The Garden Witch

Chapter Five

I took the next exit and started heading west.

"Where are we going?" Alex asked.

"To see my friend, Avery."

"Who is she?"

I hesitated. "Someone who might be able to help," I said finally. "She knows a lot about a lot of stuff. She might be able to point us in the right direction."

"Can you trust her?"

"Yeah," I answered quickly, and then paused. "Well, she's not going to turn us into Stephen, at least. She has her own agenda."

"Sounds ominous," Thomas muttered from the backseat. "I need to get back, though. The Alpha will be missing me if I'm gone too long. Just drop me off anywhere, I'll run back."

I almost turned around to stare at him but settled for raising my eyebrows at the rearview mirror. I did as I was told, though, and then we were on the road again.

"He's just going to run back?" I asked slowly.

"He's a werewolf," Alex reminded me.

"Right."

We drove for a few minutes in silence. It felt good to do something normal. I wasn't a huge fan of driving in general but the roads were clear and it was sunny and crisp out. I flipped on the radio and started to sing along. I stopped when I found Alex staring at me.

"What?"

"Why do you know this song?"

"It's Gordon Lightfoot, everyone knows this song."

He slowly shook his head. I rolled my eyes.

"Just let me have this," I told him. "I've had a rough couple of days."

My phone started ringing and I bit back a curse. Mike. I had forgotten to call him.

"Hey, Mike," I said, answering it on Bluetooth.

"Hey, I wanted to let you know, we found Myrna."

"Oh, that's great," I said, relief flooding through me. "Is she home?"

"Not yet. She went down to visit her aunt down south."

"She just up and left?"

"She had one of her depressive episodes and needed to take a road trip. She said she texted that she was fine so I wouldn't worry, but of course I did anyway. I've called off the search."

"That's great, Mike, I'm really happy."

"Do you want to swing by and say Hi when she gets home? It should be later today."

"I'd love to." I found Alex shaking his head. "I'll see what I can do, I have a busy couple days but I'll stop by if I can."

"Sounds good. Talk to you later."

He hung up.

"What was that about?" Alex asked.

"My friend went missing two days ago. Her husband has been looking for her. I haven't been able to help as much as I'd like to, with everything going on."

"I'm glad she's okay."

"Yeah, me too."

We drove in silence for a minute or two.

"The Lycans complicate things," Alex said.

"Yeah, they do." That much was obvious.

"Before, I wanted to be Alpha because it was my birthright and because I don't think Stephen is good for the pack. But now..." he trailed off. "Now I realize that he's even worse than I thought. I have to take him down. If I don't, who knows who else will be hurt."