Extraction
1204 Words
*Ariella*
“I need extraction…” I whispered into the receiver. I had walked far down the road from the hotel.
“What?” Carter's quiet voice was tired, disoriented almost. “What happened…?”
“He… knows I’m from Waning Moon…”
“What!?” His voice became sharper as he seemed to snap awake.
“I… I'll explain later…”
“When…” He asked.
“We are due to get back at 2100… house should be asleep… extract at 2300 hours…”
“Copy that…”
“Ella!” I heard Beth’s voice call from down the road. She had her tan cardigan wrapped around her shoulders tightly as she walked down the sidewalk. I hung up the phone and shoved it into the pocket of the grey sweater I still wore… it was Gabriel’s…
After he told me he loved me, I turned and walked away from him without a word… he let me go willingly that time, staying a few feet behind me as we walked through the forest. He’d occasionally ask me to speak to him, but I refused and continued down the path, following our smudged prints all the way back to the Silver Falls pack house. I still refused to talk to him in the car back to the hotel. And inside our room I pulled my tattered dress from beneath the sweater and pulled on a pair of tight pants and my tennis shoes before walking back out the door and down the road to call Carter…
“Ella…” Beth’s slate eyes looked at me with worry. She shivered in the cold air as she neared.
“Hey…” I said softly, trying to act as normal as possible.
“Hey…”
“So… you told Esen?” I asked, forcing a smile as I hugged my arms around my chest, bunching the sweater up as it released more of Gabriel’s intoxicating scent into my nose, it caused anger to well in my throat again. It also caused my heart to pound, uncertainty boiling in my stomach as my mixed emotions berated me. A sick feeling seemed to grip me at the thought. “I’m… sorry I ruined that for you…”
“That’s beside the point…” she said sympathetically. “What… what happened?”
“I uh… just… some emotional stuff…” I swallowed as I put one hand through my hair, long golden brown strands tangling against my knuckles as I tried to nervously avoid the topic.
“Ella…”
“How did Esen take it?” I asked, feigning a chipper tone, “Is he excited?”
She smiled slightly and nodded, relenting with a gentle sigh “Yeah… he’s got named picked already…”
I nodded with a smile “Sounds about right… Congratulations again.”
“Thanks Ella…” She nodded. “We should get back to the hotel… the guys are waiting on us…”
I shook my head. “I uhm… I can’t face Gabriel right now…”
“You can’t just stay out here, Ella…” she said, c*****g her head to the side and popping her hip out. She was going to make a good mother.
I shrugged “I’ll be fine…”
There was a pause as she thought and then sighed. “How about I ask the boys to switch with us… we can bunk and the boys can hang together?” She asked.
I thought for a moment and nodded. “That may be better…”
“C‘Mon… let’s go get some rest…”
“So… you gonna tell me what happened?” Carter glanced at me from the driver's seat, side eyeing me as he tried to keep his gaze on the road.
I leaned my head on the cool window, watching trees pass as he sped down the highway. Beth and I had bunked together, Gabriel reluctantly leaving the room so that her and I could share the king sized bed. We chatted a bit but she tried to avoid the topic of Gabriel as every time she brought it up I squashed it down…
We had gotten back to the Full Moon pack house the next day at about 8:30, everyone thoroughly exhausted from the events and travel. Gabriel had given up trying to talk with me… I had ignored every attempt he made, I could hear the anger in the growl of his voice when he spoke to Esen.
I was too tired to even change when we got back to the house. I simply packed up my bag of my few small belongings and waited up until 11 so as not to set an alarm which may alert others in the house.
At 11 I snuck from my room, my duffle bag hugged tightly to my side as I snuck through the house. I paused to listen to the individual snores that spread through the house, my hearing toned into every noise that peeped from the rooms. I kept my shoes held in my fingers so that I could easily sneak down the stairs and out the front door. Then tiptoed to the end of the drive and pulled my shoes on to jog the rest of the way to the rendezvous spot.
I took a flashlight from my bag as I waited for a car to approach. I hid in a small bush at the side of the road and clicked the flashlight three times. Carter flashed his lights three times then turned on his left turn signal and I crawled from the bush as he drove forward and I climbed into the Passenger seat of the silver sedan. I looked down as I settled into my seat, the diamond tennis bracelet was still around my wrist. I moved the sleeves of the sweater over my hands, tucking my hands into it and folding my arms over my chest.
“Ari…”
“Hm?”
“You… zoned out again…”
“Sorry… what did you ask…?”
“What happened… why did you extract…”
So I explained it all to him, from the gala to Alpha Roman bringing up my pack, running off and telling Gabriel I was from Waning Moon… then to Gabriel telling me he loved me…
“That’s… heavy Ari… what did you say?”
“Nothing…”
“Nothing?” He asked.
“I haven’t said a word to him since…”
“Did he like… try to talk to you?”
“Constantly…”
“And you just…?”
“Ignored him? Yep…”
“What the f**k…”
“Can you slow down Carter… you’re making me motion sick…” I groaned as I leaned my forehead against the window again.
“You know I have a time limit for extractions…”
“We will go over if you make me throw up anyway…”
He rolled his eyes and slowed down atleast 10mph. “Ari… what are you going to tell Mason…”
“I don’t know, Carter…” I breathed. “I… I don’t know…”
“Better figure something out… he’s gonna be livid…”
“Please don’t remind me, Carter…”
- Writer
