Chapter 6 August
August
The world was on fire.
My dreams were filled with flames that licked at my body, burning me from the inside out.
I was hiding from Victor inside the closet of a burning building, trying my best not to make a sound, but the agony was more than I could handle.
Eyes clenched shut against the blinding light, a whimper tore from my throat as my skin was peeled from my body, one inch at a time, flaying me alive.
When I heard the creak of a door opening, my eyes shot open, and I sat bolt upright with a ragged cry, body protesting the movement. He found me!
Except the light searing my eyes was not fire but sunlight peeking through the beams of a barn, painting my body with stripes of warm golden light.
He’s not here, he hasn’t found you. You’re safe, I told myself firmly, repeating it until my heartrate finally slowed.
There was no fire, no closet, no Victor searching for me.
It was just a dream. The pain was unfortunately real, though, and it took me a long moment to remember where I was and everything that had happened.
A shuffle from my right had my heart kicking off at a fresh gallop, adrenaline spiking, and I whipped my head around to the sound, the barn spinning around me.
There was a young teenager there, a boy.
The one I saw this morning heading to the bus.
Had I been asleep all day that school was now over?
Relief that it wasn’t Victor made me sag back against the wall.
Surely this boy wasn’t a threat. His whole body had gone stiff, eyes wide and startled, and he had one hand still on the door like he was about to bolt.
Something kept him in place, though, and when I followed his gaze down my body, I saw what he did.
Blood, a fair bit of it. It had soaked my pants, smeared across the concrete floor, and my shirt was sticking with sweat and milk that had been leaking from me, already starting to smell a bit sour. Shit. I was a mess.
I thunked my head back on the wood and let my eyes drift closed. I listened as the shuffling got closer, but I was too sore, too tired to open my eyes again to track his movement. “Hey, mister, are you okay?” he whispered from a few feet away.
Honestly? I wasn’t so sure how to answer him.
I was decidedly not okay, but I would live…
right? “Sure, kid. I’m fine,” I muttered through chapped lips.
“Maybe just… let me sleep for a while. Okay? Don’t tell anyone I’m here.
I’ll move on after I get some rest. I promise.
” I didn’t like the way my speech was slurred, and apparently, he didn’t either, because he didn’t leave.
He just stood there shuffling his feet, and I could feel him staring down at me.
“Should I call an ambulance?” he asked softly, but there was no hiding the concern in his tone.
I forced my eyes open and blinked up at him, trying to clear my bleary vision.
“No, please don’t. Really, kid. I’ll be fine.
” It was unsettling the way he watched me so intently, and I could see the gears working behind his eyes.
He was smart, I could tell. Certainly smart enough not to buy my bullshit.
Finally, he said, “Want me to bring you a first-aid kit?”
Tired as I was, my lips twitched with a smile. I wasn’t sure a couple band-aids could fix what was broken, but it was nice of him to offer. I shook my head.
The kids chewed on the inside of his cheek. “You’re the baby’s daddy, aren’t you,” he said, but it wasn’t a question. He knew.
I sighed, resigned. “Yes, but you can’t tell anyone. You can keep a secret, can’t you?”
His expression turned earnest as he nodded.
“I didn’t tell anybody that Jacob has a crush on Summer, or that Anna was the one that farted in gym class, or that Isla cheated on the math test…
” His face scrunched up as he realized he’d just spilled all his secrets to me, but I wasn’t about to hold that against him.
“What’s your name?” I asked him, shifting to try to get more comfortable on the hard concrete and struggling to stifle a gasp as the cramps intensified.
He crouched down in front of me. “Samson, but everybody just calls me Sam.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Sam. My name is August, and my baby’s name is Mia. We had to run away from a very bad man, and you can’t tell anybody that I’m here or he’ll find me again.”
Sam’s face scrunched up. “Did the bad man hurt you?” I nodded, and Sam huffed, indignant. “Real men don’t hurt people,” he growled.
“Did your daddy teach you that?” I asked, pleased to know that he was being raised right.
He shook his head. “Jerry isn’t my dad, not really. Not yet. My mommy and daddy died, and Jerry takes care of me now. He’s really big and strong, but he would never, ever hurt anybody. He says I should always use my words, not my fists.”
“Jerry is right, but I’m afraid words won’t keep me safe from the bad man. Nothing is more important to me than my daughter, so I wanted to make sure that Mia was somewhere safe where he could never find her. Will Jerry take good care of her?”
Sam nodded solemnly. “He’s the best ever.”
My memories, foggy as they were, snagged on trying to chest feed her and not being able to. “Is she… is she okay?” I asked, trying to hold back my fears. “She wasn’t eating.”
