Chapter 4

"Canada?!"

I sat in the car seat with my jaw gaping open.

"I didn't pack warm enough for this," I groaned.

"I won't let you freeze," Adam said plainly.

I shook my head. "I thought we would be going somewhere like London," I said.

"London?" He asked incredulously. "Why on earth would you have thought London?"

I just looked at him.

"I was raised by English parents, however I have only been to London three times in my entire life," he said.

"The smell of that place would put anyone out for hours, Evelyn."

"You don't have to call me Evelyn," I said.

"I prefer Evie or Eve."

Adam nodded. "Well, Evie or Eve, we have another few hours in this vehicle if you feel like sharing anything else I might need to know."

I shrugged. "What do you want to know?"

"Well," he said thinking. "What do I need to know?"

"My birthday is February 22nd and my middle name is Michelle," I answered. "You?"

"My birthday is May 6th and my favorite color is black," he answered back.

"Black?"

"It goes with everything," he explained defensively.

I shook my head. "What is your favorite movie?"

"I don't watch any," he said.

"Weird," I commented.

"Favorite book, then?"

"The Art of War by Sun Tzu," he said.

I just stared at him.

"What?" He asked.

"I liked you better before I knew all this about you," I said.

"Well then," he said. "Please enlighten me: what is your favorite film and book?"

"Favorite film is Gone with The Wind, favorite book is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy."

He grimaced. "I half-expected the gushy romance part, but not the lack of happy endings," Adam said.

''Lack of happy endings?!'' I asked. "Says the man whose favorite book is The Art of War..."

"I see your point."

I leaned forward and pulled out the bag of breakfast that Mrs. Chandler had sent us.

"Hungry?" I asked.

"Starving," He replied l opened the bag and pulled out a few pieces of bacon and handed them to Adam

"So..." I said, eating my own bacon, "Why don't you watch movies?"

"There are much more important things to do when you lead a pack of nearly twenty thousand," he said.

"But don't you have leaders and councils who deal with your pack for you?" I asked.

"I have advisors and a cabinet who help me, but no, I do most of it myself."

"So it's like a dictatorship?" I asked.

Adam looked at me. "Is that what you think of Alphas as? Dictators?"

I shrugged. "I think the whole Alpha-Beta thing is a bit far-fetched. I mean, I thought Lycans got past that primitive mindset ages ago."

I saw his jaw tense. "It's the most effective means of pack safety and harmony ever used. The rules I enforce and lifestyle I promote are for the good of the pack, I don't see how that is primitive."

"That sounds like something a dictator would say," I said.

I could've sworn he rolled his eyes.

"What about you then?" He asked.

"I suppose you probably think that just letting everyone do as they please and roam about as they would is the best thing for a pack?"

I nodded.

"That's a very modern approach, and I promise you---"

"...as someone who travels and sees the effects of a mindset like that---"

"It's rudely ineffective," Adam argued.

"It's worked just fine for me," I said.

Adam simply replied, "Then you're in for a rude awakening. Is he serious?"

"So let me get this straight," I said.

"You're going to drag me away from my family and friends because I'm your mate- which you seem to believe gives you some kind of ownership rights over me- and criticize me for believing in a system of order that has kept me alive my whole life. After which you plan on taking me to an unfamiliar place where I have to completely readjust, you being the only person I know. All that being said, I would

dare say I've been rudely awakened already."

"Evelyn," Adam said slowly.

"Out of respect for my title, I suggest you watch the words that come out of your mouth when they are directed at me."

"Fuck off."

The car came to a screeching halt in the middle of the empty highway. I could feel the rage seeping off of him, but I kept my eyes forward on the road.

"These pleasantries you've grown accustomed to in me are not, by any means, my nature. The last time those words were spoken towards me the wolf's head ended up fifteen feet from his hide."

I kept my head straight, eyes focused forward.

"Look at me." Adam said.

