~Hazel~
I sat stiffly in the backseat of his SUV, my gaze glued to the window. Zane had been texting me nonstop since we left the academy. Every few minutes, my phone buzzed in my lap, but I didn’t know how to respond to his concern.
“Are you okay?”
“You don’t have to go through with this if you’re uncomfortable.”
“Just text me if you need anything.”
Asher hadn’t said a word the entire trip, but I could feel him glancing at my phone every time it lit up with a new message. He didn’t ask about it, though. Somehow, I knew that within those thick walls of indifference, he cared but I wasn’t willing to start up a conversation first.
When we finally pulled up to the five stars hotel for the Alpha Conference, I couldn’t have been more relieved to escape the cage of a car.
The building
