A Friend To The Elements

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

*Adam's POV*

Even before I opened my eyes the morning of the campaign, I could already hear the loud sounds coming in front of the house. Voices, howling, laughing, and the sound of tables and chairs all ran together to create a low roar.

I slid out of the bed and walked to the window rubbing my eyes. I pushed the curtain aside to see Mom standing in the middle of the yard. She held Rory tightly with one arm while pointing in different directions with her other. Kids that were too young to join the campaign, but old enough to lift were running around carrying folding tables and chairs from the basement of the makeshift guest house. Some of the women were driving or walking up in the yard bringing large trays of food and placing them on the tables. Some of the first members of the campaign arrived and were greeted by Dad. He pulled them away and began seating them in the groups they would be traveling with.

I walked to the bathroom skipping a shower, but still brushing my teeth and washing my face. The dark circles under my eyes were evident and a clear indicator that I hardly slept at all. Washing some of the sleep away helped, but not enough to fully shake the nightmares that had plagued me all night. I couldn't stop seeing Lily's human body sprawled and broken with Henry standing over it.

I tried to shake the thought away and got dressed. I put on a pair of cargo pants and fitted green shirt. It would allow me to blend into the forest surroundings a little bit if I had to go in my human form for any reason. I pulled on my boots and went down to join the buffet. Instead of sitting at my table I walked around talking to each group and taking bites of food in between conversations. Some tables preferred to talk about the campaign and the small changes that were made to the original plan and why. Other tables wanted to laugh and talk about their new school, friends, or mates.

Our pack had slightly less than doubled over the last few months. About ten of the young kids had met their mates from surrounding small packs. While Lily's family is the largest and most prominent, the surrounding states were prime wolf territory. The mother's have been actively taking trips to the other areas for mom groups and any excuse they could to try and find the mates. Our pack was small, but some of the surrounding were as small as five to ten families with a reluctant Alpha. In those cases, plans were made to absorb their pack into ours. Other packs were close to the same size as ours or slightly larger causing negotiations to happen. Some families would be moving to the pack of their child's mate if they only had one to two young children while others would be coming to ours. A few of the older kids mated as well. Two came from Lily's pack, but all were old enough and low ranking enough to make the decision on which pack they wanted to continue life at. Both had thankfully made the decision to join us. For low ranks it would be a better decision to join us as it gave them more opportunity for upwards mobility. Zeke had mated as well, but his mate was human.

She didn't know yet what we were, and Zeke wasn't sure how to explain it to her. We were actively communicating with other packs to see if this was common as we had never heard of it before. She clearly cared about him slightly more quickly than a human romance, but it wasn't the full intensity of a mate bond.

Most of the wolves going on the campaign were males and their mates hovered nervously around the tables. We did have a few females as well who were unmated.

Once most of the food was gone the wolves began to say their goodbyes and shift. We would make our way to the pond as one group then from there the plan was to split into three groups of around fifteen. My group was short a few members due to the strength of the wolves we had, while others had a few more to make up for slightly weaker members.

Dad gave me a brief hug while mom held in her tears until she started hiccupping quietly. "We'll be okay Mom."

With her free hand she gripped mine. "Bring her home." I nodded and patted her hand gently. It amazed me how she could be so attached so an individual that she never met simply because I was.