Gypsy Moon

Chapter Twenty-one: Aiden

. . . . . . (early July)

"So. What happens now?" Sinah looked at me and I scrubbed my hand through my hair.

"Well..." I sighed and hunched my shoulders as the most likely outcome presented itself to me. "Alpha Derek isn't going to be able to lead River Talon for a while, most likely at all. And since I'm not only the one that ripped his arm off, but this was supposed to be my pack in the first place, our parents will likely expect me to take over as River Talon Alpha." I sighed heavily. "Which is exactly what I swore to Derek I would never do." Sinah's little fingers gave my hand a comforting squeeze.

I noticed Lilian's brows furrowing in intense thought, she seemed able to see things from a different angle than the rest of us, so I waited for her to look up at me and nodded to her.

"This is great!" Of course, she thought so. I waited for her to explain herself to us. "It doesn't matter what your parents want, the Elders ordered you to start your OWN pack, not take over someone else's pack. So, this HAS to be temporary." She clapped her hands together. "You and Sinah can stay here while Alpha Derek recovers, River Talon can figure out who will take over as the new alpha, and Sinah gets used to her wolf. And, you know, WALKING again. Bryce and I can go back to White Moon so I can explain things to Kyle and do all the boring shït like packing all our stuff and officially quitting everyone's jobs back there, since we all just bailed." Bryce chuckled and I grinned.

"We can send wolves to do that for us. But I will still have to establish a pack afterwards. That means finding territory, recruiting wolves, and the responsibility of leading and protecting several dozen wolves and their families."

"Why?" I blinked at her.

"What do you mean, why? That's what being a pack Alpha MEANS." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Says who?" I scoffed.

"Every wolf ever since the very first wolf." She smiled at me.

"So?" We all gaped at her, and she laughed at us. "Only half your pack is made up of wolves, Alpha Aiden. You like to forget that NOTHING about us is normal, and that's WHY they want you to establish your own pack. We have absolutely no obligation to even TRY to be a normal pack, so why would we have to do any of that if we don't want to?" I had no response. None of us did, we all just sat there staring at her while we processed what we had just heard. She climbed off the bed and stretched.

"Personally, I vote we buy a Winnebago, since it's just us. Anyway, I'm fücking starving, I'm gonna see if I can find something to eat, and then find Luna Marie and abscond with her new baby. Because NEW BABY." She laughed as she walked out the door. I stared after her, feeling the weight lift from my shoulders. Bryce chuckled and stood up as well.

"Why is it law NOT to tell humans about us? This one is brilliant." He shook his head and started after her. "I'm going to eat and stop her from ACTUALLY wandering off with Luna Marie's baby, because at this point, I'm not sure if she was joking." I looked over at Sinah and she was blushing, which piqued my curiosity.

"And what is that for, my love?" She giggled and closed her eyes.

"It's your scent, I just remembered WHY you smell like warm clover."

"Clover?" She nodded.

"Mm-hmm. It was the day before my birthday. I was freaking out." She laughed and looked into my eyes. "I mean, really, I expected to turn sixteen, get my wolf, find my mate, and probably get marked all in like the next week. So, I had gone into the woods, and I found a clearing that was full of blooming clover. And I lay down in the middle and just breathed." She leaned towards me and took a deep breath.

"That's when I realized none of that was that big of a deal. Sure, things would change, but I wouldn't. I was still going to be me. I was completely calm. The next week was going to be weird, but then life would go on. I had nothing to worry about, I would be just fine. Because whatever was supposed to happen, would." She looked at me and her eyes sparkled. "Of course, if I knew how the next week was REALLY going to go..." She laughed and hugged me. I took a deep breath of her sugary scent and blinked hard at a sudden rush of emotion.

"You smell like Gigi's cookies to me." My voice was very soft, and I'm not really sure what I was feeling right then. "White chocolate macadamia. My favorite. Rhys wanted Gigi to be our mate just so we could get fat on those cookies."

"I think..." She bit her lip and turned her face up to mine. "I think the Goddess told her to kill me. She said she had been waiting for me for ages, and right before she killed me, she handed me this little carving. I think it was some sort of old magic, but I had to be dead for it to work."

"Why dead though?"

"So that the Goddess could take me to her." I looked down at her and frowned. "Think about it, I expected my life to go crazy for a week when I turned sixteen, and it did, but not the way it was supposed to. The future I had been worried about then, just happened to me in the last three days, just in a different order than I expected. I think the gift the Goddess told me she was giving me wasn't JUST watching my wolf's rebirth. I think she tried her best to erase the three years I wasn't SUPPOSED to have in the first place." I looked down at her legs, she was slowly moving her left leg around, getting used to it.

/:Almost all of what she was expecting.:/ I blinked at Rhys's tone, but he didn't elaborate, I just felt him laughing in the back of my mind. I thought about what she had said. She was right, the last three days did mimic what she'd expected three years earlier. She had a birthday but getting her wolf and finding her mate happened in the opposite order than normal. What did Rhys mean about 'almost'? Birthday, wolf, mate...

I could feel the rush of blood to my loins and I'm sure my eyes went dark. Sinah stilled suddenly and blew out a shaky breath, turning her dark eyes up to mine.

"only one thing still missing..."

I was on her with a growl. She wrapped her arms around my neck, crushing her mouth into mine. She moaned when my hands found their way to her breasts, rolling and pinching her nïpples between my fingers until the little points were hard and she was panting.

I adjusted my position, leaving her clutching my hair as my mouth trailed down her neck and breasts. She shivered when my hot breath fanned across her stomach, little whimpers of anticipation escaping her as I kissed my way slowly past her navel.

"A-aiden..." She was trying to be quiet, but I could see she was starting to lose control. I blew a gentle breath out over the super fine tuft on her mound and she gasped. I grinned and lowered my head to her, delighting in her sweetness. Her legs came up around my shoulders and her hands fisted in my hair as my tongue laved over her silken slit and swollen bud.

Her hips spasmed as she came, screaming my name.

/:Lilian is right, you two ARE loud.:/ I grinned as Rhys joined his senses with mine, and I could tell Sinah's wolf was doing the same. We joined our mates with a decisive thrust, pausing for a moment to just feel together. They didn't let us pause for long, rocking their hips against ours. We teased them for a moment, holding them down so they couldn't wiggle.

Their delicious, begging whimpering broke our resolve and we moved together with our mate to the most ancient rhythm. The tension built up in our bodies until it was almost unbearable. Just before everything felt like it was shattering, we sunk our teeth into their neck. They silenced their orgasmic scream by returning the gesture and our clïmax felt like an explosion.

We lay together, still tangled together for a long time, panting. Our wolves separated from us, and I lifted my head slowly, grinning at her when her stomach grumbled. She met my grin with a helpless laugh.

"I don't remember the last time I ate anything substantial." I kissed her deeply, enjoying her little moan of pleasure. I couldn't help myself.

"I remember the last thing I ate." I waited for her blush, and it did not disappoint, she almost turned purple before I fled the bed laughing. She chased me around the suite for a few minutes before I let her corner me. In the shower.

I'm not sure anyone has ever managed to run the hot water out in the packhouse before.

We did.

. . . . . .