Morning came quickly for the two teens and found Lucas and Fay cuddled up together inside their tent as the rays of sunlight began to peek through the trees. The two had stayed up late, simply talking and enjoying one another’s company. Fay had got Lucas going and he’d told her about quite a few of his favorite comic books back home.

  Eventually, they moved their conversation into the tent, where they could enjoy the warmth of the enchanted sleeping bags. By the time that the two had started to get sleepy, Lucas had even managed to get Fay a bit interested in a few of the characters he’d told her about.

  As Lucas began to stir, he could feel Fay tracing small little shapes across his chest. It was pretty obvious that she was awake already and she quickly realized that he’d woken up as well when he let out a yawn.

  “Morning,” He mumbled.

  “Morning, Lucas.”

  Rather than pull away, Fay buried her head into his chest and tightened her grip on him. Lucas certainly didn’t mind the closeness, but he was a bit confused about what caused his girlfriend to do it.

  “Fay?”

  “I don’t want to get up,” She admitted, her words muffled by his shirt.

  “We’ve gotta get back to town, though. We have to tell your dad that something strange was happening,” Lucas pointed out.

  Fay groaned and hugged Lucas tighter, not wanting to let go. After a few seconds, she pulled back and pushed herself up on her elbows.

  “I know we have to go back, but once we do, we won’t be able to do this anymore,” She explained, gesturing between herself and him. “I’ve gotten so used to using you as my pillow. Do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be for me to fall asleep in my own bed now?”

  By the time she finished, Fay was actually pouting at him. Lucas could barely hold back his laughter, but deep down he felt the same way. Fay’s presence at his side had been a more welcome comfort than he could put into words. He slept peacefully with her at his side, and he enjoyed every morning that they’d woken up next to one another. Of course he wanted more time to sleep together with his girlfriend.

  And yet, they both knew that they couldn’t waste time and drag out their trip back to Helstrum. Something was going on with the Direwolf packs and if Fay was concerned, Lucas knew they needed to let someone else know.

  Lucas reached out, pulling Fay into a hug and holding her against his chest. A little chuckle escaped his lips when he heard the little sigh she let slip as she sank back against him.

  “I know. It’s not like it’s going to be any easier for me, either,” He replied.

  He could feel Fay tense up when he said that and her arms tightly squeezed around him.

  “Your nightmares. Oh gods, I forgot,” She mumbled.

  “I don’t think they’ll be as bad anymore,” Lucas replied, though he didn’t voice the fact that he wouldn’t find that out until the first night he slept on his own. “Killing that alpha, fighting and killing those other Direwolves, I think that helped.”

  He had no idea if he was actually right or not, but he wanted to reassure Fay at least. And maybe if he said it enough, it would end up being true.

  Fay’s grip on him eased, but she didn’t let go. “If you say so.”

  “I’ll be ok, Fay,” He responded softly.

  “I know, I know. I’m just worried about you. I get to do that as your girlfriend.”

  And that certainly brought up a topic that Lucas knew had to be broached. They hadn’t been in a relationship when they’d left for the hunting trip, but that had quickly changed.

  “So… Are we going to hide the fact that we’re dating from your parents?” Lucas asked.

  “Why would you want to hide it?” Fay asked as she pushed herself up so that she could look down at him.

  Lucas simply cocked an eyebrow. “Your dad will kill me.”

  His deadpan tone got a giggle out of Fay and that was enough to make Lucas crack a smile as well.

  “Ok, so he won’t kill me, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to keep things quiet or let them know,” He explained.

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  Rather than respond with words, Fay leaned in and pressed her lips to his, shutting Lucas up before he could ramble on any further. It was a pretty effective move.

  For a few seconds, Lucas forgot about everything else. The Direwolves, getting back home, his worries about Fay’s parents, everything other than the beautiful girl beside him was just forgotten about for a few seconds. And when the kiss finally ended, he found himself wishing that it hadn’t.

  “I’m not going to hide that we’re together because if I did, I couldn’t do something like that whenever I wanted,” Fay replied playfully.

  “That uh…” Lucas had to force his mind to actually work and piece together proper words, much to Fay’s amusement. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

  Fay’s laughter filled the air and Lucas felt his cheeks heating up a bit. But his embarrassment didn’t stop his smile as he saw his girlfriend’s mood improve.

  “As much as I really want to stay here with you, we should probably get going,” Lucas eventually spoke up.

  “I know,” Fay sighed. “I think that if we push it, we can get back home late tonight. Do you think you can keep up?”

  “If you don’t cheat this time? Sure I can,” Lucas shot back with a grin.

  “Me? Cheat?” Fay asked with an innocent grin of her own. “I would never.”

