Lone Wolf

Uninvited Guest

Once returned to Jake's backyard, I shifted back and winced from the pain. Jake was right when he told me shifting too often could actually be painful, and it felt like my entire body was sunburnt. I still had my clothes left on the porch from earlier that I did not tear while shifting, which I was lucky for. When I was fully dressed in a long sleeve shirt and jean shorts, I still could not gain the courage to go inside of The House. Easton had left me to change, but now he was inside and I couldn't tell him I wanted to leave without risking running into Jake. Also, I needed a break from the Musketeers—Easton included. Tonight proved to be too much for me and I need time for myself to relax and think things through.

It was too late to go home, especially with a stalking werewolf on the loose, so I set up camp on the porch hammock swing. The nighttime chilly air was refreshing and brought back memories of my dad taking me camping when I was younger. If I was still my human self, the temperature drop would have had me running for heat, but now, it did not bother me in the slightest. The light pollution was little to none in Moab, so I could see the constellations clearly, allowing me to settle back into the soft netting and lose myself in the stars.

I woke up not an hour later to the back porch door opening. I tensed, ready to run in case it was Jake, but relaxed back into the net when I caught the intruder's scent. "I want to be alone," I called out, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes so that I could see better.

"I don't," Aiden replied causally, moving beside the hammock so that I could see him in the moon's light. Not bothered by the chill either, Aiden was shirtless and only wore grey joggers. Without warning, he grabbed the edge of the hammock and began to climb in with me, forcing me to clamber to the edge as he rolled in beside me. The net stretched to an impossible hold and our bodies were a mere inch away from touching the porch floor. I gripped my fingers around the knots and tried my hardest to remain still as Aiden got comfortable next to me.

"I don't think this can hold our weight," I mentioned, but Aiden just shoved his arm underneath my neck to give myself a pillow and shrugged.

"I guess we will have to see." Hoping that was the last of it, I closed my eyes and attempted to fall back asleep. Instead, Aiden began playing with my hair, keeping me awake. "Easton explained to me what happened tonight. I'm sorry we pushed you so hard that you felt like you couldn't tell us what the problem was."
I reopened my eyes and tilted my head to see Aiden, who was avoiding looking at me by staring up at the stars.

I sighed, hating that I caused all of this confusion from being so inward about my thoughts. "You shouldn't be sorry. It was my problem that got us into this mess."

Aiden's arm underneath my head curled so he could play with my hair. "The thought of losing you really hurt. I don't know about you, but I consider you my best friend."

I thought about it and realized that I, too, considered Aiden my best friend. Other than Easton, he was the Musketeer that I was closest with and had always been there to help me out. "You are my best friend, Aiden," I stated adamantly, tilting my head to see a small smile on his face.

"If you don't want to join the pack, that is fine. Jake wouldn't kick you out, and not just because the rules say he can't, but I still hope you want to stay with us. While you aren't a pack member officially, my feral side is still attached to you as if you were, so it would be really disheartening if you left. Especially because you are my best friend."

I heard Aiden's sadness seep into his words, and understood that he has been abandoned by loved ones before. "What happened, Aiden?"

His jaw clenched as he tried to hold in his dejection. "It was my cousin who turned me. We were at a family gathering in California and I couldn't sleep one night, so I decided to take a walk outside." Aiden shook his head and gave a humorless laugh as he remembered all that had happened. "He was shifted and roaming the grounds. I was lucky that I did not inherit all of his primal instincts because when Tyler is shifted, he loses all human perception. He didn't recognize me.