Chapter Two
"––Making fun of you." I finished, even though I knew he couldn't hear me anymore.
Rory thought I was making fun of him. That broke my heart like I hadn't realized something could.
Finally getting my shit together, I left the bathroom, not surprised to see that Rory wasn't standing in the hall.
When I passed the counter, up front, Rory was busy pulling the syrups from the warmer, and placing them on the tray with the jellies, butter and more creamer for coffees. He glanced up, but looked away quickly, making my heart seize all over again.
I'd unintentionally hurt him, and I didn't know what to do. I'd never really learned to fix hurt feelings before. My relationship experience was a big fat zero. I'd barely even kissed someone.
I wasn't virginal. Far from it, actually. I was actually pretty ashamed of my sexual history now that I'd found my mate.
But relationships had never come into it. And you didn't need to kiss someone to fuck them with their face pressed to the wall or the mattress.
Deciding to leave it for the day, I sat back down, ignoring a teasing Bennett, who was trying to get my attention.
I'd let Rory get away with it for the day, but I was going to clear this little issue up. He would know how precious he was to me. And how perfect.
***
Like a stalker, I waited outside the diner, hiding among the trees on the backside of the parking lot, while Rory got in one of the crappiest cars I'd ever seen and started the thing up. I was banking on it coughing out its last death rattle and falling apart right there in the parking lot, but amazingly, the thing roared to life.
Running along the woods in human form, as fast as I was going, could potentially be dangerous if anyone saw me, but I was pretty good at staying hidden.
A few blocks down the road, Rory pulled into the grocery store parking lot, getting out and looking around quickly, before dropping his head and walking inside.
I waited patiently for him, while he got whatever it was that he needed and came back outside. I frowned at the tiny bag in his hand. Whatever was in there, looked like barely enough food to feed a toddler, more less a full-grown man.
Maybe he had food at home, and just thought of something he needed to finish whatever he was making.
I needed to find where he was living. I'd scoured the internet for anything I could find on a Rory Stevens, but the only information that matched was a birth record from eighteen years ago, and a shot record on the same child until the age of six. Beyond that, Rory Stevens didn't exist.
I knew there were plenty of people who paid their rent in cash and landlords who dealt in paper instead of digitally, but the only people who really owned anything to rent around here, were all leap members, and not one of them had rented to the guy.
Trust me, I'd spent as much time as possible looking and asking.
Using the trees to follow him again, I only had to cross the road once, when he had to turn right, taking him down the deserted, dead-end road teens used to use as a hangout to have drunken parties at.
That had ended the day one of the local girls had gotten a little too drunk and fell in the river, drowning.
Rory pulled to a stop just in front of what remained of the old fallen down bridge. When he got out, pulling the bag from earlier out with him, he walked around to the hood of the car and climbed up, reclining against the windshield, and pulling out what looked like a can of ravioli, a bottle of water and a plastic fork.
He ate quietly, sighing occasionally, and looking around at the beauty that was a grown-up, deserted old bridge.
When he finished, he dropped the can and spoon back in the bag and walked back to his car, leaving it in the passenger seat, and then getting in the back and pulling out a small black bag, a towel and some neatly folded clothing.
Was he going to take a bath in the river?
A knot of dread settled in my belly, as reasons as to why he would be doing that, popped into my head.
Was my precious, Pretty Angel homeless?
Looking around again, just like outside of the grocery store, Rory eased down the wreckage of the bridge until the thing ended along the bank of the river.
I knew I shouldn't watch. He had no idea I was there, but as he pulled the old, slightly ragged t-shirt over his head, exposing his long, lean back to me, my eyes were riveted. I couldn't have turned around if threatened with blindness.
He reached in front of himself, clearly undoing his pants, as he toed off his shoes, before he slid the denim down, exposing the sweetest, most perfect ass in creation. Smooth, white, bitable globes, that literally had me on the verge of coming, just from the sight.
Feeling like an absolute perv, I fished my cock out of my pants, groaning as the air stroked the over sensitive tip. I clamped down on the base, needed to stave off my impending orgasm.