  Their laughter soon awoke their familiars and forced the pair to actually get up and start their day. Dusk in particular was quite insistent on getting some food in her belly once she’d woken up. And Lucas just knew that she was going to be a pain once they got back in town. He’d promised his familiar a reward for a job well done, and he knew for certain that the greedy little fox wasn’t going to forget it.

  “You’re lucky that Dove isn’t as greedy as this one,” Lucas joked as he scratched behind Dusk’s ears.

  A quick chomp on his hand by the little fox was enough to make Lucas pull his hand back with a yelp. Dusk made it quite clear what she thought of the joke.

  “I don’t think she liked that,” Fay laughed as she happily fed Dove a few strips of jerky and some berries.

  “You think?” Lucas grumbled, tenderly holding his hand away from the smug looking fox.

  Once breakfast was finished, Fay spoke up. “Alright, we have to stop fooling around. If we want to make it back to Helstrum today, we need to get moving soon.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “A full pack from the major territory lurking about deep in the minor territories? That’s not good.”

  Magnus sighed as he held a steaming cup of coffee in his hands. He gazed out the window into the dark night and took a long sip of his coffee before looking at the two teens sitting across from him.

  “I’m glad you told me about this. If you’re right, then something has stirred up trouble in the main hunting grounds, and the packs are being driven out. That’s rarely good for the surrounding area and some people could be killed because of it.”

  “So you really think that big pack showing up is that big of a thing?” Lucas asked.

  “The larger packs don’t tend to move very often, Lucas,” Magnus explained. “Any disputes between packs winds up with the alphas fighting to the death. The winner assimilates the loser’s pack. The only way a pack would be driven out of their territory would be if something other than a Direwolf forced them out. Something strong enough to make the pack think that running was better than fighting.”

  “Do you have any idea what might have caused it, dad?” Fay asked as she sipped at her own warm cup full of tea.

  “I don’t think it was any of the local species, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Magnus replied. “If I had to take a guess, I think that a group of hunters are probably to blame. What they’d be doing that’s causing an entire pack to flee to the minor territory I don’t know, but I doubt it’s guild approved.”

  Magnus sighed again, sipping at his coffee and looking at the two teens. Lucas and Fay were both clearly tired and there wasn’t much they could do to hide it. Both teens were struggling to even stay awake in their chairs, Lucas more than Fay.

  “Whatever is going on, it can wait till morning to deal with. It’s late and you two are clearly exhausted. Go get some sleep, alright? We can talk more in the morning.”

  Both looked like they wanted to protest, but a yawn from Fay interrupted her attempt to say anything. That started a chain reaction and Lucas yawned a moment later, joined by the half-asleep fox sprawled across his shoulders.

  “Go,” He repeated. “Go to bed. I want to hear more about how the trip went when you two are actually awake.”

  That seemed to finally get through to the pair, and Magnus chuckled quietly as he watched the two teens sleepily stumble out of the kitchen. It left Magnus alone with his cup of coffee and his thoughts as he ran through what Fay and Lucas had told him once more.

  The two had shown up at the house late. Lissa had already fallen asleep and Magnus had been starting to doze off in bed as well. The sound of the front door opening had roused him, though, and he’d quietly slipped out of bed to go check things out.

  He’d found Fay and Lucas practically stumbling into the house looking dead tired. The two had clearly been pushing themselves to get back to town, and Magnus had been quick to sit the two down and ask what was going on. The plan had been for Fay to take Lucas out on a simple hunting trip. It wasn’t meant to be a rush, so he wasn’t sure why the two had pushed themselves to get back so soon.

  Then they told him what had happened when they’d gotten to the minor territory. Stumbling upon such a large alpha was a surprise on it’s own. He hadn’t seen the beast yet, but Lucas did mention that he had stored it in his bag. A full pack of twelve, including an alpha and a clearly strong and smart mate was worrying, though.

  He made sure to write down a note to send Granny Wren a nice bottle of wine soon. He owed it to her for giving the kid one of her higher tier potions. If she hadn’t, there was a good chance that Lucas wouldn’t have survived the encounter, not with the wounds that Fay had described.

  Drinking down the last dregs of his coffee, Magnus slowly rose to his feet. He turned the lights off behind him as he left the kitchen, leaving the house dark as he quietly snuck his way back into the bedroom. Luckily, it seemed like Lissa hadn’t awoken during his conversation with the kids.

  As he slid into the bed, the man silently stared up at the ceiling. The next day would be a mixed bag for sure. He was proud of Lucas for completing his first hunt and bagging a pretty significant prize, but he would also have to stop by the Hunter’s Guild and have a chat with Leonidas. Something was going on and the guild needed to know.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~