Luna Aleksa's Escape
Luna Aleksa’s Escape Chapter 13

*Aleksa POV*

Kaia and I creep down the hallway with the twins, not knowing what to expect, and wondering who could be knocking on the door. Have they found us? We hadn’t noticed anyone following us. We had been so careful to cover up our tracks. We had taken the scent hiding potion from Aunt Meadow. We look at each other knowingly and slowly pat the twins on their backs, trying to quietly shush them. Thank goodness they had been up for a while and had full tummies so they were starting to look sleepy.

We listened quietly as we heard voices from down the hallway. Luckily, being werewolves, we had heightened hearing.

“Hello?” Mason said as he opened the door.

“Good Morning, My name is Asher, I’m the head ranger for this side of the Rocky Mountain National Park. I was in the area and I noticed your car. We don’t usually get guests out this way, so I thought I would pop in and say hi, see who was here, give you a friendly welcome”. Asher said in a cherry disposition.

“Oh, hey, yeah we are new to the area, we were planning on staying here for a bit while we found a place to settle”, Mason says.

“We? Your family is with you, I presume”, Asher says inquisitively.

“Ah yes, well, my two sisters and their children, that is,” Mason shifts uncomfortably.

Kaia and I look at each other and decide to go out and say hello, as Mason seemed to be faltering a bit.

As we move down the hallway, we can’t see the mystery visitor, all we can see is Mason’s back.

As I was walking towards the door I was taken aback by the rugged good looks of the man known as Asher at the front door.

He has very short shaved hair, and is wearing a cream coloured cowboy hat, he is wearing a tight white singlet, with worn-looking blue denim jeans, his muscular arms stand out as they are practically bulging out, and he has the cutest smile. I looked at Kaia, who clearly approves, and I give her a look as if to say mind the drool.

“Well, good morning ladies,” Asher said, as he tipped his hat towards us.

“Good morning” we both said at the exact same time, smiling at our guest.

“Asher here is the local park ranger, and says they don’t usually get guests here, so he was just wanting to pop in and introduce himself and make sure we were settling in”, Mason said to us.

“That’s very kind of you Asher,” I said. “We just got here. So we are still trying to settle in. We appreciate you coming in to say hello”. I say, meaning every word.

Asher’s aura radiates kindness, and I don’t perceive him to be a threat at this stage. He is most definitely a werewolf though. Luckily he can’t scent us. I realize then that we must be near pack lands. We will have to look into this further, I thought to myself.

“Where are y’all from?” Asher says.

We looked at each other and froze. We weren’t prepared for this question. And none of us can mindlink, so I quickly blurt out “the east coast”. “We’re from the east coast”.

“Oh, nice. And these two are…?” He questions, pointing to the twins.

“This here is Liam, and that is Layla”. I said with a smile on my face. “They are my babies”. I say before Asher has a chance to ask.

“They’re so cute!” Asher says. “Where is their father?” He asks.

I looked at Asher. It’s only natural to ask this question, I thought to myself, but this man, as polite as he is, asked too many questions.

“He passed away” I said. Looking down at the floor. I felt bad about lying, but what was I supposed to tell him? Oh, his dad is the werewolf and alpha of the pack that we escaped from. I took his children from him, and now they are probably chasing us right now as we speak. No, for now I had to lie to protect my babies and to protect myself and my friends.

Asher looked at me and his brows furrowed for a moment. Then he raised his eyebrows and smiled, “Well, If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to contact me, here’s my card”. He says and he passes Mason his business card.

Then he tipped his hat toward us and says “it sure was a pleasure meeting you all” and walked off into the forest.

***

After that unexpected visit from Asher, we decided to start settling in and get a better idea of our surroundings. Mason jumped into the car and took a drive into town to talk to some locals and get a feel for the area. I put Liam and Layla down to sleep in the double bed in the back room, as we didn’t have cots and they couldn’t sleep in their carseats.

Kaia and I started writing down any weak points, or things we needed to address, and we started formulating a potential escape plan. We hoped we would never have to initiate it, but we needed to be prepared.

Once we were happy with what we had come up with, we sat down for a coffee.

“How about Asher? He’s all sort of scrumptious, isn’t he!” Kaia giggled.

“Yes, well, he was definitely easy on the eyes, that’s for sure!” I agreed.

“I wonder how Mason is getting on,” Kaia said, looking at the clock.

He had been gone quite a few hours now. I went up the hallway to check on the twins. They were still fast asleep. They had been through so much over the past few days, so I wasn’t surprised they were sleeping a little longer.

When I walked down the hallway, I heard a knock at the door, and Mason called out. Kaia got up to let him in.

“So how did it go?” I asked, and we both looked at him apprehensively.

“Well, the good news is that I managed to get some work, which should help us with food and rent,” Mason said with a half smile on his face.

“Why do I get the feeling there is bad news?” I asked with great trepidation.

“Well, I haven’t decided if it is bad news or not. Basically, the general population here consists of werewolves. There are some humans, but not many.” Mason drops the bombshell.

“What? Are you serious? I thought this would be a human town. How do I get it so wrong? Could anyone tell? Did they know you too were a werewolf?” I asked, still trying to pick my jaw up off the ground.

“I don’t think so. They couldn’t scent me. Thanks to Aunt Meadow’s potion. They will figure it out soon enough though, if they don’t already suspect it.” Mason reminds us.

“Okay, well we have a few more days up our sleeves, all going well. What we need to find out is if this pack will give us a chance, especially with us being rogues,” Kaia says.

“We still haven’t heard from Caleb and Kali. I’m starting to worry about them. I hope they are safe” I said, looking at Mason and Kaia.

“Maybe we could try calling them?” Mason remarks.

“Okay, let’s do it!” I added excitedly.

Mason passed the phone to me. Caleb had saved his name on speed dial. I pushed the button and the phone started ringing. Some time went by and then I heard a voice at the other end.