The coast is truly beautiful, something that is hard to find in the world we live in. The sand is soft underneath my feet, warm too, from the sun shining down on it all day.

Laughter coming from Alexis makes me look up from where I had been watching a sand crab scuttle between my feet. Looking over towards the waves, I watch as Alexis emerges from under the water. Her hair is plastered to her face, but she doesn't seem to care too much, just pushes it back before submerging herself again.

Smiling, I allow myself to rest against a large chunk of driftwood. It was probably an old tree at some point, but it has been weathered by the sea so much that it is practically soft to the touch.

We just arrived here, having been traveling for close to three weeks now. My wolf has calmed down completely, seeming to give in to the fact that I will not relinquish control. Maybe it even senses that I don't plan on distancing myself from Micah any longer once I return back to our pack lands. We have both been through too much to just continue to delay the inevitable. Besides, we are having a baby now, which means that we need to get our shit together, or at least that's how Alexis puts it.

The summer heat has been getting worse. If I had to take a wild guess, I would say that we are somewhere around the end of July, maybe the beginning of August. We should be getting back to our home soon, seeing as it would be miserable to be out here once autumn rolls around.

"Are you just going to sit there and brood all afternoon?" Alexis calls from the water.

Leaning back, I watch as she wades closer towards me, but never leaves the water entirely. I don't blame her, the heat right now is terrible, but that water is freezing cold and I don't particularly feel like taking an ice bath.

"You can freeze your ass off all you want in that water, I'll just stay over here and continue my thinking, not brooding."

Alexis just shakes her head, allowing the small waves to crash around her while making her way out of the water.

"Jesse, you're always brooding, either about Micah or something else you are overanalyzing."

Scrunching my eyebrows, I meet her laughing blue eyes. "Overanalyzing? What are you talking about?"

Alexis cocks her head to the right, giving me the universal sign of 'really?'

"You overanalyze everything, especially when it comes to Micah." I open my mouth to protest, but Alexis just shakes her head, cutting off whatever I am trying to say. "Oh no, don't even bother trying to deny it. I have listened to you contemplating every little thing when it comes to your mate. How do you think you even got into the situation you are in now, hm? You didn't believe Micah could really love you, saying that he was too young or that he was just infatuated. Your ability to overanalyze things combined with your stubbornness is a truly troublesome combination."

She sits next to me, getting the side of my t-shirt wet as she leans against me. "Jesse, I love you and you know I will always be on your side, but you really need to just tell that boy how you feel."

Nodding my head, I wrap my arm around my sister, not minding the fact she is still covered in water. "Yes, I know that, and I already planned on doing the whole communication thing once we got back home."

Pulling back so that she can look at my face, Alexis raises a skeptical brow. "Really? I didn't even think you knew the meaning of the word."

Letting out a long sigh, I roll my eyes at my sister, choosing to ignore her last statement. "Well, we have a baby on the way and I love him, so we are going to work this whole thing out even if it takes years."

"Yeah, I don't think it is going to take that long," Alexis says. Pulling away from me, she starts to rummage in her pack, pulling out some cans of food. "Micah has been in love with you before he even knew the meaning of the word, so as long as you do a little groveling maybe even take off your shirt before talking to him, he will take you back so fast you might even get some whiplash."

She hands me the cans she has in her hands, standing back up and looking as if she wants to head back in the water. "Now, I made lunch, so dinner is your responsibility." She turns around then, not even pausing before saying, "and hurry it up, I have been starving since we finished lunch."

A chuckle bubbles up from my chest as I watch her rush back to the water, not seeming to be bothered by the frigid temperature at all.

Setting the cans down, I start to search through my pack, trying to find anything useful. In less than twenty minutes, I have a small fire going, a pot of rice and beans cooking over the flames. It will be nice to get back home, where we can have things other than just the nonperishables we brought with us and the few small animals we manage to catch while traveling.

The heat is just starting to subside when dinner is done. The sun is no longer shining as bright, instead leaving a trail of colors behind it while it starts its descent in the sky.

Pulling out two bowls, I dish the food into two equal portions, setting one down on the log beside me and the other in my lap. It is as if Alexis has an internal radar for when the food is ready because she comes walking up from the water, a towel wrapped around her not even a minute after the food is done.

"Oh thank god, I thought I was going to starve to death before you finished dinner."

With an annoyed but loving huff, I hand her the bowl full of food, watching as she sits down next to me. We both dive into the food with gusto, starving since we haven't eaten in hours.

When we are both finished, I take the bowl from Alexis and stack it on top of mine before putting them both in a pot of warm water I had dangling over the fire.

"So," Alexis says, leaning back on the log, "what's the plan?"

"I was thinking we should stay here over night but head back sometime tomorrow. We have just enough supplies to last us until we get home, but we can't delay anywhere."

"Alright, sounds good to me." Finished talking, Alexis sleepily walks over to her pack, unhooking the sleeping bag that was attached to the bottom. She lays it out, but instead of climbing in, she pulls out her flask, pouring some water into her hands before rubbing it across her body. Probably trying to get some of the ocean water off of her, but she won't be able to do that properly until we get back home where there is running water.

"Goodnight," I say once she lays her towel over the log and climbs into her sleeping bag. She mumbles something back to me but is asleep in a matter of minutes.

