Page 8 of Glass
3
POPPY
“Are you insane? It’s the middle of the night; turn the fuck around.” Peter’s voice is hoarse from sleep. I push aside the guilt I feel for waking him up. Of all my siblings, he’s the one I’m closest to, and I need him to be my sounding board.
“I know it’s crazy, Peter, but…” I take a deep breath as I stare out at the empty stretch of highway, it’s dark and desolate, surrounded by equally empty fields. “I’ve looked everywhere. Please just tell me what you know.”
The line is silent for so long that I dart a quick look at my screen to make sure we’re still connected. He heaves a sigh, and I can hear rustling as if he’s getting out of bed.
“Why didn’t you ask Tasha? I’m sure she knows more than I do.” The annoyance is starting to drain out of his voice. I give a small fist pump at the evidence that I’ve won.
“If I called and woke up Paxton and Tasha, you know they’d only come chasing behind me.” Just like they followed me out to South Dakota. “Tasha has to get home, she’s needed there.”
Peter doesn’t respond to that. The safest place for the Luna Sovereign is at home where she has an entire pack at her disposal. Plus, she’s also close to her sister Tess, the Luna of the Anchorage Lake Pack, when she’s there. That’s a lot more protection than a few pack members and I can offer.
“I don’t really know anything about The Lost, Poppy. The only reason I know they exist is the same reason you’re convinced there are more Glass pups. Rumors and talk. That’s all it is.” Hearing him talk so dismissively leaves a pang in my chest. Peter has always rooted for me to find our missing siblings, but it’s been so long now that everyone but me is losing faith.
“I—” My voice cracks. It’s not just rumors and talk for me. I canfeelmy siblings out there somewhere, just waiting to be found. Why doesn’t anyone else understand that?
“Maybe it’s time to go home.” The sheets rustle across the phone line, and I picture my brother begrudgingly climbing out of bed, his mind working double-time to come up with the right words to stop my search. I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. “You have a lot of options you didn’t have before, Poppy. You wouldn’t have to move back to the North Wind Pack.”
“It’s not like I would go anywhere else.” Bitterness leaks into my voice. When our family fractured after Greg’s death, no one really looked out for each other. I was just a kid, and I still had to find my own way like everyone else.
I wound up with David’s family by chance because they took pity on me. But I’m grown now. I’m not interested in making another pity-home for myself.
“Things aren’t like they used to be. We’re more united now,” Peter says as if he can read my mind. The downside to telling him my every thought when we were pups.
I don’t say anything because I don’t think our idea ofunitedis the same. Not while the last of our parents’ children are still out there somewhere.
Peter huffs, growing more exasperated by the minute. If he’s not able or willing to help me, I need to find a different source. And if that’s the case, the only thing I can do for him right now is show him mercy. He’s only wasting his breath trying to convince me to give up this crusade.
“Go back to bed, Peter. I’ll talk to you soon.” I hope.
“Wait, you can’t just—”
I blink back a rush of emotion as I blindly stab at my phone to disconnect the call. The endless expanse of highway stretches out in front of me, and in the distance, soft orange light sits on the horizon, promising the sun’s impending ascent. A new day is coming.
* * *
The first day, I stop in Chicago to make sure I have a safe place to take a break. Impromptu trips don’t exactly leave time for proper planning. A shifter can’t just stay anywhere for fear of crossing onto pack territory without permission.
The second day is harder. Driving alone on a limited budget means rationing every dollar and doing my best to stop as infrequently as possible. I nearly cave when I see the sign that would take me toward Dominic Parker’s territory. Dominic is Tasha’s sister’s mate, and the pair would gladly put me up for a night or two—but I talk myself out of it at the last minute. I’ve come too far already.
By the time I make it to Portland, Maine, my eyes strain to stay open. And traveling alone means my mind has had too much room to wander. A dangerous thing.
I still have about three hours of driving ahead of me before I reach Acadia National Park. I can’t afford to stop in Portland for long since I want to reach Acadia well before sunrise. It’ll be much easier to shift under the cover of darkness, and shifting will allow me to cover the most ground. Based on the internet research I did last night when I was struggling to fall asleep at David’s place, wolves don’t publicly exist in the more than forty-thousand acres that make up Acadia National Park. I’ll have to be careful shifting in the area.
There are a dozen cute local places in Portland I consider stopping, but David’s warnings before I left are still fresh in my mind.Stick to places where you can blend in. No unnecessary risks.So I keep driving until I see a generic gas station ahead.
“Thank you,” I tell the silver-haired man who holds the door open for me on his way out.
I wander aimlessly up and down the aisles to stretch my stiff muscles. There are only a few people in the gas station besides me. A couple of workers, a mom arguing with her daughter about whether or not to buy a jumbo-sized candy bar, and two dark-haired men standing in front of the beer coolers. The two men seem to be arguing about something.
I try to mind my own business as I move into the aisle directly behind them. But it’s impossible not to let their conversation filter in as I scan the chip selection.
“This guy’s paying us a hell of a lot of money for you to just shit bricks all over the damn plan, Georgie.” I watch from the corner of my eye as the man who’s speaking rubs his hand nervously over his receding hairline. The men stand angled toward each other, offering me a good view of the one who just spoke.
“Didn’t do it on purpose, Frank,” Georgie mutters. His shoulders hunch toward his ears. “How was I supposed to know the damn ranger would be personally affronted by me not liking his wife’s lobster?”