Ch. 83: S'mores

CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE:
Evan~
We were on the road to Reno to meet up with Elise and the Marvis Coven. To be ready for any new findings. After a long night of heated discussion, Jake finally put his foot down - literally and figuratively - and demanded that some of us stay behind, but he was going. Nick’s parents stayed behind to care for the pack along with about half our warriors.
SInce the attack on Dark Mountains, we needed to be realistic. It was likely they would strike while our guard was down too. I was about to fall asleep to Nick’s muttering as he leafed through yet another book, when Jake insisted on pulling over.
“We only have about an hour left, why would we do that? Didn’t we just get gas?” Nick questioned without even looking up.
“I just need to. I don’t know,” he said, his eyes glowing.
I sat up straighter and that got Nick’s attention enough that he finally glanced up to see what I was seeing. Something about this area was alerting Aamon.
“Alright, alright,” my father said, pulling off at the next exit.
Jake guided us down some streets, asking me to roll down my window. He paused, smelling the air deeply, and guided us a little further. We came to a seemingly empty cabin.
“No one’s using it,” he said, jumping out of the car like we had put in a reservation on the place.
“How would he know that?” Nick asked aloud
I just shrugged. Jake did a lot of weird things now. I really only expected it to get weirder from here. My dad watched my reaction and looked back at Jake who was walking up to the front door.
I caught up to him just as he broke the lock.
“We’ll stay here tonight,” he informed me.
“Yes Alpha,” was all I could say.
His mind was somewhere else entirely anyway.
The other cars pulled over along the street and Nick linked the pack about our orders. Warriors began to scout the area and planned to put their things inside. My job was, as it always was: watch Jake and have his back.
So I did. I watched him pace in the front yard, totally not dressed for the weather but not caring. Finally he stopped and looked at me, before walking off down the block. So of course I tailed him.
It wasn’t long before Xavier smelled her, Rachel. I stayed far back, giving them space. They spoke for a bit and I saw how she approached him with caution and then with some familiarity.
Nick walked up to me and remarked, “Yeah of course Aamon would know exactly where she is, even as we drive in 65 miles per hour highways and they haven’t even marked each other.”
He sucked in a breath and pulled out a notebook muttering about needing to measure the distance between the highway and here, how amazing the range was. I just watched, with a tiny bit of envy. Xavier and I were both craving attention too, no matter how pathetic that sounded.
They got very, very close and I leaned over to compact some snow. I heard her say the word ‘snowball’ and knew we were meant to be the best of friends.
Then, against Nick’s protesting, I let the snowball fly. And as if in testament to my training, it hit him dead-on. I couldn’t stop myself from howling with laughter as they broke off their gazing to look at me.

Jake~
Something was lighting up, waking up inside me. I don’t know exactly when I started to really feel his presence, Aamon’s. But I definitely knew the second I felt him in my mind. We were driving towards the meeting point and he came rushing forward.
Here. Turn off, a husky voice nearly hissed in my ear.
At first I shook it off, but then I felt myself being pushed back. Something else was coming to the driver’s seat. He wasn’t fully in control, not really, as we got off and drove around. He followed her scent.
It was like someone pulling me along, leading me by the arm. But it was coming from all over. While it wasn’t a puppet-status moment, it definitely was something. Something to try to describe to Nick later. In a moment outside the cabin we were going to stay in, I felt overwhelmed by the bond. It ripped at me and I knew which direction to go in. When I saw her I was relieved, like I had been holding my breath all this time. But Goddess, how it crushed me when she turned to face me and didn’t recognize me.
After some half-truths to get her to recognize me from somewhere at all, and a brief snowball fight started by the future Beta who likely ruined a moment, I was now fussing over her hands. Humans, while plenty tough in some ways, were delicate. My little mate was looking at me so seriously after making a quip about snowball wars and sacrifices having to be made. I was laughing heartily, something I hadn’t done in so long, and she was standing there with her arms crossed now.
“Yeah, Killer, I guess they do,” I said once my joy simmered back down.
She turned head slightly and scrunched her face in some thought, then looked over to where Evan and Nick were, making their way to where we stood.
“Hey Rachel,” Evan said, beaming at her in a way that made me want to punch him. “You want to come by our cabin? We’re making s’mores.”
Rachel smiled and flicked a glance at me before saying, “Sure.”
Yes, Aamon said again in my mind before settling back down, more relaxed.
I can’t say for sure why she agreed, but from her glance at me first, I was going to choose to believe it was for me. A guy can hope.
“What were your names again? Sorry for asking…” she asked me as we started walking.

