Roman
The entire pack worked together to build another set of cabins.
Fairly soon, Roman would have to divide his time, because he had a major project coming up. The time was coming for a Blackwood Academy reunion; he had been a leader in the class and so it would fall to him to organize the trip.
Because they only got together officially one time a year, they usually stayed two weeks.
That's two weeks that he’d be away from Everleigh. Dammit, it shouldn't matter how long he was away from her. And what did it mean that she was the first thing he thought about? It probably wasn’t a good thing.
He got busy planning. He bought paper and wrote out what he wanted the invitations to say. Everleigh offered to type them, and he took her up on that offer. He hated typing, and he hated writing with a pen too. At least now they’d be legible.
They got the invitations typed up, and they addressed the envelopes and sent those too, mainly for all the alumni that lived in remote areas with poor cell phone service or alumni that had never used a cell phone.
He found a good location for them. They tried to switch locations each year, so they’d always have somewhere new to visit. They enjoyed the challenge of having new lakes, new rivers, and new mountains to explore.
The closer the trip came, the less happy his wolf was. His wolf loved the reunions. But he did not want to be away from Everleigh.
But Roman was going. He got to see Jameson and Derek all the time, because they were part of his pack. But Sutton lived far away, and this was the only time they took to see each other, for the entire year.
Sure, they wrote to each other, and they called, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted to sit around the campfire with Sutton, eating and drinking.
Now he just had to convince his wolf that he wanted to go.
He had a feeling it would not be an easy task.
* * *
Once he got there,the sensation of missing Everleigh grew even more intense. He pushed the feeling away and focused on his reunion.
These two weeks were special. It was the only time that he could truly let go and not be responsible for hundreds of wolf shifters.
The first night, they ran races down the mountain side. The second night they swam. The third night, they hunted. The fourth night, they fished.
Every single activity was a contest, and finally on night four, Roman won the contest by catching the most trout while shifted into his wolf form.
They all had a delicious dinner of roasted fish, frying them over the fire once they’d switched back into their human forms.
They went for another midnight swim, and afterward, all of them sprawled out on the shore, under the moonlight.
"This is the life," Sutton said. He wasn’t the Alpha of his pack yet, but he’d taken over a lot of responsibilities.
"It sure is," Roman agreed.
Everleigh.
Roman sighed. No matter how content he was, his wolf wouldn’t shut up. He wanted to see her. Despite how much fun he was having, he missed her.