ALASKA // WOLFSTATE CHRONICLES [PUBLISHED IN EBOOK + PRINT]

{chapter three}

CHAPTER THREE

Even less impressed by the end of the school day, she wanted out and she had a weird need to be back at the log home. People were friendly, but it seemed like a waste to live in a place so barren and boring. The day she figured out the appeal, would be a day she never wanted to see.

She couldn't blame her father completely, he had just taken the job for the money. It was the conclusion she'd drawn.

When the final bell of the day rung, she made a break for it.

Impatiently, she waited outside for her father and the police cruiser. She checked her phone as the minutes ticked, but she didn't have service. She lifted it up, patching in, out and dropping the signal.

“Great...” she breathed and put it back in her father's borrowed parka.

She became distracted, watching her breath crystallize in front of her and out of amusement, breathed out again to see if she could make the rings like they did in the movies. It didn't work out so well, but she kept trying.

“Hey.” Came his voice out of no where again!

Chloe snapped around to find Grayson standing behind her, “Ugh. What?” She wrinkled her nose at him.

“How was the rest of your day after pelting me in the back of the head?”

“Oh,” She smiled in triumph, “You felt that?”

He grunted, “Well, it's not like it was a real hit. It was only my ankle.”

She snorted, “Whatever.”

Diversion became him, “So, the rest of the day wasn't as eventful?”

“It was okay,” she said, turning back around and looking down the road for the police cruiser.

“Waiting for your dad?”

“Uh... yeah,” she buried her lips in the front of her jacket as it got colder.

He didn't seem bothered by the sudden dip in temperature like her.

Her phone rung in the pocket and she pulled it out, fumbling it between her freezing fingers to the ground, “Darn!” She swooped and picked it up, answering the call, “Hello?”

“Loe, it's Dad... I just got caught up. I'm hoping you can hang out there a bit?”

“Huh?” Chloe rolled her eyes, “What could possibly be happening in this town?”

Her father laughed at her, “I'll be there in a bit, Loe, go wait inside. We're supposed to have a snow storm coming in.”

“Really!” She looked up to the clouds and noticed Grayson still standing beside her. She whipped her auburn hair off her forehead and turned away, “Dad...”

“I have to go, see you in a bit,” he hung up the phone.

Chloe groaned and put the phone back in her pocket, “Damn.”

“Something wrong?”

Chloe tried to figure out why he was hanging around her like a lost dog. She didn't want to answer him so she questioned him back, “Don't you have better things to do?”
“No, not really. Need a ride home? I live past your dad on the highway.”

She laughed, “Yeah, right... I don't even know you!”

“Your dad does,” he explained with an obvious tone.

“What does he know about you?” Chloe looked up at him, raised eyebrows.

“I'm not going to bite, Chloe.”