Once Rory rid himself of his pants and socks, he walked into the water, shampoo and conditioner bottle in hand, along with what looked like a soap caddie, his beautiful skin almost glowing with its porcelain smoothness. The water was probably fairly warm, given the heat, but probably nothing like an actual shower or bath.
He wasted little time, placing his bathing items on a large rock, before submerging himself in the water, and dunking his head beneath the surface.
He washed his body first, rubbing the bar of soap in all the placed I was desperate to touch. To taste. By the time he dunked back under water to rinse his body, I was a panting mess, where I leaned against the base of a tree.
Watching him wash his hair was mesmerizing, his long fingers massaging his scalp, as his slightly muscled arms flexed.
I wanted to see the front of him in a bad way. I needed to see his no doubt beautiful body.
When he came back up out of the water after rinsing the shampoo from his hair, I noticed the long dark strands were reaching the middle of his back.
He had such beautiful hair.
When he pulled it forward to apply the conditioner to the ends, exposing his long, smooth neck, I growled, remembering last second to keep it low and quiet.
But fuck I wanted to mark that lovely skin.
My hand started to move of its own volition, making me gasp from the delicious friction while watching my beautiful mate.
Rory's hands released his hair, moving to his neck, where he lightly massaged the muscles there with the tips of his fingers. When his fingers started skimming down his body, he let his head drop back, making his long hair gently stroke the tops of his ass cheeks.
Something I wanted to do with my tongue.
I couldn't see exactly what he was doing to his front from this angle, but when it looked like he brushed over a nipple, I heard him gasp, and then moan.
I moaned too, already feeling the tingle shooting up and down my spine.
Moving further down, my mate latched on to his dick, giving it one, long, smooth stroke. "Oh fuck."
His sweet, melodic voice. I had almost lost it earlier when he'd said my name. Now, in his ecstasy, I knew I was about to blow.
After a few more languid strokes, Rory let out a low keen, throwing his head back. "Green!"
My name. He'd said my name. It hadn't been loud, barely above a strangled whisper, but I'd definitely, and clearly heard it.
I shot off, hard, biting down on my cheek until it bled to keep from being heard, as the most incredible ecstasy of my life had me stumbling against the trunk of a big tree.
Breathing hard, I tried desperately to get myself together, but my body was the consistency of hot maple syrup. My legs shook, and my heart raced.
You'd have thought I'd run a marathon with the way my body was trying to implode in on itself, but in reality, I couldn't have even stroked myself more than a dozen times.
I looked back over at my mate, while my limbs solidified again. Rory, also clearly shaken, stood braced against the huge rock he'd put his stuff on, giving me his profile.
His beautiful dick still stood out from his body, clearly not softening yet. His lean, pale body looked almost posed, as he bent forward, holding himself up with the help of that rock.
If it weren't such a pervy, stalker thing to do, I'd take a picture of the gorgeous man, as he was right then.
He was perfection. And he was mine.
When he'd finally managed to get himself together, he slid beneath the water, rinsing the conditioner from his hair, as I put myself away, and rearranged my clothing.
Once he was finished, he stood again, turning to gather his things and then again to make his way out of the water. When he got to his clothes and things on the bank, he neatly tucked his shampoo, conditioner and soap back into his little black bag and grabbed the towel, drying first his face, and then his legs.
It wasn't until he'd worked his way up his body, when he, again drew his hair over his shoulder, so he could use the towel to squeeze the water out of his hair, that I finally saw his body on complete display.
Definite perfection.
From his long, beautifully shaped legs, to his small, lean hips and thin waist. He didn't have a carved out eight-pack, which I was more than happy about. What he did have was a sexy little V and a small groove traveling up the center of his abs, looking like the perfect place for my tongue. I loved his lightly muscled arms, thin but defined. And the slight swell of his pecs. I could only see one, tightly beaded nipple, but it was small and a pretty pink that would turn red if I rubbed my scruffy chin against it.
