He understood Emmanuel was only asking to help, and that as annoying as he was, he was being relatively silent for a change; however, he didn't need his input right now.
His hands tightened into fists, "Damn it Jessica! Where the hell are you?!"
~*~*~*~
"Closed? What do you mean closed?" Jessica stared in disbelief at the man behind the locked door.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm on break. Come back 10 minutes," His muffled voice told her from the other side.
"But you're the only one here. Please, just let me in. I need to make a phone call," Jessica pleaded, her fingers pressed against the glass.
"....One ma'am, please remove your hands. You're leaving smudges. Two, there is a phone booth over there. Use that one," He pointed to the lone booth near neatly stacked pipes and broken down truck parts.
Jessica made a quick glance before looking back at him.
"Sir, please," She watched with no avail as he made his way to the backroom and out of sight, leaving her to stare at the "Out to Lunch" sign.
She trembled slightly in frustration, her fists in loose grips before she backed away two steps, her hands swinging down to her sides.
"....What am I going to now?" She thought. She looked out to the clear, cold horizon, the open plains in all directions, except for the distant mountains she once was.
"...Well....I'm not there anymore...at least...that is a good sign?" She tried to comfort herself, but the moment she took a deep breath in, she let it out with a slight cry. She looked about herself, moving to either side, and ran her hand through her free hair.
Crap!
Her nose—her senses in general—were becoming hardwired to be able to find her way back to the Delaney territory! Even all the way out here, she could still smell the compound, no matter how faint it was! Sadly, it called to her and her wolf, and as cruel as those wolves were, a sense of belonging, a sense of home, was there for her.
"It will never be our home," She thought, struggling against herself and her wolf which desperately wanted to go back, "Never."
With that in mind, she headed toward the phone. She regretted not taking the ride back to Cheyenne. There were no packs there, and could have gotten her old job back and then made her way to the south and out of Wyoming for good. Erick—
NON!! NON!!
The Alpha of the Delaney pack!!
...The Alpha of the Delaney pack...
may be able to roam Wyoming with next to no permission since he might know all the Alphas here, but he could never leave it without granted pass. And she, as a lone wolf, knew how to pass as human...for the most part. She went over to the phone and grabbed it, putting the receiver to her ear.
"...Come on....come on...please...please work," She bit her up lip after she whispered as she tried several of the toll free numbers she's memorized over the years.
She wanted to try 911, but she didn't want to get anymore humans involved, and she even doubted that would work; the phone just wouldn't work for free calls.
"Need a help there, Miss?" She heard an Alto male voice first and the sound of boots approaching her, causing her to look up suddenly.
"Hmm?" She pretended not hear him, acting like she was in the middle of a call.
The man approaching her had his sleek black hair tied back, and with the cowboy hat he wore, it gave him a rough looking edge.
He finally got closer; his tall and built frame easily shadowed her from the sunlight.
"Need help miss?" He repeated, his light accent rolled off his tongue would have made a lot of females swoon, but to Jessica, she just couldn't place it.
"Um...No. No thanks. I'm fine," Jessica looked down at the booth, trying to ignore him.
"....Please just go away..." She thought to herself.
He may have decent looks, but the smell of cigarettes through her off and absolutely disgusted her. She continued to pretend she was on the phone.
"...You know it's rude to lie to people miss," The man spoke to her.
Jessica froze, her act stopped along with her as she looked at him slowly, a chill ran through her body, "He...he knew I was lying? How? He doesn't smell like a wolf, and he didn't look me in the eye. How he do it...?"
As her eyes met his, he gave her a smile and she gave a small gulp in return.
"I can hear the dial tone, miss. From the sound of that, you don't seem fine," He told her.
That made her let out an internal sigh of relief that she even allowed to reach the surface, causing the man to let out a laugh.
"Here," He reached in his pocket and handed her 50 cents, "There you go miss."
"O-oh! Thank you," Jessica gave him a weak yet grateful smile.
He was just a human. Though he smelt bad, he was a kind hearted human, and that was more than she could say than the man in the mini-mart. However, she quickly dialed a number she knew was no longer active. She was going to turn to her wolf form, run, and try and hitch a ride on a truck. She was just trying to see if she could call a ride before, but she knew it wouldn't work now. She just had to wait for him to leave so she could set her plan into motion.
However....
He wouldn't leave! He just leaned against the booth and watched her, studied her!
"Okay...he was nice, but he was strange," She thought as she glanced at him once and again tried to act like she was on the phone as she whipped her head forward, "Blake? Blake pick up your phone...Come on, pick up...Fine...I hope you're on your way here, cause I had to hitch a ride since you left me out in the middle of nowhere. I already told you where I was in the van so I expect you here no later the next 5-10 minutes, 'kay?"
She hung up and handed the man his change, "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Leave your...friend a message?"
"My boyfriend actually. And yeah, I left him a message," Jessica tried to show him politely that she wasn't interested as she looked toward the road.
"I see..." The man said as he grabbed his hat, taking it off to readjust it a bit, "...May I say though, you have extraordinary eyes, miss."
Jessica looked at him before she started to walk away, a slightly confused grin on her face, "Thank you."
Either he got the point and was giving her a farewell compliment, or he was still trying.
"You know, different colored eyes are called Heterochromia iridium. However, eyes like yours, where the center is a different color—for you, in both eyes—is called Center Heterochromia," He smiled at her as he explained.
"Really?" Jessica asked, not really interested as she turned her back on him with a slight smile and she continued to walk.
"Orange to blue-grey is quite beautiful to me," He told her with a smile.
"Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not interested," Jessica told him finally and didn't look back as she pretended to wait by the open road for a boyfriend that didn't exist.
"I have only seen in on one other woman before. A woman in Northeast Canada. Northeast Quebec I believe," He told her softly.
This made Jessica stop in her tracks, the cool January air got colder.
"What....what did he just say...?" She thought, hesitantly looking over at him, and giving him a smile, "...Really? Did you love her?"
He gave her a small grin as he took a step toward her, "...No. Not really. But she was quite beautiful."
"..Really?" Jessica turned and faced him, but took a small step back.