Finn

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"It smells so good in here!" I sing as I walked through the kitchen, my arms full of boxes. A couple of the women who were cooking laughed and thanked me as they continued preparing the meal for tonight. I hurried into the living room and set the boxes down next to Rory before I could drop them.

"This is the last of it." I told her, gesturing to the pile. She had a ladder propped against the tall fireplace, and was hanging off the edge to hang up the huge wreath we'd made out of pine branches.

Rory was very focussed on making the room look perfect, and barely looked up when I entered. She hummed to acknowledge me, and I rolled my eyes as I began to unpack the boxes. We'd spent the last week making decorations out of things from nature. We didn't have a ton of time to prepare, but we wanted the decor to reflect the forest around us and celebrate the home we were given.

I pulled out a string of dried fruit we'd hung, moving to hang it on the bannister of the stairs. A couple of younger wolves ran through the room, laughing and almost knocking me over as they chased each other into the other room. They yelled an apology as they disappeared, and I chuckled at their enthusiasm.

Despite the new year being a little over a week away, the pack was buzzing with excitement for the holiday dinner Rory had helped me plan. Cillian told me they had never done anything formal to celebrate the solstice, but I wanted to do something nice for the pack. We got all the women in the pack to help us plan the meal, and the kids helped us make the decorations. The men were spending all day training anyway, so it gave us something to keep us occupied.

Cillian canceled the afternoon training so everyone could come, and they were switching patrols halfway through so they could take turns being apart of the festivities. We had a whole feast planned, and even had little trinkets and presents for the younger wolves to play with. Some members of the pack knew how to play instruments and had planned a whole evening full of songs and entertainment. Doc even promised to sing us some songs from when he celebrated the solstice as a kid. It was shaping up to be quite the event, and I was glad to be able to contribute some happiness amidst all the stress.

"Finley, can you pass me that?" Rory called from the other side of the room, stepping down a step on the ladder and pointing at the box on the floor next to her. I finished tying up the string of fruits on the stairs and hurried over to her. The large garland was hung over the fireplace, and perfectly centered. It had pine cones and sticks strategically placed, with dried oranges as accents.

I passed her the next big item she was in charge of hanging. It was as big as me, and I had trouble lifting it to pass up to her. The large stick had several strings hanging off the side, each with their own line of decor. Pine cones, tree branches, dried fruit, leaves all hung down in a waterfall of color. On the ground, it looked like a pile of trash to me. But Rory claimed she had a vision, and I trusted her.

"Is this straight?" Rory asked me as she held the piece up to the window. I took a step back and tilted my head. She held the stick at the top of the window, so the strings all hung down like a curtain. The sunlight that came streaming through bounced off the orange slices and made the whole piece light up.

"A little down on the left," I told her, pointing my finger to one side. Rory moved it slightly, looking behind her shoulder for confirmation. I grinned and gave her a thumbs up, "there, perfect!"

"Ugh, this is exhausting." Rory groaned as she climbed down the ladder. I laughed as she collapsed onto one of the many couches scattered across the room. We had rearranged the living room to fit everyone and give plenty of space to move around.

All of the couches were pulled to the edges, leaving a large open area in the middle. In the center was a large vase with a flower arrangement Rory had made. Although, it was the middle of winter, so she hadn't been able to find many flowers. Still, she had somehow made it look beautiful.