Chapter 3

OAKLEY

After hours of driving I decide to stop for the evening. I grab some fast food and then find a decent looking hotel. After checking in, using only cash so I cannot be traced, I find my room. I bring in my bags and get settled on the couch to watch some tv and eat. I had a nice big greasy cheeseburger, some fries and a cookies and cream milkshake. I also had a bottle of water. Skipping through the channels on tv I settle on a show about a couple living with the woman's mom and sister. It seemed funny enough. Anything to distract me from my head.My phone vibrates for probably the hundredth time. I pick it up and scroll through the messages. A whole lot of messages, missed calls and voicemails from Derek. A few text messages and missed calls from my best friend Erica. And a few missed calls, messages and voicemails from my dad. I delete all the text messages and voicemails from Derek, not even bothering to read or listen to them. Then I move on to the messages from Erica. After reading through all her texts about being worried and calling her or replying I decide to call her."Oakley! Where are you? Are you alright?" She answers after the first ring."I am fine. A lot has happened and I needed to get away. I do not think I will be coming back. I will tell you everything but please do not tell my dad everything." I say to her, not disclosing my location and hoping she doesn't notice. I got lucky on that part I guess."Okay, what happened? Derek is running around like a crazy person looking for you. Something about pain and rejection." She said.So I went explained to her everything from the night before with the messages from my sister to the visit from her and my stepmother to how I left, rejected Derek and the pack."Oh Oakley. I am so sorry that happened. You could have come here instead of leaving the pack. You know we would have given you a place to stay." She says."I know and I very much appreciate that but if I had stayed there he would have found me and I would have had to act like it was all me. I can't be there. I'm going to the silver moon pack to visit my grandparents and see from there. I will make a plan once I am there and have had time to deal with everything in my head." I explain."Alright well you should probably call your dad." Erica says."I plan to as soon as we hang up." I tell her."Alright well I will let you go so you can call him but please stay in touch and keep me updated on what your doing. I will miss you so much." Erica says."I will and I will miss you too. Bye." I say before hanging up. After a few moments of dealing with my feelings I listen to my dads voicemails and read his text messages. I am so sad by how he sounds. I never wanted to hurt him.I finally dial his number and listen to it ring. He answers after the second ring."Oakley! I have been looking everywhere for you! Where are you? What is going on?" He sounds tired."A lot has happened that I cannot talk about but I am going to silver moon to see moms parents." I hate lying to him but I don't want to hurt him."Silver moon? What's going on?" He asks.I'm torn between telling him the truth and hurting him by showing Bailey and Ambers true colors or hurting him by lying about how I feel about the mate bond."Things just were not working out with Derek. I felt like I was suffocating." I lied. I felt awful but I wanted my dad to be happy."Why didn't you come to me. We could have talked about this. We could have worked things out. You could come home and stay here for a bit while you work things out." He said. It tore at my heart but I knew I couldn't go back."I already rejected him dad." I sighed. I don't know what else to say without giving anything away."I heard. And you left the pack. But I just don't understand why." He said."Someday I will tell you everything but for right now I can't do that. I want you to just be happy dad. I love you." I told him."I love you too Oakley." He sighed."I'm going to go to bed. I will text you when I get to silver moon. I have to call grams in the morning to let her know I'm coming. I should get there tomorrow evening." I told him."Alright. Keep in touch. Goodnight." He said. He sounded so tired. I felt awful."Goodnight." I said and then hung up. I couldn't hold my emotions in anymore. The tears spilled out of me and I cried and cried until I fell asleep. Tomorrow would be a new day. Haven and I would go to silver moon and then make a plan on what we were going to do. I would need to do some research on the packs because I did not want to be a rogue. I knew it wouldn't be long before I started to smell like one. I knew it took a couple of weeks so I could be okay for now. Hopefully.