Blood

Chapter Sixteen: Women in White?

It feels my life is taking one of those stereotypical turns right now. I have three, exactly three, long term commitments that I can't give up half way through and what happens? Well of course Zev says that he's off to fight Alpha Dai. Like excuse me, I'm the one he has a problem with, shouldn't I be the one to face him? Of course not. I'm just the Luna and I need to keep up appearances for the pack so they're not worried as their pack mates are off and about, just casually at war.

I've word puked about my anger three times. First it was Covell, then it was Lilith, and then of course Darryl, because I don't have better things to do! Talking to Covell helped, a lot. That is until he said he had to leave because he had a date with his mate. Way to rub it in. Lilith, naturally, was not by choice. After Arric and Rafe dumped her on me for a few hours while they were on patrol, she begged four hours to spill before I finally caved in. Not helpful. Darryl was me fuming. See as we're the only ones hanging around in the woods and whilst my hands were busy literally cutting down trees my mouth started running.

So here I lay, snuggled with Darryl's wolf and the kittens mentally berating myself. I really should have thought this through before adding this much to my plate. I'm out here building a cabin, and all the while I'm caring for bobcat kittens and taming Darryl's wolf.

I'm insane?

I've come up with no other possible solutions as to why I'd have chosen to do this to myself.

However, as with all things there is an upside. I'm barely thinking about my mate who is who knows where, doing who knows what. It's refreshing. Okay maybe that could be my subconscious' hidden agenda. Then again, I'm probably still insane either way.

I shift nervously as I feel the temperature begin to drop. As the sun sets I worry about heat. As in keeping warm and not dying from hypothermia. I should probably move back into the pack house, at least until I get the cabin to a point where I can put a gas powered space heater in an enclosed area. No point polluting needlessly when the heat would just all float away.

I awake with a start, still in my wolf form. A few feet away I see Darryl stroking a small fire close by. Genius, or am I just that entrenched in my own worried that I cannot logically work through a simple problem. Back to the roots of creating warmth, and you find that which is fire. Okay yes, animal pelts as blankets and huddling together in a cave might come first, but creating warmth from no where, now that starts with fire.

I grab Darryl's attention and get him to come over and watch the kittens while I go to my tent and change. I walk back over and stretch out my numerous sore muscles. It's been a very long time since I last slept as a wolf.

"When did you shift back?" I ask Darryl.

He glances up at the sky and murmurs, "Probably two, three hours ago, when I woke up."

I look up at the sky and sigh. I had probably fallen asleep not long before he'd woken. We pass the time in silence. Darryl tending the fire, while I lightly cuddle and pet the kittens, careful to not wake them. Time passes quickly and before I know it, the sun begins rising, casting an array of colors in the sky.

The wind goes still, making it feel like something has turned for the worse. Then it picks up going the opposite direction. Odd. And there is what's wrong. Rouges. Probably only two or three. Guess this is my first job as a Luna without a present Alpha. I carefully, but quickly, transfer the kittens to the tent as Darryl smothers the fire.

"Avoid sifting at all cost Darryl, but keep close," I command.

We run in silence heading towards the rouges. The forest blurs by as I run faster than I typically would with a tag along, but Darryl has Alpha blood and can probably track me quickly anyways, should I happen to lose him. When I finally sight the rouges they are milling about, looking as though they're not exactly aware of what's happening, or where they are.