𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐊⠀ ⁽ ¹ ⁾

CLOSER

"Brom, hey." A voice pierces through my sleep. Groaning, I shift away from it. "C'mon, grumpy." This time, the tip of my shoe is nudged and I startle at the touch. Immediately sitting up, and rubbing my lip that was stuck to the cushion of the back seat, my legs stretch out across the rest of the seats. "What time is it?" I ask mid-yawn. Allison chuckles on the other side of the door. "Time to get moving, remember?"

I do remember, brushing my palm against my eyes I hear her walk away. We pulled over on the side of the road to get some sleep, after almost driving an entire day away from Newedge. Although, just as we left, Bishop texted me some important information that Britney remembered about Mitch. He drove into town. Therefore, I decide to backtrack his steps, and hopefully find some clue in the town he passed over on the way. 

Sitting properly in my seat, I run a lazy hand through my messy hair. While inserting the key in the ignition, and pulling back onto the main road. The drive takes us an hour, nothing but tall trees canopying over the road and providing ample shade. All the nature around us has me wanting to photograph it, but unfortunately, we see the town appear five minutes later.

I know this town, it's a pit-stop town that's mostly occupied by families on road trips. First things first, we need gas, plus food. Luckily, we find a gas station and fill our tanks, and Allison goes in and grabs herself a cold coffee, and grabs me a large orange juice plus sour patch kids' watermelon.

As she hands them to me, I look at her confused, she shrugs. "It's food." I shake my head with a chuckle. "Allison, this is candy. Not food." Again, she doesn't mind, she only retorts back. "If you don't want it, I'll eat it. But I never want to hear you say I never do anything nice for you." I roll my eyes, rip the bag open, and eat one for hunger's sake. 

Next, we find a motel and park our cars. Grabbing our bags from the trunk, we head inside. Allison rings the bell at the front desk. A middle-aged man appears and greets us with a friendly smile. "Hi there, what room can I get you?" Allison smiled. "A single bed for my boyfriend and I for the night please." I side-eye her questionably. Remembering clearly the last time we masqueraded as a couple.

To emphasize her statement, she takes my arm and wraps hers around it. The man doesn't seem to judge it. "That'll be $75." She exchanges the right amount of money for the room key. "Room 5 is open, enjoy the stay." He grins while Allison, still holding my arm, and we walk away. "Thank you." As soon as we walk out of earshot, she lets go and I look at her with a cocked brow.

"Boyfriend? That's the best you could come up with?" She huffs with a sarcastic grin. "What would you have wanted me to say, my brother?" I raise both brows and debate her answer, before ultimately deciding it's probably for the best.

We get to the room and open it. There's a large single bed with a bathroom, kitchen, and comfortable chairs around a single table and couch for a makeshift lounging room. Placing my bag on the chair in the lounging room, I pull out a pair of small sized journals that I brought with me. "I'm going to start note-taking," I tell her. With a pen in hand, I sit down on the couch. "Since the rogues destroyed all my old pack notes, I need to figure out who's behind them."

"Behind them?" She asks, tossing her bag on the floor and then leisurely sprawling out on the bed. "I thought Mitch was their leader?" I shake my head, already jotting notes. "He was the face of the pack, more like a muscle for hire. There's no way a boneheaded rogue like him came up with that broom trick by himself. Someone had to have taught him."

She chuckles, sitting up. "'Bonehead?'" Are my wolf jokes rubbing off on you?" I scoff. "You wish." She takes the candy and opens the bag, taking handfuls at a time and talking with her mouth full. "Well, while you're on that I'm going to grab some 'real' food." I grin and look away from the paper. "Sure."