My jaw clenched but I didn't look at him. I felt his hand grab my jaw gently, his fingers turning me to face him. I glared at him hard as his blue eyes studied mine.

Adam dropped his hand and put his eyes back on the road. The car started moving again, Adam not saying another word. We didn't speak again for several more hours until the car pulled off the deserted road onto a path towards a small runway.

A steel bunker sat hidden in the trees. A small aircraft was parked outside it on an outstretched runway. As we pulled into the lot, I noticed a few other cars were parked there.

Adam said nothing as he parked the car and got out.

Do I just sit here?

I watched as Adam walked over to the other vehicles, all of them black jeeps like his. The blond man got out of the driver's side of the jeep and walked over to Adam. After a short conversation Adam turned and started to walk back to me.

I turned my head and pretended to not have been watching. My door opened and Adam reached over and unbuckled my seatbelt.

"Get out, we're leaving."

I stared at him.

"I can unbuckle myself, thank you." I got out of the car and stomped around to the back of the jeep to retrieve my things.

"I don't appreciate the attitude," Adam said, following me.

"Say it again. Maybe that will stop me from giving it to you," I muttered as I opened the trunk and began to pull out my things.

"Stop."

He grabbed the boxes from me and began to carry them towards the small airport.

I closed the trunk and grabbed my jacket and scarf from the  front seat. Putting them on, I followed him.

At this point, passengers had begun to unload out of the other jeeps and bags were being thrown around like sacks of flour as the trunks were being unloaded.

I was a few feet behind Adam when the blond man approached me from one of the jeeps.

"I am Beta Superior Eaton, but you can call me Jace," he said.

"Noted," I replied, passing him.

I got a few feet away before I stopped and took a deep breath. I turned around and walked back to him.

"That was rude, I'm sorry," I apologized. "I'm Evelyn Schubert, but you can call me Evie."

Jace smiled and offered his hand for me to shake. "Nice to meet you."

"You're not British," I said, detecting a different accent.

"Aussie," he said, smiling. "I was assigned to the big guy over there two years ago."

''Assigned? What does it mean?'' I asked.

"Evelyn!"

I turned around to see Adam standing almost thirty feet away on the pavement. He had handed my things off to someone else and was motioning for me to follow him. I turned to look at Jace, who was still smiling.

"Nice to meet you."

"You as well," was all he said as I walked away.

I walked over to Adam.

"What?"

"Get on the plane, we're about to leave," he said. He turned to walk away but I stood still. When he turned around and saw me, he walked over, stopping just in front of me.

"I wasn't lying when I said that I would lift you over my shoulders and put you on this plane myself if I had to," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "I don't want to go to Canada."

"And I didn't want to come to America to deal with your pack, but look where it's gotten me," he said.

"Now if you don't walk your ass over and onto that plane, I'll do it for you."

Adam turned to walk away.

"He's not lying," Jace said, walking around me from behind.

"I know," I muttered, reluctantly following him.

I followed Jace as he walked over the plane and up the steps into it. Inside, it looked like something I would have expected a private jet to look like. It was nice, but smaller than a commercial airplane.

I took a seat in a chair by one of the windows in the back. It was a single chair next to the aisle so there was no way Adam could sit next to me. I didn't know how long this trip would be, but I didn't want to deal with him for even a minute longer.

Propping my elbow on the windowsill, I leaned my head on my hand and closed my eyes.

I want to go back to Vega's house. I wish I never stayed for supper last night with the Chandlers and that I never went with Mr. Chandler to The Valley.

I opened my eyes when something fell at my feet. I looked down to see my overnight bag laying at my feet and Adam standing over it. I refused to make eye contact with him as I pulled the bag from the floor and sat it in my lap.

Adam sat in the chair in front of me and I glared at the back of his head until I heard the plane engines start.

Everyone else loaded on quickly.