I gasped, and nearly lost my legs again, when he flipped his hair back over his left shoulder, exposing the skin over his heart. The skin that held a distinctive mark.
I don't know how long I stood there, shock holding my body still as he hung the towel on a low hanging branch, and dressed in a thin t-shirt and sweats, slipping his sandy feet into a pair of old flip-flops, and gathering all his stuff.
My mate was chosen.
Just being my mate made him the most precious being on earth to me. The mate to my soul. But he was also precious to the shifter community. A gift that only came along every few centuries.
I could feel how dumb the smile on my face looked, and could only be happy Bennett wasn't around to witness it, because it wasn't coming off, no matter how hard I tried.
I watched my mate all night, not wanting anything to happen to the man that was given to me. Only a highly forgiving god would give such a precious gift to a moron like me. I had to believe he saw something in me that I didn't. But I was going to thank him every chance I got.
***
The next morning, after watching my mate get up and get ready for work, and then climb back in his car and head to the diner, I ran back home, showered and changed, and still made it to the diner in time for Bunny to open the front doors with a knowing smile.
"I guess you came to fix the mess you made of things yesterday?" She asked with a hand on her hip as I passed through the open door.
"I guess I'm going to have to be a bit clearer."
Behind me, Flynn laughed, shaking his head. "Even if you think you are being clear, be clearer. Or you'll end up wanting to claw your own brain out."
"I heard that, Flynn!" Ridley's head was poking out of the order window, and he was holding a knife again.
"Ridley, what did I say about the knives?" Flynn's voice was far from the stern, almost terrifying one he used on his wayward leap members.
"I'm not walking around! I'm just standing here, cutting up veggies for omelets, listening to my mate attack my listening skills. Mud is clearer than you sometimes."
"He used to be shy," Flynn said, shaking his head.
"No he didn't." Bennett walked in, followed closely by Ronny and Arry. "He was just a bumbling idiot around you. Not having the ability to form words is not the same as shy."
"Still holding a knife." Ridley sing-songed, batting his eyes at his best friend.
Foster stumbled in, still yawning and rubbing his face. Looking at the seat between Ronny and Bennett, the fox glared at the blonde, and moved across the table, clearly not wanting to be too close to the smirking leopard.
"Late night, Foster?"
"Mind your business, Bennett." But the fox was wearing a crooked smile that spoke of far too much fun.
Rory suddenly appeared around the corner, completely obliterating my ability to hear any part of the conversation being had around me at that point.
I'd literally seen him thirty minutes before, but he still managed to steal my breath.
"Round of coffees?" He smiled slightly, making me sigh like a dramatic teenage girl.
At everyone's emphatic yes, he smiled again and headed to the drink station.
I jumped up, again following the guy like a creeper.
I grabbed his arm, just as he was reaching for his second coffee cup, spinning him so I could see his beautiful blue eyes. "I need to talk to you. Now."
Before he could respond, I started dragging him to the bathroom, making him squeak. "Green! What are you doing?"
I flipped on the light, pulling him through the door and then shutting and locking it. Pushing him up against the wall just inside the door, I grabbed his hip, and barred his way with my other arm beside his head.
"I need you to listen to me for a minute. Can you do that?"
His eyes were wide, and seemed surprised, but he didn't smell scared. He nodded, licking his lips. I could smell the sweet tang of his arousal start to blossom, slowly around us.
I watched his mouth, nearly salivating at the idea of tasting it. I was already hard, and I couldn’t help myself when I leaned my body forward, pressing my hardness against his stomach.
He gasped, his eyes sliding to half-mast.
"I need you to know I wasn't making fun of you yesterday."
His eyes met mine, and I could see the confusion right there. "Then what? Why keep calling me…that?"
"Because. That's the way I see you." When he just scoffed and looked down, I grabbed his chin with the hand I'd had braced on the wall, and pulled his face back up, so his eyes could meet mine. "You are the most beautiful man I've ever seen in my entire life. And the first time I saw you, I thought you looked just like what I've always imagined an angel to look like."
