Off Course
Gabrielle POV
“So,” Tess says, eyes on the road, voice innocent in a way I don’t trust, “Is he actually as gorgeous as everyone says? Gutted I missed the chance to see for myself.”
"I'm not sure who you mean." I feign innocence, but I know she's not buying it. I smile coyly and turn my eyes out of the window.
I can't help but notice how beautiful it is here. Imagine belonging somewhere like this.
She flicks on her indicator to pull in.
"Don't make me pull over this car, Gabrielle Stone," she threatens, "I've waited eighteen long years for you to talk boys with me."
I groan. “I nearly had my foot snapped off, and this is your line of enquiry?”
"Over we go!" she announces, steering towards a nearby lay-by.
"Cut the dramatics – I'll talk."
She smirks as she signals back onto the road.
"For the record," I continue, "I don't think even you were thinking about boys at birth." Though even as I say it, I wonder if there's a grain of truth in it.
A small laugh slips out.
This is why she's my best friend. She can lighten even the heaviest moments.
"So..." she prompts, "Proper details. Everyone around here talks like he stepped out of a painting and personally offended God by existing."
I laugh, shaking my head. “You’re impossible.”
I feel the tension ease from my shoulders.
"Umm..." My thoughts drift back to earlier. His warm breath. Mesmerising eyes – rich with heat, power simmering just beneath the surface.
“That’s a no, then,” she says brightly. "It would be hard to outdo Rowan," she mutters.
“I didn’t say no.”
“You didn’t say yes either. Which is suspicious.”
“Still,” she continues, undeterred.“If half the rumours are true–”
The corner of my mouth twitches. "You didn't let me finish."
The car hums along, the forest sliding past in soft green blurs. Sunlight flashes through the trees – warm and ordinary and blessedly uneventful.
“I just going to say… the rumours are true."
I instantly blush as Tess wolf whistles.
Heat crawls up my neck. "But– " I cut in, "He is confusing."
"Alphas are known for being egotistical and emotionally constipated," she shrugs, nonchalant like she's commenting on the weather.
“I couldn't really focus on his face," I admit. "His lips drew me in.”
“Uh-huh,” Tess says. “That’s what people say when the man in question is distractingly attractive.”
A beat of silence, then–
"Wait," she says slowly. "Did you just say his lips? Gabi, anything else I need to know about his lips?" she gushes.
Before I can respond, I'm blindsided as something slams into the side of the car.
The impact knocks the breath from my lungs. Metal shrieks. Glass fractures in a sharp, spiderweb crack beside my face.
I scream as the seatbelt locks and the car lurches sideways.
“What the hell–!” Tess yells, wrenching the wheel as the tyres scream in protest.
A dark, grey blur flashes across the bonnet.
The car skids. Branches scrape. The engine chokes – then dies.
My ears rings like a bomb's gone off.
My heart pounds painfully as I stare at the shattered window. "Tess?"
I'm shaking all over when I turn to her. She hasn't answered.
“What… what was that?”
She doesn't reply. Her face is pale.
Her eyes track something moving beyond the cracked glass.
A shape steps out of the tree line.
Shoulders hunched, clothes torn. Grey eyes bright with malice.
Another emerges from the opposite side of the road.
Then a third.
We're outnumbered.
Tess inhales sharply. I see it then – the shift in her.
"Stay in the car," she whispers.
My pulse stutters. "Tess, no– "
Before she can move, the first one lifts its head and sniffs.
His lips curl.
"That one," he snarls. Voice rough, distorted. "The human."
Ice floods my veins. I've never felt so small.
The second steps closer to my door. "She's the one we were told about."
"Steady," the first commands, "They want her alive."
Tess's hand grips mine – vicelike.
"Hand her over," the second one says.
The forest goes utterly still.
All I think of in that moment is Luca.