Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance

Chapter 77: Chapter 77

Heather

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?" Xander 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 Xander. "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," Xander 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.

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. "Brent 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 Brent 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 Heather’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 the weird guy 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 that. 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.

The blond guy took another sip of his shake. The loud slurping signaled that he’d finished. "Just be careful with that shit. She might be your mother, but she’s not right in the head. We don’t have anyone who can stand against her. Not anymore." He threw the cup out of the window.

Even her own son thought she was dangerous. This was definitely not a good sign.

"Get in the car," I said as I ran back. "You were right about the fork."

He laughed. "See, babe. You should never question my genius."

I snorted. "Some ego you got there, Mr. Matthews."

As soon as we were buckled in, I floored it down the road. We took a sharp corner too quickly and I had to swerve so I didn’t run off the road. "Crap. Sorry."

Xander had his hand on the ’oh shit’ bar. "Maybe you should slow it down, Speedy Gonzales?"

"I should but we’re in a hurry." A metal farm gate blocked the road, and I slammed the brakes. "Can you get that for me?"

"I have a bad feeling about this. You sure we’re in the right place?"

"As sure as I can be when I have no idea where the hell I’m going. There haven’t been any more forks and we’re out of road. Unless the guys from my vision were heading somewhere else, this should be it."

Xander grunted and hopped down from the car. The gate squeaked as he opened it. It seemed silly for it to be there and not have a lock. Who was it really keeping out?

I eased through the gate. The tires rattled over the spaced out metal rails of the cattle guard that lined the entrance. Goosebumps rose along my skin as an icky sensation slipped off me. It was as if bad juju was warning me away from going through it.

When Xander got back in the car, his eyes were glowing blue—a sign that his wolf was close to the surface—but he didn’t say a word.

Something felt off. It was too quiet in my head. I took inventory, trying to figure out what was wrong.

Oh my God. I couldn’t feel Brent anymore.

"Can you feel the pack?" I asked Xander.

"No. My pack bond dulled when we got on their land. It’s making me edgy."

"Weird."

"Very."

I brushed it off, and focused on what we were there to do. We needed to get in, find my cousins, and leave before we could get into any trouble.

No big deal.

My Tiguan rounded another corner and the road smoothed out. The dense treeline thinned to reveal little two-story cottages lining the dirt road. Cars and SUVs were parked haphazardly on the roadside. If the cars hadn’t been there, it would’ve looked like an Old West town.

"It’s kind of creepy that they have a mini-suburb out here, right?" I asked.

"Supernaturals like to stick together. It makes life easier when you don’t have to constantly pretend to be normal."

That made sense. I was terrible at the whole pretending stuff with the visions. Being a pariah among norms was all too familiar.

"I’m not gonna lie, my wolf isn’t liking it. I’m getting itchy." Xander’ eyes were still glowing. That didn’t bode well for us either.

I handed him a pair of sunglasses that Brent had stashed his car. "Dude. If you can’t calm it down, how am I going to stay in control?"

"I don’t know." He slid them on. "I think we should turn around."

Yeah, that wasn’t an option. I stopped the car in the middle of the road. "You can wait for me outside the gate if you want."

"No. I can’t. Brent would kill me if I left you alone to face the witches. I’m surprised he let you come at all."

I bit my lip. "Well..."

"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me." Xander slammed his hand on the dash. "He didn’t let you come?"

I resented that. "No one bosses me around. We’re here to help Serena. And I shouldn’t need his permission anyhow."

Someone knocked on my window and I jumped.

Smooth move, Heather. I should’ve been paying better attention.