Rejected Mate and Following Fate novel Chapter 49

"Alora, I believe that may be our escort. This is route ten." The doctor nudges me lightly, snapping me out of my long weird daydream in which I bludgeoned Carmen to death with Colton's running shoes, before handing them back to him and walking off into the sunset with a flip of my finger, and I sit upright startled to reality. Heart missing a beat and full on nerves smacking me in the stomach.

There's a convoy of headlights heading our way in the now pitch-dark, long road, stretching ahead, dazzling us slightly as they approach, along what seems to be a long empty highway, lined with dense trees on either side of us. I hadn't even noticed the change in terrain when we got off the dirt track and got onto an actual road. My insides tighten, tense, and painfully pray it is who it is.

I lift the veil and link him, in case we're not at where they are yet, and this is someone I should be worried about. I don't see any other vehicles on the road.

Colton please tell me that's you, the convoy heading towards the military truck on route ten?

I hold my breath, pausing as nervous energy overtakes and straining to see beyond the blinding lights, but it's too dark to make out if the trucks are Santo at all. All I can tell is there is a succession of them as they weave slightly, and headlights peek out on the route ahead.

It's us. You're safe. Pull over.

That husky warm flow of assurance as I hear him inside my mind and I relax a little, letting out the breath I was holding in anticipation. He sounds weird, tense, and maybe still a little annoyed, probably from obsessing over my 'boyfriend' in the last half hour, or however long we've been driving. I've been silently staring out the window, lost in my own head, and the doc just kept ploughing on heading north. No concept of time.

Shouldn't we just follow you?

I query, confused that with the possibility of a pack on our tail that he should want us to stop and not keep moving. I don't understand why he would expect us to.

PULL. OVER!

It's a sharp command, not a request. No hint of polite, or even trying to explain. In that bossy, arrogant, snarly, I am pissed tone, that verges on his alpha gift and I wonder what the hell is eating him. From seemingly calm, and logical, to idiot in a millisecond, all because I questioned him. Maybe he is like his father after all, and that gives me the unyielding urge to tell him where to get off. It brings back my rage from earlier and I spin my head to the doctor with attitude.

"Our lord and commander says stop. He obviously has some reason to make us pull over, and he doesn't sound like he's in the mood to argue about it." I sound like a petulant child, eye rolling as I flick my hand at the oncoming vehicles and the doc raises a brow and then frowns instead.

"Better not disobey an irate alpha in the making. If he's anything like his mother, I would say it's better to accept a request and question later." It's an almost submissive stance to take, but the doc looks tired and weary, and maybe he needs a commander right now, more than I do. The doctor pulls us over to the side of the highway and brings us to an immediate stop, waiting, and watching, as the distant vehicles shrink the gap between us, and the tension becomes unbearable.

"I'll quickly check on Sierra, make sure she's' still tubed and everything is plugged in." He moves first, gets up and shifts into the back of the truck, exhaling and stretching with relief when he gets to the standing room part of the back. I watch him for a second, but my own anxiety as I can feel Colton getting closer almost makes me combust.

"I need air." I point out, opening my door and hopping out before I scream. I'm overcome with the sudden heavy nervous tension of seeing him again, and the rising flames of temper and accusation, because he's being a jerk about it, and I hate him. It's hard to put the Carmen thing aside when I'm going to come face to face with the cheating ass once more.

I expected maybe some sort of sweet directions, not bitchy commands, and aggression from him. My own turbulent emotions are strangling me, and I have this newfound energy buzzing through my limbs suddenly. I can't sit at peace and his getting closer is like waiting on a tornado hitting your house and knowing there'll be carnage. Colton is the tornado and my heart is my home. I have no chance.

As the first of the vehicles pull up along the side ours and disappears behind the bulk of our vehicle, I lose my nerve completely, turn, and walk to the rear of ours into the darkness, around the back to catch my breath and take a few seconds to re-center myself. I need some Dutch courage and some mood levelling before that moment of reunion with him. I inhale and blow it out heavily, hearing doors opening and slamming, and footsteps, and I know I should just do it. Bite the bullet, walk right out to him. I move out from behind the truck, walking along and turning up the side to head towards doc's door. Head in chaos, eyes on the ground as my sight adjusts to nocturnal and I watch where I'm stepping. 

I walk smack bang with a certain amount of whack into the black dressed, very large figure, cutting down from this side and yelp with the collision. Knocked back momentarily, not really hurt, but definitely winded, my heart skipping a beat which instantly makes my legs go weak, and my insides lurch in surprise.

"Lorey?" Colton's tone drops completely, almost a breathy whisper as I jump back and stare…. wide eyed, lost for words. We just sort of stand and look at one another for a crazily heavy, and lengthy, loaded second, so much translating in the moment and then he lurches forward, partially shadowed out so I can't make out his face perfectly. He grabs me by the wrist and yanks me to him forcefully.

I don't get a chance to react, or recoil, because all I get is a flash of glowing amber eyes appearing in that darkened face, and then I'm completely cocooned in strong arms and molded to a hot hard body that makes me feel small and precious. Wrapped up tight, unable to resist the way he lassos me. He knocks the wind out of me with the intensity of his embrace, hugging me in completely, and burying his face in the crook of my neck, snugly united, and highlighting how perfectly he fits to me. He squeezes almost all the air from me with the force of his hug, not a single part of me that's not pressed to him. His breath tickles and tingles my skin as it makes it way under the neckline of my sweater and I'm dazed by the speed in which he absorbed me into his body.