Episode 3

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SASKIA'S POV

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My hair furiously whips back in my face—courtesy of the dumb wind—as I lean on the window with my eyes shut, wishing I could launch myself out of the vehicle and back to Kansas City instead of being stuck on a hellish ride to Edmonton, fucking Canada.

It's been hours since my waking, but I still can't believe a sleeping tonic had been mixed in my orange juice at breakfast. This, of course, was so I wouldn't be conscious when we left Missouri and, probably in my father's opinion, would not be able to escape.

Without spelling out the obvious, however, it meant I was unable to say goodbye to those I'd planned to a day ago. Setting the betrayal aside, what hurts almost as much as it does is the lack of faith in me. It's unbelievable that even though I chose to marry the Alpha myself, I am not given the benefit of the doubt that I would keep my words.

Sighing, I take a sip from the bottle of water by my side and try to think happy thoughts. The effort, nonetheless, is wasted as I feel my throat smarting with annoyance.

Unlike the satisfying feeling of happiness from last night, I am irritated that I have been deceived by my great Alpha-father and ex-boyfriend. Yet, I forcefully hold back my negative emotions as the men I have bones to pick with are not anywhere close to me and unleashing my anger on my escort would not necessarily be fair.

"I'm angry...and bored," I turn to Wade, who keeps vaping like an idiot. He is the sole reason why my windscreen is rolled down as the flavour of the e-cigarette coupled with the quick motion of the car had succeeded in making me overly nauseous.

Usually, I don't get motion sickness or get affected by long journeys. But then again, that sense of normalcy has long evaporated into thin air as there is nothing about this trip that cannot be classified as an anomaly.

"Read a book." He throws a porn magazine at me.

"Ew. What the hell?" I cringe and shove the glossy-paged book in the backseat. "If I were to read a text, it would never be that. And what is this, the early seventies?"

He barks out a short, ugly laugh that ends in a round of snorting, and I make sure he notices how disgusted I am by the expression I wear. "I thought you'd like it, princess. Leaves a lot to the imagination, doesn't it?"

"You are so lucky you're the one driving, or I would have made you suffer for enough of the rubbish you've done and said."

"Well, yay for driving then. Princess." He stresses on the title then bares his teeth in a vexing smile.

"Ugh. Honestly, why does my damn ride have to be with you?" I groan, then suck my teeth—a quirk I picked up from one of my former human friends who was Nigerian—in irritation.

"You know the reason already." His tone is flat and without any hints of a suggestion, but we both know the truth. He's powerful. In actuality, the only reason Wade is not the Beta is the fact that he is not of pure blood. There had been some foul play in his ancestors' history, which discredited him for the position. Other than that, next to the Alpha—my father—he is the most powerful werewolf in our pack.

"Yeah, yeah. The all-powerful Wade from the lineage of Crestengallt."

"What can I say? I do live up to the expectations already laid down for me. In fact, I think I've already surpassed them."

"You have." I agree, and he immediately takes his focus off the road just to settle his attention on me. Great driving practice, I'll say. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" I hike up an eyebrow in question.

"I just didn't think you of all people would agree."

"Oh, please. I'm not that hard to receive a compliment from." I assert, and he gives me a look that says my statement might be the biggest lie he has ever heard in his life. Shooting him a stern glare, I make plans on how to hurt him without causing a car crash. But before I can take any action, I feel the startling vibration in my jacket.

Reaching for my phone, I glance once at the caller's ID then tap on the answer button. "Well, isn't it my favourite father?"

"You have only one, Saskia." His voice eats up the erstwhile silence in the car, even though I can only hear him through the speakers.

"Sadly," I mutter unintelligibly under my breath.

"What?"

"Why did you do that?" I ignore his question and pose mine.

"Do what?" His reply reopens the vials of anger inside of me, and I shake uncontrollably.

"Do what?" I yell into the phone, and Wade buries a finger inside his ear. "You know what the hell you did, Alpha. Can we not make this issue worse than it already is?"

His sigh is deep and soaked in fatigue. "You refuse to call me dad and only refer to me as Alpha, but then you do not accord the respect that goes with the title." Hints of jocularity are laced between his words, but I still stew quietly, particularly as I haven't received the answer to my query.

"Why?"

"It's for your own good, Saskia."

"Do not give me that crap, Alpha," I growl, and I hear him wince as if he were pained by my outburst.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Did he know?" A relatively long stretch of silence follows. "Did Sage know that he wouldn't be leaving with me?"

