The weather is still turning fast, but no snow has fallen, just gusty cold wind and frost in the mornings that is taking longer and longer to melt each day.
“Three days! I can’t wait.” Mina is jumping up and down.
She has taken on some of the mannerisms of these college girls, and while it’s endearing when she does it, the rest of them just kind of annoy me. I don’t understand getting excited about a nail polish color or the sale at a certain store, but I get the excitement of going home for a few days.
Home. That is such a weird thing to think about, because the compound is home to me. The castle is home to me. If I really think about it the Blue Crescent packhouse is home sort of. I don’t know if it will feel the same if or when I go back though. I have changed a lot being with the warriors and it hasn’t even been a year yet.
I miss Lillian, Wyatt and Nathaniel. They took me in without question and honestly very little information. Everyone else seems to be an open book, but they all understand that I have my reasons for keeping details to myself. They all know the condensed story of how I got the scars on my back, even Mina has asked since they always seem to be on display whenever Luna Anne and Sierra dress me. And they know I was attacked and drugged before coming here.
These friends don’t see me as weak though, they see me as
a survivor and I have started to believe them. It makes me feel lighter, better, bigger somehow in my tiny five foot tall self.
Just as I finish the thought, the front door to our little rental bursts open with Nickolas covered in snow.
“What the hell?!” Mina shouts.
“Some kind of Nor’easter, I’ve been sensing snow for days, but I didn’t expect anything like this.” Nickolas says, shaking out his hair and untying his boots. “The rest of the team is back at camp getting things settled there, ready if the storm moves that far south. I got supplies, but we need to be ready to be stuck for a bit.”
“WHAT! NO! We were supposed to go and meet with the Elders this weekend so we could get our brands. Why does it feel like something is always stalling this process?”
“Maybe because you both are too young to be doing this.
Maybe because you are now eighteen and your mate is close so the universe is trying to keep you from blocking the pull. Maybe it’s the Goddess telling all these f*ckers that think you both are disposable little girls, that you are too important to be throwing out as bait for grown ass wolves to take advantage of if things go wrong.” He takes a deep breath and heads through the small sitting room to our open concept kitchen and starts digging in the fridge. :
He still hasn’t given up the idea that we aren’t supposed to
be here. I have tried talking to him about it and he just says it’s an instinct. He seems to be overly protective of the two of us specifically though, also ‘an instinct.’ He doesn’t act this way with Alyssa and she’s only a couple years older than Mina and she hasn’t found or searched for her mate either and she was given her brand with the rest of her warrior class without all the fuss. So I don’t understand why he’s hung up on the two of us.
“I have coolers all set for the stuff in the fridge to go outside if we lose power. There is plenty of dry firewood in the shed outback and more in the yard. The biggest thing is keeping the pipes in the house from freezing and exploding.”
He moves to walk back to his room, which is where he spends most of his time. I love that here in the house he doesn’t hover at all. He lets us be and do what we want.
The minute we leave the house is a whole other story, but he has his reasons I guess.
“But seriously, aside from being able to see other people and train properly and use the hot tub, what about our brands? We need them and you know it. What is the point of all of this if we can’t even go out and know that you guys can track us if sh*t hits the fan?
Because that’s the endgame right? For sh*t to hit the fan and for one or both of us to be kidnapped. No one else has thought of a solution to the lack of being able to track by scent and apparently that is the only type of tracking we know or teach, also something we should be working on.” Mina is or fire and
I’m not about to stop her, cause I agree. The dependence on our abilities has made us blind to the fact that they could be taken away.
