NaNoWriMo Story Snippets

18. Excerpt from MOON-MARKED 2

Subject to editing, etc. This is very tentative, because I forgot to re-read the original one before July and I don't want to contradict myself. I have an idea I really like for it, but it will involve some retconning or outright erasure of a previous bit (depending on how generous you feel), so I'm hoping I can make it work.

"Stop fucking already and get out of bed! We're leaving in thirty minutes!" Roman's voice burst into the room with same intensity as curtains being spread open wide to let in the sun, and Seth and Becky flinched from it in much the same way. She recovered faster, though, and pulled the sheets up to her chest when looked towards the hotel room door. It was resolutely closed and they were completely alone, but Roman's voice cut though their cozy, quiet room once more. "Stop fucking already and get out of bed! We're leaving in thirty minutes!"

"My phone," Seth groaned, reaching towards the bedside table. "Roman was fucking with it last night. He must have made some custom alarms. I sure as hell didn't set one for six in the morning." Thanks to some flight delays, they wouldn't be able to fly out of the city until late afternoon, so a group of them—The Shield, Renee, Paige, and the Four Horsewomen minus Charlotte, who was spending time with her ailing father—had decided to go on a morning hike in lieu of doing a workout. Two alarms had gone off on Seth's phone earlier, but they had mostly slept through the six o'clock one and were having sex when the second one trilled. Contrary to Roman's assumption, they weren't fucking this time around, though they were definitely getting close to it. Since the full moon was still a couple weeks away, Becky was getting in as much fun as she could.

"I don't do that," Becky murmured, burying her face in Seth's shoulder, "and you get mad when I try to play with your phone."

"Because last time you did, you changed all my contacts' names to Irish folklore characters and it took me three days to get it sorted out!" Shaking his head, Seth dialled Roman's number—because of the aforementioned name changes, he was trying to memorize more numbers and dial them from memory rather than speed dial—and rubbed Becky's back with his free hand. "What the hell, man? What did you do to my phone?"

Becky would have been able to hear Roman's chuckle even if she weren't a werewolf. It was one of those deep, resonant sounds she found comforting. "And we weren't fucking, by the way," she piped up, barely lifting her head from Seth's chest.

"As if anyone will believe that. You two better be getting ready. I've already rented the group van and everyone's downstairs except Sasha," Roman reported, "so hurry up." Then he disconnected, leaving Seth holding a silent phone.

"Go shower first," Seth offered, sitting up and drawing Becky along with him. "I'll get clothes out of our bags and you can change while I'm in there."

Becky rubbed at her eyes before kissing him. "No breakfast?"

Seth shrugged, nudging her closer to the edge of the bed. "Roman's the tyrant, not me. Take it up with him." He squeezed her thigh as he stood and headed over to their pile of bags.

Sighing, Becky stood and shuffled into the bathroom, turning the shower on as cold as she could bear—which wasn't very much. It might she didn't linger under the spray, though, and she only did a quick wash. If they were going hiking, after all, they were going to get sweaty anyway, and they would have to return to the hotel to get their bags before heading to the hotel. After towel-drying her hair, she wrangled it into a ponytail and then dried off as best she could. Her clothes were probably going to stick to her anyway, but the upside to leggings was that they were supposed to fit close anyway. "I'm out!" she called, draping her towel on the rack before poking her head around the bathroom's door frame. She hadn't heard any knocking, but she wouldn't put it past Roman to come make sure they were getting ready and hadn't tried to sneak in one final quickie.

Seth gave her a quick kiss before sneaking around her into the bathroom. "T-shirt and leggings okay?"

"Always." Becky bit down on a laugh as Seth turned on the shower again and promptly howled in surprise at the temperature of the water. "I thought it would wake us up!" she called out. Before he could hop out and tickle her, Becky started getting dressed. The t-shirt didn't actually cling too much and once she unrolled the leggings, they smoothed out well enough. While she was tying her shoes, she saw Seth's cross-body bag on the dresser, so she spilled her purse out onto the bed and put only the necessities back in while sweeping the rest into her luggage; she could sort things out when they came back to repack.

"I'm getting you back for that," Seth said, coming up from behind her and almost taking her by surprise when his hands landed on her hips. He must have taken his clothing in with him, because he was already dressed, his hair up in his trademark man-bun.

Becky turned to face him, tilting her face up for a kiss. "Or I could make it up to you," she countered, "with a quickie in the forest. Dean and Renee will be in their own little world, Paige will be complaining about her boots, and Sasha, Bayley, and Roman will get into some competitive thing about jumping over logs or whatever, so I'm sure we'll be able to sneak off for a bit. . . ."

"We'll see. It'll depend on how many people are on the trails. I thought Bayley looked the park up yesterday and said it was pretty popular with hikers." It didn't stop Seth from kissing her, and they almost tumbled back on the bed, but a knock on the door stopped them both. "We're just getting our shoes on!" he called out.

"Prove it!" It was Paige's voice, tired and irritated., and Becky untangled herself from Seth to go open the door. "Don't worry," Paige added, stifling a yawn. "Roman said we're stopping for a fast-food breakfast. Well, for you lot." As a vampire, Paige could eat human food, but it did her little good. When Seth went to grab his bag, Paige leaned in and whispered, "I'm surprised you're not having a quickie."

Becky rolled her eyes. "You and Roman both. Maybe I'll sneak him off in the forest."

Paige laughed. "Very wolfy of you." Before Seth could ask, she smiled and opened the door. "Keys, phones, everything? Let's go get our Daniel Bryan nature walk over with so I don't lose too much of my lovely pallor." As she started down the hall to the elevator, she imitated Daniel's Yes! Yes! Yes! gesture, using her middle fingers instead of the index ones.