The whole family was up and fed before daybreak and as Cassy was stacking the dishwasher, Wesley and Connie stepped into the kitchen. Connie sporting a fresh bite mark on her left shoulder and his arm circling her waist, keeping her as close as possible.
Cassy snapped her finger, glancing at the two of them slyly, “I have a gift for the two of you.” She handed them a box, covered in bright red tinsel paper.
When the box was unwrapped a box of condoms was revealed and Connie blushed nearly as red as the paper. Wesley only laughed, and if possible dragged her even closer to plant a kiss on her head.
“Now Wes, you have to please make sure that you do not get her pregnant before the two of you finish school. You hear me?”
He rolled his eyes at Cassy. “I got that speech from my dad last night and then not half an hour later, from her dad as well. Don’t worry. I am much too young to be a father right now, and considering all the gross things I had to do while helping with the little ones, I can definitely wait for about five years before I get stuck with that for good.”
Connie nodded her head in agreement. “The kids are great, and I look forward to having babies, but not right away.”
Laughing and joking they all stepped outside and moved towards the parked truck. All the goodbyes had been said last night upon Cassy’s insistence. This morning they were only allowed to wish them a safe journey, so the goodbye hugs and wishes were kept short and sweet, and Cassy climbed into the passenger side while speaking to her dad.
“I will phone you as soon as we arrive, and when everything is settled, you guys are going to have to come and visit.”
Alex gunned the engine and everybody took a step back, waving as they drove out into the slightly misty morning.
Cassy knew without looking that he was glancing at her regularly, but while they were traveling through the woods to reach the main road, she kept her eyes on the blurry trees passing by. She felt rather upset with herself. Last night, after crying for nearly two solid hours, she had decided that her new life was going to be an adventure and that she would not cry about leaving again. It was not necessary to cry, after all, she would be seeing them again, perhaps in about three months or so?
So there was no reason for her to carry on like this now, so just ‘STOP IT’, she told herself; and to her dismay, found herself crying properly.
Alex let her get it out, and when she seemed to be a bit calmer, he reached out and patted her knee clumsily. “They can come and visit as soon as you want, and anytime you want to come here, we can.”
Cassy sniffed unladylike, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands; she smiled at him weakly, warmed that he had said we; and not you. “Thanks, I do not normally behave like this.”
“It is quite all right. Leaving everything you know behind to set up house with a complete stranger is not something that happens every other day.”
Sighing she turned towards him, shifting on the seat so that she sat with one leg folded under her. “Thank you for understanding. I know this is not exactly what you were expecting when you agreed with the other alphas to visit the more successful packs.”
Alex frowned, “That is an understatement if ever I heard one. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized what had happened.”
Cassy punched him lightly in his side. “Oh come on! Don’t underestimate yourself. I would most likely have needed the whole darn chicken to knock you over. You are a werewolf after all.”
He smiled briefly at her attempt to lighten the atmosphere.
“So,” she said; hiding a surprised yawn behind her hand “tell me a bit more about your brothers.”
After a quick look at her he shook his head. “Why don’t you rather see if you can get a bit of sleep now? I know that you were awake for a long time last night.”
“How do you know? You didn’t sleep outside my bedroom door again did you?”
He raked his big hands through his hair, something Cassy had noticed he did when he was uncomfortable. “No,” he sighed “I seem to have picked up the habit of falling asleep to your breathing when you are sleeping, and even in my own room, I could still hear you cry.”
“Oh!” Was all Cassy could manage, taking in what he had said. “But that means that you got even less sleep than I did!”
“Only marginally. But because I am not an emotional wreck, I think I can safely say that I should be OK for the next few hours. Now go to sleep Cassy.”
“I am not an emotional wreck!” She exclaimed hotly.
“Hmm,” Alex mused; “perhaps ‘emotional wreck’ is a bit overstated. How about: not quite yourself’, would that do?”
Pretending to think about his rephrasing what she was going through, she shifted in her seat, looking at his profile. Something about him was different. She could not put her finger on it, but she had felt the change in him last night after they had accompanied Connie to her house - Wesley had gone running with the other wolves – and the two of them were walking back to the pack house.
Her dad had waited up for them, and they had given a full report of Wesley’s change. After a cup of tea, they said their goodbye –goodnights and went upstairs to their bedrooms.
At her door, before she could slip inside, he grabbed hold of her arm. Surprising her, she fell against him and his strong arms kept her there after only a moment’s hesitation. Feeling the heat off of his body flow into her, lighting her up; she tried unsuccessfully to keep her body from shaking violently at the fire consuming her. She was so wrapped up in her world of new sensations, that she was unaware of how her body responded to the situation, but when he took a deep breath, his groan rumbled through his frame and she felt it.
Blushing she took a step back. “I really am sorry about that.” She whispered, not able to look him in the eyes, so she missed the slight crinkling at the corner of his eyes and the half smile on his lips.
