The Alpha's Golden Gaze

Chapter 3: We outside!

Mary's P.O.V.

We decided to head out that Friday 4:30 a.m. It's June so I was pretty confident that the flowers in Yellowstone would be in full bloom. Hopefully my asthma won't flare up while I'm out there so I made sure I had an extra inhaler to take on this trip.

I swear for someone who didn't want to go on vacation, I was super excited about this. Not to mention all the potential photos ops I'll come across while I'm there. I even had my things packed since last night. Especially sure to pack my favorite camera, a black Nikon D3400. I had saved up for months to buy this bad boy, and I was gonna put some serious wear and tear on it during this vacation.

I figured it would be best to get on the road as early as possible, so we could at least beat some of the traffic along the way. I wanted to make the most of it and drive there and take in the sights. Hopefully we can see some interesting things along the way.

The kids were still asleep as I went into each of their rooms and pecked them on their foreheads as I whispered how much I love them into their ears. I walked to the front door with my luggage and pulled out my phone to call the Mesha's phone to see where they were.

*Ring Ring*

"Hello" Mesha's tired voice trudged through the speaker. "Where y'all at, I've been up and ready since 3:00 a.m." I said excitedly. Just as I finished my question, I see Mesha's rental car pulling up in front of the house. A sleek black Chevy Tahoe with third row seats. Looking back at the 3rd row of seats I see huge piles of luggage.

"Yo, this is a damn National Park vacay, not some damn party!" I said looking back at Mesha and Raisha in the front seats. They completely ignored me and turned up the music. Typical just like when their asses were younger, I laughed to myself.

It's still pretty dark outside and I can't help but let the window down to enjoy the cool early morning breeze. The air smelled so nice, crisp and cold, my favorite.

Raisha starts typing the address into her GPS and lets out a gasp, "Yo, this trip is about to take forever it says 23hrs, why in the hell did you have to make us drive Mary?" Raisha whines.

"Because I wanna take in all the sights along the way, I wanna make the most of this vacation y'all insisted that I take." I say back in response.Girl hush up and put yo seatbelt back on, you knew what you signed up for when you agreed to come with us Raisha." Mesha said sounding annoyed.

"We outside, Let's gooooooo!" I yell out of the window annoying both of my cousins. Pushing the button to start the truck, Mesha put it in drive and smoothly pulled off.

As we coast down the highway and take in the early morning ambience. The sky was painted an amazing purple and yellow hue. We all couldn't help but to gasp in awe at the amazing sight before us. I pulled out my camera, connected it to the neck strap, and put the lens up to my face.

I have always been one to appreciate nature and all of the beautiful things within, so this beautiful sky was quite the treat for me. I start to snap some pictures and I immediately hear my cousins groan at me in the front seats. "This is a vacation, not a work trip!" They both say in unison.

Ignoring them just like they did to me earlier, I snap a few more pictures. That's when I hear Raisha say, "Okay, maybe you were right Mary, driving was a great idea." I reached forward, gently patted her shoulder, and smiled. I'm so freaking happy to be with my little cousins again like we used to when they were younger, a more simple time when I wasn't overworked and overwhelmed with single motherhood.

"Ok den, ain't no traffic just like you said Mary, but roll that damn window up it's cold as f**k. You're gonna catch a cold or worse!" Mesha said, glancing at me through the mirror. I rolled my eyes and rolled it up halfway just to mess with her a little, smiling to myself. I was enjoying this air damn it.

Whatever I'm used to compromising with those fuckers. I thought to myself enjoying what fresh air I could.

It had to be about 14hrs into the drive and I realized we were somewhere in Western Nebraska. The landscape was absolutely beautiful. It looked like we were in the country somewhere because there were pine trees as far as the eye could see with the occasional mountain or plateau.

Mary has been snapping pictures since we left her house and I can't say that I blame her, the scenery is nothing like where we're from. "Good lord we halfway there." I said thinking out loud. But I do have to agree with what Raisha said at the beginning of the trip, I'm also glad that we decided to drive as well.

"We in no nigga land out here y'all." Raisha said. She always had some outta pocket s**t to say but we've all learned to take it with a grain of salt. "You ain't never lied girl." Mary agreed from the back seat. I also had to agree with them but it was more like "no people" land, because I've seen more Big Horn Sheep and Pine Trees than anything else out here.

We drove about 30 more minutes and took another break to stretch our legs and get some gas and snacks. We walk into the gas station and the door has a bell hanging from the top that lets the clerk know that customers have arrived.

