So... Last chapter... I have been working towards that moment in this story for a while. I mean you guys have no IDEA, how many times I almost said nope. I didn't want to rush. So you've had a taste of sweet, now... here's a taste of crazy.

Chapter 50 – On The Road (Devin Rosario POV) Pt.6

"Do you love him?" Taylor demands, after we've hung up the phone and are frantically running around the room. Ignoring her, I stuff as much of my clothes as I can in my duffel bag, before rushing into sweats and pulling my jacket on. Grabbing my laptop and tucking it under my arm.

When she realizes I won't answer, still partially in shock and confused, she lets it go. For the moment I'm sure.

I just didn't understand what my parents were saying. It couldn't be true. Brennan and I... I thought we were slowly making our way back to one another. How could he just up and leave?

Hurrying, we sneak out of our dorms into the frigid air. The cold biting at my face, as salty tears slip down. How could Brennan leave me behind? How could Javier, my own brother abandon Taylor and I?

Once in the clear, Taylor and I hustle to Samson's car, me going straightaway to where dad said we'd find the key. The minute it's in my grips we throw our suitcases in the trunk, glancing around us for any one that might stop our departure.

But. It's Bend, we could make our escape and no one would be the wiser if it was at night. Pushing the key in the ignition, I hurry to put on my seatbelt, all while wondering what exactly was going on. I had called Brennan's phone a few times already and no one had answered.

As we leave school premises, and hit the empty roads, all the tears that I had been holding in, start to fall as gut-wrenching sobs leave my body.

"Shh, it's okay Dev," Taylor coos to me, but her words bring me little comfort. "Lets drive to the Conrad property, see if maybe they left a clue or maybe a way so we'd know how to get to them. I mean think about it, Samson left his car for us," she continues to offer me comfort. "He wouldn't have done that, nor would Ansel be okay to just leave us here. You know that!"

"Samson is still wrapped up in that girl Devin, but now that they've probably had to move because of the trouble she's caused, I think the Conrads will be singing a different tune. Samson left his car for us, if they didn't care for us, they wouldn't have done that," she repeats herself, changing the words but the underlying point remains the same.

As my body calms, and I only jerk sporadically, catching my breath, I think logically. First, why would they leave us a car, if they wanted to leave us behind? Maybe it all just happened so fast... I didn't think we would be leaving Bend until maybe next year after the summer.

Still... at the same time, maybe we were going to go with mom and dad, then join the Conrad's after.

Just as I pick up my phone to call dad, it buzzes, my father's face on the screen. Swiping to the right, I lift to the phone to my ear quickly, "dad?"

"Are you girls out of Bend yet?"

I nod, the residual jerk taking me at the same time. "Yeah, dad, what the hell happened? What did Ansel say?"

Why would Brennan leave me behind? How did we go from planning a future together to this? Just in July, I knew he was looking for an engagement ring, how could he just turn off all his feelings?

Rationally. I know him. I know he wouldn't just drop me without a second thought. We were each other's first love. I might have made a mistake, but it wasn't like I cheated on him.

"Sweetheart, I don't know what's going on," dad says with a sigh, "All his note said was that they were leaving town, Javier was with them, and that you and Devin needed to leave as well."

"Yeah but why?" I ask again.

"There was a meeting held, and apparently Nick Ramos," dad spits his name, "He took three families and two singles from the Ansel's Den. Then he mentioned that he's going to call the Elders, try to come out as a Werejaguar shifter in Bend."

I gasp shaking my head. "Why on – why would he do that?" I whisper in horror. "The Elders... everyone knows you cannot trust them," I didn't need an adult to tell me or show me how vicious they could be.

"Honey, it doesn't matter," dad says tightly, "right now, all I want is for you girls to drive safely to meet us down in Portland." I nod, though my mind is somewhere else completely.

"Are you – are we going to eventually meet up with the Conrads?" I ask with my stomach in complete knots. I hated to ask, but worse, I was afraid of the answer. When I'm met with silence to the point where, bile creeps up my throat I have my answers.

They didn't want us to come. Specifically... I'm sure; they didn't want Taylor to come. She had been after Samson, I helped, but after the last blowup, that changed the dynamic.

For a second I hate her, as rage sweeps aside all other emotions. If she had just played it cool. Let Samson make a decision, see where things went with Faith, instead of jumping – that is where the thought stops abruptly because I have my fault in this too.

I wanted her to get her happy ending, knew that she would love Samson, and thought he was just being over dramatic. I sat with her, plotting ways to get Samson to notice her, pick her. It didn't feel or even appear wrong to me at the time. How many times had Talia, Harleigh, Taylor and I had sleepovers, where all we talked about was Talia getting Javier to ask her out officially? Or me with Brennan?

It was just a girl thing. I didn't see the harm.

"Devin, I – I – Javier is with them, I want to believe that eventually we will be able to join them, however from what the message said, it is not clear if we will be allowed to join the Den again." Without seeing dad face to face, I know that his jaw is filled with tension as he almost grits out the words he says to me.

"How is your sister?" he changes the subject, but it reminds me that I'm not alone. Taylor is sitting beside me. Chancing a look in her direction, I'm met with an emotionless robot, or so it seems as she stares off into space. "Devin?"

Blinking, I close my eyes for a second, shaking my head to clear it, "She's fine," I murmur quietly.

"Honestly, I'm hoping your brother contacts me soon so we know what's going on," the tiredness in his voice was utterly impossible to miss. I think over everything as a new idea pops into my mind. In a way I knew exactly where the Conrad's were heading. I had hacked the system; saw a few secrets, locations where Ansel had been setting up for the next five to twenty years.

"There are only two more Dens in North America, and I just... they all have... reputations." Dad finishes. "Look I want you to drive safely, we will see you in a few hours okay?" I nod, before realizing he won't see that and given a verbal response.

I'm off the phone, setting it on the dashboard, when from the corner of my eye I see Taylor finally move a bit.

"Do you know where they were going?" I furrow my brows at her.

Turning to face me, she sighs, "I just, he left the car here for us. I know that maybe they didn't want to risk getting holed up by us in the dorms. And you know when leaving, we leave no trace, so calling and stuff that won't work."

I nod slowly. Processing.

"So has Brennan maybe told you where the next compound would be?" Taylor asks me hopeful. Again I have some knowledge of where they might be, but it's not like walking a block or two to get there. I bob my head imperceptibly. "I – uhm – Brennan did tell me that his dad was thinking of a few places-" a smile slowly blooms on her face.

"Taylor," I shake my head, "it's not like two towns over, it's more like three to five states away," she doesn't stop smiling.

"We have the car they left us, and-" she reaches to the glove box, before jumping from the car and scurring to the trunk. A minute later she's back and shows me the same money that Javier had stumbled on.

Frowning, I look at the stack of money, swallowing.

"Maybe this is why Ansel didn't want to bring us along," I cannot keep the hostility out of my voice. But Taylor just shakes her head, "I swear, there is not way he would even notice this much was missing Devin."

I gaze at her doubtful.

"So we can go... I have money; you know where they might be going... please? I know you love Brennan Devin, and if danger was coming even if he wanted to contact you, you know Ansel and Kalenah would have that impossible."

Looking back at the road a head of us, I suck my lip between my teeth, thinking. It all sounded reasonable coming from Taylor's lips now, but what if she was wrong?

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