Second Chances

Chapter 14: The Run

Kenna

    When I stepped out from behind my tree, my eyes immediately landed on Jack. His wolf was huge with beautiful sandy brown colored fur. Cleo was beside herself. My wolf counterpart was already in love with his wolf. I pranced over to him and lifted my head in a showy move. He made a humming noise and circled me slowly. He stopped when he was back in front of me.
    'Beautiful.' He said through the mind link. I'd been away from the pack so long I completely forgot about it.
    'Not so bad yourself.' I told him. I stepped closer to him and without thinking about it, I rubbed the top of my head against his chin. He leaned down a little and I moved closer to him, almost as if I were trying to hug him. He wagged his tail and he hummed again.
    'Come on. Let's go. I have so much to show you.' I nudged him and took off running.
    I showed him all my favorite places. The whole time we kept playing, nipping at each other as we ran. We had so much fun. We ran past a waterfall and I noticed he stopped.
    'Can we hike here sometime? I'd love to go swimming here.' He said.
    'Sure! That would be fun.' I told him. We took off running again and eventually ended up in a small meadow. I stopped at the edge while he walked a few steps ahead. I took the chance and pounced on him playfully. He could have easily stayed standing but he tumbled to the ground. We wrestled around until I jumped up in front of him. I put my head on my front paws while my backend was still in the air. Wagging my tail, daring him to play some more. I yapped and started prancing through the meadow. He easily caught up with me and wrestled me to the ground. Cleo was ecstatic.
    After a few minutes, we laid down together. He had his head laid over my neck. I sighed and closed my eyes.
    'Thank you for bringing me here. On this vacation I mean. I realize now that I felt like I was drowning back home. This has been really nice.' He said.
    'Thanks for coming with me. I needed this and I really needed a friend. This has been the most fun I've had in a long time.' I said back, snuggling closer to him.
    'Well thankfully we still have a couple more weeks. The fun will continue.' He nipped at my ear and got up.
    Together, we ran back to the house. We shifted and put our clothes back on. I smiled at him when I stepped out and he threw his arm over my shoulders.
    "Definitely hiking to those falls. That was so amazing." He said.
    "Agreed. Me and my parents used to hike to them all the time." I smiled up at him. He told him he was gonna go shower and walked ahead of me.
    When we got back inside, I checked my phone and saw I had a text from Zane. He was asking how we were doing and if we would come to the pack house tomorrow. I told him we were having fun and that we would come up there. I waited a bit for Jack to get out of the shower before walking to his room.
    "Hey Zane invited us to the pack house tomorrow." I said as I walked to his room. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw he was only his towel. I cleared my throat and awkwardly turned to face the wall.
    "Sounds like fun. I'm in. Why are you standing like that?" He asked, amusement in his voice.
    "I didn't know you were still in your towel. Sorry." I said.
    "You've seen me in swimming trunks. It's no big deal." He said, laughing now. "You can turn around."
I turned around and looked at him. He had a smirk on his face. He shook his head and started going through his dresser again, looking for clothes. I took the time to really look him. He was built and his muscles were well sculpted. He was half turned and I could see a drop of water going down the left side of his chest. My eyes followed it until it stopped at the towel. I cleared my throat again.
"I'm just gonna go to bed now." I turned and ran into the door frame. I quickly stepped to the side and walked back to my room. I sighed and threw myself onto my bed. Wondering how he got into my head so fast.