Ayla: Always an Alpha

Chapter 13 - Mark My Words

~Killian~

Ayla was late.

I checked my wristwatch again before pulling my hood farther over my head and hunching further onto the bench outside the gas station, trying as best as possible to appear like the typical alcoholic loiterer. The half empty bottle of Jack on the table in front of me, a memento left by an actual loitering alcoholic,  helped with the image. Except, the longer I sat in the spot, the more I realized it looked less like whiskey in the bottle and more like piss.

The gas station was in one of the few areas left in the country not claimed or under the influence of any pack. That didn't mean it wasn't monitored, however, and after the wild goose chase I led Ayla's pack and a few of her neighboring ones on, I didn't doubt that people had started patrolling it. Yet there I was, a sitting duck waiting for someone to catch me because Ayla didn't know how to stick to a damn plan.

Just as I had decided that it was too cold out for me to be waiting on her, especially when I didn't need her to successfully get myself out of this mess, a shiny, black SUV, one much too nice to be owned by anyone from this dump of a town, pulled up in front of me. As planned, its brights flashed at me three times consecutively. I groaned but got up anyway. Of course Ayla hadn't chosen a less discreet vehicle; nothing about that damn girl was average.

The lights blinded me as I walked towards it. However, even if those hadn't been bright, the dark tint to the windows wouldn't have given me a clue to what was inside anyway. Therefore, I had to hide my surprise when I hopped into the passenger side to find the tracker in the front seat, the vegetarian one that was always hanging around Ayla, Sha... Sha something or other. Her scent clung to him, I noted. They must've been together.

I was not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing I wasn't expecting him, so I nodded in his direction, closed the door, and stayed silent as he began driving.

The original plan was for Ayla to take the highway back East, in the opposite direction I ran, to somewhere past her territory. There, I'd find a hotel to stay for the night before making my way back to her territory after the search calmed down. That way, Sir would think I was unsuccessful with my assassination attempt and believe that I'd run off somewhere far from D.C. Now that she'd obviously not adhered to our arrangement, I had no idea where I was being driven, but I had to admit I found myself enjoying the quiet car ride. Sure, the tracker was so tense that I could feel his hatred of me radiating off of him, but there was no doubt Ayla would have already gotten on my nerves.

Unfortunately, loverboy broke the silence by clearing his throat. I could tell he wanted to say something, but he didn't. Instead, his hands tightened around the steering wheel. Not feeling in the mood for conversation, I ignored it and watched for any activity in the woods we passed.

Eventually, he must've gathered up enough courage to speak because he cleared his throat again.

"You weren't surprised to see me," he noted.

The statement didn't warrant a response, so I ignored him. Obviously not as direct or as confident as Ayla, he let us sit in silence for a few minutes before trying again.

"You've been hanging around the territory for a few days already, I assume."

Poor loverboy. It seemed he had been kept in the dark on this one. Feeling bad for the guy, I turned my gaze from the window, still not responding but not blatantly ignoring him.

He took his eyes off the road to make direct eye contact with me. I caught on to the determination in them and to the set of his shoulders. Alright, so maybe he was just as confident as Ayla but simply less bold. Still, I didn't understand how she found him entertaining.

"I caught your scent a couple of days ago," he continued, "but Ayla..."

Anyone could have noticed the way his voice faltered at her name. I rolled my eyes. After that, he paused for a minute, trying to figure out what to say next. It was getting irritating; I was really missing the uninterrupted quiet.

His fingers started tapping against the steering wheel.

"Get whatever it is out, or I might feel the need to cut your fingers off to get some quiet," I warned.

To his credit, he didn't react to the threat.

"Ayla trusts you," he finally said.

I was about damn tired of this kid's statements. If he wasn't going to ask a question, I wasn't going to entertain this conversation, even if it was mostly one-sided, any further.

"I don't," he finished.

Bored, I directed my attention to the forest again.

That annoyed him enough that he eventually asked a question.

"Why are you helping her?"

Deciding he'd shut up if I answered to his satisfaction, I responded. "I want out. Helping her will help me get out."

He scoffed. "So selfish reasons. Not that you finally found shame in killing innocent people for profit."

It would've been nice to scare him until I could smell his fear, but that would've required more effort than I wanted to put in. I also didn't want him to feel like his taunts affected me, so instead, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

I kept them closed even as he made his threat.

"If you kill her, or even harm her in any way, I will track you down, Killian Murray, and I will kill you myself. Mark my words."

I didn't take well to intimidation tactics, and I especially didn't appreciate them coming from some territorial lover that couldn't even carry out his threats if he wanted to. Something told me Ayla wouldn't take too kindly to this macho display either.

"Mark my words, tracker," I finally responded with venom in my voice but keeping my eyes closed. I wanted him to know he didn't scare me. "If you threaten me again, Ayla will be the last thing on your mind."

~~~

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Missed me? Nice to see you all again! Sorry about the very long break, but adulting is stressful. I question what I'm doing with my life like eight times a day.

Anyways, I lost my student Adobe license and can no longer make cute chapter graphics. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do when I need to make my next book cover. It's just going to have to be butt ugly, I suppose. Since I like to only work on one book at a time, it's a little early for this sort of talk, but I've had an idea in my mind for a sci-fi trilogy for a really long time now. Would you all continue your journeys with me from the werewolf world to the sci-fi world?

Question of the week: Tension, tension... A lot of you seem to think Ayla and Killian are complete opposites. Do you think the same of Killian and Saleem?