Before heading to our rooms, we were directed to a huge hall filled with hundreds of racks of clothes.
The room buzzed with a pleasant excitement as people milled up and down the rainbowed aisles.
We were instructed to find ourselves enough items to cover the next few days as well as evening wear for tonight. It didn't take very long at all to find something we all liked in the meticulously organised library of garments and toiletries.
After we had chosen, yet another runner helped us find where we would be staying, giving a spiel on mealtimes and the location of the banquet hall. We were told that tonight's 'party' would begin at 6pm and we would need to gather in the aforementioned hall.
Feeling a little dazed from the momentum of the day, I was grateful to say goodbye to my lovely helper.
I'd barely closed the door of my accommodation when it burst back open again revealing a wide-eyed runner and a very grumpy looking Jack, clutching a garment bag.
"Take it up with Alpha Vincent if you have a problem." He snapped. Sweeping inside and slamming the door behind him in the poor guy's face.
I frowned, studying my mate. Tension rolled off him in waves. His usually carefree expression marred by an almost constant frown these days.
"Jack, that was rude." I sighed, feeling the chasm that had began to open between us when I kissed Drake, even more keenly.
The once easy ebb and flow of banter seemed to have disappeared and I missed my friend. Missed our fun.
Growling lightly, he shrugged off the light brown leather jacket he was wearing to reveal a tight white t-shirt. It hugged his abs in a delicious display of strength and tucked just slightly into his jeans, accentuating his small waist.
I snapped my eyes back up to his face as he spoke, his body moving restlessly through the room in agitated paces. "You're mine. I'll be damned if they think I'll sleep alone in another of these pokey cubicles."
Ignoring the thrill of delicious memory that ran up my spine from his first two words, I glanced around. He was being a tad unfair.
The room was smallish, but it perfectly housed a double bed, wardrobe and dresser. The lack of windows could have felt depressing, but for the small lanterns set into the rockface. Their golden light painted every surface in a tangible, glowing blanket.
Deciding to choose my battles carefully, I stayed silent and crossed the room the wardrobe, where the runner had helped me load my new clothes. I pulled out the gown I had chosen, hanging it carefully on the mirrored door of the wardrobe to ensure it wouldn't crease.
There was less than an hour to go until we were expected at the banquet hall. We needed to talk, but it would have to wait.
Already clean from the shower I'd taken hardly a couple of hours earlier, all I needed to do was to try out my new makeup, get dressed and style my hair.
The makeup choice had been more elaborate than the small array that our Pack runners provided us with back home. I'd been delighted by the collection and momentarily distracted from the messiness of life.
I sat at the dresser, eyeing Jack in the mirror. He was sullenly unzipping his garment bag at the other side of the room. Midnight eyes clouded in deep thought. Why had he bothered coming here if he was just going to sulk?
Suppressing another sigh, I pulled at the band holding my hair in its loose bun. My dark waves fell free, bouncing glossily around my shoulders. It took me minutes to tease my hair into a sexy tousled curl. My makeup took slightly longer, finished with a bright red lipstick.
Crossing the room again, I undressed quickly with my back to the room.
The mirrored surface of the wardrobe projected the lusty gaze of my mate as he encased his own hard body in a crisp, white shirt.
Boldly, I held his gaze as I slid off my underwear and bra, slipping my dress over my head in a luscious waterfall of smooth fabric. It was a full length, silvery grey silk. The creamy span of my mid-thigh peeped out sexily from the long split down the side. The back of the dress plunged in a low V, highlighting the shadowed dip of my spine, and brushing dangerously close to the unclad cleft of my ass.
Jack's eyes blazed with the heated desire that warmed my blood, even without his touch. His hands continued their practiced path up his own body, fastening his buttons and flitting to manage his cufflinks. All without breaking eye contact.
I turned, plucking the silvery tie I'd chosen from my dress hanger.
Each step I took towards him thickened the air. My skin prickled with the need to be touched.
I held up the tie, questioningly. I wasn't sure where we stood at the moment... If he would even wear it.
He closed the gap between up lifting his collar in silent acceptance while tracing my figure intimately with his gaze.
My core tightened expectantly as my whole body burned for him. The fire in his eyes told me the feeling was definitely mutual and my hands shook as I stretched onto my tiptoes to reach up and place the tie around his neck.
The sensitive nubs of my nipples were hard as they grazed his chest, our bodies kissing experimentally in the silent exchange.
I slowly looped the tie into a perfect Windsor, each brush of my fingertips against him felt a thousand times more intimate than they should.
I had just settled back onto my heels, a little wobbly with desire, when Jack reached into his pocket. He slowly withdrew his hand and withdrew a worn leather pouch on a long tether. It was one of the commute pouches that a wolf could carry small items with them on journeys.
"I have been waiting to give this back to you." His soft words melted more of me, and I felt a pang of pain pierce my chest.
I hadn't accepted how much I missed him until this moment.
I opened the pouch with trembling fingers. Tears spilling down my cheeks as I pulled the dainty golden chain from its nest.
The gleam of the golden moon of my necklace seemed to shine like a tiny sun in the lamp light, glowing softly on my palm.
I couldn't help the sob that broke through me as Jack carefully placed it around my neck and drew me into a tight hug.
The erratic thump of his heartbeat soothed me more than anything else ever could. The tension left us both slowly as we held each other. Desire eclipsed momentarily by such a powerful wave of love that I couldn't even find words to say thank you.
We weren't in our Pack lands.
But I was home.