The dishes are quickly cleaned with the warm water I had them sitting in, and I put them away before returning them to my pack. Deciding that maybe some sleep would be a good idea, I unhook my own sleeping bag, laying it down on the opposite side of the fire from Alexis. Bundling up my t-shirt, I use that as a pillow, but it is highly useless. With a tired sigh, I close my eyes, forcing my body to relax and allowing myself to fall into some restless sleep.

*****

Jerking awake, I am immediately on alert, trying to find whatever ripped me from my dreams.

Something sounds in the distance but it is impossible to decipher what it is. The loud consistent crashing of the waves makes it hard to make out the sound. A rumbling, maybe from a large truck of some sort is coming closer.

Quickly, I wake Alexis, telling her to stay quiet with a finger over my mouth. She doesn't question me, instead helping me to gather up our stuff and bury our packs in the sand. Luckily, the piece of drift wood is just large enough that if we lay down flat, we can't be seen over the top of it. The fire is kicked out and I push sand over it, trying to conceal the coals while Alexis tries to hide as much of her body as she can.

The rumbling of the truck gets closer and I know it is only seconds away from coming into sight. Rushing over to the piece to driftwood, I throw myself down on the sand, trying to keep as still as possible.

There is a hole in the driftwood, most likely where a branch used to be, and it is level with my face. Peeking through the hole, I watch as a tiny speck in the distance becomes bigger as the truck travels on the road that runs parallel to the beach.

The truck slows down as it comes closer to us, and my heart starts to pound so hard that I fear it may force itself from my chest completely. Why in the hell would they be stopping? Did they happen to see us before we could hide?

My body tenses as the truck stops completely about a hundred yards past where we are laying.

Now that they are closer, I can actually get a better look at the vehicle. It looks like some sort of animal transport truck, maybe one that used to carry cows or horses. My eyebrows scrunch together as I try to see what is behind those metal walls. They don't sound like any horses or cattle that I know.

"Humans and wolves," Alexis breathes, just loud enough so that I can hear her. It is as if she read my mind because her response answers the question of what they are carrying in the truck.

Once the truck is turned off, it is possible to hear the crying of people inside the back of it, their fear obvious.

"What the hell?" I whisper, but Alexis doesn't respond.

People clamber out of the cab of the truck, two men and a young woman. The young woman seems to be upset about something, her arms crossed over her chest as one of the men rants at her. Her lips are pursed as if she is barely holding herself back.

The yelling man gets close to the girl, his pale face screaming into her olive toned one. The girl seems to snap after that, pushing the man roughly away and yelling something back. This seems to push the man over the edge, because he cocks his hand, slapping the girl so hard across the face that she collapses on the ground. His foot pushes her out of the fetal position she fell in, forcing her onto her back.

Crouching down, he says something low, and the girl just lays there, not doing anything to show that she heard him. He seems satisfied, though, because he roughly pushes her again before sauntering over to the other guy.

The girl lays there for a few minutes before finally forcing herself up, her arms shaking from the exertion. Eventually, she manages to stand up, stumbling a bit before catching herself against the side of the truck. Her hand is resting on her cheek when she looks up, her eyes fixing on the piece of driftwood.

With a determined look on her face, she walks over to the log we are hiding behind, her dragging feet leaving a trail in the sand.

"Shit," I whisper, my hand fumbling around for the pocket knife I keep in my pants. Alexis tenses up from my exclamation, and she seems to put two and two together. Knowing my sister, she is reaching for her own weapon.

The human girl comes to the driftwood, her eyes fixated on the waves of the ocean. All she has to do is look down, and she will see me and Alexis. Her hand falls away from her face, revealing the dark red mark left behind from the slap.

Her eyes fall away from the waves and land directly on Alexis before shifting over to me. Her head cocks to the side slightly as her eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. It looks as if we caught her off guard, but she doesn't look in any way surprised.

"Werewolves," she whispers, her hazel eyes flicking between us.

A loud yell comes from one of the men by the truck, "Megan, come on, it's time to go!"

The girl flinches slightly but yells her affirmation back. She looks at us for just a few more seconds, before whispering a quiet, "Don't get caught."

With that, she turns away, making her way back to the truck. My body remains tense the entire time, just waiting for the girl to tell the men about us. But they never come. Instead, the truck starts up, the rumbling overpowering the sound of the ocean.

The truck pulls away, continuing its way down the road, the same direction that we came from and will have to go in order to get back home.

Neither of us moves until we can't hear the truck anymore. Finally, after about five minutes, Alexis sits up and I do the same.

"What the hell was that?" Alexis says, looking over at me.

"I have no idea," I say, meeting her gaze.

"They were transporting humans and werewolves in that truck. Where the hell were they taking them? And that girl saw us but let us go, why in the hell would she do that?" Alexis's words get more heated the more she rambles on.

Shaking my head, I try to find the answer to her questions, but I have none. "Maybe she wasn't crazy, I don't know."

"But all the humans are insane from this outbreak." She shakes her head in confusion. "She wasn't, though."

"Maybe she is immune," I answer, and Alexis slowly nods her head.

"I guess that is possible."

Standing up, I reach for my backpack, pulling it out from under the layer of sand it was buried in. Alexis does the same, and together we start heading back in the direction of home.

"Now the real question is why they had a truck full of humans and werewolves, and what the hell they plan to do with them." Alexis looks over at me.

"Nothing good," I say.

"It never is."