Chapter Eight
Damon
Hemlock Mountain
From the first time I shifted into my ‘people’ form, I knew one day I’d leave the mountain and not call it home anymore.
There was a whole realm to be explored and maybe even worlds beyond the one we lived on.
We’d all seen the doors of life and death come and go when those we cared about and lost moved on to the next life.
So there was more than the mountain even if the mountain would always be the home of my heart.
Thankfully, Kirk the Impatient had waited on us.
It took me a few hours to pack up the important things and tape off my cave to keep things out of there while I was gone.
Then I had to talk to Loop and Sawe. My sisters knew this day was coming too.
It wasn’t like I kept my thoughts a secret.
I promised to still do the shopping for them and to check my post office box to pick up packages as often as possible.
If I got too pregnant to climb the mountain (which was unlikely), I’d send Treg up with the stuff.
They’d remember the way because I’d never forget it.
The drive to where the bitey wolf lived took a couple of forevers.
The snow made everything slow going for Treg’s car and Kirk’s truck.
We drove behind the truck because I didn’t want the big metal box behind us if he lost control of it.
He drove into a few snowbanks and each time I got out and traversed across the crust of the snow to push him out.
Treg kept offering to help but I assured them that if they got stuck in the snow, I wouldn’t be as calm as I was about the truck.
Eventually, we made it back to their house.
Treg hugged Chasten through the car window and made him promise to warm up and get something to eat.
Chasten made us promise to come over for dinner as soon as we were out of our web of being new mates.
“You have to meet Grina and Abby,” Chasten said across Treg. “You’ll love them. They’re a lot but in a good way. Most of the time anyway.”
“I’ll bring him to meet everyone soon. Just not today. It’s getting dark and you need to rest,” Treg said.
“Okay, Mummy,” Chasten rolled his eyes but hugged Treg again. “Call us if you need anything. I’ll probably have Kirk run it over, but I’ll get it to you. Even if you get lost in the matingmoon phase. Hell, I’ll just have him bring things over anyway. Just text me special requests.”
With one last hug, Kirk ushered Chasten inside, waving to us over his shoulder.
“I’d say he’s not always that clingy, but it’s just sort of how we are,” Treg chuckled, pulling back onto the street.
In town, the streets were cleaner because the snow eater truck drove around and around, pushing around its food until it gobbled it up. Treg reached over and squeezed my knee. They kept their hand there until we pulled up in front of their house.
Their lawn was covered with snow all piled up by the weather and untouched by shifter hands.
Little rabbit and bird prints marked it here and there but even they had to come out and eat in the winter sometimes.
I made a note to tell the bitey wolf to send over bird seed.
We couldn’t have the birds going hungry, could we?
I made to grab my suitcase from the back seat. I had a few additional boxes in the trunk but I packed my most important things in the suitcase. I had my hand around its handle when Treg scooped me up like I was their baby and started up the walkway.
“What are you doing?” I laughed. “I need my stuff.”
“We can come back out for it in a minute,” they grinned. “I’m carrying you over the threshold.”
“Does it bite?” I arched a brow. “Do you have a dog?”
“No,” they shook their head. “Maybe one day if you want one. It’s probably an outdated tradition, but this is your home and we’re mates. So, I’m going to carry you inside for the first time.”
“Don’t you need a hand for that little metal tool thing that opens doors?” I asked him, unable to remember the word for it as they stepped onto the porch.
“Nope. It has voice recognition,” they said and something clicked.
“Couldn’t someone just record you and break in?” I asked. “That doesn’t seem very safe.”
“Not exactly. You have to have this too,” they said, shaking their wrist but I couldn’t see what they were talking about.
A second later, the door swung open, letting out a gust of warm, toasty air and Treg stepped inside.
The living room was vast and full of books and art.
Plus some art supplies scattered here and there.
A laptop and two tablets sat on the coffee table and sketches of a giant white moth covered the sofa.
“Is that supposed to be the Snow Demon?” I asked them.
“Yeah. I want to include him in my comic,” Treg nodded and stole a kiss. “Since Chasten and I went to the ceremony and all.”
“Do you draw your life?” I asked.
“Not exactly. Sometimes but mostly not. Sometimes I put my characters through fictionalized events that happen but most of the time it’s all from inside my head,” Treg said.
When they set me down on my own two feet, I glanced at their wrist. With their sweater pulled up I saw all the bracelets on their wrists. One of them was needed to get into the house.
“This one,” they said, lifting their wrist and tapping a thick black bracelet. “We’ll stop by the shop sometime this week and get you set up on the system too. I don’t want you to feel like you can only go where I go.”
“Where else would I want to go?” I asked.
That was our true-mate response talking but I let it keep talking because at the moment it was true. I wanted to be where Treg was. I wanted to be by their side forever.
I turned to go out and grab my stuff and Treg tried to insist on grabbing it for me.
“Alpha stuff is hot but I’m better in the snow. Let me move stuff while I still can. For a whole week I’ll be stuck on my butt and have to ask you to help me with everything. Let me walk while my legs will do it,” I laughed.
“I’ll clear stuff up while you’re doing that,” they said, grinning at the thought of me full of their pup.
“It’s still your house. You can keep stuff wherever,” I said.
“Yeah, but will you still feel like that in a few weeks?”
“If the baby eats your art, that’s not my fault,” I laughed and headed outside.
The rest of the house wasn’t nearly as overrun as the living room.
Treg’s bedroom and office were tidy and the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms were spotless.
I even peeked into the extra bedrooms, almost certain they had a spot where they stashed everything messy, but outside of a few boxes they were empty too.
“If you don’t like the empty one for the nursery, I can clean out the bigger one. I figure that the bigger one will be a better bedroom than nursery. There’s another one all the way back there but that’s usually where I shove guests. I figure your sisters might want to come and hang out sometimes.”
I tried to imagine Loop or Sawe staying at Treg’s house. They’d have fun and here inside these walls that were now home, they’d be welcome. I wasn’t so sure about the rest of Hemlock Mountain, though.
“I’ll punch them in the nose if I have to. Anyone who’s mean to them or you,” Treg said. “I come with back up too. You’ve met Chasten and Kirk beat up this asshole at one of his old jobs for hurting a kid. Not to mention the ladies…”
I kissed them because I didn’t want them to beat anyone up.
I wanted them all to myself and not sitting in some Hemlock Mountain jail cell.
I’d hate to have to blow up an official Hemlock Wolf Pack building but I would to get them back.
For a second, I imagined a whole war with the elves and the wolves but I shook my head.
It wouldn’t come to that. Besides, we were wolves like they were. We were just fluffier.
“Do you want me to talk to pack leadership about getting you guys out and about more often?” Treg asked when the kiss broke.
“No,” I shook my head. “We’d have to vote on that. As individuals we can do what we want but I don’t think most of them want to be bothered.”
“I don’t blame them. I think I spend half my life trying not to be bothered,” Treg grinned and then their face fell. “I forgot to ask Kirk about the ultrasound.”
“Why Kirk?” I arched a brow.
“He knows how to be a wand man,” Treg said.
“Oh!” I laughed and kissed them again.
Then we marked the living room as ours. We had to be careful not to knock everything off the coffee table any time we switched up positions but we managed not to kill any tech or snow moths in the process of marking our territory.