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Nova's POV

Blake had an essential piece of information that he was bouncing off the walls about. Apparently, he had the last place his parents were seen. 

I got an interesting lead as well, and that's fine and dandy but the guy who gave us our information rubbed me the wrong way. He looked more like a drug lord than someone you would go to for direction. 

There was something deviant about his behavior, his demeanor. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was conning us. 

Blake tried to tell me over and over again to give him the benefit of the doubt and I tried. I really tried, but I couldn't shake my instinct. 

The directions had us both going to the same pack, or rather connective/sister pack. The pack we went to after our break at the beach was so massive that it was split into two separate territories but still called itself one unified pack. 

This pack was very vaguely noted on Blake's map and the path we were given by the shady guy was not the path on the map. In fact, the path drew dangerously close to a pack that was x-ed out in bold red marker 'DANGER'. Even if I had no eerie presuppositions about the guy, that would be enough to ward me off.

I had to do most of the logical thinking since the side of me that usually does that was now head over heels, slit her throat in love with Blake that she would force us both off a cliff if he suggested we should. 

Aside from that, Blake wanted to leave immediately and go to the sister pack but I insisted that we stay and eat first, clean up as much as we could and then talk about this. 

He groans and agrees begrudgingly as we go to the cafeteria to sit. I try to hold his hand but he pulls away.. a new thing for him that hurts a little bit.

When we sit with our food, he pushes it around the plate, only taking small bites at a time. I tried to eat what I could, despite the deep pit of unease that took its position in my gut.

When the pit becomes so unbearable that I want to throw up, I explode with, "this is a bad idea. Everything in me is telling me that I can't let you do this," I exhale a breath of not quite relief. I didn't know or care how he would react. He needs to know how I feel. When push comes to shove, I'm part lycan here. He isn't. 

I fight tears as his expression becomes one of hurt, and then offense. 

What did I just do?

Blake's POV

Again with this, really? 

I scoff and shake my head. She's just jealous I have a lead and she doesn't.

"Blake.. please listen to me," she mumbles, looking into the eyes I refuse to give her. Her hand travels to mine and I pull it away.

"You need to trust me. I want you to find your family! I do! But when I get feelings like this, something terrible happens and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if my feelings about this end up being true," she starts to cry. 

"No," I look at her. "You're just trying to stop me. I finally have the first actual lead and all you can do is bring me down. Why can't you be happy for me, Nova?" I stand up, she follows suit. 

"I am happy for you! I just-" 

"No! Why are you trying to hurt me?" My expression is furious, and I did not want to calm down. She goes white as a sheet. 

"Do you think that's what this is?" She says softly, "believe me, Blake Kalen Wilson if I was trying to hurt you, you would know it."

Wow, middle naming me too? Ouch.

I clench my fist and look at the door. "We leave at 3. If you don't want to be left here, you'll meet me at the truck."

She rushes after me as I start toward the door. "Blake, wait,-" she grabs my arm. I tear it away with such force that it knocks her down.

"I'm done waiting," I say without turning around. I was beyond enraged with her, and she needed to know that even if it hurt my heart to see her on the ground because of me.

What the fuck, man? Go help her!

She can help herself. She has made that clear. 

Nova's POV

The whole cafeteria turns to stare and gasp when he pushes me down. I feel a sharp pain in the wrist that I land on. I can't pull myself off the ground for a while until a girl sitting at another table comes to help me.

"Are you okay?" She asks, still holding my arm. 

No.

"Yes. Thank you," I mutter so that she has to strain to listen.

Not able to be in that room anymore, hearing Blake's words echo in my head I go out the same way he did and start to jog, and then sprint until fur envelops my flesh and I retreat to all fours and just run. 

Run until I was numb. 

Run until the memory was gone. 

Run until I could no longer feel myself falling to the floor in slow motion.

But this was not a fairy tale. Just because my favorite literary heroines could gracefully run from their problems does not mean that I could. 

My heart beat rapidly, and with every volume of blood that was taken in, pain was pumped out until pain was all that was circulating.

With my fur side finally in control, she had her own thoughts and was just as, if not more hurt than I was. 

We come to a sudden stop and remain in a monumental position for a solid minute, panting hard.

Clouds had been gathering all day and the signs of an oncoming storm start to show.

The closest thing we can do to crying in this form is to howl. Certain tones displayed different emotions, and this one held in it notes of great dismay and anguish. Our cry echoes through the area and bounces back to us allowing us to hear our own pain.

Cold pellets of rain fall and penetrate my fur coat. Thunder booms and lightning crashes afar in the distance as the rain grows more heavy and the sky grows more bleak. 

Now sopping wet and freezing, I am truly numb. She is gone, leaving me in this form. She must be beyond her wits.

I find one leaf to stare at and fix my gaze upon it. Its fall shakes me out of my trance.

The cold I feel reaches my bones, but I am unable to shiver because my desire to stay numb trumps my desire to attain body heat. 

As upset as I was at Blake, it was almost time to be getting back lest he should leave me here to waste away.

I run back into civilization to see Blake leaning on his truck looking at his watch for the time. I shake off as I get closer and he finally sees me. I can't bear to make eye contact with him but I can feel his eyes on me. I jump into the back seat and shift back to flesh, changing into dry clothes.

I get into the passenger seat and notice how cool my skin feels even to my ice cold fingers. My reflection shows dark, inhuman looking lips that are bit with blue hues.

Blake opens the passenger door and says something which is lost on me until he says it a little louder, breaking down the wall I had in my head.

"I'm tired. You can drive." He hands me the map. 

I hop over the console into the driver's seat and look at the gas meter.. it reads half empty.

"The tank is half empty." I say in his direction.

"What? I filled it when we got here," he sounds confused and gets out for a while to fill it again. I hold my face in my hands and try to breathe as my warmth returns with a dull throb of the pain I felt before. My wrist seemed to be healed now, but I could still feel the punch of his words.

He gets back in and I return to normal as I start it and drive off. 

The pit in my gut still lingers.