As the road approaches Wake Forest, it widens to a four-lane divided highway and runs along the southern side of the city.

Once leaving Wake Forest NC 98 becomes a two lane road again, running through rural areas east of Bunn.

From its terminus, the road heads east along Holloway Street, following a concurrency with US 70 Business.

NC 98 continues running along Holloway Street, until intersecting Clayton Road, where it then become Wake Forest Highway.

After passing by the Wakefield neighborhood, the road has a single-point urban interchange with US 1 (Capital Boulevard).

Continuing straight it goes on to intersects Galaxy Drive, US 1A (South Main Street), Franklin Street, and Heritage Lake Road, before meeting back up with NC 98 Business at the Wait Avenue/Jones Dairy Road intersection.

The highway passes through a very rural area east of Wake Forest, with a few neighborhoods present.

NC 98 continues southeast along its own highway, toward Spring Hope running through very rural areas of Nash County.

NC 98 has its eastern terminus at an intersection with US 64 Alternate, which continues east to Spring Hope and south to the US 64 freeway.

[7][8] In 1981, part of NC 98 was abandoned and placed on new construction as a result of the creation of Falls Lake; remnants of the old alignment that were not submerged became secondary roads.

[5] As of March 2017, NCDOT is conducting a study about the future of a 27-mile-long (43 km) stretch of the highway from US 70 in Durham to US 401 north of Rolesville.

The road runs northeast along the western edge of the Crenshaw Hall Plantation neighborhood.

Once reaching downtown the road runs along the southern side of the Southeastern Baptist Seminary before having a roundabout intersection with US 1A.

NC 98 Business turns right onto Roosevelt Avenue and enters downtown Wake Forest.

The road merges into Wait Avenue and continues east out of downtown Wake Forest.