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15
The first day of walking had been awkward and quiet. Thankfully, the rough terrain gave us all an excuse to stay quiet. From what I could tell, our group was in decent shape, but our route was all uphill, over rough and unstable ground. By the nightfall, we were all exhausted.
A fire crackled in the center of our makeshift camp. I dug through my pack and found a blanket I could use to protect myself against the cold, night air. When I pulled it out, a package of cookies came along with it. I grinned and held them up for the others to see. “I take it Greta knows what we’re up to?”
“I never told her, which means, she knows everything,” Alec said.
I opened the package and offered them around the group. Everyone took a few and chewed them quietly. We’d already eaten some of the food from Alec’s bag, but jerky and canned fruit left something to be desired. The cookies were a nice treat.
“We should get some rest,” Alec said. “I can take first watch.”
“We should have a pair on watch,” Kyle said.
“I’ll take first watch with him,” I offered. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep anytime soon. My body ached from the hiking we’d done all day, but my mind hadn’t settled. Plus, I was honestly terrified I would have another dream about Tyler. That was the last thing I wanted.
“You three sleep,” Alec said. “I’ll wake the next group in four hours.”
“You sure you don’t want to sleep first?” Sheila asked as she stifled a yawn.
“We’ll be fine,” I said. “Sleep.”
“I’m here if you need me,” Kyle said. “But promise you’ll actually wake me.”
“I will,” I assured him.
The fire crackled and the wind rustled the trees. It was a beautiful night. The moon was nearly full, casting a silvery light over the forest. If not for the fact that we were making our way to a witch, I might have enjoyed the beauty of the secluded campsite.
Alec was sitting on a large rock, out of the way from the flatter area where the others had set up their sleeping bags. I walked over to him and sat down on the space next to him. We were only a few inches apart, but it was the best seat if I was going to stay awake and watch the woods for a few hours.
Aside from the occasional stoking of the fire, neither of us moved or spoke. It was probably a good hour before I got too restless to sit in silence anymore. I stood and stretched, then walked in a quiet circle around our camp before returning to the rock.
“I was thirteen when I had my first shift,” Alec said.
I looked over at him, surprised that he was the one to break the silence. “That’s young, right?”
He shrugged. “Most of us shift between thirteen and fifteen. In packs outside Wolf Creek, we start to worry if you haven’t shifted by sixteen.”
“It must have been nice to grow up somewhere where it wasn’t so restricted,” I offered.
“It wasn’t a glamorous life, but I had a decent childhood. My parents were kind and loving, I had friends and family nearby. Everything was simpler then,” he said.
“Sounds wonderful.” I knew he had tragedy in his past, I’d heard some mentions of it, but I didn’t know the whole story. Keeping my responses short was safer. I didn’t want to bring up any bad memories or ask questions that might cause him pain. I might not be happy with him right now, but I wasn’t an asshole.
He stood and added a few pieces of wood to the fire, then returned to the rock. I wanted to ask questions, especially about why he was helping me. Why did he care about a random shifter who passed through his camp?
Instead, I could only come up with small talk. “At least the weather is nice.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. We’re lucky it’s not raining. This whole forest would be a mud pit we’d have to trek through.”
“How did you meet this witch?” I asked.
“We’ve been working on something together,” he said.
“Oh,” I said softly. “So, we’re back to the secrets?”
He glanced over at me. “I’m not trying to keep things from you. I’m not sure how much you want to know. You’ve been through a lot.”
“So have you,” I pointed out. “I can handle it. Just tell me what you’re so afraid of sharing. Let me in, just a little.”
