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I sit in thoughtful silence as he explains everything he knows about it. I know he's right, and personally, I'm on board with the idea. But convincing the elders won't be easy. Especially not when, from their perspective, things are just fine the way they are.
"It'll be hard to win everyone else over," I say as I look into my mate's sparkling eyes. "But maybe it's worth a shot."
19
CALEB
Breeding season is growing steadily closer, and with its arrival comes the change in weather that signals the impending winter. The weather is growing bitterly cold, and it rains most days now. The sky is almost perpetually overcast, but spirits are high despite the gloomy weather.
The breeding season has everyone chatting excitedly. This last whelping season hadn't been very active. There had only been one pregnancy that produced only a single child. Most of the pack's existing couples either already had children that they were actively raising, or opted to skip last season for one reason or another.
This year, rumor has it that there would be a record number of pregnancies. All of the older omegas who are past the age of childbearing are excited for the chance to fulfill the nanny role for which they've been preparing for so long.
The young, mated omegas, like myself, are counting the days with excitement and anxiety. The exact start will be different for everyone, but we can all sense it growing closer.
As for the bachelors and bachelorettes in the pack...they’re already planning ahead. As soon as the breeding season starts, all unmated alphas and omegas will head to designated lodges on opposite sides of the property to wait things out.
Kale's been busy preparing for this little "vacation" as he calls it and hasn't been around to help with any projects lately. Which is fine with me. Now that I've got most of the big stuff out of the way, I've been just doing small projects or helping out other omegas with their homes. Since everyone’s distracted right now, there hasn't been much need for that kind of stuff lately, though.
So I've been using this time to plan out landscaping around the cabin, and where I want to place the beds for the vegetable garden that I've been planning with Diana's help. All of this stuff will have to wait until spring, but in the meantime, I can make sure that I like the way everything looks.
It also keeps me from pacing back and forth inside while I wait for Jordan to come back from his meeting with the elders.
He took the weekend off from his trips to Seattle and managed to talk his dad into gathering all of the elders for a meeting so they could discuss the cell phone tower idea. He warned me not to get my hopes up, but it's been difficult.
So instead, I've been tracing lines in the dirt around the yard, marking out where I want various flower beds or paths. The path from where Jordan parks up by the front door has been getting muddy and washed out with all the rain. We've put some wood chips down for now, but I want to do something a little more permanent at some point.
I'd also like to put a small footbridge over the creek. I've found that there's actually quite a few omegas that live just a short walk from our cabin, but they've either got to wade through the creek or walk all the way down to the culvert near Diana and Doug's house, which is a really long detour.
During the summer months, wading isn't so bad, but with all the recent rain, the creek has risen considerably and picked up quite a bit of speed. Plus, no one wants to get their feet wet in the middle of winter.
I chew my lip thoughtfully as I jot down a few notes on my notepad. Most of the stuff I've written down is going to have to wait until the weather warms up. There won't be a lot of stuff that I'll be able to work on over the winter months.
As it is, I've had to dismantle my makeshift open-air workshop because of the rain. I've kept a few of the tools stored beneath the eaves on the front porch, but most of it has had to go back to the shed to keep it out of the rain.
One of the first projects at the very tip-top of my list is a workshop, woodshed combo thing. Nothing fancy, just something to keep tools and wood dry and out of the elements. Maybe even space to tuck in a wood stove so that I can keep working on stuff through the chilly seasons too.
But that's another thing that will have to wait until the weather clears up.
My head snaps up at the sound of a car coming up the trail. It looks like Jordan's back. That's good. I was starting to worry. He's been gone for several hours now and neither of us had expected the meeting to take more than an hour.
He pulls into his normal parking spot and I approach to greet him as he climbs out of the car.
"Hell—"
"You're never going to believe this," Jordan announces, cutting off my greeting with an enthusiasm I wasn't expecting. "I can't even believe it."
He grabs me by the shoulders, kisses me firmly on the mouth and then leans back and looks me in the eye.
"They agreed."
"They...wha?" I blink in surprise, all coherent thought flowing from my brain like water let out of a bathtub.
"We discussed it thoroughly," he continues as he releases me and charges forward several steps. "There was a bit of debate about it. But I started laying it out the way we practiced and explained all of the benefits and the important details as clearly as I could."
He stops short and turns to look at me with a grin that could have lit up the night sky.
"And they agreed...?" I still can't believe I heard him right.
