I tried to ignore the smell, but holy crap, it really was getting bad. Like really bad. Later that day, it had gotten so bad that I was more willing to endure the walk to the gym and back rather than spend another moment smelling like old pee. To make things worse, Alex couldn’t stay next to me on the mattress anymore, and even Simon was politely shifting away from me one inch at a time.

“That’s it. I want that shower,” I said and turned to Alex. “We need to wash your hair, too.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Alex said, but wasn’t really putting any effort into his words.

“Maybe it’s better if you rest for one more day,” Simon added.

“I mean… Do you think you’ll make it?” Alex asked and both he and Simon fell silent to wait for my answer.

“I can make it,” I said, chuckling.

“Oh, no, it’s fine, you don’t have to…”

“I mean, your arm and all…”

“It’s fine if you still want to rest…”

Their objections were so half-hearted I had to laugh a little harder.

“I told you I smell really bad,” I told them and got grimaces as a reply.

We first ate something so I could take a really strong painkiller without getting my stomach upset. After that, we waited for another half an hour for it to really kick in. While Alex packed our shower bag, his salve and bandages, and clean clothes and towels, Simon put a scarf around my arm and tied it behind my neck for support, then stepped back.

“How are you feeling?” Simon asked when I was standing.

“I think it’ll be fine,” I told him, smiling and ignoring my pain. “I mean, it hurts, but I think it’s much better now. This scarf was a great idea.”

“Good,” he said, though he clearly wasn’t sure if this was a good idea.

To be honest, the painkiller was making me feel pretty all right, maybe a little slow, but my arm really did feel better now.

“I think I’ll walk you two to the gym. I can go grocery shopping in the meantime. Or. Or! I can go grab us a large pizza from Lorenzo’s! How’s that?” Simon said, getting excited.

“You’re blowing all your money on us,” I noted, but he shook his head.

“I’m sure he’ll give us a discount,” he said, grinning.

Alex and I glanced at each other. My brother really seemed to want pizza. I sighed, then nodded at Simon.

“The next one is on me,” I told him sternly.

“Sure,” he said, chuckling. “Ready to go?”

I took one last moment to reconsider, but holy shit, the smell was… I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was sure the smell was coming from my hair.

“Yeah, I’m good to go,” I said.

“All right. And remember, we can turn back if it hurts too much,” he reminded me as we headed to the side door.

“So far, so good,” I said after taking a few steps.

We got out of the grocery store and walked down to the main street. My arm ached with every step I took, but it wasn’t getting more agitated, so I was sure it would be just fine. It was just a ten-minute walk. But… I’d not thought much about my knee. It wasn’t anywhere near as painful as my arm, but I couldn’t walk normally. I couldn’t put a lot of weight on it, or it felt like someone stabbed it with an icy pick. Alex and Simon noticed this and stopped me before we could leave the alley.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Simon asked in concern.

I stared at him, then brought my hair under his nose, and he quickly leaned away, coughing.

“Yeah. I am sure I want to do this,” I said when I stepped back.

He needed a moment to recollect himself. Once he agreed I actually was in desperate need of washing myself, we stepped out of the alley and headed down the street. But we only managed to take maybe five or six steps…

“Watch out!” Simon yelled and jumped in front of me when a basketball appeared out of thin air and flew straight at me like some bad cosmic joke. Thankfully, Simon was fast enough to grab it, and he sprung around to glare at a group of kids playing close by. “Come on! Watch where you’re throwing that thing!”

“Sorry, sir,” said the oldest of the kids, maybe ten years old, and came to get the ball from him, looking apologetic.

“You shouldn’t be playing basketball right next to the street, anyway,” Simon told him sternly.

“We weren’t! The ball just slipped!”

“The ball just slipped,” Simon repeated, then snorted. “Yeah right. You take that ball elsewhere, got it? You could’ve hurt my friend!” he added, gesturing at my makeshift cast.

“What’s wrong with your arm?” the kid asked me with wide eyes.

“I hit it really, really hard, and it hurts really bad now,” I explained, but I couldn’t be mad at him. He was just a cute little kid and reminded me of Alex when we first met. “But you really shouldn’t play with that right next to the street.”

“I swear, we didn’t! I was just bouncing it around!”

“That is playing,” Simon said with a frown. “Come on, get out of here, and watch where you’re throwing that thing!”

“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!” the kid chirped and ran away with his friends.

I chuckled after them, then turned to huffy Simon.

“It’s fine. They didn’t mean it,” I told him. “Great save, by the way.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.

“Do I need to make you smell my hair again?”

“…No.”

I chuckled and continued walking, and they both followed me.

“It’s like your arm is attracting bad karma right now,” Alex said with a small chuckle. “The ball flew right at it!”

“I know, right?” I said, faking a laugh while trying not to remember that omega who hit his head because of me. “Watch, we’ll first get hit by a car, then by a falling tree, then a plane drops on us.”

“Don’t make jokes like that!” Simon said, rubbing his chest. “I don’t like this at all… Even my alpha is getting anxious now!”

“I just want to take a shower. We can make it, I promise. If I can make it, then you can make it,” I told him encouragingly.

He just shook his head. “This is such a bad idea… I just know it…”

“It was just a ball, and your superior instincts saved the day! And my arm is fine. It’s not getting agitated or anything,” I tried again, but he only huffed at me, so I gave up.

I was feeling quite good, actually. Hurt, yes, but it was nice to get out of the grocery store for a moment.

And get this goddamn pee off me.

