Avoiding Alpha

Page 13

I grabbed my car keys out of my purse. That I could work with. “Get us close, and I’ll use my visions to find the rest of the way there.”
Chris swallowed. “Can I see her before we go?”
I wanted to say yes, but we didn’t have time and I didn’t want us to get caught. “She’s in the infirmary, but she’s knocked out. She’ll be there when we get back.”
“Okay. Let’s go,” he said.
My fast walk quickly turned into a jog.
God, I hoped we had enough time.
Chapter Four
Chris directed me down the most pothole-ridden road I’d ever seen. My Tiguan SUV bottomed-out and I cringed. This puppy was only weeks old, but I had to push her hard, driving as fast as I could.
We came around a bend, and I slowed as an unmarked fork appeared ahead. “Which way?”
“I don’t know,” Chris said. “Maybe right? Probably right.”
“Maybe or probably?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been this close. Wolves aren’t usually allowed on their land, but I’m pretty sure it’s up here somewhere.”
I pulled over, and tapped my fingers on the steering wheel. “No worries. I’ll figure this out.” I undid my seatbelt and hopped down from the car.
“Where are you going?” Chris asked, leaning halfway out his door.
“Just wait.” I closed my eyes and let down my mental barriers. Visions used to bombard me all the time, but now I had to lower the imaginary wall around my mind to see anything. I pressed my hands against the dirt road, hoping for something, but all I got were flashes of cars driving by. I walked a little farther down. A rabbit met its maker here. Not helpful. I touched the trees and a bush, and got a whole bunch of nothing useful.
The irony wasn’t lost on me. I’d spent my whole life wishing for the visions to go away, but now, when I actually needed one, they were failing me.
I went down one of the forks in the road, bending to touch the ground, searching for any sign that I was headed in the right direction.
After a bit, I turned around and started down the other fork.
“You see anything?” Chris asked from beside the car.
“Nothing useful, but I’m not giving up yet.” Touching the trees showed me the days passing. Sunlight. Rain. Animals climbing up their bark.
I saw visions of cars going both directions, but there was no way to tell which fork was the way to La Aquelarre.
“Screw it.” I yelled back at Chris. “Let’s pick one. There’s a fifty-fifty chance we’ll get lucky. And if we don’t, then we turn around and try the other way.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Chris said.
On my walk back to the car I spotted a clue. It was barely visible, but the speck of white hit the sun just enough to catch my eye.
I stepped to the other side of the street, and kicked away the dirt.
A Whataburger cup. I tried not to get my hopes up as I wiped my hands on my jeans. I said a prayer and grabbed it.
“Don’t mess with that shit, dude,” said a guy with spiky blond hair and a thick Texas accent. He swirled the straw in his milkshake before taking a big drink. “You don’t want to fuck with the wolves. You’re gonna get us all in trouble.”
Music played in the car. I recognized the distinctive style of Calle 13’s reggaeton. Fast food wrappers were piled on the floorboard of the backseat.
“We used to hang out with them.” The guy driving had black hair and dark brown eyes. “Dastien was always cool to me. Intruding during their proceedings is messed up. My mom’s gonna get us into trouble.”
Holy shit. They were talking about Dastien and the Tribunal. It was good to know not all of them were against us.
“All I’m saying is that your mother has an extreme hatred for wolves. Going against her is a huge risk, especially now that Teresa’s turned and we have no back-up leader.”
They took the fork on the right.
The guy with the shake swirled the cup around before taking a long slurp.
The other guy snorted. “Mom’s lost her mind. I don’t trust whatever she’s seeing in those visions of hers. I think she started this whole thing to begin with.” His fingers tapped the steering wheel to the beat of the music. “They’ve been nothing but nice to us. Yeah, what happened to Teresa sucked, but it can’t be undone. Going to war isn’t going to solve anything. What we need is a replacement. It’s dumb as all hell not to have a back-up…”
Ugh. I hated being called Teresa. But I agreed with the guy. Why didn’t they have a back-up? I didn’t like feeling responsible for them being left without a leader. For the first time, I felt bad about having been bitten for a reason that wasn’t focused on my problems.