"Y'all ain't from round here are ya?" The elderly male clerk said eyeing us curiously. Raisha gives him the side eye mumbling, "No s**t Sherlock." Under her breath.

I turn to the man to pay for my gas and our snacks, "We sure aren't, we're from the heartland sir." I say giddily. "Go Buckeyes!" He says trying to make us feel welcome. "You're damn right!" I say as we take our items and head out to pump gas and clean out the car.

"Ugh, his old ass knew damn well we weren't from around here, we're the only black people I've seen for miles!" Raisha said with an attitude. "Good observation yo." Mary stated sarcastically. They both finished gathering all of our trash out of the car as I pumped the gas and checked the car's fluids. "Ok I'm done pumping the gas y'all, let's go! They got their last stretches done and hurried into the car. I was so ready to get this drive over and done with.

A few more hrs into our drive and it's already 2 a.m. and Mary is somehow wide awake and begging to stop to pee again! "Ugh what the hell Mary, it ain't s**t around for miles so you know what that means..." I said exasperated as I looked at our surroundings.

"Yea... yea... I know, now pull over so I can butt hover and pee and gimme some napkins cause I know you saved the ones from the burger joint from earlier." Mary said as I was pulling over. It was pitch black outside and the only light was the half moon and the car's headlights. "Hurry yo ass up Mary or you gone be the first black person ever to be dragged off by a Chupacabra." I said. I meant it too.

"Mesha that's in Mexico and I'm half Puerto Rican, remember? Anyways that's racist I'm hurrying as fast as my bladder will empty!" Mary squeals laughing from the side of the car.

I swear I saw something in the distance that looked like a dog but I just kinda left my door open just in case. I hate stray dogs, they scare me, especially since rabies is a thing. "Did you see that over there?" Mary said as she was pulling her pants back up. She looked just as confused and scared as I did.

"I think I saw it, it looked like a big ass dog, right? I said. I nervously scanned the horizon where I saw the dog a few minutes ago. "Yea and that definitely wasn't a coyote, I've taken hella pictures of them and they definitely aren't that big Mesha." Mary said with a shaky voice. "Ok well let's hurry and get back in the car." I said hurriedly.

Just as Mary and I closed out doors almost simultaneously, the most menacing, largest and blackest wolf I've EVER seen was at Mary's door. It had piercing golden eyes and was so tall that its head was at the top of the window and it was looking down at Mary licking it's chops.

"Aaahhhhhh!!! pull off Mesha pull off!" Mary screamed and I screeched the tired I slammed onto the gas pedal so damn hard. We drove as fast as we could go down the dark road. "Yo, that muhfucka was about to eat you!" I said to Mary looking at her horrified face from the rearview. I couldn't believe what we just saw and I'm sure Mary felt the same way.

"Bruh I swear I thought it was about to grab me thru the window, I'm keeping them rolled up for the rest of the ride like you suggested!" Mary said with hitched breaths. All of the ruckus we were making startled Raisha awake and she screamed just as loud as Mary.

"What? Eat who?!? Wtf is going on y'all?" Raisha exclaimed, visibly annoyed at being awakened in such a brazen way. "Mary's unlucky ass almost got eaten by the biggest dog known to man." I said to Raisha. "I know you fuckin lyin..." Raisha rolled her eyes at me. "I'm dead ass, that's why she screamed like that." I said.

Raisha looked at us and saw the fear on our faces, she knew we weren't lying. She took a few deep breaths and looked like she was assessing Mary in the back from her seat up from. "I think we need to drive faster then Mesha, Mary doesn't look so good." Raisha said almost completely turned around looking at Mary.

She looked pale from what I could see from the rearview and I didn't know black people could lose all of their color like that. But Mary was certainly an ashy shade of brown and sweating profusely. "I think she's in shock." Raisha said as she started to pull up Hospitals on her phone's GPS. "Let's get her to a hospital before she has an asthma attack on us and ruins the trip." I say jokingly to brighten the mood.

Mary still had a dead eyed stare looking out the window and borderline hyperventilating. I think I knew what was about to happen. I've always panicked the most when Mary would have an asthma attacks and Raisha would be almost stoic. I envied her for it sometimes.

"Let's just get her some help, it looks like it's taking all she has in her not to just lose it and have that asthma attack you're so worried about Mesha." Raisha said turning back around in her seat with all of the concern of a mother. I punch the gas pedal and speed off in the direction the GPS instructs us, worried out of my mind about my big cousin that I basically forced into coming on a vacation.