Page 8 of Knot All Is Lost: Part 1

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Beingwrappedupin Clara’s sweet, soothing, apple pie scent helped keep me from falling back into my panic. Waking up to find myself trapped in a car with an Alpha I didn’t know who had the strong scent of sweet tobacco and scotch made me panic. Half asleep, I didn’t remember I’d gotten away from my father and chosen to be in that car. No, my brain believed I was being taken away by the man who’d bought me and would hurt me worse than my father ever had.

Inside the shelter I was greeted with a large open area filled with people sitting on couches reading, playing games at tables, or working on computers along one wall. It reminded me of the library in a way, a safe place to spend time. There was a large counter with three people working. They waved to Clara, giving me warm smiles as they buzzed us in through a set of double doors.

I dug my heels in and fought against Clara’s hold. “No, I won’t be locked away again! You can’t keep me here against my will!” I screamed, my voice echoed through the quiet space.

“Cambrie, we are not trying to lock you away. The sleeping rooms are back here and we keep them locked to ensure no one can break in and steal people back. We do this so whoever hurt you can’t get to you. Anyone can come out of those doors at any time, day or night. We just want to make sure we know who goes back there,” Clara explained, holding my shoulders and forcing me to look at her. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, and clearly it’s been hell, but we are here to do all we can to keep you safe. You are now eighteen Cambrie, which means no one but you can dictate what happens to you from this day forward.”

My whole body shook and I kept looking around trying to find a way out. All I saw were faces of people in shabby clothes looking at me with pity and understanding. Then I heard someone behind me, and I caught a whiff of spicy sandalwood and hints of vanilla. I knew by that scent this person was an Alpha. The last thing I wanted was for him to be at my back. Right now between Clara and this unknown man, Clara was the safer option.

Spinning on my heel I broke Clara’s hold on me, I was now faced with an older distinguished gentleman. His hair was short and neat, dark brown with white coming in at his temples and moving further back. Wrinkles that only came from someone who smiled more often than not accented his face and framed his blue-gray eyes. He wore a pair of horn rimmed glasses making him appear to be highly intelligent. His face was clean shaven and with the untucked button down shirt and high end jeans it gave him a more relaxed look.

“Hello there,” he greeted with a smile that made it all the way to his eyes. “I’m Rafael, I work here at the shelter with Clara.”

The fact that he wasn’t doing anything but standing here, relaxed, with his hands in his pockets smiling at me seemed to settle me. Nothing gave me any indication that he was going to try and grab me or force me to do something. He was simply greeting me as a newcomer to the shelter.

“Hello…” I managed, my hands still shaking as the adrenalin drained my body.

Rafael’s smile grew wider at the sound of my voice. “Welcome to Open Arms…” he started to say, letting the sentence drift off, and I realized he was looking for my name.

“Cambrie, that’s my name,” I offered.

“A lovely name at that, it is nice to meet you Cambrie, and we are all happy to have you here. I believe that Clara and Spencer prepared a room for you. They felt it might be best to have one to yourself, but we do have a group room where all our guests can sleep communally. This means men, women, and children all share a larger room full of cots with lockers to keep their things in,” he explained. “Now out of those two options which would make you feel more comfortable?”

Chewing on my lower lip I thought about that for a moment. While I didn’t think either option would keep them from holding me against my will, the fact they were offering helped prove it wasn’t their goal. At first, I was going to say the common room, then others would be able to see if they did something fishy, but I had no idea when my scent might come back.

“I think a room to myself might be better,” I answered.

“Great,” Rafael said, clapping his hands together as he headed for the double doors. “Now I’m going to hand over my access key to Kyle here, and he’s going to let me in. Then I’m going to come back out again just to make sure you feel confident you can leave whenever you want to. You can even do it yourself once or twice if that will help.”

The man did just as he said, handing over his card and getting buzzed in. Once the doors locked there was a moment or two before one of them swung open and the click of a release bar from the inside sounded. Then Rafael walked out and gathering his key card.

“What do you think Cambrie, you alright to head back? There is no rush at all,” Clara murmured from where she stood next to me.

I nodded and walked up to the doors. Neither Rafael nor Clara reached for the door as the buzzer went off letting me do it myself. Yanking the door open I looked over my shoulder and found Nixon standing next to another man watching as I entered. Nixon gave me a smile and a nod of encouragement almost as if to show he wasn’t upset with me for leaping out of his car. Turning forward I walked down the hall until it came to a T.

“If you go to the right that is the common sleeping room and the single rooms are beyond that. To the left is the cafeteria where we serve breakfast and dinner for everyone staying with us,” Clara shared as she stepped ahead of me leading us toward the right. “After we check out a room, if you’re hungry we can talk about how you want to approach dinner. Typically we have everyone eat at the same time. It’s one of our rules, you have to be here by the time we check everyone in for dinner if you plan to stay the night. We do another wave of meals, but those are served outside in the pavilion for those who are just in need of food.”

Hearing Clara chatter about things made me relax slightly as we passed through a giant room with rows of simple, clean cots ready for use. At one end there were rows of lockers for people to keep their things in just as they’d told me. Entering into another hall there were doors with small windows in them showing simple rooms with a bed, nightstand, and locker for personal things. They led me to the end of the hall where the door was ajar and the light was on as if it was waiting for me.

“This is the room we got ready for you if you chose to take it,” Clara shared.

When I stepped in to look at the space I was struck by how cold and impersonal it was, but this wasn’t a place for people to stay long term. The hope was they could move on to someplace more permanent. I caught the lingering scent of something almost tropical with coconut and bright hints of lime. My brain told me I’d smelled it somewhere else recently. Then I remembered leaping out of the car and smacking into someone with this same scent. He was a Beta that came out with Clara and caught me.

Shame bloomed in my chest with how I reacted to him helping me. He’d only been making sure I didn’t get hurt and I’d lashed out at him. It made me wonder if there would ever be a point when men didn’t scare me so badly. Right now things were so much worse as it’d been two years since I’d interacted with people outside of my father.

Walking to the bed I took a seat and it sank under my slight weight revealing just how soft it was. Smoothing my hand over the clean white sheets I couldn’t help but smile thinking how such a simple thing could bring me so much joy.

“Cambrie, can I leave Rafael here with you while I get you some warm clothes?” Clara asked, making me jump as she reminded me that there were still people in the room with me.

Looking over I saw he was leaning on the door frame and wasn’t trying to enter the room so I nodded in agreement.

“Alright sweet girl, did you have any preference for what kind of clothes you’d like? Are you more of a jeans and t-shirt girl or would you like something more feminine, since I see you’re wearing a dress,” she inquired.

My instant reaction was to wrinkle my nose at that last suggestion which made Clara chuckle. “No,” I answered. “Jeans and a t-shirt would be fine. I’m not really that picky.”

“Do you have a favorite color?”

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