"No, he didn't. If anything, that is one fact you should be sure of." He says, and I calm down a little as the wicked fury blazing inside of me for my old lover dies expeditiously. The anticipated ache, however, rears its ugly head as my heart blackens with ashes from the dying flame.

"Then why? Why did you lie to me—to us both?"

"I wanted you to be happy, Saskia. I didn't mean it to be a deceitful act or in any likening to the sort—"

"But, it was! You promised me that Sage would at least be my escort since he obviously can't live there with me. Then, you stop him from doing so. How does that even make any sense?"

"Everyone knows about you and Sage! How do you think the clan would react if word gets out that you both were allowed to leave together despite the history you share?"

"That sounds like an awfully flimsy excuse." I snap as the craving to know about Sage's well-being rises, knocking out any other feelings about to surface themselves. "What about Sage? How is he?"

"He is on an important operation; sent him out with two, top teams of our men to round up the rebels up North."

"Up North?" My heart raves madly in my chest, and I take deep breaths, desperately assuring myself that he will be alright when I'm most likely just deluding myself.

The Northern regions have the most potent werewolf packs. Chicago, for one, has packs with the most number of werewolves in all of North America, which is terrifying as for werewolves, numbers more than always equal strength. Sending any werewolf on a mission to suppress any of their risings is like decreeing their death sentence.

"I would say this is unbelievable, but then again, that's just like you, Alpha: manipulating people and every single shit to fit what you fucking want!" I say and end the call before he can respond to my accusation. I place the phone back in my pocket. Then, on a second thought, pull it out and switch it off.

"Are you okay?" Wade asks, making sure to avoid staring at me in the eyes. I'm glad he doesn't, as I am frightfully close to breaking down in tears.

"I'm fine." I blink rapidly then fan at my face with both hands. Suddenly, I feel queasy again, and the urge to throw up intensifies more than ever. "Pull over." I clasp my palm over my mouth as Wade hurriedly brings the car to a halt on the shoulder of the road.

"Shit! Dammit. Shit." He groans as I spill my guts in a smaller section of large expanses of dry, brown grass softly swaying in the wind.

In the middle of my involuntary response—vomiting—my hair proves to be an inconvenience as it keeps getting in the way while I generously gift Mother Earth with malodorous, half-digested eggs and toast. It gets to the point that Wade has to help me hold up my hair amidst mutterings and grumblings.

"Thank you," I mutter, thoroughly rinsing my mouth and face after relieving myself of the breakfast I had earlier in the day. At least the sedatives are out of my system.

"Are you okay?" He asks again, and this time, I can't hold it back anymore.

"No! I'm not okay. I'm everything but okay. I'm not sure if Sage will be fine. I don't know how the hell my new life will be. I don't even know the man I'm going to be married to. How can I be freaking okay?" The tears explode in waterworks, and I sob in anguish on the side of the road. It's no lie that I signed up for this myself. I know that fully well. But it does not change the bleakness of my reality.

"Saskia..." I am pulled up from the ground and into the sturdy walls of large, muscled arms. "It will be okay. I promise."

"I can't believe you called me by my name," I say after a while in between sniffles, my head laying on his shoulder. "And I can't believe you've seen me cry."

"No worries. I'll never talk about it." He pulls away to grab a Kleenex from the car, then wipes my tears with hands I never thought could be so gentle. "You should stop storing all those bitter emotions inside, by the way. You might just bust from all that pressure someday." He teases, trying to get me to laugh by making motions of explosions.

"Shut up." I shove him so that he trips over his foot, but I know his plan worked as the semblance of a smile slowly forms on my lips.

"Alright. I think we should get back on track." He pulls the door open, and I can't help but wonder how much threatening my great Alpha father must have done to force him into such a subservient mode today.

"How long do we have before we get there? I feel like we've been travelling for decades."

"Less than thirty minutes according to G-maps. We'll be right in time before the welcoming rituals at sunset. There should be no worries."

"I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about my butt forming an ice block from sitting too long."

"Don't worry about that either. I'll be here to help warm and massage your—"

"Shut the fuck up and drive."

"As you wish, madam." He tips an imaginary hat at me, then steers the car unto the road with deliberate suaveness.

"You got this, Saskia." I press my head against the seat, close my eyes, then pretend that everything is okay.