Page 61 of His Boys to Protect

“No. I get that.”

“He's just very protective. Okay, maybe a little possessive, but he's got good reason.”

Ward looked down at Skylar when the boy suddenly went quiet. Skylar had a sad, thoughtful look on his face, his brow slightly furrowed as he blinked rapidly, like he was fighting the urge to cry. “Sky?”

“My…uh…” Skylar took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. “My parents told him I was dead.”

Ward lurched up in shock. “What?”

Skylar sat up beside him, drawing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. “After I came out–” Skylar broke off with a curse. “Shit. I shouldn't have said anything. You don't want to know all this.”

“Sky,” Ward murmured, leaning down to look the boy in the eyes. “Tell me.”

Skylar swallowed hard. “When I told my parents I was trans, they kicked me out.”

Shit. Ward's heart clenched. In the back of his mind, he'd suspected something like that. How else would a vibrant boy like Skylar wind up doing what he did? But hearing it still left a heavy ache in his gut. “Geez, Sky…”

“They didn't even give me a chance to grab anything. I was allowed to walk out the front door with the clothes I was wearing, and that was it. No money. No phone. I was only sixteen, so I didn't have a driver's license yet. Then again, it wasn't like they would have let me take a car, anyway. And I had no other family still living, so even if I'd had a phone, there was nobody to call.” Skylar wiped his eyes. “I thought maybe they'd change their minds. So I stuck close to the house all night. Finally fell asleep in a corner of the backyard. They found me the next morning and kicked me out again. I started walking aimlessly, but I had no idea where to go, and I was scared, so I came back the next day. I found a dumpster in the driveway. All my stuff was in there. My clothes. Pictures. All the old toys and games from my childhood. My trophies. Little things I'd collected over the years. Gifts from Charlie–” Skylar choked out a sob and looked away.

Ward stared at him and ran a hand back through his hair.Fuck. This poor, sweet boy. Ward's heart broke, picturing Skylar all alone, nowhere to go. No safety net. No nothing.

“I found out, way later,” Skylar went on, “that Charlie was texting my phone every day, like he always did. My parents finally responded, calling Charlie and telling him I was dead.”

“Fuck,” Ward gasped, feeling his heart race with fury. “Why would they do that?”

Skylar rolled his eyes and choked out a bitter laugh. “They said I was a disgrace. That I wasn't their child. They wanted me to be a die-hard feminist just like them. I was supposed to grow up to be a strong, independent woman. But the fact that I wanted to be'just another selfish white boy,'as they put it, made me theenemy. They said I was dead to them.” Skylar shrugged. “I guess it was just easier for them to say I was dead for real.”

Ward shook his head. “I am so sorry, Sky.” He inwardly cursed. The words didn't seem like anything close to enough, considering what Skylar had been through.

The boy managed a fleeting smile. “I got past what they did to me a long time ago. Not that I forgave them, but I got over it. But I willneverforgive them for doing that to Charlie,” Skylar said through clenched teeth. “Not ever. Not as long as I live. He didn't deserve that.”

Ward swore quietly. “Charlie must have been devastated.”

“His parents said he went nuclear,” Skylar replied with a nod. “Completely lost it. And it was several days before I was able to finally get a message to him. To tell him what happened. He was awreck. His parents offered to come get me and take me in, but by then I was–” Skylar broke off with a blush, looking away.

“You were what?” Ward gently prompted. He knew he wasn't going to like whatever he heard, but something told him that Skylar never really got a chance to vent like this. If the boy needed him to listen, he would.

Skylar sighed. “I was living with Uncle Zeke.”

“Who's Uncle Zeke?”

“My boss.” Skylar cringed. “But before that, he was a friend of my folks. You know, your parents' friend who hangs around so much that he becomes a sort of honorary uncle? He's the one who found me on the streets. Purely by chance. He walked out of a bar and found me in an alley, getting face-fucked in exchange for twenty bucks that I desperately needed for food.”

Ward winced. It was just as bad as he'd feared.

“And it wasn't the first time,” Skylar went on, cringing as he spoke. “Three days after I got kicked out, I was starving and exhausted and completely lost. Nowhere to go. Nobody to trust.When a guy offered me a few bucks to blow him, I figured how bad could it be? Thankfuck, he wore a condom. I nearly threw up from the whole thing, just from the smell of him, but it would have been worse if he'd–”

Ward winced again, but Skylar didn't see it, looking down at his hands.

“But I got to eat,” Skylar continued. “Over the next couple nights, I got propositioned a lot. Groped and chased. I finally walked into a barber shop and offered to blow the guy in exchange for a haircut. He took me into a backroom of his shop and put me on my knees, then hacked all my hair off. It didn't stop the attention, but it helped, not looking so obviously like a girl.”

“Sky…”

“But then I got hungry again, so I gave in to another proposition. And that's when Uncle Zeke found me. He took me home with him. Gave me some food and clean clothes. Let me have a shower. Holy fuck, that shower. I don't think anything ever felt so good in my life as that shower did. I'd always taken things like that for granted.” Skylar paused, finally looking up at Ward, his gaze full of guilt.

“He touched you, didn't he?” Ward asked, having to force himself to keep his voice even.

“Yeah. Not right away. He actually did wait until my eighteenth birthday before he did anything. But in the meantime, he definitely trained me for this life. He helped me finish high school, but he also taught me how to walk and talk and dress for high society. Taught me how to flirt. How to seduce. How to read people, to find out what they wanted so I could be that. Once I turned eighteen, all that was left was for him to break me in physically.”

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