THIRTY-TWO. Camping

POV - Lillia

“Are we there yet?” I ask for what is probably the tenth time since I’ve gotten in the car. Elijah and I are finally going on our camping trip to sleep under the stars. We’ve been travelling for forty minutes through the forest, and I’m already feeling restless.

“Nine more minutes,” Elijah replies, a small smile appearing on the corner of his lips. I’m so excited. The last time we spent alone was when Elijah taught me to shift, but today we’ll be hiking, pitching a tent, and setting up a campfire. We’ll get to look at the stars in the night sky and spend the night together.

This is the only way Grandad will let me spend overnight with Elijah. I think he’s scared that since he’s just got me, he’ll lose me to Elijah and not be able to get to know me. So respecting that, Elijah has been walking me back to the Alpha wing every night since we found out we are mates.

I look out the window and watch as the trees fly past. I’ve studied the pack territory in my spare time, and although the pack houses are in a fenced-off section, the territory itself is large and extends across several hectares of land. I’ve learned that the Redwood pack is one of the biggest packs in this area of the north, and with the growing population of wolves in the pack, I’m not surprised.

“We’re here,” Elijah says as he pulls into a small rest area.

“We’re here?” I ask, turning to him and smiling.

“Yup,” he says, getting out of the car.

I follow him and hop out as well. We are parked in a small rest area, with a toilet block and picnic table, the only facilities nearby. Other than that, we are entirely surrounded by forest. I take in a deep breath, smelling the wooded scent.

“Will we be safe here?” I ask.

“Will we be safe here? Townie,” Elijah laughs, dumping my small backpack in front of me. It took us a few days to organise this trip, with Elijah insisting I participate in the preparation. He made me accompany him to the pack’s commissary to get the gear we needed (I was surprised we even had a commissary) and made me help pack each bag to fit everything we needed. I wanted to bring my phone, which Elijah argued against, but when I told him I wanted to capture the memories of this trip with photographs, he finally relented.

“Let’s do this,” Elijah grins, grabbing my hand and interlacing our fingers.

“Let’s do this,” I repeat.

We walk into the bush, and I ask him if he’s ever done this trek into the bush for an overnight camp before. He admits he had with his friends when he first came to the pack but that they hadn’t been out here for a few months.

I then asked him about his home pack and what it was like living in the Garden State.

“It’s not dissimilar to here. There are lots of forests, but also a lot more fields with wildflowers. There are many fairy clans in Garden State and some Witch covens. What about you? What was it like being a wolf in the city?” Elijah asks.

I shrug my shoulders and think.

“We were kept pretty secluded from other supernaturals. I never knew of any other supernaturals that lived in the city. From what I learned at school, we were the only wolf pack in our area, so we had to keep our identity secret from the humans. As for shifting, omegas were taken out monthly to the closest forest. Mum couldn’t do that much though, as she and I were always needed in the pack restaurant,” I explain.

“Pack restaurant?”

“Yeah. The pack owned a restaurant that was open to the public. Mum and I worked it when they were busy and short of staff, which was most of the time,” I explain. I think about those weekends before I came to Redwood Pack. We were always busy and run off our feet. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow each night.

“Do you like being at Redwood Pack?”

“Yeah. Life here is very different. I actually have time when I have nothing to do, which is nice. Sometimes I miss school, but I don’t mind. Alpha Marcus was going to pull me out anyway,” I admit.

“So you wouldn’t consider going back?” Elijah asks, pulling a branch out of the way so we can keep walking.

“No. The people here are nicer. If it wasn’t for them, I’d probably leave, though,” I say, stopping and smiling at this statement. Elijah turns around and scowls at me, and I can’t help but laugh.

“Oh, and I have family here, Grandad, Danni, Nubia. Dad. I couldn’t leave them,” I laugh, walking past Elijah.

Elijah grabs my hand and pulls me back toward him, making me stumble with the heavy backpack on my back.

“And me,” he says, touching my shoulders.

“Oh… I don’t know….” I tease.

“And me,” Elijah repeats, scraping his lips gently on mine. The sensation sends tingles through my body, and I feel warm.

“And you,” I agree, pressing my lips against his in a kiss. Elijah pulls my hips forward as I wrap my arms around his neck. I press my body close against his, feeling his arousal against my stomach. His tongue seeks entrance, and I fight him for dominance.

“How much further do we have to walk?” I ask as we finally part.

“Till we get to the clearing,” Elijah replies.

“We should get going,” I say, thinking of the make-out session I want to have with him.

