Torn

Chapter Thirty

Don't expect this too often but I decided to write another chapter during the week. I hope you know that I sacrificed lunch to get this out for your butts.

 *****

I wiped sweat off my forehead, letting out a little sigh. This small house would be ready tomorrow, I think. Well, either way, it was going great. We only had to start furnishing it and painting. Everything else was done. The product of the prior day's work.

It was nearly six now and some of the workers were starting to voice their complaints, wanting food. We were a bit overdo for some dinner anyway. I let them go back home to eat.

I wanted to stay behind, partly because I was a coward and partly because I wasn't that hungry. I didn't want to go home quite yet. Admittedly, I wasn't too keen on facing Dean and Mason.

I sat on the back steps, facing a truck that one of the workers must have left behind.

The workers were all people from my pack. No one from Dean's pack volunteered to help. Either way, it'd be my people who worked the hardest. They were the ones that needed homes so undoubtedly, they would want to work toward that goal.

We were making good time as it was. We didn't really need more help but we could sure use it. And it was bothering me that no one really wanted to mix in such a prominent way. Each pack stayed to themselves for the most part. The younger wolves, children especially, were keen on meeting new people. The adults and elders stayed stubbornly to their own people.

It wasn't exactly healthy, seeing as how we were mixed permanently. It was creating unnecessary tension.

I'd have to fix that soon.

My stomach growled, telling me that I was lying to myself and that I was hungry. Well, hell. Guess I need to go home after all.

 *****

The dining room was the only place where the two packs didn't have any problem mixing. It seems that people are less reluctant when they're stuffing their faces.

I grabbed a plate and walked up to Dean's room. I didn't feel like socializing too much. I simple wasn't in the mood for it. Cris was pacing, uneasy for some reason I couldn't correctly define. Something had us out of sorts.

It wasn't something necessary bad. More... uncomfortable? Was that the right word? Whatever it was, it had Cris in a state of anticipation.

Hmm.

The rowdy noise of dozens of wolves feeding receded as I walked up the stairs. Each step only brought that anticipation in sharper focus, making me wonder what the hell was waiting for me at the top.

When I opened the door, Mason was on the bed, doing his homework.

Was he the one making us get out of sorts?

No... no. It's something else, Cris whimpered.