Author's note: So yeah, I'm having a really hard time writing lately. I WANT to write, and I think about it, but I'm not actually writing. So in the spirit of NaNoWriMo (that I'm obviously not going to do this year) I decided to at least try to write a short story that I've had rattling around on the backburner for a while. Who knows, maybe this will jump start my brain! If nothing else, at least it will be fun. Thanks for reading!

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"There is no way this truck is going to make it any further tonight… if at all. I mean, I'm a mechanic, and even I can't make this thing go anymore."

Bella huffed as she looked at her best friend. She knew what Jake was saying was true, in all honesty she was glad the Beast - the truck, not Jake - had lasted this long. They had left Washington state about 24 hours ago and kept swapping drivers and sleeping to get as many miles as possible between them and everything they left behind. But the truck never got a break and now they were paying for it.

So here they were on the side of the road, who knows where, with steam coming out of the hood of the truck in the middle of the night and he was trying to fix it while she held her phone over it with the flash on. Prepared boy scouts they were not.

"Alright, so what do we do now? Do you think they are following us? Or maybe we'll get lucky and they will be so glad that we are gone that they will leave us alone?" With the last question she turned a hopeful smile to Jake. That would be awesome.

"Loca, do you really think they'll just let us go?" he answered while slamming the hood down on the truck.

Bella put her phone away and glanced up and down the road. "Yeah, I suppose that would be too good to be true." She gave a weary sigh. "The last town we passed was just a few miles back. Since it's around 2 in the morning I guess we just need to go back that way and try to find a room."

Jake wiggled his eyebrows at her, "one room?"

Bella huffed and shoved his shoulder with a smile, "yes, one room. Mainly because we are going to have to use our money as sparingly as possible." She grabbed her purse and bag from the truck and started walking in the direction of town, calling over her shoulder, "And you are staying on your side of the room, mister, or I'll leave you outside where the dogs are supposed to sleep!"

"You wound me!" Jake clutched at his heart while following her down the road. He would follow her anywhere, that's what got them in the problem in the first place. The tribe just wanted to see black and white with no gray, no redemption or mercy. Yeah, he could admit to himself that she made a lot of mistakes with the leeches, but then again she was a love and attention starved teenager and Eddie was a 100 something year old manipulator. Most teens make a mess of their first relationships, but most don't have to suffer eternal consequences for it. The elders wanted to see her pay for her crimes. Strangely, the wolves were the ones with the compassion. They knew what it was like to have to do the best with the hand you were dealt, and if you messed up you just kept trying. Unfortunately the elders managed to find some weird spell or something to control Sam, the Alpha, and now he commanded them all to bring her back to the Res for justice. It was horrible having to physically do something your mind told you was wrong. Thankfully Jake had been able to assume his own Alpha position and take her away. He just really wished he would have been able to break some of the others free as well, or even better if he could just find a way to break the hold the elders had on Sam….

"Boo!"

Jake tried to catch his breath and still is racing heart. Bella had just popped up in front of him out of nowhere. How did his senses miss her?

"What! Loca, don't do that to me! What's your problem?"

"Jake, I've been trying to get your attention for five minutes. There is a motel over there. I think that's where we should try to go." She pointed off to the right and Jake saw an old run down looking motel that only had the letters O EL lit up on the sign.

"I'm going to try to get us a room while you come back from space or wherever you were." Before he could say anything else she was walking into the lobby.

How had he not noticed this place before?

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Bella walked in the lobby and glanced around. It reminded her of what her parents pictures from the 70s looked like. Shag carpet, a beautiful burnt orange color at that, along with art deco lamps and way too many greens, yellows and browns made up the decor. The colors didn't do much to offset the brown paneling that was on all of the walls. But, at least it looked clean. It would sure beat sleeping outside. She looked around again because she didn't see anyone at the front desk.

"Can I help you?" a nasally voice asked from behind her.

Bella took a deep breath and spun around. There was a middle aged man there, nothing really remarkable about him. His hair was thinning and his middle was spreading, but he looked like any normal guy. He was carrying a bowl of what looked like tomato soup. The smell drifted up to her nose and she almost gagged. Whatever spices he put in there had her stomach rolling. He continued to look at her and lifted an eyebrow as he made his way to the desk with his dinner.

"Sorry," she said. "I need a room for the night please."

"No."

"No?"

He looked back up to her from his soup. "Sorry, no vacancies. Try the next town over."

Tired and weary, Bella almost lost it. "What do you mean there are no vacancies? The parking lot is almost empty!"

"Oh, yeah? So then where is your car?" he asked and she looked away sheepishly. He continued, "Looks like you don't need a car to get a room, huh?" He continued slurping on his soup.

"Surely you have at least one room left?"

He looked up, but shook his head. "Nope. No rooms for the likes of you."

"Hey! What is that supposed to mean! I'll have you know..."

Jake came in the door and shook his hair out. "Whew, Loca! You got us a room yet? I haven't had a shower in a while and even I can smell myself." The desk man stopped eating his soup and glanced up at Jake.

Bella replied while pointing at the desk man. "No, I don't. Mr. 'no rooms for the likes of you' over here won't let me..."

"You can have room 23. I just need some ID and it's $50 up front, cash only."

Bella spun around and glared at the man. "What?"

The desk guy started to eat his soup again after pulling out a key and a notepad for them to register. "I said he can have a room. If he's nice you can stay with him."

"Why I ought to..."

"Easy, Loca," Jake said. He was still trying to understand what exactly happened before he walked in. Pulling her a little off to the side he whispered, "I'm not sure what's going on, but if it gets us a room for right now just let it go. In the morning when we have slept we can try to fix the truck or at least go to a different place."

She looked up and noticed how tired he was. Neither one of them had really rested well since they left home. She had to agree, some battles weren't worth it. She growled a little under her breath, but nodded her head. Jake pulled out one of his fake IDs, signed the register, handed over a $50 and called out "Thanks" as he steered Bella towards their room.

The desk clerk watched Jake the whole way while slurping on his soup.

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"Stupid, misogynistic men and their stupid worldviews, with their stupid stinky soup…" Jake listened to Bella continue to rant and rave while she was in the shower. She had really come out of her shell over the past year, sometimes slightly too much. He was sitting on one of the double beds and going through his bag looking for something to eat and nearly jumped out of his skin when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Ah, Mr. Long, I forgot to tell you that we do have complimentary breakfast in the morning." came the nasally voice over the phone. Jake almost told the man he had the wrong person before he remembered his fake ID said 'Jay Long'.

"Oh, um, thanks. What time?" he asked while glancing at the clock in the room. It was already 3:15 in the morning. Man, he really wanted to sleep, but food sounded great as well.

"Sheila spreads it out at 6 in the morning. We look forward to seeing you there. It is all you can eat." With that the desk clerk hung up.

Bella came out of the shower in her pajamas and noticed him putting up the phone. "What's up?"

"Oh, the desk guy called to let us know there's a free breakfast in the morning in the lobby."

"Well, that's good. One less thing to worry about or pay for."

"Yeah," Jake replied. He stretched and got ready to get into bed. "He said it was all you can eat."

Bella laughed as she covered up in her bed. "Jake, I'm sure he said that, but there is no way he knows how much you can eat." She reached over to turn off the light, "Then again, after the way he treated me, go ahead and eat all of his food." It wasn't necessarily revenge, but at least she'd feel a little validated if it put the man out in some way. She listened to Jake chuckle at her and drifted off to sleep.

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