Luna Aleksa's Escape
Luna Aleksa’s Escape Chapter 11

*Aleksa*

As Mason opens the big red stained glass door to the diner, and holds it open for us, Kaia and I walk in with the twins still secured in their car seats. We walked to the nearest booth and started to unbuckle Liam and Layla. I have their bottles in my bag. Kali had passed them to me before her and Caleb walked off. This would be the perfect time to feed them and give them their bottles, because I was unsure of when we would be stopping again like this soon.

I gave Kaia a bottle to feed Layla with and she is a natural. It appears that she has definitely done this before.

“Thank you so much Kaia, for everything. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you”. I said to her with appreciation.

“You are very welcome Aleksa, it is my pleasure”, she says as she sits Layla up a bit higher and repositions her bottle.

Mason gets the attention of the waitress to order some food. He orders an all-day breakfast and a chocolate protein smoothie. Kaia orders hotcakes and bacon and a large almond mocha, and I order the same. I then order some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the twins, and some glasses of milk, so that we can refill their bottles before we leave.

It isn’t breakfast time, it’s actually getting close to dinnertime, but this is our first proper meal in a while, so we chose what can stomach right now.

The diner is packed, there is a juke box playing in the corner of the room playing “ Little Lies” by Fleetwood Mac. The vibe in here is the swinging 60s. The booth seats have a deep red leather interior, there is a huge fluro clock above the jukebox and sixties memorabilia everywhere. There’s a mix of teenagers, twenty-something-year olds and middle-aged people here. The place feels homely and welcoming.

I looked out the window nervously. We have a view of the forest from this dinner. I can’t see anything specific right now, although beyond the lush green trees and shrubbery the forest is dark and unforgiving. I have no doubt that we are being watched. I then turned my attention to Mason, who started coughing to get our attention.

“We need to get out of here as quickly as possible without being seen. Lachlan will have spies watching us, perhaps even in this diner before long, so we need to think of a way to get to our new transportation without being seen”. He says in a low voice.

“Perhaps there is a back entrance we can use when Caleb and Kali return?” I suggested.

“That would be too easy, Lachlan would have thought of that already,” Mason tells me.

“A distraction perhaps?” Kaia offers.

“Good idea, we need a distraction, hmmn what I wonder?” Mason asks.

“The fire alarm?” I said. “If we could set the fire alarm off and activate the sprinkler system, surely chaos would ensue. Could that be the distraction we need? What do you think?” I proposed.

“That is an excellent idea. I will create a disturbance, once the alarm is activated, while you girls slip out to the car with Caleb. Do you think you can manage that?” Mason asks.

“Of course we can!” I said enthusiastically.

Just then, the waitress arrives with our food and drinks. We thank her and she leaves us to eat.

I started to eat my hotcakes first, as the children had just had their bottles and would be having their mini sandwiches, as they sat propped up on our laps.

It was about half an hour later when we had all finished our meals, the twins were starting to look a little sleepy, which couldn’t have been timed better as we had been able to concentrate on our escape.

Mason gets up and walks towards the bathroom. He is going to attract the attention of the smoke detectors, then trigger the sprinkler system, so we need to be ready to move. We quickly strap the twins into their carseats.

We place some cash on the table that we found in the car, to pay for the bill, and in no time the alarm is blaring and there is a big commotion.

Kaia and I grab the twins, and head towards the kitchen, as we are planning to leave via the back entrance. Mason followed us through the kitchen. No one is paying attention to the random group walking through the kitchen as everyone is running around fussing, trying to exit the building.

We make it out of the diner and start making our way to the car. Caleb and Kali are waiting there for us but we can’t see any new cars.

“Hey guys, we managed to replace two new rides, we’ve parked them on the road for obvious reasons, come on, let’s go” Caleb gestured.

We follow Caleb and Kali for a few streets when we see an SUV and an old mustang parked next to each other down a side street.

“I thought you guys could take the SUV and we would drive this thing. We don’t have much time, so we should get going, hey um what happened at the diner?” Caleb asks curiously.

