Gypsy Moon

Chapter Fifty-one: Aiden

. . . . . . (late October)

I paced the boundary line of Gypsy Moon's territory, adding my scent and Rhys insisted on clawing a tree at least every twenty feet. My moms were mad at me again. They wanted to host the ceremony to bind the land to my pack, but once again my pack's oddities beat them to it.

We held a bonfire the night the main packhouse was finished. Sleek and modern, all sharp angles and spotless glass. About as different from a traditional pack house as possible.

The first floor had a glossy, modern floor plan. A gorgeous firepit, built from local river stones, was the focus at the center of the open, flowing room. The kitchen area took up a good quarter of the main floor, separated from the rest of the floor by a beautiful hardwood wet bar on one side and a kitchen island that could seat half a dozen wolves on the other. The rest of the floor served as the main dining hall and a very large common room. An elevator on the main floor provided access to the third floor, which was separated into eight two-bedroom, two-bathroom suites.

A long spiral ramp curled up the wall leading to the offices. The Alpha's and Luna's connected as a suite with a shared bathroom at the top of the ramp. The Beta's office, as well as the adjoining Delta's office, connected further down the slope. A private elevator in the back of the Alpha's office was the only way to the fourth floor. It held the five-bedroom, four-bathroom Alpha's wing.

Lilian challenged the entire pack to a drinking game so we could get to know each other better, and four dozen wolves were not about to lose to a pair of humans. Gyam refused to participate, but he spent the evening at Sinah's side, his tongue lolling ever so slightly out of his muzzle while he surveyed the inebriated collection of wolves. The drinking game dissolved into drunk shenanigans. At one point, two of the warriors were playing catch with Lilian, literally, tossing her back and forth like a small child while she shrieked laughter and the wolves surrounding them cheered.

Sinah's gasp silenced the pack like magic and when she gleefully squealed that she could feel our cub moving, the entire pack exploded in the most heartfelt howls I had ever heard. The air swelled with our voices, and I guess the Moon Goddess heard us, because we all felt the change. Abruptly, a strong pull of 'HOME' filled our hearts.

My moms are getting really tired of me announcing good news and taking away their party planning fun at the same time. I suggested they plan faster, and I'm pretty sure I would have gotten grounded if I weren't nearly twenty-two and, most importantly, halfway across the country from them.

The majority of the pack moved into the main house, splitting the rooms on the third floor between the new pack members while work was done on the main housing dorm. Lilian and Kyle took a room in the Alpha's wing, as did Bryce. The master bedroom was a suite itself, designed to hold full room decor for two bedrooms so that Gyam had a room of his own without having to be separated from Sinah by more than a sofa or two until he wanted his separate room, which still shared the bathroom with our suite, giving him emergency access.

Kyle turned out to be exceptionally good at combat. He fought as well or better than most of the wolves in the pack so far. One of the new warriors suggested looking into his family, as he might be wolf kin. The idea of being wolf kin seemed to make him more comfortable with his borderline inhuman ability to fight. He has also stepped up as a temporary Gamma for the pack, spending his day working with the warriors as they trained or planned patrols.

We are waiting for Gyam to take the Gamma position. He rapidly established himself as the best fighter in the pack, other than myself, but his protective instinct is solely focused on Sinah. Selene thinks it might be because she is pregnant, and that he will relax enough to take the Gamma position after she gives birth. Seeing as she's not quite halfway done yet, by the time she gives birth, the pack should be large enough for her to have a guard he approves of protecting her outside the suite.

He still spends most of the day as a wolf. If he gets any bigger, he will have to be in human form to be inside the packhouse, and since his growth curve hasn't seemed to slow down, we expect he will make it to his full, healthy size before Sinah is finished with this pregnancy. His brother visits often, happier and happier with every visit to see Gyam matching him more every time. His human form is developing just as well, his sandy blonde hair in tousled curls, his body long and lean, corded with muscles like an MMA fighter.

