As the Moon Teaches

New Moon Gathering. Part 3

The evening wound down slowly, Loren and Gregory ended up walking to the Whitaker house without Carleigh anywhere to be seen. Max and Mitchell had headed off before them, and Marcus and Lucy were staying later. This left Loren with little to think about other than Gregory as they walked.

As they made it to Loren’s, there still was little talking between them. Loren was too busy trying to figure out if he really was going to try to stay in the same house as Gregory. He did want to try and avoid any more issues like earlier today in the woods. He was very nervous that it had been about to go way further than either wanted.

Loren took the time to pack a bag with clothes and essentials for staying over at Gregory’s place. A place that was supposed to belong to both Loren and Gregory, if Loren accepted. He shook his head a little, trying to dislodge that thought, only wanting to focus on the here and now.

It was just the two teens at the house at the moment, so Gregory followed Loren around until they stopped in his bedroom. Gregory took the opportunity to reach out and pull Loren into a loose hug. Loren stood semi frozen, letting the young Alpha hold him lightly.

“I will promise to try and never cross the lines again.” Gregory let Loren go. “I hope we can find our happy medium, and find a way to move on with life.”

Loren felt a mix of pride and sadness. Pride; in that his mate was so diplomatic and worthy of being an Alpha. Sadness; in that his mate was not someone he could see spending his life with. He sighed and finished packing his bag, picking it up and turning to Gregory.

“Thanks, hopefully we can work something out.” Loren nodded.

With that, they left Loren’s family home and started the long, silent walk to Gregory’s. There was not much for them to talk about during the walk, both lost in thought. Loren almost felt like he was saying his final goodbye to his family home.

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Walking up the front walk to the front door, Gregory held out a key for Loren. When the younger man took the key, Gregory stepped to the side to let him open the door. The young Alpha was hoping that getting to unlock the door would help Loren feel more at home.

Unlocking the door, Loren held his breath as his nerves felt on edge. Pushing the door open, he slowly entered the house. He was greeted by a simple entrance way that was pretty barren. Looking back at Gregory, he wondered if the Alpha had even been living there yet.

“I’ve stayed here some.” Gregory seemed to understand what Loren was questioning. “Shoes off at the door, I would like inside to be natural if possible.”

Loren nodded and set his stuff down, making room for Gregory to enter and close the door behind them. As he unlaced his work boots, he tried to ignore the sound of the door lock sliding into place. He felt a small shiver travel up his spine, like some finality was setting in.

Up righting himself, Loren left his stuff in the entrance way and started to explore. There was a living room off to the left, a dining room and kitchen off to the right. There was a small room off the far back of the entrance way and a half bathroom attached. On the wall dividing the entrance way from the kitchen and dining room was a set of stairs.

Upstairs there was a master bedroom with a large master bathroom to the left. To the right of the landing was a guest bathroom and two smaller bedrooms. Loren was still checking out the guest bathroom when he felt Gregory behind him.

“You can have the two smaller bedrooms and the guest bath. I have the master and the office down stairs.” Gregory said matter of fact like.

“Okay, that works.” Loren nodded, very aware of feeling trapped in the bathroom since Gregory was in the doorway.

Once Gregory moved out of his way, Loren went downstairs to get his stuff. Bringing it up with him, Loren checked both of the small bedrooms. Only one had a bed, so rather than worry about moving things, he decided to use the one with the bed.

Setting his bag on the floor near the foot of the bed, Loren settled on the bed. When Gregory moved to stand in the doorway, Loren watched him like a hawk, waiting for something to happen. When nothing happened, Loren stood up and walked over to the Alpha.

“Well, good night. We have more to do tomorrow,” Loren was uncertain of what else to say.

“Good night, Loren.” Gregory placed his hand on Loren’s shoulder for a short moment.

Loren tensed for a moment, wondering what Gregory was going to do next, but the Alpha backed away and left for his own room. A little surprised, Loren closed the door and moved to grab his bag. Pulling out night clothes, he changed and got ready for bed. Laying down and covering up, Loren sighed and closed his eyes. He hoped for normal sleep tonight.

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When Loren awoke, he realized it was still dark outside his window. It puzzled him that he was awake this early. He could not remember any dreams that would have startled him from his sleep. Moments passed before he realized that there was something shifting around outside his bedroom door.

Getting up from his bed, Loren made his way to the door. As he got closer, Zeala gave happy whimpers. Loren opened the door to find Gregory standing there, staring at the floor. Tilting his head, the young man stared up at the Alpha.

“Sorry, I couldn’t sleep.” Gregory muttered.

“Oh. Uhm. How can I help?” Loren was not really offering to help, but it was kind to say so.

Gregory took it as an offer. He lightly took hold of Loren’s arm and led him back to the full sized bed. After urging Loren to sit on the bed, Gregory sat next to him. He looked lost in thought for a moment before he laid down and tugged on Loren’s night shirt to encourage him to lay down as well.

Loren sighed, but let Gregory guide him around. He lowered back to lay next to the Alpha when his shirt was tugged. He did not move closer or farther away, just laid there, head on his pillow. He basically just pretended that Gregory was not there.

They stayed like that for quite some time before they both drifted off to sleep. Neither had dreams that left them sleepless, nor did the toss and turn. They were both content in their restful sleep. Something neither had had much of lately.

As the night wore on, they ended up laying close. Loren rested on his back, while Gregory was on his side, facing Loren. There was barely a few inches between them, but even their wolves were happy with the situation. It was better than being alone and not being able to sleep.