Page 11 of His True Mate

Cruz was back and stretching next to the car.

“Does it still stink?” I asked.

He cracked up. “I haven’t checked yet. Want me to take a turn driving?”

I tossed him the keys. “That would be great. Thanks.”

By the time Brady got back we were settled in and waiting.

“I really am sorry,” he apologized again. “Man, I’m never eating fast food Mexican on a road trip again.”

“Not on my watch you aren’t,” I told him.

I closed my eyes using my cowboy hat to block out the sun and drifted off to sleep.

I startled awake sometime later. The sun was setting in the sky and the guys were screaming the words to Eye of the Tiger as we drove.

How in the hell had I slept through all this noise?

“Are we close?” I yelled out over the radio.

Cruz turned it down. “Hey, hey, sleeping beauty. GPS says we have about five minutes until we reach the hotel.”

“Great. I could use some sleep.”

“No can do. You slept all freaking day. There’s a bar next door to the hotel, so we’re checking in and then walking over for a couple of drinks,” Brady informed me.

“Hard pass. I want to be up early to do a walk through before the auction begins. If all goes well, we can be headed back home tomorrow.”

“No, we can’t. We’re here for two nights. If you want to argue it then call Thomas and argue with him instead,” he insisted.

I groaned. I should have known they’d gang up on me like this. I was just out with them at the Tavern. It had been great, and I wished we could get together more often like that, but I also understood why it was a rarity. We each had our own lives to live. I just wished they’d stay out of mine and live their own.

When we finally arrived at the hotel, the lobby was packed. It took us almost an hour to get settled into our rooms. The last thing I wanted to do after that was go out with Cruz and Brady. At least Thomas had booked me my own room while making those two fools share one.

The pounding on my door told me I wasn’t going to get out of it.

With a reluctant sigh I left with them.

“Cheer up. This trip’s supposed to be fun,” Cruz said.

“I’ve never even been away from home before,” Brady confessed. “Let us enjoy it.”

“Me neither,” Cruz admitted. “We don’t want to just be cooped up in the hotel the whole time. This is a huge event with a fair, carnival rides, and dude, they have fried Oreos. Live it up with us, please.”

“You two have really never left home?”

“Former Larken wolves. We were lucky if we could afford to cross the street let alone county or state lines. Nebraska might as well have been Timbuktu for us, and now, look at us. We’re here and we want to experience everything,” Cruz told me while Brady nodded in agreement.

I suddenly felt obligated to show them the time of their lives.

It was easy to forget that we came from two very different backgrounds. I hadn’t traveled out of territory a ton, but some. When we were younger, the six of us would sometimes go anywhere Thomas went and he often traveled with his father to other Packs and all over the world.

But they’d been stuck in a rundown trailer park with a shitty Alpha for most of their lives. It was hard to remember that since now they were just Collier as far as I was concerned. Both were good men who worked hard. I gave them shit from time to time, but really, I couldn’t ask for better.

I caved quickly. They were right, they deserved the break and experience.

“Fried Oreos?” I asked. “Sounds disgusting.”