HI all! So much better this week! My bff's daughter went home and doing soooo well! She can't sit for long, but she's moving with just cane! I swear, kids are so resilient! Big thanks to everyone who took a moment to share good thoughts for her. So, this week's prompt is "Did you say...?"
Lost Inside: Chapter 31
Yuri
ate, but his headache grew again. His brief burst of energy was gone, and all
he wanted to do was sleep.
“You
done?” Benny grabbed the box, still half-full with most of the burger and fries
Yuri had wished for, before it could tip over and spill.
“Uh-huh.”
Yuri yawned. His eyelids weighed a ton. “Sleepy again.”
Benny
tucked the blankets up around Yuri’s chest. “You can shower and get dressed
later. I bought you some sweats and a t-shirt.”
The
bed dipped under his mate’s weight. Benny curled around him, and Yuri turned to
his mate, nuzzling his neck. He smelled so good.
“Go
to sleep.” Benny stroked his back.
***
Benny
watched Yuri sleep for a while. It didn’t look very restful. He was snarling
and his claws kept sliding out the tips of his fingers.
Pounding
on the door jerked Benny out of the light doze he’d finally found.
“What
the—”
“No!”
Yuri roared. He jumped out of bed, naked, his pupils so big his eyes looked
black. He snarled and hissed, his ears flat to his head as he spun in the
middle of the room.
“Yuri?
Are you okay?” Benny got to his feet slowly. His mate was crouched, ready to
attack. The pounding on the door came again.
His
roar vibrated the air.
“Stop
pounding on the fucking door!” Benny shouted. He had to calm Yuri down before
he mauled whoever was disturbing them.
The
pounding didn’t stop.
Fuck
it. Benny might maul whoever was out there. He shoved down his anger and
approached Yuri, his ears as upright as he could get them and his hands open at
his sides. “Yuri? Mate?”
Could
he even hear him? Benny wasn’t sure. Yuri was awake, but he wasn’t there. What
memory was he locked in? Sheshtun deserved a slow death for the way he’d
treated his son to make him wake up this angry, this afraid.
“You
need to calm down.” Benny kept his voice quiet. “You’re safe here.”
“I
won’t let them hurt you!” Yuri hissed at the door, which was damn near
vibrating in the frame.
“No
one is going to hurt either of us. I swear. Can I touch you?” Benny wasn’t sure
where Yuri was. He didn’t seem like before, when he woke up screaming from the
first attack by Sheshtun. He wasn’t afraid; he was pissed.
Benny
hated that his mate had been hurt on his watch, twice no less. “I won’t hurt
you.” Benny finally reached Yuri and slowly enveloped his mate in his arms. He
didn’t squeeze—he wasn’t about to make Yuri feel trapped in any way—but he
pressed their chests together, skin to skin.
He
could feel the pounding of Yuri’s heart, hear his quick breaths and quiet
hisses. He tried to slow his own heart and breathe deep, steady breaths. “We’re
okay. We’re okay.” Benny stroked a hand up and down Yuri’s back. He was cold
and sweaty, his muscles slowly easing from rigid tightness.
“Benny?”
Yuri’s voice was softer, questioning.
“Yeah,
babe?”
“Did
I… hurt you?”
Benny
pulled back and looked in Yuri’s eyes. “Of course not. You were trying to
protect me. You’d never hurt me.”
“O-Okay.”
He
pushed some of the sweaty hair off Yuri’s forehead. “Bad dreams?”
“I
think”—Yuri let out a shaky breath—“I was remembering. He was hurting you,
hurting me. I tried to fight back, but my dad’s guards were helping him. I
couldn’t stop it.”
“Shh.
It’s not your fault. It wasn’t mine either. For a long time I thought it was.
You know, when he was praying for you, Bashta told me he was praying for me
too. We had a long talk about feeling guilty for things that we couldn’t
control. He said Fate sometimes meant we had to live through bad things to get
to the good.”
“Will
we get good stuff?” Yuri’s child-like question clenched Benny’s heart in a
tight fist. “I want good stuff with you.”
“We
will.” He had to believe that, for both of them. They deserved to have a happy
life together. All they wanted to do was be mates and love each other.
“Can
you make the pounding stop? My head still hurts.”
Benny’d
blocked out the incessant knocking on the door, when the person bugging them
hadn’t tried to get in.
“Here.
Let’s put some pants on.”
He
walked them to the bed, then rummaged around in the bag he’d brought back from
the store. Benny hated putting his dirty clothes back on, but he’d only had
enough cash for the food, room, and some clothes for Yuri. He ignored his
underwear and slid his jeans on commando.
Walking
to the door, Benny wished he had a gun. He slid close to the window and
twitched the curtain an inch. He could barely see the front stoop, but he could
see the wide wings of the Falcon standing on the other side of the door.
He
yanked it open. “What the hell are you doing here?” Benny snarled at the head
of the Falcons.
“Saving
your ass. Sheshtun evaded capture. We’ve been trying to reach you, or find out
where the hell you’d hidden since you took off and left that damn doctor to
wait for Velaku. Pack your shit; we have to go.”
“Did
you say you let Sheshtun get away? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Two
of my men were shot taking down the Tiger’s compound. Don’t question our
abilities when you’re going to have to depend on it to keep your mate safe. I
found you—Sheshtun could too. He didn’t escape alone.”
“My
dad’s coming here?” Yuri sounded scared. He scrambled off the bed and backed
away from the door.
“Yes,
so let’s go.”
Benny
snarled and dug his claws into the Falcon’s shirt. “Stop scaring my mate.” He
hurried over to Yuri. “Shh. We’re gonna be okay.”
He
needed a gun. “Call Davis and ask him to meet us wherever we’re going. Now.”
TBC
Okay, go visit the Briefer's website or use this list below:
Good thing the father didn't find Yuri and Benny first. The falcon could have shouted along with the banging since there was a window next to the door.
ReplyDelete