FOR hours, I watched the trees zoom past in a mix of green and brown. Despite the miles and miles we had driven, each and every tree looked the same. They were all large pine trees—one identical to the other. If the blinking clock on the dashboard had not inched forward with each minute, I wouldn't have noticed how long Alpha Wade and I had been on the road.
A heavy silence hung over us, and neither one of us had been eager to break it. Instead of focusing on the rising tension between us, I focused all my attention on my surroundings.
Not many other cars inhabited the road we were traveling, and it had been hours since I last spotted a mile marker anywhere. There was no clear evidence as to where we were going until Alpha Wade took an abrupt turn, slowing the speed of the car down.
Squinting my eyes, I tried to see if we were close to anything besides the surrounding trees when a little wooden building appeared in the distance. A bright blue sign reads REST STOP.
The parking lot in front of the rest area was mostly vacant besides a scrawny man and his golden retriever walking around the grass beside the building. A gazebo nestled to the far right of the rest stop where a few wooden benches were scattered.
When Wade pulled into the nearest parking spot, he cut the engine and muttered, "Stay in the car."
"What?" I scowled as my hand outstretched to unbuckle my seatbelt.
"Stay in the car," he reiterated. Before there was any room to object, he got out of the car. While walking back to the rest stop, his eyes on me, he held his hand out and dramatically used the car key to sound the lock—even though locking the car would serve no purpose.
Huffing, I crossed my arms over my chest after having rubbed my neck. My neck still itched insistently, but I had grown used to the sensation. My feet were placed on the dashboard, and I stared intently at the frosted glass door to the rest stop. Focusing my attention, I tried to listen to what was happening inside. Prepared to encounter sounds I would not particularly like to hear, I was surprised to be met by silence.
I couldn't hear anything.
This must not be a normal rest area, I concluded. I mean, I should have figured as much since Alpha Wade did not seem the type to waste time on a car journey for a bathroom break.
Looking around, the man with his dog peered in my direction but then quickly turned his back when our eyes met. A few moments later, he started to head in the opposite direction of the rest stop, leaving me completely alone.
Drumming my fingers on the car's door, I sat up, removing my feet from the dashboard. In one fell swoop, I unlocked the car and strode to the entrance of the rest stop.
Just as I was about to reach for the door, Wade popped out from behind it. When he saw me a few feet away from him, he did not look surprised. Rather, he looked like a parent would when they were disappointed with their disobedient child.
"Violet," his voice held no humor. "I told you—"
"I know what you said," I scratched my neck with a coy smile."But I need to use the rest—"
"No," he was resolute, a plastic grocery bag in one hand, a map in the other.
"But." I bit my lip as I maneuvered my stance, so I could try and get a better look into what was in his bag. However, the dark hue of the plastic prevented me from seeing what was inside.
He stared at me before shrugging his shoulders. "Make use of the trees. There's plenty of them around here.."
I put my hands on my hips with a look of disgust planted on my face. "Why are you being so weird?"
"I'm not being weird," he retorted.
Sliding the map into his pocket, he latched onto my wrist and began to guide me to the car. His touch was mesmerizing. My toes caved inward, my breath faltering. My fingertips itched to grab hold of him and pull him closer to me. Instead of acting on my instinct, I held my breath and let Wade tug me along. "Now, come on."
When we reached the car, Wade let go of my wrist, and I could finally catch my breath. Trying to get a grip on reality, I straightened my back and rolled my shoulders, asking, "What's in the bag?"
"Supplies," he hollered as he went to the back of the car to drop the bag in the trunk.
Sliding into the passenger's seat while Wade was walking around to the driver's side, I pried further. "Supplies for what?"
He did not answer as he took his seat, pulling the map out from his pocket. He opened the map. His arm almost hit me from how wide he had to extend his arms to get the map to unfold completely. He angled his body ever so slightly, so I could not see the contents of the map clearly.
He beamed. "I know where we're headed."
I waited for Wade to say more, but his eyes zoomed back and forth over the map. He sat, staring at the map for a long while before I said, "You don't know how to read a map, do you?"
He grunted at my response, his eyes still glossing over the map. I leaned over the center console, trying to get a better look, but Alpha Wade angled his body so the contents of the map were no longer visible to me.
"Alpha," I gritted my teeth.
He momentarily looked up from the map, his eyebrows arched. "Yes?"
"Don't you... I don't know, think it's time to stop being so secretive?" I asked, looking at him expectantly.
He blinked and then looked back at the map. "I'm not being secretive."
"What would you call it, then?"
"I'm being cautious," he clarified, and I snorted.
"You can't still think I'm here to bring down Bluestrike—"
"I don't," he said without hesitation.
