Chapter 1Sold to the Savage: The Runaway’s Return

Everyone said I wouldn't last three months in his hands.

On our wedding night, he stared at me for a long time. I was born different. Intersex. In the eyes of others, I was a freak.

"D-don't... don't look." "What are you crying for? I paid good money for you. Serving me isn't a hardship."

At that time, I thought he just saw me as a toy. And honestly, I treated myself like one too. I didn't cry, I didn't fuss. I just obeyed him.

Later, I found out I was pregnant. It happened right when the rumor mill said his "first love" was coming back to town.

I left the neatest note I’d ever written in my life: [We are even.]

Carrying his seed, I ran away overnight to the big city in the South.

* * *

I was a debt payment. Nothing more.

My father, Frank, had racked up gambling debts he couldn't pay. He was planning to sell me off to some backwoods hermit in the mountains.

Then Silas Vance passed by. He threw a stack of cash onto the poker table.

"I'll take this one."

Veins popped on Silas’s forearms, his bronze skin glistening with sweat. He looked at me with eyes like a feral dog that had never been tamed.

I shrank back in fear, but I didn't resist. He dragged me back to his place.

Silas’s home was just a couple of run-down cabins that let the wind in. But I didn't have to sleep on straw. He laid out a brand-new, fluffy cotton quilt for me. Rumor had it, he was saving that quilt for when he married his college sweetheart.

People in town said Silas had a "one that got away." Her name was Claire. She went off to university and left him behind. I looked a little bit like Claire. We both had pale skin and big eyes, and looked soft and weak.

So, I knew my place. I was a substitute. A substitute meant to keep his bed warm.