. It was a fortress.
Steel towers pierced the sky, wrapped in barbed wire. Stone walls loomed like the edge of a prison. Soldiers patrolled the grounds, some human, others very much not. I caught the scent of vampires, shifters, and something else that sent a chill down my spine.
Kael parked without a word and got out. The moment my door opened, two guards stepped forward. I flinched, but Kael raised a hand. “No one touches her,” he said, his voice sharp enough to draw blood. “She’s under my protection.”
My protection.
Not my mate. Not my bride.
But protected.
For now.
I followed him through the iron doors, struggling to keep up with his long stride. The interior of the fortress was surprisingly warm. Dark wood floors, roaring fireplaces, flickering candles lining the stone hallways. Everything screamed power and danger, but it was lived in. Real.
Kael’s Beta met us in the main hall—a tall woman with midnight skin, braided silver hair, and armor that shimmered like moonlight.
“Kael,” she said, nodding. Her eyes slid to me, narrowed slightly. “This is her?”
“Yes.”
“She’s smaller than I thought.”
“I don’t need her to fight,” he said simply. “I need her alive.”
The woman snorted and walked off. Kael led me up a grand staircase and into a room that stole my breath.
It was massive. Bigger than my entire wing back home. A canopy bed draped in black silk. Velvet curtains. A fireplace already lit. A bathroom that gleamed like a dream.
“This is yours now,” Kael said. “You’ll stay here. Eat here. Sleep here. No one enters without my permission.”
I blinked at him. “Why are you doing this?”
He looked at me, jaw clenched, fists flexing at his sides. “Because if you knew the kind of wolves who were at that auction, you’d be thanking me.”
“I didn’t ask you to save me.”
“No. But you needed it anyway.”
He turned to leave.
“Wait—Kael,” I said, stepping toward him before I realized I’d used his first name.
He stopped at the door. His back to me. “What.”
“What happens now?”
He was silent for a moment. Then he said, without turning around, “You rest. Tomorrow, we talk. About what you are. And why I bought you.”
The door closed behind him.
And I stood in the middle of the room, still trembling, still confused.
I wasn’t his prisoner. Not exactly. I wasn’t his mate either. He hadn’t claimed me. There was no bond thrumming between us like there had been with Rowan. No heat. No undeniable magic.
But something was there.
Something deeper. More primal.
I changed into the soft clothes left on the bed—a cotton nightdress and robe—and crawled beneath the blankets, mind racing. Who was this man? What did he mean, I didn’t know what I was? And why had he paid so much to bring me here?
Sleep didn’t come easy. But exhaustion eventually pulled me under.
And in my dreams, I was standing in the woods again.
Only this time, it wasn’t rogues who found me.
It was a pair of glowing amber eyes, burning through the darkness.
- Writer
