Hard To Balance: Trials & Tribulations #1 | An MM Paranormal Romance

( 2 ) CHAPTER TWO | CYRUS ROWAN

"How far are we even going?"

"If we're going all the way into town, shouldn't we have taken a car?"

"Or we could have run the whole way..."

I send a glare over my shoulder at the whining idiots behind me, and they all shut up.

"Walking is good for you," I say, dismissing all their complaints. "And you know going down the mountain in shifted form is not allowed. Besides, it isn't even that far." Pussies.

It isn't that they were tired of walking, they were feeling antsy--hell, we all are, and they want to to run free. If wolves could shift back and forth while keeping their clothes on, everyone would go into town in their shifted form instead of taking a car, but the pack had rules.

Life is filled with rules. And we have to follow them.

For the sake of safety and keeping our secret and protecting the pack from the normal humans, no wolves went down the mountain in shifted form. It is prohibited.

Yeah, I have broken that rule a few times, but as the newly appointed Alpha, I can no longer act like a careless kid. Besides, I'm barely twenty-one. It's way past time to grow up and be more responsible. But where was the fun in that? There weren't any.

We needed to go into town to grab some supplies. The little Alaskan town, blanketed in snow, is situated at the base, with the pack grounds nestled a little higher up on the mountain.

People from the pack mingled in town all the time, we even went to the local schools, but to the people in Anchorage, the pack grounds are a privately owned campsite. Because of that, even when people go up the mountain, we have always stayed relatively safe. However, since the mountain road is open to everyone, it won't be long before people start crying about wolf sightings, so we stay shifted only in the pack grounds, which have always been private.

It would be easier if the trees provided some kind of cover, but the trees are sparse and the ground is covered with snow for most of the year.

. . . So, why didn't we just take a car?

No reason, actually. I just couldn't be bothered.

The guys had offered to drive but I decided we needed the exercise. It has been too long since I have been down from the mountain, and quite honestly, pack duties were beginning to stress me the fuck out. Cyrus this, Cyrus that, Cyrus please come help me with this . . . All I wanted to really do is fall into my bed and sleep forever without any interruptions, but these days, that seemed far-fetched and comical. I mean, hell, when's the last time I've even had sex? Way too long.

But, just because they did it without protest, didn't mean they weren't going to whine the entire way down the mountain about it.

Carrying everything back with our bare hands will be a hassle, though, so someone will be picking us up later with a truck. I'm all for walking down the slippery slopes, but carrying everything we intended to get back up was not an option I was even considering.

Yeah. Fuck that.

"Hey, what's that?"

I zoned out for a moment, and when I come to, I realize we are already at the bottom of the mountain. Since we took a shortcut through the woods rather than walking down the winding road, it's taken a hell of a lot less time than it would have, but we have to get to the road before anyone noticed. It will be weird otherwise.

There is still a bit of distance and some trees between us and the road, but I can see through them clearly. At around where the main road connected to the mountain road, there was a red truck. Standing close to the truck stood a kid. From a distance, he couldn't have been that much younger than me.