“Jerry says he has a cl— um, cleff palate?” He struggled with the new word. “I don’t really know what that means, but he said she needs a special bottle to drink her milk.”
“Thank gods,” I said on a sigh. The relief was so sudden that my eyes fell closed unbidden, tears leaking down my cheeks, and I sagged against the wall, barely holding myself up with one hand.
“Hey, August? Are you sure I can’t bring you anything to make you feel better? You don’t look so good.” The poor kid looked so worried about me, and I had a feeling if I didn’t give him a task, he was going to march straight back into the house and tell Jerry about me.
As perfect timing, my stomach grumbled, and we both laughed a little. I wished I’d taken some food from the shelter before I ran. “How about something to eat,” I suggested. “Or a bottle of water?” I hadn’t had anything since this morning when I got a little water from the hose.
He nodded quickly. “I can do that!” He spun on his heel and booked it out the door, setting the chickens off in a startled frenzy of clucking, loose feathers sent floating as they flapped their wings.
I’d fallen asleep by the time Sam came back—or maybe it was unconscious, but I didn’t want to think about that right now. I pushed myself upright and saw he had a stack of sandwiches in one hand and a bag slung over one shoulder. “Here! They’re peanut butter and grape jam, my favorite.”
“Mine too,” I told him, though anything would be my favorite right about now. I took a big bite and groaned. “Soooo good. You must be a gourmet chef.”
He grinned, proud that he’d done something right. Then he pulled out a water bottle from the bag and passed it over, and I cracked the lid off, guzzling the cool liquid as quickly as I could, spilling some down my chin and chest. “You’re a lifesaver,” I told him, panting, as I wiped at my chin.
Next out of the bag came a stack of clothes. “I thought you’d want to change into something clean too, so I took some stuff from Jerry’s room. He’s bigger than you, but they’ll smell better.” He wrinkled his nose, and I looked down at myself. He wasn’t wrong.
“Thanks, Sam.” I set the sandwich aside and took the pile of clothes, bringing them to my nose and breathing deep.
They didn’t just smell better… they smelled good.
Delicious, even. Damn. I didn’t know alphas could smell so good.
I told myself it was just his detergent, but I swore there were wrinkles on the shirt, as if it’d come straight off his body and not folded in a drawer or hanging in a closet.
Sam was still rummaging through the bag. “And a towel. I can’t sneak you into the house for a shower, but you could use the hose. Just stand over the drain.”
My chin trembled as I fought back tears.
My emotions were taking me on a rollercoaster ride today, up through fear and adrenaline, then down into exhaustion, and now just the sheer gratitude that this young boy could be so thoughtful.
I dragged my forearm over my face to soak up the tears.
“Thank you, Sam. Seriously. Nobody’s been this nice to me in a long time. ”
He leaned back, frowning. “That’s not fair. You don’t have any friends or family?”
It was like a punch to the gut, and I shook my head. “Not for a long time.”
Sam’s mouth set in a determined line, and he gave a firm nod.
“Well, I’m your friend, and I’ll always be nice to you.
” He looked back once in the direction of the house.
“I have to go get my homework done or Jerry will come looking for me. We’re having pizza for dinner later, so I’ll bring some for you. What’s your favorite kind?”
I couldn’t guess the last time I’d had pizza, but the memories of nights hanging out with friends at Tony’s Pizza were still so fresh in my mind that I could almost taste the basil.
Even though we were old enough to be considered adults, they’d give us crayons to color in the paper placemats, giggling like we didn’t have a care in the world.
“Sausage and onion,” I said without hesitation.
Sam pulled a face that told me exactly what he thought of my choice, but he logged it in his brain anyway. “Gross, but I’ll see what I can do.” He hurried out. “See ya later, August.”
“See ya…” I called after him, throat tight until my voice was barely more than a whisper.
I managed to eat one sandwich before my stomach started to reject the thought of food.
I did drink the water, though, and then refilled the bottle at the hose and drank that too.
It took everything I had to clean myself up.
The pain last night had been sharp, crisp and cutting, but it had morphed into a constant deep throb now, pulsing in time with my heart.
The water was bracing, but I withstood it long enough to hose myself down.
The water ran dark red, and I didn’t stop until it was clear.
Instead of using the towel to dry myself, I rolled it up and used it under my ass to soak up any more blood that would gush out.
Then I carefully dressed myself in Jerry’s clothes, practically swimming in the hoodie Sam had brought me.
I tried to convince myself that I felt better, even as the pain clawed at my insides, relentless.
This was all normal after giving birth. All I needed was a little more sleep.
I pulled the hood up and over my eyes, then slumped back into my corner, falling into a fever dream where I could hear Mia crying but couldn’t find her. And I swore I could smell pizza…