Evil is looming on the horizon.
Matthias can feel it. The rest of the pack senses it too. Their duty is to protect those who can't protect themselves, but how can they do that when the monsters they hunt are changing? After an increase in human dis...
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I never cared much for hammocks. There was just something about them that never appealed to me. Mostly because there were a thousand other things I could be doing instead of lounging around in one like a damn house cat. But here I was, lying in the suspended rope mesh bed, watching as the evening sun began to disappear behind the trees.
This was the first time in a long while that I'd been able to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. During the winter it was cloudier more often than not. It wasn't too often you'd get what you'd call a clear and sunny day. If it stayed this way, we'd be in for a colder than normal night tonight. Not that I minded, I preferred the crisp wintertime air over the unforgiving heat of the summer.
My focus drifted from the cloudless sky and toward the open back door of the guest house. The Cloud View was now ready for whichever Alpha would be assigned to it. Tasha spent her time washing curtains, pillows, and whatever else she could cram into the washing machine. Mason managed to set up the kitchen and dining area on his own, to my surprise. I'd forgotten what a hard worker he was when he set his mind to something because it took him no time to get everything cleaned and organized.
Farkas had dropped off a load of groceries to stock the refrigerator with, before taking off to deliver to all the other houses. There wasn't enough food to sustain our guests for the duration of their stay, but it was a start. We'd eventually have to go hunting to restock our own freezer at the pack house, but we'd be okay for a little while. Alaric never let our meat supply get too low and it wouldn't be long before he'd send us out for more.
Cheyenne and I had done the remainder of the house. We cleaned the floors and made sure there wasn't too much dust laying on top of the bigger pieces of furniture. She ended up doing more than she really needed, but she was adamant that she wanted to keep working. Her determination was one of the things I liked the most about her. You couldn't tell her she couldn't do something, because she'd be damn sure she proved to you that she could.
When I met her, I never expected things to end up the way they did. I knew she'd be important to the pack, but I didn't anticipate just how important. Mason had told her that she saved his life, but I don't think she knows that she saved Alaric's too. He was going downhill fast and had she not shown up when she did, who knows how much longer it would have been until he got himself killed. In the darkest parts of Alaric's soul, she was a glowing halo of hope for him.
Seeing the two of them filled me with a lot of feelings that I didn't quite know how to pinpoint. I was happy for them, that much I knew. But there was something that stirred around in my gut that I didn't recognize.
I laid my head back, letting my eyes fall closed for a moment. The breeze had picked up a little and the hammock swayed gently between the two pines it was attached to. It wouldn't be long before the sun was setting and the temperature would begin to plummet. This much quiet time to myself was never a good thing. My mind never seemed to quit wandering, even when I was trying my best to keep it restrained.
