After the fifth time I drive up and down the same stretch of road, I realize it may have been a mistake not to stop for gas when I had the chance.
It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't already gotten lost a couple of times on my way to this part of Hardin. But now, I'm realizing that I don't know Hardin as well as I thought I did. I expected my errand wouldn't take me longer than an hour at most, and it must've been that already and I haven't even found Kier's house yet.
By now raindrops are hitting the windshield, and the sky is no longer gray. Now, when I glance up, it's so dark that it doesn't even feel like it's morning anymore. If anything, it feels more like the end of the day rather than the beginning.
I don't even have my phone to call Talis or Dayne for help.
Eventually, I pull over to the side of the road and consider turning back. Only, I'm resistant because, according to Talis' roughly drawn map, I'm right where I should be.
So, for several seconds, I sit in the truck as the windshield wipers sweep the rain away. I scan my surroundings slowly, taking in the trees lining the side of the road and stretching up into the mountains.
Just as I'm about to give up, my eyes fix on a small gap between the trees. Narrowing my eyes, I start up the truck and edge forward toward it. Talis wrote that the road leading to this shifter's home is blink and miss it, and what I'm looking at, seems to be it.
I peer down the narrow road I kept driving past over and over.
It was one thing agreeing to Talis' errand, but now that I'm here, I'm leery at the thought of being in this isolated place with a shifter I don't know.
But Talis and Dayne wouldn't have sent me here if they thought there was any danger.
If there's one thing I'm certain about, it's that they are protective of me. Overprotective. Everyone in the pack is. So, they must trust this shifter.
The only person who didn't like the idea of me coming here was Marshall, but after what Talis said about the shifter being attractive and me potentially being stuck in a storm with him, I can understand why he would have a problem with it.
While everything in me would love nothing more than to turn back and tell Talis that I got lost and couldn't find the place, I don't move.
I've been telling myself that I've had enough of being smothered by my pack. But here I am hesitating about briefly meeting a shifter that my alpha and Luna trust not to hurt me? What does that say about me?
Weak. In need of protection. Cannot look after myself. No wonder they are so defensive of me.
I grip the steering wheel tighter, and after reversing, I make a slow and careful turn onto the narrow and bumpy road.
I can do this. All I'm doing is meeting him to check on the progress of the furniture, and he's expecting me, so what's the worst that can happen?