CHAPTER FOURTEEN:~Drake: The next morning came, and I still didn’t know what to do about my Alpha trying to marry me off. The remnants of dreams about my newly discovered mate filled my eyes for a moment. But it was time to get up. After leading training for a few hours, I knew that I at least needed to tell my parents. Maybe they could help me figure this out. Goddess knows, Archer couldn’t give me any helpful advice. Or any advice at all. I ran over to my parent’s cottage and knocked on the door. “Drakey,” my mom opens the door with a smile. “Come in, come in.” I follow her to the kitchen table where my dad is eating breakfast. “Are you hungry? I can whip up something?” my mom asks. “No, no, I’m good, mom. Thanks,” I reassure her. I sit down with them and my dad pushes a cup of coffee at me. I thank him. “What is it?” my dad asks me after a minute. I look up to meet his gaze. He’s looking at me questioningly. “You seem - happy?” he says in a question. I widened my smil
CHAPTER FIFTEEN:~Avery: No sign of Drake for a few days now. So then why do I keep thinking about him? I’m again getting distracted when I’m supposed to be working. Instead, I’m thinking about a dreamy guy. Great. Now I’m associating him with the term ‘dreamy.’ Sighing, I close the laptop and get up. No sense in trying to do this anymore. Time for a break I guess. It’s not quite time for my usual breaks, but no matter. I put my shoes on and a jacket that hung by the door and I headed out for a walk. This time something has me going a different way. I passed a few houses, and plenty of trees. I continued on. I soak in the feeling of the sun on my face, and the warmth reminds me of the way I feel around- Ugh. There’s no escape! After about half an hour I reach town and I start walking to an ice cream shop when something gets my attention. A delicious smell - cinnamon. I almost ignore it and keep going, but something makes me stop in my tracks. It feels sad around me. There’s no o
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:~Drake: Well, that could have gone better, Dane says to me as she runs out of view. Yeah, well you were no help, I snap. Someone’s touchy, Dane grumbles. I think about following her but kill the notion. It would only freak her out more if she caught me. And as much as I want to see her, be near her, it feels wrong to do it without her knowing. I walk a bit longer in the forest to try to clear my mind. It, of course, doesn’t work. I need to rail on something. Heading deeper into the trees, I look around carefully before deeming it’s safe to shift. I need to go on a run. Lose myself a bit. I can fix this, she just needs time. And you need to not babble like an idiot, Dane quips. Thanks for the confidence, I retort. But despite the attitude, I can tell he’s thankful to be able to get these worries out. We take off. Almost an hour later and while I’ve begun to feel a little less - crazy - I feel like I need to get back to my mate, even if she’s not quite ready.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:~Avery:The routine is second nature by now. Cash for Beth and a note. Ditch the car, ditch the phone, cash for the motel, hair dye. I picked ‘Rebecca’ this time around so I don’t need to wear contacts. What sucks about Rebecca is she has white-blond hair. Which means bleach. Which means this process takes longer. But it’s still early in the day and I have time.I drove my new beater car for about three hours and tried to keep going, leaving more distance between me and -. But I’m so tired. I sigh aloud. There’s a sign for upcoming motels on the freeway so I take the next exit. I look for the cheapest one. I hadn’t been able to pick up a phone at my last two stops so I wasn’t able to look up prices. Or be tempted to message this handsome guy I can’t get out of my head. The image of his bruised face and pained expression keeps popping up everytime I think I’m at peace with my decision.Singing is something I can’t afford to do with other people around. But alone in
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:~Drake:I’m losing my mind. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. My parents are gone. Archer is MIA, and my mate has disappeared. Did she leave on her own? Was she taken? Both scenarios flip back and forth in my mind and neither of them end well. Whether the Lycaon have taken her already or not, she’s in danger. Because of me.I have to believe that the note wasn’t written in distress. I need to believe she’s run off on her own. If that’s true, she ran from us, Dane points out.Something I was already considering but didn’t want to think about. Could I have scared her that bad? That she just took off like that?Gears turn in my head. The Lycaon are techy. I guess it’s good I left my phone out back in the woods. But her number is there…I ran back again to where we had last stood together. I found my shredded clothing there. My phone lies next to the pile and I quickly use everything I know about phones to delete everything and reset it to factory settings, after sending
CHAPTER NINETEEN:~Avery: I wasn’t far enough. Would I ever be? After leaving the seedy motel with every last trace of evidence, and using some power to get the front desk kid to forget me, I was back on the road. I felt compelled to keep running. It was a little while before I passed the highway sign letting me know I entered Oregon. In the afternoon I pull over into a small town and find their corner store. In getting supplies I notice they’ve got some prepaid phones and I grab one. I can trust myself not to reach out to Drake, right? When would I forget his freaking number? Why had I so easily memorized it in the first place? After paying, I walk back out to my car and sit there for a moment. I want to run, as always. It’s instinct now, and h*ll, it’s logical knowing my nature - my history. But my chest, my heart, my skin - wants to illogically be in Drake’s embrace. Weighing both, I just sigh in frustration. I push that to the side and open the phone, setting it up a bit and g
CHAPTER TWENTY: ~Drake: She’s okay. She’s stubborn and possibly independent to a fault, but she’s okay. And da*nit if I wasn’t totally turned on by her fierceness. Where did you go?, Dane asks me. You couldn’t see all that?, I asked him. No. Never felt that before. You were just… gone, Dane said irritated. I was with our mate. She’s okay. We met in a dream. I think it was her dream. I don’t know, I explained to him quickly. She changed her hair, and her eyes were different. But I’d know her anywhere. How do you know it was real?, he asked me, holding back excitement. It almost felt real. Incredibly real, it was just a little… numbed. I could smell her, feel her, but less sharply… I rambled. Where is she? We must go to her right now, he insisted. She didn’t say. But she’s safe. She’s in a little room or studio. Lots of trees around. And.. SNOW there was snow! I remembered. What else, what else?, he pushed. Uhhh…, I scratched the back of my head like that would m
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: ~Avery: The next day was really weird. I tried to roll into my usual routines, but I kept thinking about my weird dream. Was it really more than just a dream? Was Drake actually here? Well, with me, somehow? The questions plagued me every minute of the day. I hardly got anything done at all. And it wasn’t just the questions running through my mind. It was the ghost of his touch. The memory of the feelings I got lost in. And that wasn’t even real. What would it be like if it were? The thought alone got me all hot and uncomfortable. No amount of swimming could refocus me, and it wasn’t until late at night after trying and failing to fall asleep that I touched myself imagining us continuing what we had started. I got close to ecstasy a few times but paused, building and building the feeling until I finally let myself feel relief. This guy was going to be the death of me. I’d fallen asleep after some time, afraid I’d see him again, but it was all just darkness