Love is Letting go

They were going out of town, it was going to be fun, Bruce liked fun, he especially loved it when he could get his best friend and alpha as Logan was to loosen up and have fun although he was quite certain that was not what he saw it as. He grabbed his duffel stuffed some clothes in, and was in the process of grabbing ammunition when his door was pushed open and Aspen walked in
" How are you" he asked as she walked towards him, he kissed her cheek, and she blanched
" I'm fine, a little tired but I'm worried more about our little problem " she muttered looking at the bag he was currently stuffing with clothes and she hissed
" Are you a baby," she asked grabbing the duffel and he shrugged
" I'm not sure why you think that. I seem to be doing just fine right now "
" Sure" she muttered packing the bag, she was folding the clothes and he sniffed
" I don't see why I have to fold anything"
" Which makes you even more of a baby to me" he wrapped his arms around her waist and smiled
" But you love me for it " she sighed
" It's crazy that I do" he kissed her neck again, their relationship was a secret if there was even a relationship. Aspen was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he had been in love with her for the last several years the problem was she didn't ever talk about feelings and that was his sticking point.
" We're going to be late " she muttered to him and he sighed
" Of course"
" Yes let's go to the library maybe we can find something there to help us." She replied, he grabbed his duffel bag and looked at his.
Aspen tugged the door open and gestured for him to walk out, he walked out and she locked the door and placed the keys in his outstretched palm
" Don't lose them"
Emily was already at the library and he saw Logan there standing as awkwardly as a little child he had to sigh in consternation, the man would let himself rot in the process of mourning a woman who would never come back.
" We need to get Logan to unwind," he said to Aspen who shot him a look like he was crazy
" What, he can't keep on mourning her, she's dead and gone"
" She may not have been his mate but Faith was his life, he couldn't forget her so easily " she muttered and he sighed
" And I don't give a damn about that so you help me, help him. Now where are we going" he asked and she sighed pulling out a map and pointing to it
" We're going here"
"So we're going through here." He said pointing at the map while slinging a duffel bag over his shoulder. Logan had one as well which was well and good.
It wasn't anything that could kill someone, just enough to paralyze humans and put down rogues for good. They would need it especially if they encountered ghouls.
" goddess how can you be that geographically challenged" Aspen muttered as if done with him even though he could see the small smile on her face as she watched him shuffle the map.
" I asked for your help, you can keep the insults " he huffed and she sighed as if she was fine with him and everything that he was saying, so taking the map from him she pointed to the same spot that he had
"Yes, we're going here, " she said pointing to a different point in the map
" From that point, we go on foot, for the sensitivity of the locals " she answered as they reached the pair, he looked up to them to find Emily wearing a confused frown, rubbing her sweaty palm against her jeans, as she asked
"That's dangerous." Logan nodded
, "But it will save us time. we need the trust of these people we can't be barging into their homes."
Emily nodded towards the car
"Can we get going then? We need to find a library," Emily muttered, and Logan smiled at her.
"There's a library before we leave town. We'll start there since it will give us more places to go?" he asked. Emily nodded looking a bit restless,
"Yes, I'd like to go to the library. Maybe we can find something there to help us and if we don't we can make some arrangements for it ." She replied, and he grabbed his duffel bag and looked at Bruce nodding to the car.
Aspen looked at her
" We're the back seat babies" she huffed
He heard them mutter but he wasn't paying much attention at the moment, he was holding the key to the cars and Logan had his hand stretched out to receive them
" This is my car " Logan muttered
" But I want to drive " he mumbled and Logan hissed
" Keys " he huffed and handed them over to Logan's outstretched palm after much grumbling and a long production out of it because he had to sulk.
Emily tugged the door open as Bruce placed the keys into Aspen she asked
Turning to Logan and I, she gestured toward the door, they inched forward, she pulled the door inward and it clicked shut.
It took us most of the day to drive downtown, people waved and stopped us to give us food, we knew most of these people so it wasn't a surprise. it was mostly amusing to watch, looking surprised as she did he realized that this sort of care must have been unheard of to her the love of a pack.
Logan stopped us at a motel called the Mommy's Place that looked like a poorly managed cottage complex than an actual Mother's place or at least that was not what his mother's place looked like in the slightest.
