Chapter Three

Iris

Mondays were always the busiest at Bessie’s. When I started working there, I thought it might be Friday nights before and after the local drive-in movies showed their five-dollar feature or Sundays when people took things slowly or right after the local church let out services.

All of that was wrong.

Mondays were the days. The town’s business offices were closed on Mondays, along with the grocery store and even the bar. It took every last ounce of energy in me to get through the dinner service in one piece.

The meatloaf special sold out—twice.

I jiggled the lock on the apartment Bessie let me stay in and kicked off my shoes before the door closed behind me. I had picked up a mechanism at a store I’d seen passing through another town. It gave some more oomph to any lock. That along with the door stopper that leaned against the bottom of the door knob made me feel a bit more secure.

Truth was, Killian, in both his bear and human forms, could plow through this manufactured, hollow wood door as quickly as I’d torn into the helping of meatloaf that Bessie put aside for me.

With a container of key lime pie in hand, I sat at the dining room table and let myself relax, as much as one could relax when they were being hunted.

I took my name tag off and sat it on the table. It wasn’t a real name tag. It had belonged to someone else and my name was scribbled by Bessie on a sticker and placed over Mary’s name. After the pie and a tall glass of cold milk was finished, I took off my uniform and tossed it into the hamper, knowing that tomorrow had to be laundry day. Tuesdays and Thursdays were my days off and everything essential had to wait until those two days.

And all I could afford lately was the essentials.

I stretched my arms above my head and went to the bathroom to start the bath. The shower in this place was not more than a trickle from the showerhead and so, I often opted for baths. Besides, my entire body needed the soak. Killian hadn’t allowed me to work. He said having the alpha’s female mind, not the alpha female, working showed that he was ill equipped to take care of his mate, and therefore his pack would lose faith in him to lead and take care of them.

They would be right to do so.

He never paid bills or pack members on time. He spent frivolously. Pack houses were falling apart.

Those were the things I heard and saw from glancing at his desk and his laptop once in a while.

I moaned sitting in the steamy water. It was one of the great things about this apartment since it was attached to the hot water that ran into the kitchen. Bessie ran a tight ship and everything was clean as a whistle. I spared a glance at the long scar down my forearm, remembering how I got it.

Killian said the casserole I’d made didn’t have enough meat.

He smashed the dish and pushed the entire thing off the counter, sending food everywhere. One scalding shard caught my arm, slicing into my skin.

He said it was an accident.

And stupid me believed him.

I’d closed my eyes, trying to relax, when a bit of night air blew through the window I’d opened as not to trap the steam from the bath. A chill rippled down my spine as tears welled in my eyes. I knew that vanilla musk.

Killian had been nearby.

Too close for my liking.

Fuck. Now I had to leave. The scent wasn’t overwhelming, so he wasn’t present at the moment, but there was no telling when he would make his move. I picked up my phone from the rug outside the tub and quickly checked my bank account. There was only enough to get me a couple tanks full of gas and some snack for the road, but I had no idea where to go from here and what would await me.

I wouldn’t put it past my former partner to manipulate my moves in some way and run me right into a trap of his making.

He loved setting traps for me. Baiting me into a reaction so I came off as crazy or angry for no reason. He would never admit to his actions that led to my raising hell but over time, I learned to mute my reactions. That pissed him off…less.

I clicked on the app hoping for a connection, but there was nothing. I had to keep on hanging in until someone matched me or I could make a little more money to get me out of this place and as far away as possible.

Once the water had gone cold, I drained the tub and got out, noticing the little pooch in my tummy as I passed the mirror hanging on the back of the door. When I walked from the apartment to the diner and anywhere else, I kept a sweater rolled over my hands and put my purse in front of me so no one could see my belly.

If Killian knew I carried his young, he would come after me with a vengeance, and I would have no chance of mating or even putting one foot in front of the other.

He would make an example of me and probably have my head once the baby was born.

I reached for a towel from the closet and, when I brought it toward me, I let out a cry. The towels were folded in thirds.

The ends tucked in.

Just like Killian liked them.

The exact way I made sure not to fold them.

I would give myself a week to make as many tips as possible and then I had to go.

If he didn’t get to me first.