Hellbound

Chapter 10 - In which a long shower is taken

'Can we take a break soon?' Anya asked with a yawn. She twisted in her seat, her back popping loudly at the action. 'I need to stretch.'

'Yeah. I'll keep an eye out for a good place.'

'Do you want me to drive the next stretch?'

'I'm good.'

'You sure?' She checked the time on her phone. 'You've been driving for almost four hours.'

'Perk of being a wolf. Increased healing also means we don't feel fatigue as quickly as you do.'

'How the hell have humans managed to become the dominant society when you all are just so much better at everything?'

He shrugged with a smirk. 'You got the numbers on us. Hellians are estimated to make up less than three percent of the world population.'

'Only? How come?'

'We don't reproduce as quickly and as often as you do, we killed each other off for a long time so that lessened our numbers significantly. Many reasons.'

'I would have thought you'd be at least like ten percent or something. Three sounds really low.'

'It's an estimate, not everyone is comfortable making themselves known. Could be a bit more, but not by a lot.' He pointed at a sign. 'That place good with you?'

'Yeah. Maybe we can make it a longer stop to look up where to stop for the night?'

'I was thinking the same.'

A handful of minutes later they came to a stop by a gas station with a view of a small lake. The sun gleamed on the still water and a fresh breeze shook the trees gently.

Anya took a deep breath and spread her arms before flowing into a series of stretches. Callum watched her for a moment before opening the door to the backseat to grab his laptop and water bottle.

Once she was finished, they found a picnic table in the shade with a good view. They poured over their options for the trip and settled on an extended break in between to get everything in order.

'This hotel includes breakfast and a discount on laundry services while being in a town that has one of the stores on the list Elisa sent over. We could grab a gift from there while we're at it,' she said and turned the laptop towards him.

He scanned it and nodded. 'There's also a car cleaning service. Sounds good to me. Book us for two nights so we can get things sorted and get some time off. I'll go get us something to eat. Something you want?'

'Something light. I'm still pretty full from the snacks they prepared for us.'

'Unsurprisingly, they're made for wolf metabolism. I'm surprised you could eat as many as you did.'

Anya paused and opened the calendar. 'Ah. Should be getting my period within a week. I always eat a lot more during that time.'

'Anything you need to prepare ahead of that?'

'No, I should have everything I need for now. Thanks though.'

He gave a nod before heading to the gas station. Anya watched him as he went, her mind trying to wrap itself around the fact that he really was the whole package. Only a handful of months earlier, she had dropped a guy she considered a friend because of his reaction to one of their mutual friends mentioning having her period. Sometimes the fragile people really take themselves out to make room for the good ones, she thought absently.

After finishing their bookings and food, they got back on the road - where Anya was doing her best to coax him into doing car karaoke. He just laughed and shook his head at her attempts.