Frowning even harder, he tried to look away, but I was still holding his face. "Why would you even say that? What's the point?" When a tear slid down his scarred cheek, I couldn't even think of stopping myself from leaning forward a licking it.
He gasped, eyes going wide, before closing completely, as a moan grew in his throat.
"I mean it. Every word," I whispered against his brow bone.
"But I saw the way you looked at me that day I came in for an application. You were disgusted by me."
"Never!" I pulled back, letting my hand move around to cup the side of his face. "I was angry that someone, or something, had clearly hurt you. That you'd had to go through the pain this must have caused."
I caressed the scarred side of his face again, making him shudder.
After a long while of Rory just standing there, staring at me and blinking repeatedly, I asked, "Do you believe me, Pretty Angel?"
"I don't…I have no…maybe?" He searched my face with a discerning frown on his own. "It doesn't really make sense, but at the same time, I can't think of what you could possibly have to gain from this."
"Can I kiss you, Pretty Angel?"
Rory gasped, his eyes getting impossibly wider. "You want to kiss me?" Groaning, he slammed his eyes shut. "You do know I'm a guy, right?"
I chuckled, making him open his eyes again. "Of course I know you're a guy. You're definitely beautiful enough to be a girl, but any moron can see you're all man. And thank goodness for that. I'm strictly dickly."
My sweet angel giggled. My mouth dropped open. I made my mate giggle.
"Wow," I whispered reverently. "If I didn't think you were an angel before, that beautiful sound would have convinced me."
Shaking his head, but still smiling, Rory finally reached up and touched the side of my face. "This can't be real. Stuff like this never happens to me."
"About that kiss."
The smile fell from his precious face, and he moved his hand over to the scar running through his lips, distorting them slightly. "I've never kissed anyone. I'll probably be really bad at it."
"I seriously doubt that." I really hoped he'd say yes, because without my permission, my body was leaning more fully into him. And my mouth was inches from his, breathing in his alluring scent.
"Okay."
For a white boy, his lips were plump and soft against mine. His scar, which I knew he had been worried about, drew me in. It sank in, making me unable to stop my tongue from coming out and dipping in and tracing it, before following the seam of his lips.
He opened for me, and the taste of his mouth was a burst of the most erotic flavor. Who knew a flavor could be erotic. Immediately, my ball started drawing up tight, and I knew it would take about a thrust and a half for my dick to erupt, right there.
He moaned, flicking his tongue along mine like he was trying to taste me too. When his hips rolled forward, I felt his dick drag against my thigh, and my pretty angel keened into my mouth.
I couldn't keep from pinning him to the wall with my hips and inserting a thigh between his legs. My body was now in charge.
With my cock trapped between us, and my precious mate riding my thigh slowly, the friction had my orgasm building fast.
The door opened. I stilled my mate, pulling back slightly, to growl at whoever was intruding on the most erotic moment of my entire life, not wanting anyone to see Rory in ecstasy, but me.
"Sorry to interrupt, Green. If you're tasting your mate, you're probably seconds away from blowing a hole in your jeans, but Burke and Sutt just came in saying there were some men out in the parking lot sniffing around, and one stopped them to ask about your boy. Bennett said wolves."
"Wolves?"
I turned to my mate, just noticing how completely still he'd gotten. His already pale face was white, and I could feel the panic rising in him.
"Pretty Angel?" I grabbed both sides of his face, forcing him to look at me. "What's wrong? Breathe."
"I have to go. I can't…They'll take me back. I can't go back, Green. I have to go." His body was shaking, and his eyes wouldn't focus. My mate was about to have a full-blown meltdown.
"Here, close your eyes, guys." Foster was taking the lid off of some bottle, and when I closed my eyes, like he said, I felt something light, like powder, hit my exposed skin, and the smell of flowers assaulted my nose, almost blocking out the scent of my mate.
"What the hell?"
"It's a crushed up flower. The same flower that I used to always make Sutton and Burke use in their fabric softener. It blocks a person's scent almost completely." Foster handed me the rest of the bottle, and then turned to look out the bathroom door.
"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."