by J. D. Light
"I'll go talk to the guys out front, and try to distract them. They've already been sniffing around Rory's car, so there is a chance they're waiting by the back door or even in the woods. Get something to hide Rory's hair. Bennett, Ronny and you two are going to walk right out the front door to your truck. As casually as possible."
"You guys, you don't want to do this." Rory grabbed my wrist when I started tugging him toward the door. "They're dangerous. More dangerous than you know."
"Trust me, Pretty Angel, we know what we're doing."
"Please don't die because of me," he whispered.
Foster opened the door, letting us pass through. "Don't worry, Rory. This is child's play for this group."
Grabbing a clean dishtowel off the shelf in the hallway, I used it as a bandana that tied in the back and flapped over his head to hide the bun he'd made at the back of his head. It wasn't ideal, but it hid his hair unless someone was looking really close.
Bennett and Ronny were already waiting by the door, and as we opened it and walked out, Ronny walked in front of Rory, casually turning, like he was talking to us over his shoulder, as I walked on the side that was facing the wolves Foster was showing something to on his phone, and Bennett casually brought up the rear, with his phone to his ear, like he was listening to someone on the line.
One wolf flicked his gaze up at us, but went right back to listening to Foster explain some of the places that could be used as hideouts around the outskirts of Purdy, and paying attention to where the sly fox was pointing to on the map on his phone.
I snickered when I realized he was leading them to a very grumpy, very territorial bear's house.
Bennett mumbled, "fucker," under his breath, making Ronny snort, as we climbed in the truck, me driving, Rory sitting in the middle of the front seat between Ronny and me, and Bennett in the backseat.
Rory was stiff and quiet, his eyes shifting around the woods that line the road.
"Where are you staying, Rory?" Bennett asked once we'd made it about a mile down the road.
"Uh––"
"Doesn't matter," I interrupted, not wanting my mate to feel any more uncomfortable than he already was. "He's going to be staying with me at the leap house."
Bennett raised his eyebrows at me in the mirror, probably surprised by my abruptness, but he didn't comment, just nodded.
"Do you know what those men are, Rory?" Ronny asked quietly from the passenger seat.
Rory stared straight ahead, his body tense. "Do you know what they are?" He asked, finally.
"Yes," Ronny confirmed. "We all do."
"They're beasts," Rory whispered, his voice shaking. "They can change from human to wolf and back. They're evil and hateful, and monsters."
"They're shifters." I glanced at my mate, finding him already looking at me. "And not all shifters, even wolf shifters, are bad, pretty angel. Is one of them the one that hurt you?"
"Not this," He whispered, pointing to his scars. "But they all work for the man who held me captive for twelve years."
I pulled into my normal spot in the big parking area along the side of the alpha-house, getting out, and helping my mate slide to the ground.
"Flynn said he can't make it until Ridley gets done cooking, but we should go ahead and talk to Rory, and just fill him in after." Bennett walked up the steps in front of us. "I already texted Thompsyn and warned him about the possible visit he might be getting from wolves thanks to Foster's ass. My idiot mate just tried to warn me to stay away. He should know that's like waving a red flag in front of my face."
Bennett shook his head as he flung the door open, walking in and plopping on one of the recliners.
Ronny smirked over at us, and took a seat on the other chair, leaving the couch for my mate and me.
I sat close to the middle, not wanting to give my mate much of a choice on whether or not to sit next to me. I wasn't sure how skittish he would be after all that had happened.
Surprisingly, he sat right next to me. Even if he did seem tense and unsure.
"Do you think you can tell us a little about what is going on, Rory? Why are these men following you?" Ronny asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
Closing his eyes, my pretty angel took a deep breath. "They're beasts. Not just physically. They're monsters in every form of the word." Turning toward me, he opened his beautiful blue eyes and spoke softly. "I was just barely six when they attacked my mom and me late one night, as we were trying to haul the groceries in from the car.
"We lived in the country, and it was nothing to hear coyotes howling from the pasture just outside the fence. We used to sit out on the porch some nights just to listen to them or the bullfrogs. But that night, the howls were different. The first time I heard it, I squealed and dropped the milk.
"I thought my mom would be mad, so I looked over at her to apologize, but she wasn't looking at me. She was frowning, like she knew there was something different about the coyotes too. I asked her what was wrong, and she just said to forget the groceries, and started ushering me to the front door.
"We never made it. A giant wolf cut us off at the bottom of the steps. It growled, and I screamed. I tried to pull my mom with me, and run back to the car, but I heard a horrible scream and my mom's hand was tugged out of my grip. When I turned back around, the wolf had his jaw around her throat, and she was lying on the ground. Already mostly dead. It was like I actually watched the life drain out of her eyes.
"I thought I was going to die too, and started crying and praying, but the wolves just kinda backed off, and then this man was walking up to me from the edge of the shadows. And I knew him. I'd met him the day before at the pool. He'd been really nice to my mom and me, letting us have two of the chairs that he and the big group he was with had already claimed. And––" Rory reached up and rubbed the skin over his heart through his shirt. "He told me he really liked my birthmark."
