Gypsy Moon

Chapter Thirteen: Bryce

. . . . . . (late June)

It was well into evening when we finally started towards River Talon's pack territory. It was a six-and-a-half-hour trip, so I offered to drive. Alpha Jackson let us borrow one of the pack vehicles, the same SUV they sent to pick us up. Sinah passed out as soon as we started driving. She flopped across the back seat, put her head in Aiden's lap, and was out like a light before we passed over White Moon's territory border.

Lilian insisted we stop at Kyle's house, and Aiden and I listened curiously when he opened his door. She spoke incredibly fast; I was impressed he could understand her. She was careful not to get into details, just explained she and Sinah had to be gone for a couple of weeks, but she would come back and explain everything as soon as she could, not to worry, they were going to be safe, and that if it wasn't so at the last minute, she would ask him to come with us. He looked at us curiously and I thought he was going to object to the sudden development when Lilian threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. Aiden chuckled and idly stroked Sinah's hair.

"She's growing on me." I laughed.

"Like an allergy. Out of nowhere, no idea how we ended up with it, and it's sure to irritate us to no end." I smiled at Lilian when she started running back to the SUV, waving goodbye to the thoroughly mussed Kyle. "But then you get used to it, adjust a few things in your life, and eventually you can't remember what life was like without it." Aiden grinned at me in the rearview mirror as I turned the engine over.

"Bryce, if you make me cry in a car full of girls, I will make you WALK to River Talon." I laughed as Lilian jumped into the front passenger seat and looked over at me as I pulled away from the curb.

"What did I miss?" She glanced from me to Aiden and back. I saw Aiden giving the back of my head a death glare in the rearview. Lilian clapped excitedly.

"Oh! It was something good! Tell me, tell me." Aiden choked and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

"Alpha Sunbeam, I believe this clever little human might be my new best friend." Lilian smothered her laugh in her hands. This was clearly not the right conversation to have when no one wanted to wake Sinah. Aiden had his head thrown back, struggling to laugh silently, and not jostle Sinah too much at the same time. Lilian waved one of her hands helplessly.

"Okay, I'll make you guys a deal, you guys HAVE to tell me later, but we can drop it for now so Sinah can sleep. Deal?" I smiled at her.

"Deal." Aiden grinned and shook his head in defeat.

"Deal."

"Sweet." She turned to Aiden and smiled. "Okay. Tell me about you." Aiden shrugged.

"Like what?" I rolled my eyes and grinned.

"Hear now, the tale of Aiden Soleis: Alpha Wolf of the Gypsy Moon Pack." Aiden laughed.

"Hey, I kind of like that, really." He settled more comfortably in his seat and closed his eyes. "I'll let Bryce tell my EPIC backstory. I'm going to try to sleep."

"Okay."

"Okay, but don't exaggerate TO much, I really want to know." I nodded and started talking softly. I decided to start with how I met Aiden and the last three years. Every few minutes, I lowered my voice a little more. It didn't take her long to nod off. I grinned. Epic tale or no, they all needed sleep more than a story right now, and driving was boring, and I felt like having some fun.

/:You need sleep too, hun:/

/:We slept half the time we were with White Moon!:/

/:Those were just NAPS, they don't count.:/ I grinned at Mir in my mind. I merged onto a freeway and pressed the accelerator almost to the floor. Mir laughed and she joined her senses with mine. The road lit up like it was daylight. We flipped the SUV's lights off, the light from the moon was more than enough for us to see. The SUV was in good condition, clearly modified to run quieter than normal cars. By the time a human cop could realize we had driven past, we were far away enough that they couldn't find us to chase us.

We did contact two wolf packs whose territory the highway cut through. Both packs Mir managed to contact a wolf she knew on patrol and make a cheetah joke to him just before we crossed the border. Both times we were answered with laughter, we were driving about 180, any wolf sensing us going through their territory would have picked up on our speed.

We were able to keep our speed up most of the drive, turning the six-hour drive into a two-and-a-half-hour drive. We slowed down gently, we didn't want to wake the others with a sudden speed change and turned the SUV onto an offramp. We flipped the headlights back on and flinched at the sudden brightness. Mir separated from me, and my eyes adjusted quickly. Two minutes later, we passed into River Talon territory, and we instantly had a full escort. I rolled my eyes. They ran with us silently. Mir had passed along the message that the rest of the passengers were asleep, but their tongues lolled out the sides of their grinning muzzles as they bounded alongside us.

Dogs.

. . . . . .