Chapter nineteen

Tessa’s POV

Stepping out of the shower, the cold tiles sent numbing bolts up my bare legs and I quickly wrapped myself in one of the soft towels.

To my disappointment, the room was empty, but the intoxicating smell of Lucian’s cologne still hung in the air and I made my way to the cupboard.

“What to wear, what to wear.” I tutted and pulled out a pair of blue denim, my boots, and a tank top. I looked at myself in the mirror and tilted my head to the side to take a better look at the bite mark Lucian had left on me.

I traced my fingers over it lightly, flinching at how sensitive the skin still was. I smiled, remembering the way we’d made love only a few hours ago and suddenly the widows flew open with a sudden strong wind.

I shivered and quickly made it to the window and slamming it shut. None of my hoodies would be warm enough for this cold evening so I opened up Lucian’s cupboard, moving away all the suits in search of a hoodie.

“Aha!” I said in triumph when I’d found a black hoodie hidden away behind all his T-shirts. I pulled it over my head, and I could smell his cologne ten times stronger than before. I looked in the mirror one more time and noticed how the hoodie reached my knees and the way the arms flapped because my arms were way shorter than the arms of the hoodie.

I saw that he’d taken the suitcase and made my way downstairs.

I quickly put my hair up in a bun with a pin as I made my way to the kitchen.

Lucian was there, with at least over fifty male wolves, with a map laid over the kitchen counter.

They all stood around it and looked at me as I entered the room.

I heard a growl and all of them snapped their eyes back to the map.

I went to where Lucian stood and wrapped my arms around his waist with my head on the small of his back.

“Sector C warriors, I want you on the left side of the buses running close to them. Sector A, I want you to be running behind the buses, so you make sure we are not followed. Sector D, we need you on the right side of the buses. And finally, sector B, you guys will be running ahead of us. I and your Luna are going to be riding in front of the buses and we want you to be ahead of us. You are our faster group, so we need you to make sure we don’t have any stops along the road.

We are transporting over 500 wolves with those buses and we cannot have any complications. Do I make myself clear?” There was a chorus of ‘yes alpha’ and I felt Lucian’s head nod.

“Does your families have all your luggage?” He said and they probably nodded because Lucian stood up and rolled the map up.

“I need all of you in position, the buses have left already so let’s get a move on.” There was some shuffling as the males made their way out of the small space and outside.

Lucian turned around and wrapped his arms around me.

“It’s going to be okay little mate.” He whispered and kissed my forehead.

“And I must say, this sweatshirt looks better on you than it did on me. Where did you find it? It’s been years since I saw this.”

I laughed and raised my head, placing my chin on his chest as I looked up at him.

“It was behind your shirts,” I said, and he smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

He leaned in and was about to touch his lips to mine when one of the worriers came up behind him.

“We’re ready for you Alpha.” He said and Lucian growled, making me laugh.

“Let’s go, Lucian. If we’re driving in front of the buses, we need to get going.” I said and pulled him by the hand.

There was a big group of wolves waiting for us when we went outside, and I thought it must be the sector A worriers that were running behind the busses and were waiting on us.

They shook out their furs, getting ready for the long run ahead and all bowed their heads as we passed them.

We climbed into one of the many fancy cars Lucian owned and the engine purred to life.

He put the car into gear, and I put my seat belt on as he bolted out of the driveway and onto the dark, quiet road leading to the border of the pack lands.

Earlier I’d heard him telling Nate that it would take two hours for the wolves to reach the pack house from the border but took him at most forty-five minutes.

I looked behind us at the shadows swiftly keeping up with the car in the forest and settled into the soft seat.

“Where are the busses?” I asked, looking at the empty road ahead of us.

“They passed pack borders about thirty minutes ago so they will be far ahead of us for now.” He said as we broke out of the forest and into the empty lands spread out as far as the eyes could see.

I looked back at the mountain and forests covering it as the thick line of wolves broke through the forest at a deadly quick speed.

Lucian saw as I watched the wolves and put a hand on my leg, making me jump.

“Sorry. Don’t worry about them, they are my second fastest group of wolves and my best trackers. They’ll sniff if we’re being followed.” He said and I settled slightly.

“What if we speed up? Won’t they get lost or something?” I asked him.

“If we speed up, which we’ll do now, they speed up too to keep up with the car. And if by chance they did get lost, a wolf will always go back to his Alpha.” He said and flattened his foot on the gas, allowing the car to fly past the scenery.

I held on for the twenty-five minutes of him driving the car at dangerous speeds until I saw the red lights of the buses in the distance. He slowed and I took another look behind me, watching the shadowy figures keeping a fair distance between them, the buses and car.

The realization hit me, and I gasped.

“Oh my god. Natalie! Where is she?” I asked in worry and pulled out my phone, wanting to text her.

Lucian put a hand on mine.

“It’s okay. She’s with the doctor and his wife. They are traveling between buses. Nate is with her.” He said and I put a hand to my heart in relief.

We came up to the buses and passed each of them one by one and I saw the kids playing, mom’s reading, teens on their phones and most of the elderly were asleep.

There were at least ten buses with the doctor’s van driving tightly between bus seven and bus eight.

We made it to the last bus and moved over to drive directly in front of it.

I looked on either side of me and saw the distant figures of wolves running along, in pace with the busses.

I took my time, assessing Lucian as he looked at the road with a twitch in his jaw.

He turned his head to me and smiled.

“Nothing,” I said and sent him a small smile, leaning over to kiss him.

He was taken by surprise and growled.

“I’d love to touch you right now, but I don’t want to cause an accident,” he said, and I shook my head.

“I’m too tired anyway. I think I’m going to catch some sleep. How long will it take to reach Mcgraw pack lands?” I said, yawning towards the end.

“At most two days,” I heard him say but my eyes were already closed.

“Mmmm,” I replied and almost instantly, fell asleep to the humming of the car.