“I set off the fire alarm and triggered the sprinkler system to cause a distraction, just in case we had any stragglers, hopefully no one saw us leaving the back of the diner”, Mason said.

“Nice work man, I am glad you are with the girls. Take care of them man, or I will hunt you down and I will beat you senseless”, Caleb says with a dark and serious look on his face,

Mason looked at him with a reassuring look, “Caleb, man, I swear that I will protect them all with my life, you have my word. Hey you guys take care too.” “Hopefully we can all catch up again one day”, Mason says meaningfully.

With that, we start putting the twins in the SUV. They are already in their carseats, so we just strap them into the car, and Mason jumps in the driver’s seat and starts up the car. We wait for Caleb and Kali to get into the mustang, then we go off in our separate directions.

I looked out the window on the left rear side of the car, with a deep look of concern in my face. I pray that Caleb and Kali make it to her cousin Alpha Callum’s pack unscathed. And I pray that we make it out of here too!

The sky is a gorgeous orange color now, signifying that the sun will be setting soon, so we need to get some serious distance between the pack and us.

We will be driving through human towns for the next few hours so we will be relatively safe. It’s when we get on the interstate that we become more vulnerable to the pack wolves, although I do wonder how far they will venture out, given that they will have to cross onto other packs’ territories in order to inconspicuously follow us in their wolf forms.

The potion we took will still be in effect and we are traveling in a different car, so I hope that will be enough to buy us a bit of time. Right now, we are in a vulnerable position being that the only real back up we have is Mason and he can’t take on all the elite warriors of the pack. We need to try to keep a low profile.

***

We have been driving for about ten hours now and we haven’t stopped once. It doesn’t appear that we are being followed. Liam and Layla have pretty much slept the whole time, they will wake soon and will need some milk and some food.

Mason drove the entire time, despite both Kaia and myself offering to take over so that he could have a rest. He refuses to, though he won’t let his guard down.

“Mason, the twins will be waking shortly, and they will be hungry. I don’t have any milk or snacks left for them. Could we stop at a seven-eleven to get a few supplies?” I asked him.

“Yeah OK, we can stop at the next one we drive past. It shouldn’t be long, probably a good time to make a bathroom stop too”. Mason agrees.

Before long, we stopped at a seven-eleven and Kaia and myself, have both refreshed ourselves in the ladies’ room and fed Liam and Layla, as well as changed their diapers.

We are back on the interstate again. Mason chucks a phone at each of us. “I picked these up in the shop. It’s all they had. So it’s better than nothing. Caleb gave me a smartphone. It’s a new one, so it won’t be able to be tracked. I need you to start googling while I drive”, Mason says with a determined look on his face.

“We need to figure out where we are going next. You mentioned Colorado previously, is that still where you want to go?” Mason asks me.

“Yeah I guess so, I didn’t really get to plan this part of my escape, everything kinda went pear shaped, but it looks like a great place to bring up my pups, plus it looks like a great place for a couple of shifters to live – what do you think?” I ask Mason and Kaia.

“I’m in!” Kaia says. “The more distance between Ezra and I the better I say!” she adds.

“You know I’ll go wherever you two girls and the twins go” he said with a genuine look on his face.

“Then it’s settled, we are off to Colorado. Now to figure out the best way to get there”, I say as I look at the smartphone, looking for nearby airports.

“We can’t go straight to Colorado, we will need a diversion, so we should fly to a midway point, hmmn let me think..” I said out loud.

“Iowa!” “The midway point is Iowa. We can get a flight out of the next human town. How far away are we, Mason?” I asked.

“About two hours away,” Mason replied.

“Brilliant. Oh, we have no credit cards that we can use without getting tracked.” I said sadly to the others.

“Oh but we do, Aleksa, you can thank Caleb for that one. We even have fake passports.” Mason smirks.

“Oh my goddess, I can’t believe it! That man is a godsend!” I said, beaming with relief.

I sit back in my seat and start booking our flights enthusiastically when Mason clears his throat and looks in the rearview mirror.

“Ladies, don’t look now, but, we have company” Mason says while looking in the rear-view mirror.