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.
Chapter Eight
Dallas
“He was nice to her,” I said right before Justice came back inside. He’d helped her with her tire and got her back on the road, unfortunately.
“Of course, he was. He’s brooding, not an ass.” Archer came over to look inside the box our mate brought to us for consignment. Of all the ways to meet our omega, this was not one I counted on.
Justice came in and shut the door behind him. He rested his back against it and closed his eyes. His chest heaved. At least I wasn’t the only one affected by the brief encounter. I was a bit jealous of Justice’s longer one, but we all had to bond with her in our own ways.
Finally, he opened his eyes and calmed down. “She’s ours. Bonnie. She’s ours. Whatever she brought, I’ll pay triple what it’s worth.”
Like Archer with hisbag full of goodies with every consignment item, I’d also told a fib. “Um, I think she made these.”
“What?” Archer asked, picking up another one gently. He turned it around and on the bottom was one perfectly painted B. Each one had it.
“There are no pictures of anything similar online. I think she carved these and then painted them. Plus, she kind of smelled a bit of paint and pine, which I suspect these are made of.”
“Don’t you dare sell them to anyone,” Justice said.
“I wouldn’t do that. But I want to display them and see what people offer. That way, we know how much money to give her.”
Archer carried the box over to shelves we’d put up. It was in the center of the shop. Bonnie’s figurines would catch everyone’seyes. “We’ll give her much more than whatever they offer and then take them home.”
“And then what?” I asked. “How do we…she’s our mate, and I don’t have an address or a phone number. All we have is her first name. She gave it as if…almost as if she didn’t have a last name.”
