Alyssa pulled her coat tighter around her neck and kept moving. She swiped her brow with her gloves to keep the sweat out of her eyes.
It took more than an hour to reach the highway, and then Alyssa stayed next to the tree line as she kept heading farther away from her home. She didn’t want anyone to spot her along the road just yet. All night she traveled, keeping a pace that was a mixture of running, jogging, and walking to cover as much distance as possible.
Finally, she emerged from the edge of the tree line and scrambled up the incline beside the highway to reach the shoulder. She was more tired than she’d ever been in her life. And sore. Every muscle in her body ached. Blisters had formed on her toes from running in the only tennis shoes she owned. They weren’t intended for such long distances.
How far had she gone? Miles for sure. It couldn’t be too much farther to the intersection where the highways crossed. That was her goal. Hundreds of people would travel through there, stopping for something to eat. She intended to scope out a suitable person and hitch a ride to Anywhere-but-here U.S.A.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to keep walking much longer. Lights up ahead alerted her to her goal. It was still very dark. She had no idea what time it was. She didn’t have a watch or a phone. She’d never needed either. No kid in her small world had a phone. Who would they call? And as for a watch, her parents had gotten her wherever she needed to go all her life.
She’d been rather old when she’d first begun to question her strange life in her mind. Twelve. And then, only because her father had taken her to Oklahoma City one Saturday for supplies. That trip had changed her life. Without it, she’d never have witnessed the outside world so thoroughly, seen how others lived, watched children her age laughing and playing in their yards. Girls and boys of all ages filled the aisles of the stores she went in with her father. Their cheerfulness had been infectious. She’d known then and there she wanted that for herself. Freedom.
Now that freedom was right in front of her in the form of flashy, blinking lights of every color. Alyssa hastened her pace once again and crossed the parking lot she came to with her head held high. Hopefully no one would notice her emerging from—nowhere.
She didn’t have much money, but she needed to go inside the truck stop and order something, anything, to occupy her while she scoped out the patrons and selected someone to aid her escape.
Timidly, Alyssa entered the diner and took a seat at the counter.
A waitress leaned over the counter from the other side and said, “Coffee?” Alyssa’s worries about ordering vanished. She’d never even tasted the stuff before, but she didn’t care. It would be hot, and it would give her the freedom to sit on the bar stool. And wait.
Within fifteen minutes of her arrival, she spotted them. Perfect. Two good-looking, hunky men came in and took a seat not far from her perch at the counter. They glanced her way and nodded. A shiver shook her at their intent stares. Hot liquid sloshed over the sides of the untouched mug of coffee, warming her hands when she jiggled.
It unnerved her that the newcomers stared at her, but not for the reason most young girls would be nervous. Nope. These men were lupine. She knew that about them, and more importantly, they knew the same about her. All three of them had an above-average sense of smell. It was thick in the air. And no one else in the diner was a shifter.
Alyssa smiled. Get brave, girl. This is your best option.
Trembling enough to make walking difficult, Alyssa jumped down from the barstool, grabbed her pack, and headed to the booth the two wolves had occupied. She didn’t even bother to bring the coffee with her. As it was, her hands stung from the splash of liquid that had landed on her fingers moments ago.
She paid no attention to the sting. In fact, she stuck her hands in her coat pockets to occupy them while she swallowed hard and opened her mouth. No task in her entire life had been as important as this one. She squeezed her hands into fists around her gloves in her pockets, the strain taking the edge off her predicament.
“Hey,” she uttered. She tipped her head to one side and smiled again, hoping she was enticing. She glanced from one man to the other. Both were tanned from hard work outside, but the similarities stopped there. One had brown eyes and dark hair, thick waves that landed over his forehead in need of a cut. The other had deep blue eyes and blond hair that gave him a slightly less rugged appearance. Both were probably what most women would consider sexy. She could do much worse than to align herself with them.
At least they weren’t past retirement age and slobby fat. She swallowed around the lump enlarging in her throat.
The blond man glanced behind her and then around the diner. “Are you alone?”