Accidental Surrogate for Alpha

#Chapter 386 – The Long…Long Road

Ella

It takes me just a little over an hour to realize that…I hate road trips.

“Oh my god,” I murmur to Cora as the vibrations of the gigantic RV continue to shake through us, making poor Rafe grumble uncomfortably. “Is it night yet? Can we stop?”

“You’re being a baby, Ella,” my sister replies, looking up at me with a smirk, jumping her red king over three of Roger’s black checkers and capturing them. “It’s fun!”

“You’re only having fun because you’re kicking Roger’s ass for the third time at that game,” I murmur, sighing as I glance out the window.

“Seriously,” Roger sighs, leaning back against the white leather of the kitchenette’s booth. “You should quit that, Cora. For Ella’s sake – she’s trying to enjoy herself.” He runs a frustrated hand through his hair, staring at the board.

“Yes,” Cora replies, laughing. “For Ella’s sake, I’ll go easy on you.”

“I just thought it would be prettier,” I sigh, looking out the window at the endless highway miles. “Like, purple mountains majesty. Fruited plains. Etcetera.” Instead, it’s just hour after hour of looking at cars, and asphalt, and the sad little pine scrub that borders the highways.

“Maybe when we get further out,” Cora offers, hopeful. “Nah,” Roger replies, making his next move on the checker’s board. “After the forest it’s all corn for days.”

I groan, leaning my head back. “I hate corn.”

“No, you don’t,” Cora chides, instantly making her next move on the board and capturing two more of Roger’s pieces. He gasps in protest and then slumps back again.

“How are you doing this,” he murmurs, studying the board. “Are you a witch?”

says with a shrug.” Guess we have to

silently ordering myself to cheer up because even if I decidedly do not like riding in the RV, I’m still excited to take this trip for my sister, to

all stay together up front, studying maps and discussing ridiculous things like terrain and gas mileage things. they find endlessly fascinating for some weird boy reason. But I shrug and leave them to it. Cora and I curl up

and talking with my sister, reconnecting with her and with the peace that I’ve been missing from my life since that terrible day

all really over?” I ask her in a quiet moment as the sun starts

she already knows. “I don’t,” she sighs, telling me honestly. “I think…well, Ella, I think we picked mates with big lives. I think we’re going to have to snatch at moments of peace whenever we have them because the next challenge is always coming. And that we’re going to have to

belly. “Are we dumb?” I ask quietly. ” Did we choose wrong? I mean – neither of them are our fated mates. We picked this…should we have

up at her in surprise to see her smiling and shaking her

was ready to be a broke single mom, to live quietly alone

side, “but…you were never going to stop helping people. I think it kind of makes sense that you ended

right. That this was perhaps always the life I wanted, even if I want to pretend

her voice dropping lower. “I’m actually…I’m not sure if Roger isn’t my fated mate,” she says,

going wide. ” But you’re a

says, frowning. “But… Ella, this thing between us,” she says, shaking her head. “It feels really big. I don’t…know how to explain it except like

feel a mating bond snap into place?” I ask,

me. “But Roger said it first, when we were out in that rainstorm – that day when we had to stop at the

grin at her, knowing what happened that day, and she blushes a little and rolls her

Cora replies, giving a little shrug. “But the way he said it so definitive. Not I choose you as

jealous. I have no hesitations about Sinclair as my chosen mate, and I know that what’s between us is far beyond anything he had with his own fated mate. But still –

she says,

“Why not?”

him to tell me that I’m not.” “Well, I’ll go ask -”