“We should,” Elijah agrees but doesn’t move. He snuggles his face into the crook of my neck, and I love it.

“Arrgh, shit,” Elijah groans, pulling away from me and grabbing my hand.

“Let’s go”.

It was another forty minutes of uphill walking before we reached the campsite, a small clearing with enough room for a few tents around an old campfire. Elijah explained that the first time he was here with Kevin, his best friend, they cleared some trees and cut down logs to sit on around the campfire. They also had firewood already cut and ready to use hidden under a nearby tree.

I helped Elijah set up the tent and put all our equipment inside before walking down the hill towards a small creek.

“We can get our water from here and boil it first,” Elijah says, gathering some water in a bucket.

“What about the leaves and stuff?” I ask. Surely there’d be bugs in the water too. I’d hate to think I’m boiling mosquito lava to drink or something. Elijah grins, pulling out a container from the tent.

“This strains the water,” he explains, pouring the water from the bucket into a container. I’m about to ask if you can trust the contraption, but I keep my mouth shut as I see the water filling up the container.

After the container was full, Elijah poured it into a small metal pot which he placed on a metal grill that he had previously placed over the campfire.

“Wow. You thought of everything,” I say as I watch him. I can’t remember him packing a metal grill, actually.

“Where did the grill come from?” I ask.

“I can’t give away all my secrets,” he winks, smiling at me. I shake my head, watching him boil the water and make us both mugs of hot tea.

“Thank you,” I smile.

Later Elijah shows me where the outdoor dunny is, explaining that he and Kev made it on one of their trips up there once. It was close to the creek, and Elijah explained that I should wash my hands downstream to not mix the sudsy water with our drinking water. He then showed me where they kept their firewood and tools, and I noticed a large plastic container filled with camping gear.

“This is your secret stash, huh?” I smile, looking over at my mate.

“Yup. I come prepared,” Elijah winked. I helped him bring over some more fire which we stacked nearby the tent.

“I’m going to hunt up some food,” Elijah tells me, pulling me into a hug.

“Hunt up some food?” I ask, wondering what he’s talking about.

“Yup. There are some wild pigs and rabbits in this forest. Didn’t you smell them on the way up?”

“No…” I stutter, thinking of the poor animals that would become our next meal. I thought we were going to have two-minute noodles or something.

“I’ll be fine. Go read your book while you wait,” Elijah says, kissing my cheek.

“Okay,” I admit, walking into the tent and grabbing the book I’d brought. I figure I might as well lie down in the tent while I read and zip the tent closed once I’m inside. I hear the crunch of bones as Elijah shifts into his wolf, Blaze, and I open my book to read.

I wake to the smell of meat cooking and open my eyes to the inside of a dark tent. A blanket I didn’t know we had is on top of me, and I feel cozy and warm. My book, ‘Wool,’ by Hugh Howey, is half open next to me, and I groan, knowing I’ve lost my page. I’m one of those morans that like to fold the corners of the page to save my place, and I must not have done that when I fell asleep.

Slowly, I make my way out of the blanket, crawling out of the tent. I see Elijah’s silhouette against the fire, and I walk over to him, wrapping the blanket around me.

“You’re finally awake, sleepyhead?” Elijah smiles, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

“Yeah,” I reply, snuggling into his warm body.

“Good, dinner’s ready,” he says, grabbing a huge chunk of meat from the grill and placing it on a plate in front of him. He then does the same for the second plate before giving me one.

“You caught this?” I asked, impressed. Portions of cut meat from what looks like a wild pig is on the grill. It smells delicious.

“Blaze did,” Elijah admits. I smile as I take a bite of the juicy white flesh.

After we finish eating, me having seconds and thirds, I help Elijah wash the dishes in the water he had previously filtered and boiled from the stream.

“That was delicious, thank you,” I say to Elijah as we make our way back to the log in front of the fire.

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you hunt your own food whenever you come here with your friends?” I ask. Elijah nods.

“Yup. It’s peaceful here, isn’t it?”

I nod and look at the sky, admiring the stars peaking through the clouds. It certainly is quieter here. At the pack house, you can hear the conversations of pack members as they walk past open windows, and in the city, you can always hear the sound of cars, people and horns in the distance. But here, the only noise is the wind flowing through trees and the chirps of the birds. It is peaceful.

“The sky is pretty,” I murmur, looking at them. Out here, the stars shine bright, and I’m sure you can see more of them than you can see from the observatory. It’s wonderful.

“Thank you for taking me here,” I say, looking over at Elijah, who is watching me.

~

Edited with Grammarly