"It doesn't seem like it," I countered.
"I know." He sighed and set the map down after having folded it over. He stretched his arms and then faced me. "What we're doing—where we're going," he cleared his throat. "It's very important."
"And I'm not important enough to know why," I whispered, more to myself. I knew his words shouldn't have cut as deep as they did, but they did nonetheless.
He was an Alpha first and foremost. His duty—whether or not I believed so—was to the pack before anyone or anything else. He had been vacant from the public eye of the pack for years, but if he was finally trying to make progress with taking a stand, I didn't want to step in the way.
Despite knowing this, it hurt all the same.
I closed my eyes right before Alpha Wade reached a hand out on my shoulder. "It's... it's not that, Violet."
He paused while I opened my eyes again to see Alpha Wade's face tight in concentration. "It's just I think I found a way to help the pack—to save the pack—and I need it to be true."
Tilting my head, I asked, "Do you think you're headed down the wrong path?"
He shook his head. "I don't know."
I nodded my head.
In a way, I understood. Alpha Wade wanted desperately to bring Bluestrike back to its full health, and he was chasing a lead. However, from the look in his eyes, it was clear this was not a certain outcome.
If the conversation I overheard with his grandfather was any indication, there would be objections to whatever Alpha Wade was up to, and he didn't want to seem to face them.
And, at the end of the day, I couldn't blame him for feeling and acting this way.
With a small smile, Alpha Wade revved up the engine and headed toward our next destination. While he was tightlipped about his plan and where we were headed exactly, hope bubbled within me.
Alpha Wade was on a mission to help Bluestrike. I couldn't help but begin to swell with pride. Amira had been pestering me to get Alpha Wade to take action, and I hadn't been receptive to her advice. But, maybe her instance hadn't been as grating as I had once thought.
Truth be told, I had not wanted to push Alpha Wade toward saving the pack because—at the time—I had not known if he was capable. I barely knew the man I called both my mate and Alpha.
"What are you smiling at?" Alpha Wade questioned after we had been on the road for a while.
Trying to hide my smile, I shook my head. "Nothing."
"Violet," he said.
"You have your secrets," I responded, puffing out my chest. "And I have mine."
From the corner of my eye, I watched as Alpha Wade shook his head as he readjusted his grip on the steering wheel.
Once again, Alpha Wade and I fell into silence—this time more comfortably. In the blink of an eye, it felt like the morning sun had faded into the rising moonlight. I blinked every few seconds to keep my eyes open.
Even though I had not been on many road trips in my life, Dad had always instilled the notion the passenger, mainly the one on the passenger side had to stay awake during the road trip. Of course, his opinion probably was heavily swayed by the fact Mom had always been his companion in such situations, but it had been instilled in me all the same.
Yawning, I rested my head against the side of the door and tried my best to stay awake. However, in the end, I was not strong enough to resist the pull toward sleep.
What felt like moments later, Alpha Wade's hand was shaking my body. Once again yawning, I sat up, rubbing my neck.
I had always been able to sleep in uncomfortable positions. I had prided myself on it in the past as Mom and Dad would both marvel at the interesting sleeping position I would find myself in.
It finally seemed my body was paying the price for the odd angles I slept at. Rolling my neck to stretch my limbs, I mumbled, "Are we there yet?"
"I don't know," was the unsurprising response from Wade.
Sitting up, I squinted my eyes to check out our surroundings. It was the dead of night, but my night vision had yet to kick in. Squinting harder, I leaned forward, nose touching the glass window as I made out the distant temple before us.
Clad in all white, a marble building with high columns stood before us. The surrounding parking lot was vacant, all except for a car a few spots over from us, seemingly abandoned.
The grass and shrubbery surrounding the temple were overgrown and unruly, and I couldn't help but question how long the other car in the parking lot had been there.
Turning to face Wade, I asked, "Where are we exactly?"
Taking a deep breath in while unbuckling his seat belt, Alpha Wade said, "The Temple of Selene."
"Selene," I repeated, following in Alpha Wade's lead as I unbuckled my seatbelt and hopped out of the car. Alpha Wade began to stride toward the entrance to the temple, and I asked, "Why do you think this crusty building has all the answers?"
Alpha Wade peered at me, shaking his head in disapproval. "I never said this place had all the answers."
"Well," I pursed my lips, jogging to catch up to him. "Why do you think it will have some of the answers?"
"Call it Alpha's intuition," he said with a faint smile before striding up to the intimidatingly tall doors. Without hesitation, Alpha Wade thrust the doors open.
A stale, musky scent instantly hit my senses, and I took a precautionary step back as Alpha Wade's calm demeanor was gone. Instead, he was shaking his head back and forth over and over again. "Fuck."