Rising Sun (Book Two)

Eleven: Moving

^^^>>><<< Picture of Nathan, minus the ears of course!!

***Charlie's P. O. V.***

I hiss as I lift up a box and it bumps against my still healing mark.

"You okay??" Nathan asks, his ears perking forward.

"Yeah," I reply, taking a second to breathe.

"Maybe you shouldn't do that. I can move the boxes, maybe you could work on packing up whatever we didn't get into boxes yet," he suggests.

"No. We already have everything packed, and I'm way stronger than you. I should be doing all the heavy lifting so you don't hurt yourself."

"Come on, Charlie, I'm not that weak."

I smile, loving how cute he sounds right now. He's not exactly weak or incapable, he's just not nearly as strong as I am. Or maybe I just like to think that since I'm the dominant mate. Either way, I don't want him to exhaust himself carrying boxes. We're both already tired from hunting earlier. It was the next step of the mating process, something our wolves have been craving to do.

"How many books do you own?!" I ask, looking into the next cardboard box to find it full of novels.

"I don't know. More than I thought, I guess," he says sheepishly as his ears flatten a little.

I carry my load all the way to the truck, pausing on the stairs for a quick breather. We don't own that much stuff, but we did need to borrow my friend's pickup to lug it all to our new home. Pops and Dad would be helping us right now, but they're at a big meeting. There's a lot going on with the pack and our enemies, so they've been gone at meeting such as these quite often.

"You know," I say thoughtfully, picking up the last box. "I'm thinking of becoming a warrior."

"Really?" Nathan asks, his forehead wrinkling.

"Yeah, why not?"

"But it's so dangerous," he replies, wringing his hands together and popping his knuckles.

"Hey, don't do that," I say as I set down the box and take hold of both of his hands. "You're gonna start to twitch if you fidget like that. I-I might not do it, I guess we'll see. Maybe there's a better job for me out there."

"Right," he replies slowly, still not making eye contact. "As soon as we stop living off of student money that the pack provides, you can get a regular job. Becoming a warrior isn't all that great. Y-you'll see."

I'm tempted to sigh, but instead I nod. I'm pretty set on being a warrior, but I now realize that it isn't a good idea to talk to Nathan about it. He gets so anxious over things. I mean, I understand it, especially in this situation. Being a warrior is dangerous, but I'm set on protecting the pack that I love so much. Great Uncle Greg is a warrior! Sure, he lost one of his arms, but he was protecting his family and pack members. It was worth it.

We take one last look around the room that has been our bedroom since we were born. We had so many memories in this room. I always thought that Peter would be the first to leave home, but I guess it's us. I'm actually not sure what Peter will do. He's found his mate, but he hasn't made any implications that he's moving out.

"Goodbye, old room," Nathan says.

I pull him closer to me and kiss his temple. I know he's probably having a hard time with this. Most people don't like change, but he downright fears it.