Bonnie
Chapter Seven
I wobbled out of the store, and to my rusty bike, the bag of beautiful food in my hands.
I’d never been hungrier, but I couldn’t just snarf it all down right here where they could see me.
My clothes and bike and lack of makeup or even a tiny pair of earrings probably revealed the poverty I dwelled in.
What girl my age in any video I’d ever seen would have climbed on an old rusty bicycle and tried to sell her poor attempts at art on consignment without even a bracelet or a cute backpack with one of those little dangly doll things?
Or any mascara. Living in the woods as I had, I’d still asked my mo—asked Marie for some more girlie things, but when she pressed to find out what I knew about them, I’d said I just wanted something pretty like the girls in a couple of magazines she’d brought home.
If I hadn’t thought of that, she would have known I’d been going off the rails online.
I was only supposed to use the computer for school, and I had to go through and clear history every time.
But as much as I wanted to have pretty things like other girls, it hadn’t been a big deal until I walked into The Coop.
Settling the bag in the basket, I lifted the kickstand, wishing more than anything else in the world that I had looked better when I walked in there. That I’d been able to make those three alphas want me as much as I had instantly wanted them.
My wolf was snarling, clawing at me and demanding we go back inside, but I couldn’t. I’d already been embarrassed enough. And clearly because I’d been kept so sheltered, away from alphas, my wolf was excited to see them. Who could blame her? It was up to me to keep us from doing anything silly.
Like racing back in there and begging them to keep me.
I really needed to get out more. Or at all.
About to put my leg over the saddle, I noticed the front tire was flat again.
So, I reached into the basket, retrieved the pump yet again, and knelt by the front tire to fasten it onto the valve.
I went to work as I had earlier, but, to my extreme dismay, it was not working.
No matter how enthusiastically I worked, the tire remained flat.
My pockets still held the same amount of money as at any other time in my life.
Zero. I couldn’t buy a tire or even a patch, and it was a very long way to push the bicycle.
I could ask the alphas to help me, but that idea held no appeal.
I didn’t need to lower their impression of me further.
Trying to come up with a better plan, I sank down to sit on the curb, head in my hands, despair rounding my shoulders.
“Bonnie? Are you all right? It’s me, Justice?” I looked up to see one of the alphas leaning down, one brow arched quizzically. “Can I do something for you?”
“No. I’ll figure it out. The tire won’t hold air, and I need to replace it.”
“Let me look.” He examined the tire then shook his head. “Definitely seen better days. I’m going to go get you a new one down the street. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t let you do that.” As desperately as I wanted this resolved, I didn’t want to make myself a burden to these males. I had arrived here hoping to make a business connection and instead, I was sitting on the curb in a bundle of soggy misery. “It’s not necessary.”
“Well, I think it is.” He stood up, holding the ruined tire. “I’ll just take this one to make sure I get the right kind.”
I wanted to protest again, but my beast grew so chill while he was talking that my arguments died unspoken. I’d pay him back as soon as I had any money at all. So, instead, I said, “Thank you.”
Justice took the tire and strolled down the street, leaving me there to wait.
His friends remained inside, giving me space, which I appreciated very much.
Not that I didn’t want to be with them, but they were a little overwhelming.
So their choice not to crowd me was very kind.
After fifteen minutes or so, Justice came whistling back up the street, two brand-new tires tucked under his arm.
“The other one is fine,” I said, not wanting to be any more indebted than necessary.
“Oh, they had a special.” He sat down on the ground beside my bike, the gleaming tires incongruous next to my poor old bike. “I couldn’t turn it down.”
I had a feeling he was lying or at least fibbing, but I was in no position to turn down his kind offer.
So, instead, I pulled the bag from the basket and nibbled on fresh bread while I watched him put the new tires on the bike.
When he finished, he stood, dusted off the seat of his pants, and reached down to take my hand and help me to my feet.
The clasp of his hand was warm and firm and sent feelings up my arm and into my torso that I was not prepared to examine right at that moment. I thanked him several times before mounting the bike and pedaling back to home.
Nothing about this made a lick of sense to me emotion-wise. My desire to go back inside and talk to these alphas again. The kindness they’d all demonstrated when everyone knew alphas were cruel to omega sand treated them badly at every opportunity.
I wished I had someone to talk to, but the only other person I even knew was Marie who had been lying to me my whole life. And from whom I had learned my entire world view.
I was not ready for the world.