*****
*Jayden*
“No! No! No! You can’t be serious? Are you freaking kidding me?!” Sean groaned as the car came to a halt. “What a piece of shit.” He hissed dropping his head onto the steering wheel in despair.
“What’s going on?” Hayley sat up from where she had been sort of laying down, her head on Corey’s lap.
I was seated in the back with Izabella between Kaden and me while Sean was driving and Trent had the passenger seat.
“Car broke down. Again.” Trent said.
“Why? I thought we had it fixed?” Kaden asked.
“We did. Temporarily. It was supposed to stay fixed until we got home where it would be Benjamin’s problem again.” Sean replied with an exasperated sigh. “I hate this car…”
“So… what now?” Izabella asked.
“We rob someone of their minibus.” Sean said, everyone looked at him, “Just kidding,” he smiled before adding a lower, “Not really…” I chuckled.
“Hopefully, we find someone who will tow us to the nearest city,” Corey said getting out of the car.
“Hopefully, or I could just compel them to?” Trent suggested.
“I keep forgetting you guys can do that. Fine, if they say no, go for it.” Corey said.
I sighed. Great.
—–
“Three days.”
“What?” Izabella asked, shocked. We had found a guy who towed us to this small town – without having to be compelled, he was just a really nice person, and now we were stuck, I assumed.
“Three days before they can work on it, they have other cars to work on. So it’ll probably be fixed in about a week?” Corey said.
“No, no.” Kaden sounded horrified.
“You mean we’re staying here for five days or more? Are we ever going to get to the Peaks? Or home?” Hayley asked.
“I doubt it.” Corey frowned. Sean grit his teeth.
“It’s your fault.” Sean’s words made Corey look at him and they went silent, linking to each other before they both sighed, “Yes, eventually.” Sean said. “But hey, think of this as an unexpected road-trip stop, curtsy of everyone’s favourite Beta.” Corey glared at him and he chuckled.
“So… Where are we gonna sleep?” Kaden asked.
“There are townhouses not too far from here, they have a little house we can use for a week,” Trent said.
“There’s a forest not that far off either,” Sean said.
“Forest? Let’s go!” Kaden said sounding desperate, I understood his desperation. We hadn’t shifted in forever, his wolf must just have been dying to get out.
“Hold on. There might be traps and other dangers there, we’ll have to go together and check it out before we shift so I suggest we go to the house, check everything out and eat before we –” Sean was saying.
“No! You don’t understand, I need to shift NOW,” Kaden said.
“Yeah, me too, she’s not very patient.” Izabella glared at the ground.
One good thing about being the weakest in my pack: my wolf was very calm. Unlike other Amarelos’ wolves, my wolf wasn’t overly aggressive and didn’t force us to shift when he felt like it.
“I need to too, my wolf’s not going to stay down for much longer,” Trent admitted.
“What about you?” Sean looked at me.
“I’m cool.” I shrugged only to have my wolf growled in disagreement, “Or not.” I added furrowing my brows in confusion at his sudden change in behaviour. I guess he was also upset about being kept down for so long. Sean chuckled.
“Fine, but –” Sean said.
“You guys go Hay and I got the bags and the house,” Corey said.
“Then I’ll stay too, I can shift this evening,” Izabella said.
“Are you su –?” Sean was saying.
“Can we just fucking go?!” Kaden cut him off with a harsh growl before he covered his mouth with his hands. “I’m so sorry, that wasn’t entirely me, I swear.” He mumbled. We laughed. Kaden’s wolf was one of the most impatient I had ever met.
“Alright, see you later. Be careful,” Sean kissed Izabella’s cheek before we left.
“You be careful.” Corey said, “And watch the Omega.” He pointed at me without averting his eyes from Sean. I shrunk back looking down. Was it really that big a deal?
“Don’t worry, we’ll watch him,” Sean smirked.
“What?” Corey looked at him confused.
“Nothing,” Sean smirked.
“Sean, I swear if you don’t tell me what the hell you’re trying to say –” Sean had run off before Corey could finish. We laughed before we followed him leaving Corey behind us glaring.
—–
*Corey*
I didn’t want to get drunk again. I was sick of it, I was sick of not remembering anything, I was sick of all the girls I hung out with in clubs, I was sick of all the making out and the touching and yet, here I was, at the bar with a really beautiful Spanish girl and her gorgeous blonde British friend hanging on either side of me, the music blaring loudly around us.
“Let’s dance!” It was the blonde. What was her name? I know I had asked her for it earlier… Oh well, it wasn’t important.
“I uh –” I began not really in the mood.
“I love this song! Come on, Corey!” The Spanish one, whose name had slipped my mind as well, said.
“Fine.” I downed the rest of my beer before I let them drag me to dance.
I didn’t want to be there, but I had to. I had to try to get myself back to not giving a shit about what happened to him.
‘Watch the Omega’? Why the fuck did I care what happened to the pathetic Omega I was forced to be mated with?! I really couldn’t care less if he died… Or I wasn’t supposed to care if he died. Those words came from nowhere.
Somewhere in the crowd, the British girl had disappeared and now I was grinding against the Spanish girl. I grabbed her and pulled her against me before I smashed my lips to hers trying to clear him from my mind. I had not gone a minute without thinking about him the entire day, I was just about ready to smash my head against a wall so that I could forget about him.
“Slow down, babe.” She giggled when I kissed her neck, “Let’s get some more drinks?” She smiled.
I nodded. Anything. My mind was too dazed to actually make out what was going on around me, and yet somehow, he was still clearly visible. It didn’t really matter what she suggested as long as it would give me more of a haze.
I wanted to go numb, I didn’t want to feel his pain, or my guilt or our pull. I didn’t want to feel anything for him, not hatred and definitely not love or concern. I just wanted to go completely numb and be carefree.
As we got to the bar, we downed more drinks and I could feel everything fading, getting lighter. I was happy. I didn’t want to worry. I didn’t want to have responsibilities. I didn’t want to care about anything. And even if it would only last while I was completely drunk, even if it was only for a few hours, I didn’t want to be scared.
*****
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