" Let's get some rooms first" he huffed smiling when Logan took Emily's hand in his as we followed the corridor,
" We need a room," he told the receptionist, she frowned as if annoyed we were here and gestured us to follow her. He reached for Aspen's hand in his but she refused the hand leaning into him
" Don't hear", she said as she kissed my cheek
The rooms were quite beautiful, considering how run down it looked on the outside. She led us to where we found a line of doors
Logan picked one and gestured to the next one for him, as he hefted their bags into their room.
Ours was a large room with a simple bed in the middle he was surprised at the intricate details of the wooden bed frame.
" They take good care of the place" he muttered and she sighed
" Of course they do, it would be a shame to let all this go to waste" she muttered and he nodded
" Let's take a shower together" he mumbled kissing her neck and she sighed
" That's not a good idea" she hissed, but kept on kissing her
" We need to meet them" she murmured, he laughed and pulled back from her and let out an audible sigh
" I will wait " he whispered
" We have to meet them outside" she replied and he hissed,
"I'll go shower"
We emerged from the room, and Logan and Emily joined us in the corridor,
" Alright let's do research" Logan offered and we nodded. We crossed the street where we found the town library on a whole floor of its own in a building of artifacts and history. He didn't come to the library much.
."So we want to find anything in history books about hunters and their, descendants, living and dead, and then we want to see if we can find maps for all Were creatures and their hidden locations," Emily murmured.
"That's fine, simple police work. I hope you can handle it." Bruce teased Logan
" You're saying I can't do it," he groused, and Bruce grinned.
 "Well, you are the paper pusher on our team. The investigative work may be a tad difficult for you." He muttered and Logan glared at him, Aspen struggling not to laugh
 "I'll start here." He said, shooting him an irritated look and he only kept laughing. Emily shot him a look and gestured
" I'll start here," Logan said shooting him an irritated look, and marching away he heard laughing as Emily said
" I'll follow the grumpy man"
He grabbed a book from the shelf, it was old history and seemed to look interesting, no mention of Finn but I picked it up anyway
" Anything interesting" Aspen huffed and he laughed
" So far nothing but let's read it and see if we get lucky" he opened the book, read the first few pages, and shut it back
" Too much reading " Aspen joked and he laughed
" Maybe that did remarkable things for my blood pressure" he muttered and she took the book from my hands read a few chapters and sighed
" Well that's very informative" and it was very gory stuff and he was a werewolf
" What are you reading that got you looking like that" Logan asked as he and Emily walked to the table
" A wonderful description of werewolf genocide" he grunted shoving the book towards him, Logan took it and skimmed the page and whistled softly,
" This is – well very informative. According to this, we have a war that went on to become a manhunt and supernatural creatures mentioned sparsely within it " he said looking at them
" A manhunt sounds nice compared to what was done to these people they were burnt at the stake the rest of them were dismembered " Emily muttered
" A horrible way to die" Aspen muttered looking through another book
" But how does it connect to his family" she asked, he hummed,
" Well you won't believe it but I seem to find a couple derivatives for Finn here and he seems to have family in the magical branch of the tree.
" Let me see" he huffed reaching for the book
" It mentions four brothers Fynian, Teninis, Casper, and Brennan, they ruled each cardinal point and they seemed to be powerful, no one knew where they came from there were speculations of course but nothing concrete. And then two brothers died "
" Well that's informative, " Logan said not very helpful at all he wondered
" we could find more things," Aspen asked pulling him to her side, Logan cocked his brow in amusement and shot him a dirty look, and nodded looking over her shoulders at the stack of books
" I think that's enough for now let's find food and get some rest" he chimed in
" We need to decide where we go from here, we can't stay here long" Bruce argued
" Yes but maybe after we've rested we'll decide that, come on " he answered grasping Emily's hand and pulling her towards the door, Bruce raised his brow at him in amusement and got the finger
" You just can't help yourself can you" Aspen asked as we walked out of the room and back to the hotel, she hurriedly changed her clothes and got into bed
" I can feel you watching me " he sighed and she smiled
" Aren't you coming to bed?" she asked and he huffed
" Maybe, what's it for me" she asked and he sighed
" My love maybe," he said and she laughed
" Bruce let's not do this again. You are my best friend"
" I love you Aspen," he said his heart contracting in his chest, she swallowed looking away from him without saying a word. He laughed and pulled his duffel bag towards himself pulling out clothes he stalked to the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He leaned against the door but she said nothing so he said nothing. Maybe there was no winning this, he may have loved Aspen but clearly, she didn't feel the same way.
He changed and got into bed, they both lay there in silence
" I can feel you watching me." He muttered
" Can we talk?" she asked and he shook his head
" Just go to bed. "