Human Novel 31

Chapter 31
Chapter 31
“If we act like prey, they’ll act like predators.” – Alyxandra Harvey
For the remainder of the two-hour drive to the airport, I was on edge. Benito knew my name ~ he
knew who I was. Did that mean that I’d been caught? Did Griffin know I’d left? Was he on his way
to stop me? \*)
‘The car was completely silent but it felt like the driver was going to pull over any minute now and
tell me the ruse was up, that Griffin was on his way to drag me back. Or even worse, that Griffin
would be waiting at the airport for me and ready to stop me from getting on that plane. (“)
Although I felt like a bundle of frazzled nerves, Alessia spent most of the drive napping. Since we
had gotten into the car, her anxiety seemed to disappear ~ she clearly thought our escape attempt
was
a success.
Thad two options. I could wake her up and tell her that something was wrong, that Benito shouldn’t
have known my name. Of course, we weren’t really alone. The driver was only a few feet away
from us and he’d definitely hear the entire thing. If Griffin wasn’t already alerted to my
disappearance, he probably would be. Any chance we
might still have at an escape would be ruined. |)
The second option was that I could remain silent and hope Griffin wasn’t waiting at the airport,
ready to pull the rug out from under me. And if he was, I’d deal with it then.
I decided to go with option two.
It’s going to be okay. You might still be able to get away. You don’t know for sure that you’ve been
caught, I told myself. While it did little to actually help my anxiety, I still repeated that to myself the
entire rest of the ride. *
“alright, passengers. You’ll find your oxygen masks located in the overhead bin. Should the cabin
lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop down. Please place the mask over your own mouth and nose
before helping others.” The flight attendant’s voice was monotone and tired as she lazily
demonstrated how to use the oxygen mask. It was clear that she gave this same speech several times
a day.
“Now, I’ll be coming around to make sure you’ve gotten your seatbelts fastened,” she said, “We’ll
be wheels up and on our way to
LAX in less than ten minutes.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Alessia and I had made it to the airport. Not even just the airport — we
had already boarded the plane. When we had arrived at the terminal, we had two tickets waiting for
us — one for her and one addressed to Clark Bellevue. Given that Benito had addressed me by
name, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he had put the ticket in my name either.
That still made me uneasy, but there had been no sign of Griffin or any of the castle guards at the
airport. I had kept my eyes peeled the entire time. Alessia had berated me for being too paranoid,
but I could tell she was on her guard too.
“Something isn’t right,” Alessia suddenly muttered beside me. We were already in our seats,
seatbelts fastened. I watched her eyes
narrow as she scoped out the rest of the passengers. (7
Up to this point, she hadn’t made a single comment about our escape so I was surprised to hear her
speak up.
“That ticket,” she said, gesturing to the paper in my hand, “It’s addressed to you. Your full name.”
Benito used my name
He called me Clark. He knew who I was.”
dn’t even catch that. Something is definitel
n completely sure we’d succeed
h of guards or Griffin to show up out of thin air and drag me back.
Why would he let me leave? Wouldn’t he get into trouble?”
fully. “Definitely. Le
mate leave? That’d be like signing his own death warrant. Unless…” )
“Unless what?”
l like she was trying to decide if s
Hey there! Just a friendly reminder that if you’re not reading this book on n𝘰𝚟el5s.com, you might
be missing out on the complete story. Head over there to dive into the next chapter—it’s all free!
“Unless Griffin knew that you were leaving. I saw Benito use his mind link just before he let us go.
I thought he was letting someone know that we’d need the extra ticket, but maybe he was alerting
fact that you
s glaze over too, but I hadn’t considere
“Okay,” I said, “Let’s say he was mind linking Griffin. Why wouldn’t he stop me? Surely Griffin
would want me to stay?” (7
unlikely he would change his mind so quickly, but then again, it’s not like I knew him very well. We
had literally only spent one day to
Griffin knew I wasn’t happy about the mate bond, but maybe he assumed I would be too scared to
run.
s the case, he
I wanted to believe it but the explanation felt empty. As little as I knew Griffin, he did
to soothe the guilt. I knew I was leaving Griffin high and dry – I could only hope he’d understand
my reasoni
more-suitable replacements out the door.
urning to me, “But I don’t think y
ou asked why Griffin would let y
inking him,
I nodded.
ing you a headsta
Hey there! Just a friendly reminder that if you’re not reading this book on n𝘰𝚟el5s.com, you might
be missing out on the complete story. Head over there to dive into the next chapter—it’s all free!
eadst
t it, Clark,” she said, “How would you rathe
*) “Personally, I’m not
Alessia chuckled. “Well, for wolves, we’ll always prefer to catch it ourselves. And Griffin is an
Alpha wolf like me. He’s a predator. Hunting is embedded into our DNA, we love it. And the best
part of the hunt?”
There was a dark look in her eyes. It reminded me of the first night we’d met, when she had told me
how she slaughtered her pack’s beta. “The best part of the hunt is when you finally catch that rabbit
after it’s led you on a wild goose chase. There’s something so satisfying about finally trapping it,
seeing the look in its eyes. When you’ve got it between the teeth, the rabbit realizes that it’s been
beaten…that it will never get away from you again. That’s the best
part. That’s when you know you’ve won.” |?) Alessia might have been using an analogy but I could
read between
li
fin is going to do to me?” |
it and I highly doubt he’d
vanished. “It’s just a theory,” she said, “But someone definite
ove the hunt but I’m not anyone’s prey. I’m his mate. Why
You’re right,” she said, “You’re not prey
hunting you down to tear out your throat but you’re still the prey and he’s still the predator. Whether
he already knows that you left or he finds out s