Page 56 of Daisy

"He asked if I was okay. So quietly, like he was afraid his voice might hurt me. But he was bleeding from some fight, torn up and trying to pretend he wasn't." August's voice grows tender with memory. "When I offered to help him, he looked at me like I'd just offered him the world and he couldn't figure out why."

There's so much affection in August's voice that it makes my chest ache. "You helped him."

"I tried. Turned out he'd been living rough. No home, no family, surviving on underground fighting and stubbornness. He expected me to kick him out after one night." August's smile is soft and sad. "Instead, I kept asking him to stay."

"Why?"

"Because underneath all that scary exterior, he was just someone who'd been hurt too much for too long. Someone who needed to be shown that not everyone would leave." August's eyes find mine.

The description resonates in a way that makes my throat tight. Someone who'd been hurt too much. Someone who needed to be shown they wouldn't be left behind.

"He's never hurt you?" I ask quietly.

"Never. Not once. Even when he's lost in his own darkness, when the world feels too much and he can barely breathe through it, he's careful with me. Gentle." August's eyes meet mine, and there's something fierce in them. "The scariest looking people are sometimes the safest ones, Daisy. They know what it's like to be afraid. They'd rather die than make someone else feel that way."

I think about that as we finish the snacks. About Cassian's size and intensity, but also about the way he's careful not to crowd me. How he makes himself smaller when I'm around. The gentleness August describes.

And then I think about Uncle. About the alphas in expensive suits who smiled while discussing my breeding schedule like I wasn't even there. They looked safe, respectable, civilized. But they were the ones who wanted to use me, control me, break me down until I was nothing but a pretty shell.

Cassian looks dangerous. But he's never once made me feel like property.

Maybe August is right. Maybe the ones who look safe are the ones you should really fear.

"Thank you," I say softly. "For telling me that."

"Thank you for asking. For trying to see past the surface."

We settle back into our respective beds, but the world feels different than it did an hour ago. Softer somehow. Full of possibility.

"August?" I whisper into the gentle darkness.

"Mmm?"

August has answered every question I've asked without making me feel stupid. He didn't judge me when I didn't know how to choose clothes or what I wanted to eat. Maybe... maybe he won't judge me for this either.

"Earlier, in the bathroom... what I did..." Heat floods my cheeks, and I can barely get the words out. "When you... when someone thinks about someone... is that...?"

I can't finish. Too embarrassed, too uncertain.

"I've never... before tonight, I didn't know..."

"Never thought of someone?" he asks gently. "Or never touched yourself?"

My face burns even hotter. "Both," I whisper.

"Then tonight was a lot of firsts," he says softly. "That's something special."

The kindness in his words makes tears burn behind my eyes. No shame, no judgment. Just simple acceptance.

We lie in comfortable silence for a moment. Then I hear August shift in his bed, and there's something almost playful in his voice when he speaks.

"So... which alpha were you thinking about?"

My face burns all over again. "Hawk," I whisper, the words barely there.

"I can see why," August says, and there's something teasing in his voice now. "He is pretty good looking, and that smile of his is absolutely dazzling."

Despite everything, I find myself giggling into my pillow. Actually giggling. When's the last time I did that?