Rain's eldest daughter, a super petite little brunette named Tia, seems to have taken a particular interest in Gyam. She's a couple of months from sixteen, and when Sinah suggested she might be Gyam's second chance mate, he didn't seem terribly put off by the idea. Rhys is worried that when Gyam is forced to be human more often because of his size, he'll also have to face the memories of who he was before Gyam came to him and the loss of his first mate. Gyam disagrees, but can't figure out how to explain why, and speaking out loud still frustrates him, so we've agreed to trust him.

He won't talk about his past, and I caught Lilian studying him the same way she studies Bryce. The mere idea that Bryce could have come from a background like Gyam's infuriates me like a volcano in my soul.

I rose up on my hindlegs and dug my claws into a tree, raking them down the trunk, leaving deep gouges in the wood.

Bryce assured me that other than his total d**k ex-mate and general dickery from the rest of the village about him being gay, he left literally nothing interesting behind when he left. Which was why he had no regrets about leaving there in the first place, and why he didn't bother talking about it. I'm sure he's making light of his past just so I won't burn the rainforest down. He just headbutts me and tells me if it doesn't matter to him, then it shouldn't matter to me.

I still had to promise not to burn anything before I left to mark the territory line. Taking my frustration out on the border trees was cathartic while being productive. I wasn't sure which would run out first, my mood, or trees that could handle my claws. Mir was in heat too, making matters worse for both of us.

A sudden stillness around me alerted me to Dei's approach, and my bad mood vanished. I sat on my haunches and let my tail swish through the leaves, waiting for him to reach me. He visited pretty often, my pack was very careful about controlling their wolves when he came over, and several of them were becoming pretty good friends with him. I found out that Gyam had requested Lilian add information about Dei's aura to her interviewing process, and so far, no one has tested his promise of punishment that he also asked her to mention.

Dei suggested I meet with his tribe and discuss the possibility of him joining Gypsy Moon, which would add his territory to my own, more than tripling the area belonging to the pack, and putting the entire reservation under my protection as well. It turned out Dei's cross-country errands were to meet with a council of werecats to discuss the increasing rogue wolf issues Dei was dealing with due to the reservation's proximity to a massive population center.

Dei's cougar Inage shimmered into focus as he trotted towards me. I learned that was a skill Inage had. He really could bend the space around him to make it harder to see him, an effect that compounded the further he was from you.

I shifted as he came close, and he did the same, embracing me in a hug. Having found people comfortable with his aura, Dei turned out to be a big hugger. I chuckled and returned the hug. Bryce explained that cats have a tendency to be particularly affectionate when they are comfortable with you.

Dei pulled away and sniffed me, his eyes darkening, and I laughed.

"Yeah sorry, Mir started her heat yesterday. Rick can't take time off, so we're stuck with it for a week. Bryce spent half the morning hanging on me and whining." I noticed his body's involuntary reaction to Mir's heat scent. "I'm gonna warn you now, if you visit, he's gonna be a handful." Dei's cheeks darkened to match his eyes and he looked away in confused embarrassment.

"I'm straight?"

"I am too, trust me." I chuckled at his confusion. "I'm not even a cat, Mir's heat drives me nuts. I've been with him for three years, it's torture." I laughed. "The whole pack is insane right now, I'm pretty sure we will have several new pregnancies announced in a few weeks." Dei's cheeks flushed hotly, and he bit his lip.

"Inage wants to go to Mir." I blinked and hugged him abruptly, startling him.

"Rhys has offered countless times." I laughed and waved towards the packhouse. "Bryce won't force you to do anything you don't want to, and if you want, you can wait a week and come back, he won't be offended." He looked at the ground nervously, clearly in a debate with his cougar.

An idea occurred to me, and I laughed suddenly, making him look at me in confusion.

"I just had the best idea, I gotta go get Bryce, I'm gonna take him into Reno, it'll be hilarious!" I shifted abruptly and bounced away, not waiting to see if he followed me. This was going to be fun.

. . . . . .