Winter's Awakening: The Metahumans Emerge (Winter's Saga #1) by Karen Luellen

felt a little better about voting for the motel. At this point, I didn’t even care if I had to sleep on the floor. It had been an exhausting day.
    “I vote for motel.” I yawned loudly.
    “I second that,” said Evan.
    “Motion carried,” Dr. Andrews joked through his yawns.
    A few miles ahead we saw a motel that looked as uninteresting as any of the other hundreds we’d passed so far. Dr. Andrews pulled into the parking lot, walked up to the teller’s desk and checked us in.
    He returned to the truck and began driving slowly passed the many identical doors looking for the one to which we had been assigned.
    “I’m Mr. Moore, by the way.” We all looked at him through tired, squinted eyes.
    “I paid in cash and used an assumed name. If it comes up, thought you should know; we’re the Moore family.”
    Alik started to chuckle to himself. He gets giddy when he’s super tired. “The Moore family? Morbid family. Morose family. Monitored, maintained, migrating, metas, mortuary, marred, martyred…tired.”
    The last word had him crashing into the first bed he saw. I wasn’t going to bug him about brushing his teeth. I would have felt like a hypocrite, ‘cause little ol’ Meg was skipping the brush, too. I was dog-tired…which reminded me of Maze.
    I forced myself to let Maze outside to find a nice patch of grass then we both dragged our weary butts back into the motel. I locked the flimsy door behind me thinking how easy it would be to kick this in. Then I turned around to see that every bed in both adjoining rooms had a boy in it. Four beds, four boys, one girl and her coyote. Stupid men.
    I thought about kicking Evan to Alik’s bed, but I was too tired, so I grabbed an extra pillow and a thin towel off the rack and lay down on the floor with Maze curled up beside me. I honestly don’t even remember falling asleep.
    Two things happened that night of monumental importance. First, I woke briefly only to realize I was being carried, gently, and placed on a soft bed. Covers were pulled up around me. I snuggled in, just sure I was dreaming.
    I didn’t see who carried me, but very early the next morning I found myself in the bed Cole had been sleeping in and he was sprawled out on an uncomfortable looking chair. His head tipped so far back I was sure I could see the pulse in his throat. He was going to wake with a horrible crick in his neck, no doubt about that. It was about 4am and I watched him sleep for a while smiling to myself before I dozed back off.
    And that’s when the second event happened.
    The door handle to our motel room was moving.
 
     

 
     
    Chapter 30 Wake-Up Call
     
    At first, I thought maybe someone had the wrong room and they’d find that their key didn’t work, feel foolish and move along. I thought I remembered reading something like that happening in a novel once. But that’s not what happened here.
    Instead, barely audible pins clicked into place inside the knob. I was almost mesmerized by what I was seeing—caught between awake and asleep, not sure that this was a dream. Still and silent I remained until…
    CRACK!
    The silence of the morning was shattered as harshly as the door. The shards of wood and frame didn’t have time to land before I was on my feet, yelling, “You picked the wrong room, buddy!”
    “Shut up! Get down on the floor! Everyone! Get down on the floor and put your hands behind your head! Now! MOVE!”
    Four dark figures moved like grease into the dark motel room pointing guns directly at our faces and snarling orders.
    Fully aware that my brothers were already as poised to fight as I was, I stole a glance at Dr. Andrews and Cole. Even in the dark of the room, their faces shown pale, their eyes wide with fear. They were obeying orders and lying down. Good, they needed to be as out of the way as possible. This was going to get ugly.
    “Who the hell are you? What do you want?” Alik growled menacingly at the intruders.
    “I said, ‘shut up’ punk,” the