Mateless and Home Bound

Chapter 2: Road Trip

"This is Gila," Eric said. He was on a trip that morning. It wasn't a super exciting one, but he was happy that he had some company for it. It was a beautiful Fall Day and he was enjoying showing off the cities in the territory.

"It's pretty small compared to the other one's that you showed me," Jane said. She was sitting on the passenger's side. He had to do his best not to look over at her when he was driving. He would get lost in her eyes too easily if he did that.

"Yeah," he smiled. "But it's got the best bakery in the whole state."

There were so many things to show Jane. She was from the largest group of rogues that they accepted into the pack. She really didn't get to experience a lot when she was traveling as a rogue. And she had been traveling for fourteen years at that. He wished that they could have found her sooner. There were so many people from her group that recognized Eric too. They were in such shock that he was still alive. All of them thought that he had died from the hands of the rogue that had killed his parents. They were the last of the Goldshield pack that survived the rogue attack all those years ago. It was nice that they still recognized him, though.

"Is it somewhere near here?" Jane asked quietly this time. His thoughts were immediately brought back to reality. The main reason he was on this trip was to show her something that they had both been talking about the day before. He visited it once a year on that specific day.

"It's a little past the city," he told her. "We're going to have to do some off-roading, so hold on tight!"

"I love off-roading," she smiled. It was rare to see her smile. She had grown up having to be so serious because of all the things that had happened while they were trying to survive. Eric loved making her smile as much as possible.

"Good," Eric told her. "Because that's practically all we do in this pack."

He had learned how to drive when he was fourteen. As much as his dad wasn't keen on the idea, Pop was quick to throw him the keys and hop in the passenger's seat. It wasn't anywhere but the forest, but he learned how to drive quickly. Off-roading made things ten times more fun when you were trying to learn. And they were lucky that he only bumped into a tree once, and it didn't do too much damage to the jeep.

Eric told Jane all of these stories as they started to head for the trees. She loved hearing his stories, and he loved telling them. It was fun making people laugh at the silly things that he had done. He wound up getting close with all his brothers and sisters through that too. All of them were adopted and had their own issues. Victor was a great example of that. He was only fifteen and he had been through a lot with his former parents. He liked to wear a bunch of black clothes and put on black lipstick. Eric honestly didn't think it looked that bad. When Victor realized that he wasn't trying to bully him about it, they became friends quickly.

"Here's another safe house," he pointed at another small cabin. "It used to be the only one in this area before we got more land."

"How do they get all this money to pay for all of this?" Jane asked. "I never understood that."

"Well," he started. "The Locke family actually owned a lot of land before all of this. They got their riches through selling off their properties or renting it out. Then it soon turned into owning a lot of buildings in each city that they rent out. A lot of businesses don't own their buildings. They just rent off from my Pop."

"Huh," Jane said. "So, they're tenants?"

"Yup," he smiled. "I mean, Pop doesn't own everything, but the family owns a lot. It gets passed down to the next Alpha as time goes by. And so do the riches."

"And he's going to pass it down to you?"

"If I become Alpha," he looked a little sheepish when he answered that. He didn't really want to brag or seem snobbish. "If not then I can work for the pack and make a living that way."