Chapter 5

"What do you mean you 'Got some help'?"

"You know Alexandria? Alpha of a certain well-known pack in the west?"

"Mhmm, I had a run-in with one of her yapping beanies babies a while back," Jack and I laughed at that, if you could only give Derek credit, for one thing, it was that he was good with insults.

"Yeah, she lent us a hand cuz we helped her out with something."

"A raid?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That was my first guess, just keep your eyes on her, I don't want to hear about how y'all died on your way back here," Derek said and hung up, I mumbled something along the lines of Jack eyeing Alex whenever she isn't looking and got another sock to the jaw because of it.

"Shut up, cunt nugget."

"Very original insult my friend, very original," I said and started eating my burger, just in time for the waitress to swing by with Jack's steak, she set the bill down and took my glass to refill my drink. We finished our food and I paid for the grub, remembering to tip thirty percent for her humor, and we walked outside to leave when Jack grabbed me by the shoulder and walked me back inside. I shoved him off me and he looked at me with eyes that gave me the impression that he wasn't kidding around.

"What's going on, dude?" He handed me a pair of binoculars and told me to go to the window and look outside, the windows were one way so I looked where he was pointing and I saw a black wolf with blue eyes glaring at the bar.

"No way that's..." I said and grabbed my phone to see five missed texts from Jade, I called her immediately and handed Jack the binoculars.

"Jake, where are you?"

"Still at the bar, is Alex there?"

"No, she left and said she was going out, we think she's stalking you or something."

"Gimme a second," I said and muted the call, Jack looked at me with panicked eyes and I nodded my head, he got the message, it was Alex 'but why is she here?' I thought and unmuted the call "yeah, we see her. Any idea why she left?"

"No, all I know is that when you hung up she started pacing back and forth really impatiently, I don't have a clue why though," She said and I told her I'd call her back before hanging up the phone, the waitress walked over and asked us if there was a problem, and I assumed that she wasn't human because she did not look like a human woman, and gave off some kind of vibe that I couldn't quite figure out.

"Umm, I think so, I just don't know what to do to solve it. Jack, any ideas?"

"Run?" I stared at him as if he had just spoken  Swahili, we both started laughing and the waitress grabbed the binoculars from Jack, she looked out the window and must've seen Alex because she gave the binoculars back and went into the back.

"We don't run, you know that. We can't fight her cuz we need her help with those trucks, so we have to get out of here without her seeing us..."

"Or going fast enough so that she can't stop us."

"Fair point..." I said and started brainstorming ideas when the waitress and some beefy-looking guy walked out with crossbows in hand, raising Jack's panic level to a 7.

"UmmY'allll ain't gonna kill that wolf out there, right?"

"Hmm? Oh no, this is just to get her to run, whenever wolves come 'round here we chase 'em off, they can't do anything about it, and most wolves are too violent to sell food to."

"Oh...alright then, Jake, I think we found a good escape route."

"Head straight to the bikes and drive the second you see her book it, and you two," I said glaring at them, I needed Alex and her mutts, whether I liked it or not, to get those trucks home "you kill the mutt, or put her in any excessive pain, I'll rip out your intestines and use them as jump rope," I said and they both gulped seeing the seriousness in my eyes, they left the diner and shot a couple of bolts at Alex, causing her to move, giving us an opportunity to get to our motorcycles. We got on and throttled the engines, and sped off in the opposite direction of Alexandria, I linked to Jack so we could talk while we rode back to the hotel.

'Where do we go to get back to Mesa, she's gonna be keeping an eye on I-17.'

'Let's take I-10 until we get to the outskirts, then drive to the hotel from route 60,' he said and I nodded so that he got that I understood, and we continued driving until we got to I-10 and I told him to pull off to the side.

"We need to split up, we can't afford to be seen together, it will make it pretty blatant that it's us."

"Alright, I'll go around taking Interstate 8, and go through Maricopa, you keep going down I-10."

"Alright, see you at the hotel," I said and started again taking the right fork to stay on I-10, Jack took the left fork down I-8 and I plugged in my headphones listening to Green Day, and continued down the highway. I got to the hotel an hour later and parked my bike while "¡Viva La Gloria!" played, I wanted to finish the song so I leaned against the wall singing along when I saw Jack pulling into the parking lot. The song finished and I took off my headphones and signaled for him to hurry up, and walked into the hotel room. When I got inside I saw Alex in the back arms crossed and looking like she wanted to punch someone, Jay was asleep on the couch and  Nicki on the bed, while Jade watched TV. I avoided the glare that I felt on the back of my neck from Alex, I didn't feel like getting mocked, and Lucifer knows I didn't want to know why she was stalking us. I kneeled down in front of Jay and confirmed that he was sleeping, so I picked him up and lay him on the foot of the bed, it was a big bed so Nicki and Jade weren't bothered by him, I took his spot and laid down on the couch watching the TV when Jack walked in and joined Jade on the floor. I opened a link between the three of us so we could talk without Alex listening in, and had Jade change the channel to Fox to tune into the football game. The Cardinals were up 20-7 against the Giants, and we started talking about what had happened.

