My Hockey Alpha

Chapter 237: A Strange Place

Nina

“C’mon,” the old man said, jerking his head toward the door. “I got my truck out front.”

The old man turned and walked out of the store without waiting for us. Enzo and I paused for a moment and shot each other an uncertain look before collectively deciding that this strange old man from the middle of nowhere was probably our best bet at getting to the Alpha King’s mansion in time, and so we decided to follow him.

The aforementioned truck was incredibly rusty and worn down. We had walked past it on our way into the gas station, but it was so beat up that I had assumed that it was abandoned. However, when the old man opened the door and looked at us through the windshield with his yellow eyes peering out from beneath his tattered trucker cap, I realized that I was wrong.

When we opened the passenger side door, it was one of those old style trucks with the bench seat. There was no back seat, so I shot Enzo another uncertain look before I decided to slide into the middle. Enzo climbed in behind me and kept his arm firmly wrapped around my shoulders as the old man stuck the key in the ignition and the truck sputtered to life.

Soon enough, we were on the road. The old man pulled out onto the dirt road that ran straight down the middle of the tiny little town, and he followed that road for a while. It eventually wound through the forest, with rows of pine trees on either side. If I looked closely enough into the forest, I was certain that I could see quite a few sets of yellow eyes looking out at us. It made my blood run cold.

“Rogues,” the old man said, noticing my apprehension. “They won’t bother with a vehicle. If ya were on foot, though…” His voice faded and dropped away. I could only imagine what he meant by that, and it made me glad that we didn’t try to walk to the Alpha King’s mansion after all.

common around here?” I asked, squeezing my hands tightly between my knees to

man nodded.

widened and the trees became sparse on either side. And, finally, after crossing a little bridge that ran across a narrow river, the road became paved. The old man picked up the

silent and gruff and the truck felt as though it would fall apart, there was a certain air about the old man that made me feel oddly comfortable around him. I couldn’t explain it; it almost was the same as the strange couple who found me when James shot me. The old man was more stoic than the couple, but he had the same sort of energy

that he was driving steadily with one knotted old hand on the steering wheel, and the other resting on his knee. Looking at him, I could imagine what he looked like when he was younger; he was lanky and a bit hunched over now in his old age, but the sinewy muscle on his forearms and the sparse stubble on his face made me think that he was probably a hard worker his entire life. He was probably tall and muscular at one point, like Enzo. The way that he clenched and unclenched his jaw while he drove seemed a bit like Enzo, too. Or at

“Frank.”

more out of curiosity. If we were going to be sitting in this vehicle for a few hours with this old man, I wanted to at least try to make

What do you do

made a hmph sound. Enzo’s hand tightened on my shoulder, and when I glanced over at him

suddenly, Frank spoke

anyway?” he asked without tearing his eyes away from the road, his knuckles tightening

asked, somewhat sheepishly. “Why do you

yer a werewolf.” He jabbed his thumb in Enzo’s direction, still without looking away from the road. “But you…” His voice sounded almost a little accusatory. I knew that, without my wolf’s presence, I still smelled human. It occurred to me then that maybe these people didn’t trust humans