Rachel~
After texting my mom about running into some friends (a stretch, I know - barely know these guys), the four of us walked a few blocks toward a cabin very similarly looking to the one my family and I were staying in. Evan’s father was inside and didn’t say much to us as Nick and Evan got together what they had packed to make s’mores. There was already a small fire burning on the little deck and before long I was roasting my marshmallow.
“What are you doing?” Jake asked me in a chuckle.
I looked over at him to see his marshmallow barely in the flame.
“Roasting my marshmallow?” I said back in a question.
It was fully on fire now and I pulled it out to blow it out. Perfect.
“That’s totally burnt,” he said, confused.
“Yeah I don’t have the patience for whatever it is you’re doing,” I gestured at his marshmallow, barely near the flames, and started sliding the marshmallow off onto the chocolate and graham crackers.
I bit into it, nearly groaning aloud when I glanced up to see the guys all looking at me like I was an alien.
“How could you do such a thing?” Nick asked from across the fire. “You’ve totally desecrated it.”
I looked at them and smiled, “Yeah, well who is already on their second s’more?”
I stuck my next marshmallow right in the center again. To everyone’s horror. Their pained faces made me laugh, and when my eyes connected with Jake’s I saw something there. Next to the amusement clearly there, breaking up his very serious personality, something I couldn’t put my finger on.
We spent some time out there until the sun got low. I made each of them try a s’more my way, even against their protesting. Evan swore he’d do it the fast way from now on, while Nick remained a ‘purist’ (his words). Jake didn’t give much of a reaction other than one raised eyebrow as he ate the one with the burnt marshmallow.
The three of them offered to walk me back to the cabin I was staying in and I took them up on it. By the time we headed out though, Nick and Evan said they needed to stay behind, so it looked like it would just be Jake and I.
We started our walk and I couldn’t help but be secretly happy I had another chance to talk with him alone. The other two were great, really, and I really shouldn’t be wanting to ‘be alone’ with some guy who isn’t my boyfriend but… Something about him just pulled at me.
“So are you up here for a few more days?” he asked me, his eyes up ahead.
“Yeah, I just needed a change of scenery,” I sighed. “Some things happened back at school, and my mom thought it would be a good idea to change things up.”
He glanced at me and nodded. We kept walking
Not much of a talker I guess. But I am. The silence was comfortable as we crunched along in the snow, but I still felt the urge to talk.
“Yeah, uh. There was this guy. He was giving me a hard time. For a while. The school was able to kick him out, but not before he went full-creep…” I started rambling.
I paused and he didn’t seem to react so after a moment I kept going.
“I still don’t fully understand what happened, I mean, it was like he had this power over me. I couldn’t fight back, I couldn’t even talk about it, but then like two weeks ago, something changed. Something in me… I’m still working it all out. Part of it’s just straight up weird. But very cool too I guess,” I looked up again to see him looking at me.
We came to a stop.
“Rachel, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. That sounds terrible,” he said, his eyes brimming with concern.
He turned his head to the side, in - irritation?
I just stood there.
“Sorry, that just pissed me off so much - I’m trying not to get upset. No sense in that now,” he said, shaking his head. He looked back at me, let out a breath and added, “I’m relieved you were able to get it to stop…”
“Uh, thanks,” was all I had.
This guy. Serious and sweet, but also a little odd.
Before I knew what I was doing, I reached out my hand and grabbed his. Everything seemed to still. Our touch was electric. I was expecting it to get painful after a second, like with Sean, but it didn’t. It stayed right there between exhilarating and comfortable. I felt my face furrow in thought and then we let go before continuing on.
I waved bye to him from the porch and after a moment of looking at him, he turned and I watched him go, trying to figure all that out.