There were probably twenty of us on the plane, which felt a little crowded. Jace sat in the front near the door and began to write something down on a notepad he took out of his backpack. My nosey side wanted to see what it was he was writing, but no matter how hard I strained my eyes, I couldn't tell.

I leaned back in my seat as the door closed. The plane began to move shortly thereafter. I huffed and shook my head as we gained speed down the runway, eventually leaving the ground.

No one was speaking, it was complete silence in the cabin. This made it difficult to cover up the sniffles that came from me as I tried not to cry.

Suck it up, girlfriend, I told myself. There was nothing I could do about it, therefore there was no reason to be crying over it.

I don't remember how long the plane ride was. I eventually fell asleep against the window. When I woke up, it was dark out and the lights in the cabin had been dimmed.

Adam was awake and out of his seat. He and Jace stood in the front of the plane, discussing something.

I looked around at the other men who were onboard as well. Some were asleep, some had headphones on, others sat talking in the dimly lit cabin.

Adam must have seen me looking around because he ended his conversation with Jace and walked over to me.

"The plane will be landing shortly. Make sure you have all of your things," he said, his voice just above a whisper.

As he walked away, I turned and looked out the window. I could see some lights off in the distance-the airport I guessed-but there were none around us besides those.

How deep into Canada did we go?

A few minutes later, my guess was confirmed when the plane began to descend towards the brightly lit runway. Once the plane had landed, the lights in the cabin turned on and everyone stood up and prepared to leave the plane.

Adam stayed close by as we all exited out onto the tarmac. The wind was whipping around me violently, almost knocking me over. It didn't seem to bother anyone else, but I did wonder how the plane hadn't been blown out of the sky.

The runway had been cleared, but at the edge of the pavement I could see a thick blanket of snow covered the ground. I couldn't see anything beyond that, just the inky blackness of the night.

I followed the group with Adam by my side to the large SUVs that sat near the terminal, where our luggage was being loaded by the airport attendants. There were plows on the front with blinding light bars over the windshield. As we got closer, I also noted the chains wrapped around the tires that would help us keep traction on the icy roads.

Great.

"How much longer is this going to take?" I asked Jace, who happened to be walking in front of me.

"All I heard was the grown-up equivalent to 'are we there yet?" he said, opening up the car door for me.

I groaned and slid into the warm car. It was significantly colder here than it was in Utah, another reason I wish I could have stayed.

Jace hopped into the passenger seat and Adam into the driver's seat. Everyone else piled into the other three identical SUVs.

"So?" I asked. "How long?"

"Only about an hour, then we're home," Adam said, pulling off the tarmac and onto a dirt road that had been cleared of snow.

"Then you're home," I muttered, looking out the window. There was nothing to see, just the night sky which was littered with stars I never could see at home. I soon became bored with that though.

"Can someone turn on the radio?" I asked.

"There's no radio signal out here," Jace said with a chuckle.

I groaned.

After enduring another hour or so of the boring ride, I began to notice the lights in front of us. A village, maybe? I thought.

It was about damn time I saw some form of civilization. As we got closer I began to feel some type of gratification as I realized it was, in fact, a village. However, once we were there, I realized it wasn't what I expected.

"Where are we?" I asked incredulously.

Neither one of them answered.

All I could do was stare out the window at the village we were now driving the streets of. There were shops and cafes as well as apartments and bookstores. It all looked like something from a movie.

It was beautiful.

We kept driving-much to my dismay-until we were almost out of the city completely. I kept trying to get a good look at where we were heading, but with all the twists and turns on the tiny, cobblestone streets I was beginning to feel nauseous. I leaned back and closed my eyes, counting to fifty and back down again to prevent a tragic death by boredom. The car slowed and then stopped and my eyes opened

"We're home." Jace said, a mischievous smile on his face.

My eyebrows furrowed until I stepped out of the car.

I could've screamed, but with a name like Alpha Superior Adam Deveraux, I should've guessed it.

He lives in a damn castle.