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“Fuck. Please tell me you’re okay. Where did he take you? Are you safe?”
I don’t want him to know where I am because I don’t want August’s privacy invaded. He just told me no one knew about this apartment, so I won’t be the reason that changes. “I’m safe. He’s taking care of me.”
“Can you tell me what happened, baby? I have a pretty good idea, but with these damn crutches I couldn’t get to anyone in time.”
“Gavin…he’s not a nice alpha. He made me feel strange. Unsafe. I was out there, talking to August, until Gavin came out. August tried to keep me sheltered from him, but Gavin was too strong. He pushed August away so he could get to me, and he smelled my neck. He thought I was perfuming for him, and he said some vile things about wanting me and my brother…” I can’t say any more. I shake, the adrenaline leaving my body as I start to crash.
August is with me in a heartbeat, holding me gently, rubbing my back and drying my tears as he lets me cry. He doesn’t tell me to stop, he lets me get them all out. “I scraped my arm as I ran from Gavin, pulling August with me. Kit saw us and assumed I was terrified because-”
“Because of August, not because of the asshole. Who I totally took out with my crutches, by the way. He won’t be using that dick anytime soon except to melt ice. His face is a pretty color too.”
I want to laugh, but the thought of more violence just makes me feel sick. “No more hitting. I don’t like it.”
James sighs. “I’m sorry, Calai. I saw the hit happen far before he swung. I knew you were going to protect August, and that that asshole wouldn’t be able to stop himself in time.”
“How could you know that?”
“We should have told you. August did the respectful thing and approached while you were busy earlier. He’s your mate, too. We knew he had a claim on you, knew before we left your brother’s house the other day. We were scared that it would be too much information for you and we didn’t know enough about him to be okay with anything happening yet. We wanted to make sure he was safe for you to be around, that he had good intentions, that he would be a good fit for our pack.”
His words further the hurt. They knew that August needed me, and they kept it from me? “When were you going to tell me?”
He must hear the change in my tone of voice because his gets sharper, more pleading. “We were wrong to keep it from you.”
“Is that all?”
I’m right back to being angry. “Um, no. I…see that his instincts were to protect you first. I watched him while he was over, and you were the center of his every action.”
I stay silent, hoping he’ll apologize for more, but he doesn’t. I lose more trust in them. “So, you’re not sorry then, for managing me? For assuming you knew best about what I needed, without bringing me in on the discussion? That the three of you teamed up, likely had at least one conversation, that resulted in a decision tonottell me because you didn’t want to share me? Is this because he can’t hear? Do you think he’s worth less because he’s a beta? Did your toxic alpha energy override your common sense and make you forget that I’m a fucking human being with my own wants and needs? Did you pause to consider that I was confused, but only because I didn’t understand the draw I feel to him? That having confirmation that it was okay to feel that way might have been beneficial to me?
“Thank you for standing up for me, but I’m not ready to come home. You have all proved again that I can’t trust you. That you don’t have anything but your own interests at the front of your mind. I might be just an omega, just a female, but do you have any idea how it feels to be so helpless against people so much bigger and stronger than you are? To fight with your entire being to change a situation, only to be man handled away while the big, bad alphas try to fix everything?
“If any of you respected me, you would have listened to my story. Kit would have listened to me, before he let Gavin convince him something different. I don’t know what that man told Kit, but Kit let August get punched, knowing that he had no idea what was being said around him. Knowing that August felt a mate pull, and he let him get hurt anyway. Which means he let me get hurt. I am furious, but I am heartbroken too. I don’t want to talk to any of you, because all of you played your part to perfection. You want an omega that just goes along with whatever you say? Then find another because I will never be that.”
“Please, Calai, he was just upset. He fucked up. He knows he fucked up.”
“I really don’t care if he knows. He should know. Let him hurt. August is the victim here, and he needs me right now, and I need him. I can’t be around any of you alphas right now because I’m scared of you. You can thank August later for fixing me, because he’s the only one that can right now. Though I don’t know how to come back from this.”
I hang up the phone and give it back to him. I had put it on speaker like my alphas showed me when teaching me about phones, signing so that August could follow the conversation. I don’t want him to ever feel like he’s purposely being kept in the dark around me. As embarrassing as it might feel to admit some of the things to him when it would be so much easier to just not sign them, he deserves the same information that everyone else has. So I signed James’ words, too.
When the phone screen goes dark, August doesn’t say anything. He seems to just understand that it’s silence I need right now. He holds me, and eventually puts something on the tv, with subtitles so he can follow along.