'We were at the bar in Tuscon, and had just finished our food and were leaving, when I got outside Jack grabbed me and pulled me back in. At the time I didn't know why so I asked him why he did it like he was drunk, and he handed me a pair of binoculars and pointed at the hill nearby and Alex was standing at the peak of it, glaring at the bar.'

'The fuck!? Why would she do that?'

'I don't know, I wanna get those trucks and head home cuz this trip has lasted way too long for my taste,' Jack said and I seconded him, he was right and we all knew it, the trip in its entirety was only supposed to last 5 days including travel time, today was our fifth day and we hadn't even gotten the trucks.

'Y'all should ask her why she did that, it's more than a little creepy, if she had done that to Nicki, I would've ripped her head clean off.'

'What if it was Nicki stalking you, Jade? Would that make things different?' Jack asked her and there was silence for a while until Jade spoke up, I don't think either of us expected him to respond like that.

'What do you mean, Jack? '

'If you were Alex in that scenario, and Nicki was us, would your position change on the issue?'

'Are you saying Alex is y'all's mate?'

'Let's put it this way, Alex stalked us, and I want to find out why, and I don't think violence will help us this time,' he said and for once I agreed with him wholeheartedly, there was something weird going on, and I didn't think threatening Alex would get her to talk.

'I agree with Jack, Jade, sorry but he makes a fair point,' I said and Jade shut up so I guessed the conversation was over, I delinked and tuned back into the game the score was still 20-7.

"Night guys, get some sleep, don't stay up all night watching football," Jade said and laid down behind Nicki, who cuddled closer to her. I went back to paying attention to the game and made space for Jack to sit on the couch, he took it and looked over at Alex who had fallen asleep in the corner, I poked Jack and told him to stay on the couch. I stood up and took a couple of blankets and a pillow, I laid one over Jade and Nicki, and put the pillow under Alex's head and laid the blanket over her, and when I turned around Jack was watching me and mouthed 'Awwww' and when I took my seat back I grabbed him by the throat.

"Never, ever, tell anyone I did that because if you do I will drive across through your knees and bathe you in holy water," I said, and based on the look he was giving me, he knew I wasn't bluffing. I took off my jacket and used it as a blanket and dozed off to sleep. Waking up in hell I noticed I was alone, meaning that Jack was still awake, so I grabbed a Glock and a soda and walked over to the pit. I saw the hunter leader trying to climb out, but I ignored him temporarily, I wanted to make sure his first time getting punished was one to remember, and without Jack, it wouldn't be. I shot two other souls that were trying to get out, they fell back into the pit and landed with a big THUD. I laughed and walked over to the hell hounds that were curled up next to the pit,  Jameson was still awake and panted as I walked over to him.

"Hey, boys, how ya doing?" I asked him as I scratched his ears, he barked happily and licked my face, almost tackling me, and I started laughing and tried to push him down off me "down boy, down boy!" I said through laughter and smiles. He got down and spun around in a circle like he wanted to play a game, so I grabbed a bone from a nearby pile and showed it to him, that got his attention and he eyed the thing like a beggar eyes twenty bucks. I chucked it as hard as I could in the other direction and he ran off to get it. He brought it back and I scratched him behind the ears, throwing it again I looked at the clock and saw that it had been an hour since I had fallen asleep, so when Jameson brought the bone back I told him to get some rest and I threw the bone back in the pile. I walked over to our room and forced myself awake, and saw that Jack was not sitting next to me. I stood up and looked around, and as luck would have it I saw Jack sitting down on the other side of the couch, staring at Alex. I sat down next to him and nudged his shoulder, whispering I asked him what he was doing.

"I couldn't sleep..."

"So you decide to do the same thing that you got angry about her doing to us?"

"Okay, one it's not the same thing, and two I'm still trying to figure out why she was stalking us, I figured she might talk in her sleep or wake up and say it to herself or something." I punched him in the shoulder shaking my head before standing up and walking back to the couch.

"Get some sleep, hypocrite." I said before laying my jacket over me and going back to sleep.