Blood

Chapter Six: Moving

The last of the mated pairs to return is Lilith and her mates, Rafe and Arric. She looks extremely embarrassed. My guess is that her embarrassment is not being the last to return but instead because of her parents. I doubt they just rolled over and were understanding about the fact that their daughter is mated to twins. When I ask her about my theory she puts her face into her hands and mumbles that I'm correct.

I chuckle and then ask, "Is everyone here?" I get a unanimous yes so I continue, "And is everyone ready to leave?" Once again I get only yeses so we group up, closer to one another.

"How many cars did you guys bring for the move?" I inquire.

"Three SUV's," the beta's son answers. I should really get his name from him.

I tsk and then inquire, "My lovely she-wolves, how many of you have cars from your parents."

A few raise their hands. I have the females who raised their hands go retrieve their cars and direct all of the cars head to the same location to the front of the packhouse. The rest of us work together to move all our luggage outside and wait for the cars. Once they've all arrived I split up the people. When I'm down to figuring out the last two cars I come to an inconvenience.

"You know what?" I decide. "You all put your luggage in the black car, and ride in the grey one. I'll drive the black car so that I don't have to split any mated pairs."

They agree with my proposal and they quickly finish loading the cars. I deposit my own luggage on the passenger side of the car I'll be driving. Surprisingly even with the luggage of five people I haven't significantly impaired my vision for driving. Thank goddess I didn't need to get the other two's stuff in there as well. Trunks are a blessing to cars I must say.

I plug my phone into the car and set a playlist for the drive. This is going to take us until midday two days from now to arrive in Zev's pack lands. Driving is remarkably slower than running as wolves since we have to follow the roads, and the human's rules. As werewolves, we're faster than normal wolves, excluding omega's. Usually, we can able to run from 45-60 mph, but I can reach 75 mph if I put in my full effort.

It's almost three in the morning when we finally decide to stop and rest for the night. Conveniently, through the she-wolves', we are able to connect one person per car in a call. The mated pairs pair up to get rooms for the night, I'm with Lilith, Rafe, and Arric. When we reach the room I slump down on the bed. Unlike the others, I hadn't been able to switch off driving with another periodically throughout the drive.

We've decided to get back on the road at nine so I instructed everyone to be awake by eight. I set an alarm on my phone and then pass out. I have another nightmare, but luckily this one is not from my past. I wake at five and when I cough a little I notice my blood on my hand. I grumble under my breath, then grab one of the key cards and the car keys before heading down to the car.

I search the medication I need from my bag and swallow it, swigging it down with a water bottle I left in the car. I grab a change of clothes for the morning and then head back up to the room. When I come in I notice that Lilith is snuggled up in between the twins. They're adorable. Some might be off-put because of it being a polyamorous relationship, but I think different. It's what the moon goddess thought was best for them, who am I to disrespect her decision? I set my clothes down on the end of my bed and then crash into the pillows once more.

My alarm startles me awake. I shoot up and looking around observe that the twins are both awake but Lilith is sleeping through the alarm. I stop the alarm and then stretch out. I leave the three of them to themselves as I head to the bathroom to change.

"Shit," I mumble as I look at my hand. It's covered in dry blood.

I quickly wash my hands and pray that no one will ask about the faint stench of blood. I sigh and then change my clothes. Once I'm done I lightly cover the bags under my eyes with concealer and then walk back out to the others. Lilith has finally woken and she's stretching. Rafe and Arric each kiss one of her hands and she instantly blushes. I smile and leave the room to offer them privacy.

I head down to the hotel-provided breakfast and stack up on food. I'm the only of the wolves down so far, so the humans are giving me weird looks for how much food I'm placing on my plate. Poor hotel staff are going to be run dry of food once we've all come through.

Once I've finished I head out to the car and sit in it, resting my eyes. When my alarm that's set for five til nine goes off I step out and see the others coming out. They all offer good mornings to me, which I return, and then pile into their respective assigned vehicles.

As we start on the road we set up the call once more. "Okay guys," I speak up, they all go quiet to hear me over the sounds of the road. "If we can push through we might be able to get onto pack lands my midnight. Would you prefer to push through or stay at a hotel just outside of pack lands for the night?"

The decision is unanimously for pushing through to the pack lands. Until Lilith speaks up, "But Luna, will you be fine driving that long?"

"I'll be fine. If it becomes an issue I will make sure to let you all know," I respond, sounding confident. I'm not confident, this isn't going to be easy with my current condition. After a bit more discussing we hang up and I put on my music, settling into the lul of the drive.

We stop for thirty minutes for lunch and I catch a quick fifteen-minute nap. Feeling refreshed I get a sandwich to-go. A few of the others follow suit, knowing they'd probably be hungry before we stop for dinner.

Just as the sun begins to set I catch sight that the mountains that the pack lands occupy the edge of. Only a few more hours. The landscape also starts changing, the roads become more curvy as hills dominate the landscape.  As the sun finishes setting I start to feel the tiredness setting in. I shake it off and then call the others.

"Let's stop for dinner next chance we get. Then we're on the home stretch," I say.

I get agreement and then promptly the car at the front mentions, "There's a wing place at the next exit."

"Perfect," I respond and the call goes quiet.

We all follow the front car to the place and find that the parking lot is almost full. With us, there's hardly a parking spot left. We decide that we need to be back on the road at the top of the hour at the latest, which is roughly 45 minutes away. When we walk in I'm surprised when we're told it would only be a five to ten-minute wait for our entire group to be seated. I rest my eyes until she comes back.

We receive our food with twenty minutes to spare before we need to be out on the road again. We devour the food. I feel refreshed after. Nothing like eating twenty spicy wings in ten minutes to wake you right up. With the remaining time I take another micro nap on the table. The beta's son pays using the pack card and then we quickly leave. Back on the road, I pull out the sandwich I'd bought at lunch. I'd forgotten about it, and I am unfortunately still hungry. All too soon it's gone and I'm back to the never-changing task of driving.

It's easy to feel, and smell, when we enter the pack lands. We'd turned off the main highway and almost instantly the land looked more alive. The road also soon turning to dirt. It was almost ten miles in when the trees started, quickly thickening. The smell of nature chasing away the remaining stench of cities and humans.

A few wolves show up after a moment and flank the cars. Within the hour we reach the packhouse. Zev comes out and greets us. Once he's spoken to the others he pulls me into his arms. His eyes glowing he takes in my scent before letting go. I feel peaceful, but reluctantly pull way to grab my luggage.

Zev insists on taking my luggage for me, but I make sure that he leaves me with my bag that has my medications in it. We wait until all the others have gotten their things and retreated inside before doing so ourselves. Zev leads me to his, well now our, room. We set down my suitcases in the corner of the room, then Zev pulls me to bed.

I roll my eyes and pull away, explaining that I need to change first. When I come back he's lying in bed, flipping through a stack of papers. I crawl into bed and try to not disturb him. He has other ideas though. He puts down the papers, on his side table, and pulls me into him. He growls at me softly and then settles us down to sleep.

Before drifting into a surprisingly peaceful sleep I pray that I don't have an episode tonight. It would be impossible to hide with his arms wrapped around me.

Edited. 1691 words.