AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We made the trip in shifts - one behind the wheel and one asleep in the passenger seat. The truck did not stop unless the fuel light was on - and only then if we found a gas station or truck stop with a twenty-four hour convenience store.
Talia stocked up on drinks and snacks while I filled the tank and we were off again; covering as many miles at top end as my V-8 could before we ran her dry.
She’d passed out the second she buckled into the passenger seat and rested her head against the window. She was exhausted, mentally and physically, but it wasn’t just from driving sun up to sun down.
Visiting her aunt had taken its toll on her. The reunion hadn’t been what Talia expected. Hell, I hadn’t seen that coming either.
Talia’s family, on her mother’s side, were demon clan wolves. With red eyes. Though Sylvia’s were a paler shade than Talia’s. I wasn’t sure if it was just a physical trait like dark or light brown eyes, or something more, and filed the information away for later.
I planned to ask the demon clan alpha - if and when we found them.
Soft trails of yellow-green punched through the absolute darkness of the Anchorage skyline. The city slept, unaware of the horde from hell hot on our heels and working their way across the continent.
Demon wolf clans may have been safe from their destruction, but the wild country they called home was not.
I’d never met a demon wolf before Talia and she never knew she was one. Not until the mark on her forearm activated something inside her and her aunt confirmed it.
But my gut was telling me that there was more to the story. Something her aunt didn’t want us to know and I had every intention of finding out what. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Talia was in danger.
And I was driving her towards it.
“Talia, we’re here.” I nudged her arm. “Babe, wake up. We made it to Anchorage.”
She stirred, muttered a request to turn up the heat and curled herself up into a ball on the seat. The position she was in looked uncomfortable as hell, but she didn’t seem to mind and slept through every bump and bounce when I veered off the main road and onto a gravel drive that led to a small private airport.
Our next stop was a remote town outside of Prudhoe Bay, and only accessible by aircraft.
I pulled into a parking space alongside the hanger and left Talia asleep in the cab of the truck while I went in search of our pilot. The plane was on the tarmac and our bags were loaded by the time she woke up.
The pilot taxied down the runway, prepared for takeoff and made the ascent.
Sylvia’s information got us as far as Prudhoe Bay. The rest was up to us. The demon wolf clan settled somewhere above the arctic circle and lived their lives in below zero temperatures, surviving harsh conditions that left them isolated from the rest of the world.
I didn’t expect a warm welcome - for more reasons than the reading on the thermometer.
––––––––
“THANKS FOR LETTINGme sleep.” She adjusted the headset and swiveled the mic up into position near her mouth. “I’m sorry you had to drive the last leg on your own. I was just so tired.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I was too wired to sleep anyway, and I know you’re exhausted.”
Talia had been fatigued for weeks. Her energy levels first dropped when the demon marked her and had been on a steady decline ever since.
The pilot’s voice came over the headset with a warning about turbulence. Talia gripped my hand, knuckles white as she squeezed my fingers like a vice. The plane rocked and shook, jarring left and right. The pilot pushed forward on the yoke of the plane, pointing the nose of the and the propeller down to descend and get under the changing air flow.
“Oh my...I mean, holy shi...” Talia struggled with a string of expletives, one hand pressed to her chest, the other still clutching mine in a death grip. “That felt like an earthquake.”
“Yeah, except five thousand feet in the air.” The pilot’s laughter cut in and out through the headset. “We passed the Talkeetna mountains. Should be smooth sailing from here. First time flying, huh?”
“That obvious?” Talia’s laughter reminded me of windchimes at the mercy of her frazzled nerves rather than gusts of air. She released my hand and wiped the sweat from her palms on her jeans. “Sorry.”
“That’s a bad habit. One I’m going to have to break you of.” I stretched my hand and shook off the pins-and-needles feeling in my fingers.
“What do you mean?” Talia sat up straight in her seat and blinked away the surprise from her sapphire eyes. “What did I do?”
“Apologized. Again.” I explained with a wink and a lopsided grin. “You do it all the time, when you have nothing to apologize for.”
“Old habits die hard, I guess.”
