Lunae Novae

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

When everyone woke, Lycus begrudgingly got from where I still stroked him, and trotted into the woods. Dakota smirked and sat down beside me, nudging into me.

“Fraternizing with the leader?”

“Hardly.” I scoffed, although my wolf was urging me to look for him. Where was he going? I shook the thought from my head. I hardly had any right to think about him at all. Let alone in the fond way my wolf had suddenly taken to thinking of him.

“I couldn’t sleep.” I explained.

Chatan passed out food, more canned goods heated over the fire. Cortie complained about not getting enough food on “these damn missions.” And the girls settled next to the fire with their sleeping bags over their shoulders.

When Lycus finally came back, his fur was wet and he shook it off onto Cortie. Cortie’s shoulders bunched up at contact.

“Hey!” Cortie hollered, turning around to see the wolf behind him. “Thanks a lot.”

Lycus came back and laid down at the fire in front of my feet. I ignored him, but my wolf settled down, and we were in silence. When his fur dried he lifted and walked to the van returning, clothed and sitting on the log next to mine.

Great. I thought, had he felt the weird connection since we touched too? I glanced around to see if anyone had noticed our strange behavior, but no one blinked an eye in my direction.

My hand itched to reach out to him, to feel the warmth spread through my skin again.

Stupid.

I stuffed my hands under my legs and sat on them until everyone finished eating.

“Today we'll be scouting out Fort Collins, and everyone will stick with their assigned partner.” Lycus stood and looked around at everyone.

“Chatan and Hania will be together. Cortie and Garth. Emmaline and Maggie.” He turned and looked at Dakota, “You’ll be with me, Dakota.”

Dakota and I shared a look. I was glad that if she wasn’t with me, she would be with someone my wolf felt was capable to take care of her.

After breakfast, we went to work getting the camp deconstructed and packed back into the van. Cortie and I went about taking down the wires and putting the jingle bells away.
When we finished we all piled back into the van. This time, Lycus insisted that Chatan ride up front with Garth. I wrestled with Dakota to sit in the back with the girls, but she sent a sharp elbow into my ribs and I was forced between the boys again.

With every bump my arm would brush against his and the warmth would spread along my arm before dying out. Was this how the gaggle of girls who followed him around felt? I wondered as it once again happened. He acted oblivious to what was happening and I kept my mouth shut too.

When we got close to Fort Collins, we hid the van in the woods and piled out. We were going to enter at different points of the town and act as normal as we could.

Lycus showed us a map, divided into 4 sections. Each group would take a section and scope it out before tonight. Emmaline and I had a huge store in our part of the map.

The adrenaline was already pumping through my veins, my wolf's sudden obsession with being near Lycus was pushed to the back of our minds. We had a job to do.

Emmaline and I set off, headed towards a wooded area that would lead us to the back of the store. We walked in silence for awhile before hiding in the brush at the edge of the woods.

There were large semi trucks, unloading shipments onto the back deck. An idea came to me, and I smiled at Emmaline.

I watched as a truck pulled in, the driver parking and getting out before heading inside the warehouse part of the store. Fifteen minutes passed before him and another man came out, opened the doors and started unloading the truck.