At Ronny's questioning look in my direction, I gave him a subtle nod, letting him know that yes, my precious mate was chosen.
"They took me that night. Him and a bunch of men that at the time, I didn't realize were the wolves that killed my mother. They were all really nice at first. Especially Brian and his wife Kelly. They took me in and cared for me, fed me, educated me…bought me clothes."
Frowning, he wrapped his arms tighter around himself. "But I started noticing that the clothes they bought me were getting more and more like girl's clothes. And they never cut my hair. Their son would sneak down to my room in the basement, which looking back was actually more of a cage, and laugh at me, saying I looked like a girl.
"It wasn't until almost six years after they brought me to live with them that I found out about the wolves. Trenton, Brian and Kelly's son had come down to harass me again. I told him I may wear girl's clothes, but I still had a bigger dick than him." Rory snickered. "It must have hit a nerve, because he got pissed, and started his first shift, right there in my tiny basement cell.
"I screamed because I thought he had some kind of parasite crawling under his skin, and Brian and Kelly came running down the stairs, just as he'd changed completely. They dragged him upstairs, the whole time telling him how proud they were of him shifting for the first time.
"It took me a few hours to get over the shock of that moment, but when I did, I realized it wasn't some twist of fate that had made it possible for Brian to appear out of the woods where over ten wolves were sitting, calmly and quietly, waiting for something. He wasn't some kind of savior. He was one of them. He'd helped kill my mother."
My mate bit his bottom lip, frowning off into space, head tilted down. "The next day was the first time I tried to run away. I sat up all night, having epiphany after epiphany. I wasn't saved from wolves. I was kidnapped by them. I wasn't being given all the things I needed to survive out of the kindness of these people's hearts. I was a prisoner. The room I was staying in wasn't a bedroom like Trenton's. It was a cell. At the time, I still didn't understand why they were
giving me girl clothes and making me keep my hair long. I just knew that something wasn't quite right with it.
"The next day, I tried to run away, but one of the wolves that were friends with Brian, saw me squeeze through the tiny window that led from the basement out into the yard. As soon as I got my feet under me and started to run, he jerked me off the ground by the back of my long dress, making me trip over the stupid thing.
"That's when the punishments started. He broke my hand for that one. Up until that point, they hadn't had to keep a lock on the window, or even the door, because I had been so grateful to them for protecting me and taking care of me, I literally never thought about running. After that, it was all I thought about.
"I tried maybe a couple dozen more times between my twelfth and sixteenth birthday. The last one, a couple days before I turned sixteen, made me start to wonder if I wasn't safer with Brian, Kelly and Trenton."
My pretty angel shuddered, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulders, drawing him into my side.
"There was a man," he whispered, coughing to clear his throat. "He'd come by to visit the family, and they'd brought him down to my cell, not unlike they tended to do with some of the creepier friends they brought around. They left him alone with me, and he told me he'd sneak back later and help me to escape. I didn't really trust him, but a chance to escape was a chance to escape.
"When he came back later, I very quietly left with him, sneaking out the door and down the road to his semi-truck. We didn't make it a mile and a half down the road before he was pulling the thing over and throwing me into the back on the bed he had back there. He pinned me down and started ripping my clothes off. Telling me I was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. I kept trying to tell him I wasn't a girl, but it was like he was possessed. When he ripped my stupid dress off and got a look at my dick, he was furious. His face changed, just like I'd seen Brian's do, and he tied me to the smelly old fold out bed with a couple pair of jumper cables he'd had tucked under it.
"He showed me his hands, and they were both different too. They looked like claws." He swallowed, reaching up to touch the ruined skin on the right side of his face. "He didn't do it fast. He sank them deep, and slowly raked them down my face. I screamed until I passed out to the sound of him telling me that would teach me for being too pretty like a girl.
"I woke up to the man, completely naked, trying to maneuver me over onto my stomach. I started to fight because I had a pretty good idea what he was about to do, but Brian showed up. I was actually relieved to see him.
"I watched as Brian killed him, telling me later that he couldn't leave the man alive, because he would tell people about me. The whole way home, he bitched about how he was going to sell me now, with a fucked up face. He was even scarier that night, because when we got back to the house, he didn't yell like I thought he would. He quietly chained me to the bottom bar on the cage they'd started making me sleep in because of how many times I'd tried to escape, and stood in the dark corner while three of his men took turns punching and kicking me.
"I think my face could have healed a little better if they'd taken me to get stitches, but instead, they let it get infected to the point I got really, really sick and almost died. I remember thinking I was going to lose my eye because of how swollen that whole side of my face got.
"I didn't try to run after that. Not until my eighteenth birthday. Not until Brian told me he'd found a buyer for me. A man that said he'd pay top dollar for a human like me. Someone who could make special children. The fact that my face was all fucked up didn't matter, because he was just going to lock me in a basement just like they had, and use me for breeding stock.
"The guy was supposed to come get me the day I turned eighteen. I guess he didn't want to get caught traveling the country with a young kid that would get him thrown in jail for pedophilia.
