Chapter Ten
Judah
I woke up slowly. It was no secret camping and the fresh air gave me the best sleep of my life, but knowing our mate was right here with us calmed my bear like nothing else.
Sometimes, he was restless while camping.
He didn’t understand that I would sit here with all this land around me and not let him roam free.
He really didn’t appreciate that we weren’t in that trailer with our mate.
I sat up straight with a new energy in my veins. We had a mate to get to.
“Morning,” Aldrin said, grumpy as fuck. He was not a morning person.
Saber was next. I heard him rustling on his side of the tent. We had a huge tent, but each one of us had tiny tents inside the big one. We started it years ago. It worked for us. “Posy.” That was the first word out of his mouth.
We all had it bad, which we should, considering she was our mate.
“Morning.” I stretched my arms above my head and let out a yawn that reflected the bear inside me. “Do you think she’s up?”
“One way to find out.” Aldrin got up and went outside to stretch and do his stress movements. Somatic movement, I thought he called it.
“Is he going to knock on the door? What the hell did he mean?”
Saber snorted and got out his hygiene bag as did I. “He’s probably getting close enough to see if he can hear if her breathing changed.”
“Oh.” I didn’t think of that. I should’ve. Damn it. Now, I had to go out there and pretend to swing my arms like I knew what I was doing.
The morning view was spectacular from our vantage point on the side of the mountain. Flat areas seemed to be carved into the rock especially for camping. I honestly didn’t know how they got the trailer up the steep, narrow road, but they had.
I brushed my teeth and got dressed as did my sleuth brothers and listened for movement. Breaths. Heartbeat. Some sign that she was up.
Goddess, I wanted her to be up.
While I busied myself with other things, cleaning up camp mostly, the door to the trailer opened and, once again, our mate took my breath away.
“Good morning.” She brushed her hair behind one ear.
“Good morning,” we replied in unison. Not weird at all.
Aldrin walked over, and his arms twitched like he might hug her, but he refrained. “How did you sleep?”
“I slept great. Can I help with breakfast?” She looked toward the campfire ring, but I hadn’t lit one this morning. We’d made plans already. If we were on our own, we would’ve made cowboy coffee over the fire and had bacon and eggs with edges we generously called crispy.
“We thought we’d take you to the diner here at the campgrounds. It’s only a short walk away.”
Her shoulders slumped. Again. The way they had when we arrived at our spot. I wondered what had disappointed her. Was it us? Did she expect more? I was confused. She knew what we did. Had watched our videos and was more enthusiastic about going on this trip with us than we were.
And now, she wasn’t.
“That sounds good. I could use some coffee.”
The walk to the diner was short, but it gave us amazing views of the mountains. Down below, there was a river with kayakers and people swimming.
“Do you like to swim or kayak?” I asked. We’d mostly walked in silence. We had tons to say on video chat, but I had a feeling my friends were having the same thoughts about her not being impressed as I had.
“I’ve never done either one. Some of the wolves used to swim in the river on the perimeter of the pack lands, but they said it was too dangerous for me. That other wolves might attack. We butted up to another pack’s property and it wasn’t an amiable relationship.”
“We could teach you. We have kayaks at home.” Aldrin led the way to the diner and opened the door for her. It was a quaint place. The walls full of pictures of campers and visitors. Some even of famous people.
“I might suck at it.”
I placed my hand at the small of her back as we found an open booth. “We all suck at things when we’re learning. I certainly did.”
Things only became more awkward after that. We ate together and were all polite. A little too polite. Too careful.
Weird.
Awkward was the last thing I wanted to be with my mate sitting in front of me. She excused herself to go to the bathroom, and I took the opportunity to voice my concerns to the sleuth.
“Is it just me, or is she not excited like she was before?” Saber took the words from my mouth.
“She’s not. It’s like she’s bored? Disappointed?” Aldrin had been quiet all morning. “I don’t know what we did wrong.”
“Should we ask her instead of assuming?” I wondered if she would tell us. It could be nothing to do with us at all.
Or maybe she didn’t like us as much as we thought.
The not-knowing was exhausting.
Aldrin put his hands up. “Let’s not assume the worst. She has been traveling and left her pack.”
When she came back from the bathroom, we told her about the trail and taking a hike.
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.