“I would hate to think you are able to that whenever you like. That would give you a most unfair advantage over me. But I must admit; the wolf in me is extremely pleased at your reaction to us.”
It took a while for his words to sink in, but when they did she gaped at him; then slapped his arm softly. “That pervert! I hope you keep him under control.”
“I will try my best, but at some stage I will not be able to do that any more. It seems easier tonight though.” He sounded awed at the realization he had just come to. “Even with you so close to me.”
He had kissed her on her cheek, spun around and marched off to his own room two doors away from her after his startling declaration. In a daze, she turned around into her own room and walked towards the bed, stripping. And that is when she saw her room, bare of all the personal nick-knacks that indicated some one had made this space their own. Nothing of hers was left here and at that moment she felt just as bare inside. That is when the crying started until she fell asleep.
Which left her too muddled up to even try and sort out what was happening between them now. Perhaps it would be wiser to take his advice and get a nap. There was still a long road ahead and they had both agreed to rather take turns driving, than sleeping over.
“OK. I will settle for: ‘not quite myself’ for the moment, but after my nap I will be fully functional again, so no more wisecracks at my expense!”
“Accepted, now go to sleep.”
“Fine, but if I am not awake in three hours, just give me a shove. I might bite off your head, but it would definitely wake me up.”
“Hang on! Wouldn’t it be better for me to let you sleep then, rather than wake you?”
“If you don’t wake me up, I will rip of your arms and feed them to you. Biting your head off is much less painful for you, don’t you think!”
He just looked at her, his eyebrows raised as if asking her if she really expected a reply.
She hid a yawn behind her hand and squirmed into a more comfortable position. “I am going to sleep; you can wake me after four hours.” She flashed him a smile before closing her eyes, and in a few minutes he could her from her breathing that she was sleeping.
Alex kept one eye on her and the other on the road the whole time, thinking. If they drove right through, taking only the necessary pit stops when they needed to, it would still take them almost three days to drive home. Cassy had stubbornly refused to trust another driver with her stuff. He had discovered during that argument that she is a very hard headed woman. On the one hand it was terribly annoying, but on the other hand, it was comforting to know that she was able to stand up for herself. He wondered what her reaction to his brothers would be.
Thinking of his brothers; he took out his cell phone and dialed the number for the house. They never really carried their phones with them when they went out, but most of them should be in at the moment anyways.
After a few rings, he heard Brian rumble a cheerful: “Grey residence.”
“Brian, it’s me. How are things there?”
“Hey me, things are going OK on our side, what time do we pick you up at the airport?”
“Well, that’s just it;” he had let them know that he had been detained, but not why. He still had so much to process at that time. “I gave my ticket away.”
“Huh? That is strange for you, but you have enough cash on you to get another, so what’s the issue?”
“Well, if you must know I am driving down.”
“What! I can’t believe that! Not you, you would rather run all the way back in wolf form rather than drive.”
“Yeah, that would have been so much simpler, but even I cannot carry a truckload of furniture on my back all the way.”
“OK you. Hang on for one second. This is seriously not like you. What happened? Tell me everything, and I mean everything.”
“Can’t. I am driving at the moment so you are just going to get the basics. We can discuss how this is going to affect things when we get there.”
“We?”
“Yes. We. I was fortunate enough to find my mate during this little trip of mine, so we are driving a truck load of her stuff down. We should be there in about three days so...”
“Three days! Are you crazy! It should take at least five days to drive from there to here.”
“No, we are coming straight through; we both thought it would be best.”
“But there is no way you can drive all the way!”
“I am touched by your concern, however; Cassy will be driving as well.”
“She has a license to drive a truck, oh; or is it just a small van?”
Alex sighed, if it were just a van, it might have been easier to convince her to get a company to bring it down, but her whole life was literally pack into the back of this truck. “No, it is a truck alright, and yes, she does have a license for it. And a forklift.”
“A forklift? Why would she want to drive a forklift?”
“Apparently, it is a long story, but; she has promised to enlighten me at a later stage. But what I wanted to say was that unless something unforeseen should happen, we should be there in three days. Please, PLEASE! Make sure the house is at least clean and neat when we get there. I would hate for her first impression to be that we are slobs.”
“Damn! I can not believe it. A girl in our house.”
“Don’t worry; I am still winded about the whole thing myself. Talk to you later then?”
“Yeah sure, catch you later.”
Alex dumped his phone in the cubbyhole. Well, by now all his brothers would know about Cassy, he just hoped that they did clean up around the house. Funny, it never used to bother him before what state the house was in, but thinking about how well Cassy ran the pack house they had left this morning, made him doubt if his brothers would ever be able to get it as clean as she would like it. A long sigh filled the air. They were boys. Cassy was going to have to realize that boys would not have the same priorities that she or any other girl would have; they were going to have to learn to live with each other!