"Brian had gotten all my papers that night him, and his wolves had killed my mom. They'd had my name changed to Avers when I was young, but the original paperwork was all lying right there on the table the day they brought me up from my cell to meet my new owner.
"Trenton was supposed to lock the chain connecting my hand onto the hook on the wall behind the door, but the Reynolds girl he'd been pining over walked in, so he didn't click the padlock all the way closed, and didn't realize it.
"I did.
"When Brian and the ugly, dirty dude with the stringy hair combed over to hide his giant bald spot, walked down the long hallway to the back of the house, and Trenton was too busy trying, but not succeeding with that girl, I slipped the unlocked chain off the small hook, grabbed my papers, and hauled ass out of the house.
"I don't know where all the other wolves were. Probably all sleeping off a hangover, since the entire pack stayed up celebrating the night before. I guess I was bringing in a lot of money.
"I made it to the highway, where an older lady almost ran me over in her car. She picked me up. She was going to take me to the police station, but I begged her to take me to one that wasn't near where I lived. I told her I was pretty sure the people who did this to me knew the police.
"I wasn't lying either. One of the guys who used to punish me wore a police uniform most of the time. I told her if she'd just get me out of the area, I'd let her take me to a police station in another town.
"When she stopped several towns over, I ran again. I was in woman's clothing, so everyone I encountered thought I was a girl. That's probably a good thing. I don't know how many people would have wanted to help a guy in girl's clothing in all the places I wound up in those first few weeks.
"The young guy who found me sleeping under a pile of trash bags outside a diner in the town I'd gotten away from the old lady in, removed my chains, and told me about a battered women's shelter. They gave me clothes––still women's clothes, but at least they were clean––fed me, and let me stay a few nights. I'm sure they would have let me stay longer, but I was scared someone was going to find me.
"I just kept moving. Going from shelter to shelter. About the third shelter I found was an LGBT youth shelter, and I was finally able to tell someone I was a guy without being afraid they were going to turn me away. One of the volunteers gave me some male clothing, and got me a job at a café. I was able to make a little bit of money before I moved on. Eventually, I saved up enough for a car.
"I tried to find pretty sizable cities, so I didn't draw as much attention as I knew I would in a smaller town, especially with my scars, but when I got here, something made me stop. I needed to stay. I felt safe.
"I guess I was wrong. They found me anyway."
Chapter Three
I knew the gorgeous man sitting so damn close to me, was staring at me. I could feel his gaze burning a hole in the scars running down the side of my face. I was scared to chance a glance in his direction, worried I'd find disgust, instead of the burning lust I'd seen before.
He'd kissed me. He'd actually wanted me. Him. The gorgeous black man with the smooth bald scalp and intense gaze.
I wanted to hear him call me his pretty angel again, and maybe hold me in a way I hadn't been held in years. In a way that said I was cherished.
"Brian Avers. That should be easy enough to find," he said gruffly. His voice sounded dangerous and angry.
I turned to face him, seeing the fury banked in his dark eyes. "Please don't send me back. I'll leave. You guys don't have to see me, or deal with my trouble again. I swear."
I'd risen from the couch, already poised to take off.
His dark, giant hand clamped down on my forearm, making the most amazing contrast of light and dark and small and large. It was beautiful. Even in my panic.
"You're staying right here in this house. No way you are going back to that man. But I promise you, Pretty Angel. That man will pay. And I don't care what I have to do, or who I have to hurt to get to him."
His tone and words were terrifying, but a strange sense of comfort and peace washed over me, making me feel safe…and like I was home.
"I won't be long, Pretty Angel. Ronny, do you think it's possible for someone to get my mate's car?" At Ronny's nod, Green pinned me to the spot with his angry stare. "You can trust the people you usually see me at the diner with. Don't trust anyone else unless you ask me. Stay close to Bennett until I get done, and then I'll show you where you will be staying. Do you understand?"
My throat was dry, but I managed a quick nod. I still wasn't sure how he felt about me now that he knew I'd almost been sold to the highest bidder as a breeder, but at least he seemed to still be concerned about my welfare, and didn't seem to be interested in turning me over to Brian.
"Come on, Ror. Let's get something to eat. Once all the shit gets cleaned off the fan, I'd try to talk ol' Green into getting a place of your own. This one is a hotbed for bedroom noises, and that shit will drive you straight up the walls." Bennett stood, turning to look at me with his eyebrows raised. "But, if you're mated, it might not be so bad. Like pornographic ambiance, or something."
I stood too, but as he spun to walk toward what I was assuming was going to be the kitchen, all I could think was that this guy was more confusing than Green.
***
"No, I swear one sandwich is plenty, Ben." I laughed as I looked down at the three massive sandwiches the blonde was trying to get me to eat.
"But you're a growing boy. You need food." He kinda sounded like he was whining.
Shaking my head, I grabbed one sandwich, not really sure how I was going to even manage the one. Not only was the sandwich massive, but I was nervous and worried and my body wasn't used to all the food people were trying to put in me lately. "Your mom just forced Ridley to force me to eat one of those amazing pastries a little over an hour ago. I'll explode if I eat all of those."