We made it to the gym without incidents, and the people behind the front desk let us use their showers for one dollar. Simon huffed and puffed for a moment, but finally agreed we weren’t going to get hit by cars, trees, or planes while we were in the shower. He told us to go straight back home if he hadn’t returned by the time we were ready to leave, then left to go see Lorenzo. I secretly rolled my eyes at his back and sighed quietly before I turned to Alex, who was grinning at me for some reason.

“What?” I asked with a frown.

“Now you know what it’s like,” he said and headed to the changing room.

“What is what like?”

“To have a big brother.”

I stopped to stare after him, but then a small smile formed on my lips, and I followed him.

“Yeah… I suppose so…” I murmured.

My arm was aching a little more now, and when I tried to get my clothes off, the pain got worse since I had to wiggle it around to get my shirt and hoodie off. Alex helped the best he could, but I had to stop to take a few breathers. I wasn’t going to give up now, though. Not when we were already there. I left the cast on since even touching the bandages hurt. Alex hovered over me like a worried mother hen, which made me feel both warm inside and annoyed at the same time. Finally, we got to the showers, and for a moment, I just stood under it, enjoying the warm water on my skin as it washed away the dirt and that damn pee.

It got even better when I shampooed my hair and got all that nasty dirt out of it, though it was a bit of a struggle with only one hand. I tried to do some detangling as well, but the longer I stood and moved, the worse the throbbing pain in my arm became, so I decided to let Alex do that later, or get it all shaved off again like I normally did once the curls grew too long, like they had now.

In the meantime, Alex washed his hair and scalp so thoroughly I had to stop him at some point so he wouldn’t do more damage. I also had to stop him from scrubbing the rest of his skin off several times. It was clear his condition had flared up while I was away… But never again. I would never leave his side ever again. We had everything we needed, and after this shower, we could treat his wounds properly.

By the time we were done showering and headed back to get dressed, I was feeling a little dizzy. The pain was growing now, but it was still manageable. I was just happy I was clean and didn’t smell like pee anymore. And I got to wear clean clothes. Clean, warm clothes… I was so happy. I didn’t care if I passed out now. And there would be pizza waiting for us back at home.

I smiled at that word. Home… I was back at home with Alex, not crying myself asleep alone under a bridge or pee-covered cardboard boxes…

I tried to keep thinking about these happy little things when we stepped out of the gym, and ignore the spreading pain in my arm and knee. Simon wasn’t there yet, so we did as he told us to and started heading home. My step was much slower now, but I was still up and walking. I wasn’t going to walk far like this, but thankfully, home was close.

“You all right?” Alex asked like ten times, his expression growing increasingly worried.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, just… I could lie down,” I finally admitted after the eleventh time he asked me that.

“You look… You look sick,” he noted, walking a little closer to me like ready to catch me if I fainted.

I did feel sick, but our grocery store was just around the corner now… Just a few more steps…I could almost taste the pizza… I tried to keep it together when we walked around that last corner, and the start of the alley was right ahead of us across the street. Just a minute, and I’d get to lie down…

“Almost there…” Alex muttered, his hand brushing my back now.

I was getting dizzier now… I felt cold and sweaty… I tripped a little… Alex stopped me before I could crash into a car parked by the street. I frowned when I saw the car… I stopped to take a better look at it… It looked exactly like that one car… That blue one I kept seeing…

My alpha got worried about that car. Someone had just exited it. It could still smell the man.

“Josh…?”

I turned to Alex, who was getting a little panicky now. I smiled at him, trying to hide how awful I felt.

“Almost there,” I reminded him.

He nodded, and we turned around to keep walking, but my alpha got increasingly worried now. There were two men leaning against the wall just before the crosswalk… They weren’t looking at us, but my alpha didn’t want to go anywhere near them. I took Alex’s hand and turned back around to get to the other crosswalk in the distance to avoid walking past the two men.

“Josh…?” Alex muttered.

“Keep walking,” I whispered, and he nodded and followed me, understanding that something was wrong.

I heard them… I fucking heard them following us… And there were a couple of more guys walking toward us down the street we just came from, and my alpha got wary of them, too. We hurried across the street, passing by the blue car that had definitely followed me around for ages now. I knew that now. This was not a coincidence.

Fuck… I couldn’t even run…

“Alex… You need to run,” I told my brother. “Run home as fast as you can and find Patric and Cornell.”

“What? No!” he said quietly in shock and fear. “I’m not leaving you!”

“I’m being followed,” I said as we reached the sidewalk from the other side. “They may not care about you. You have to–”

There was a large van parked right in front of us, and my alpha alerted me again, but it was too late. The side door flew open, and two young alphas jumped out of it, laying their eyes immediately on us.

“Hey kids,” one of them said, a taller guy with a side cut. “Could you help us with directions? I’m afraid we’re a little–”

“ALEX RUN!” I shouted at my brother, trying to start running past the van and across the street, but these six alphas were big, strong, and athletic. They quickly caught both of us, lifted us off the ground, and hurriedly took us back to the van.

“JOSH! ALEX!”

“SIMON! HELP!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, even though I couldn’t see him. I heard him running to us, and so did these kidnappers.

“Shit! Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

A second later, both Alex and I were in the van with four of the guys, while the two others hurried to the front. I kicked and screamed and tried to bite the hands that held me around my chest, ignoring the waves of pain my arm was in. I could now see Simon running to us, shouting our names in panic… These alphas slammed the doors shut…

“SIMON! HELP!!!”

He was almost there… He was only a few steps away…

But the van had already launched down the street, taking us with them.