Flight 118: A Woman’s Future
Chapter Twenty-Six

The next time I woke up it was because of my stomach growling. I looked over, feeling my cheeks heat, as Jonah chuckled. My head was resting on his arm but he was laying on his side staring down at me.

As my cheeks felt even hotter I just knew I was blushing brightly. “Are you watching me? How long have you been awake?”

“A while. I wanted to watch my sleeping mate. You’re almost even more beautiful in your sleep.” He shook his head ruefully. “I don’t even know how that’s possible.”

I bit my lip and looked away shyly. “Why didn’t you wake me? What time is it even?”

“You needed your sleep. You were out around three hours, now. I guess I wore you out.”

I gasped and shoved his chest playfully. “You did not!”

His laugh barreled through him so much my whole body was jostled. “Okay, okay. We wore each other out?”

I shook my head and huffed with a grin. “Keep it up, mister and it’ll be a while before that happens again!”

Still laughing he raised his free hand in surrender. “Okay! I’ll stop. Promise.” His entire face was still alight with his humor.

I smiled up at him and leaned up to kiss him just as my stomach growled again. Groaning, I covered my face in embarrassment.

At his laugh, my fingers spread enough to see him. When I saw his smug smile my hand fell. “What exactly is that look for?”

“I told you I’d have you forgetting all about food.”

I gasped and shoved him again, trying to hide my smile. “Jonah!”

He chuckled, kissed my nose, and then nuzzled my neck. After a few moments of him inhaling my scent, now entwined with his according to him, he leaned back to kiss me once more. “Let’s go get you fed, my mate.”

When I went to roll out of bed with him I groaned. Between everything that happened yesterday and then this morning my body was super sore. I was not looking forward to how sore I’d be tomorrow. They said the 2nd day was the worst.

At my groan, Jonah stopped and rushed to my side. “What? What’s wrong?”

I smiled gently, though it felt more like a grimace. “I’m alright. Just sore.” My eyes widened at the look on his face. “From yesterday.”

He growled softly. “I knew I shouldn’t have let us mate when you were still hurt.”

“Stop. Don’t do that. I wasn’t that hurt and I don’t regret anything we did. Just...didn’t think about how sore my entire body would be today.”

Leaning down to peck me on my lips he grinned wolfishly. That was the only way I could think to describe it. “Don’t worry, Mine. I’ll carry you anywhere you need to be for as long as you need.”

I felt like there was a permanent blush on my face today. “Fine. Let’s get dressed and get food...unless you wanna go grab some food for us and bring it back.” The latter came out in a hopeful question.

A pout fell on his lips and it was both adorable and amusing. “I wanted to show you off, though.”

I groaned. “Please. For me? It’s already going to be super embarrassing whenever we do end up going down, knowing they’ll all know what we’ve done.”

“Baby, it really won’t be that bad. They’ll all be happy for us and envious. They would never make you feel embarrassed. Anyway, I already figured you’d want to stay here longer. I linked with one of our packmates still here to have some warm water brought up before you woke up. I’ll grab it for you and fill the tub. Then, while you soak in your well-deserved bath I’ll go get us food.”

I smiled up at him lovingly. “I love you so much, Jonah. Thank you.”

He grinned down at me happily. “Anything for my Luna.” He pecked me on the lips one more time then stood to go grab the water jugs from the hallway. Before opening the door he stopped and looked back at me softly. “I will always love you. There is no time limit. Nothing will ever stop it. Until the end of time and beyond that.”

We ended up staying in our room until the next day; two days after the attack on the pack and Clarisse’s departure.

Part of me felt I should feel guilty about disappearing when there was so much to be done, but I couldn’t find it in me to feel anything but happiness. Well, happiness and the ache radiating throughout my body, which was worse today. Jonah had wanted me to stay in bed longer since the worst of it was my feet and legs. We were pretty sure I had sprained an ankle. But, though I wasn’t feeling guilty over spending the day before in our room, I knew another day spent hiding out would have rubbed me the wrong way.

Going downstairs for breakfast, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it wasn’t what I found.

No one was in the halls or rooms we passed. There was complete silence except for a slight humming coming from the kitchen.

When we walked in I stopped in amused shock. Silver was the only one in the kitchen, dancing and humming as he cooked what looked like a feast.

Before I could say anything he turned around with a smirk on his lips. “Welcome lovebirds! I’m currently working on your…” His head tilted as he thought then grinned at me. “On your mate day feast.”

The glimmer in his eyes made me feel like that had not been what he planned on saying. But the heat spreading up my neck and to my cheeks made me want to turn back around to avoid responding.

However, Silver and I had a unique relationship. One that meant I had to respond, but I could respond just as playfully as he. After all, we were friends. Not that I had ever had a friendship like this one before.

I narrowed my eyes playfully and said. “It better be tacos and enchiladas and whatever else I can dream of if you don’t expect to be smacked for that.”

Silver and Jonah laughed at that, Silver raising his hands in surrender while Jonah bent to kiss my cheek.

“It is, don’t worry! It’s why I’m all by myself in here.”

“Speaking of which... Where is everyone?” I looked around the kitchen, inhaling the delicious scents of food and spices filling the kitchen.

“Outside. Another reason why I’m in here cooking….and cooking a lot. Alpha Eric’s gotten them all to start cleaning up, cutting down the trees too burnt to save…everyone’s out there helping. Even the humans from town. At least, the ones from yesterday.”

My brow raised and I exchanged a look with Jonah. “Really? They’re still here?”

Silver nodded as he turned back towards the food. Continuing to cook as he talked. “Yea. He didn’t want them gone until they helped fix as much as possible. Both as a way to have help and to make sure they had no more doubts about people being here on their own terms.” He tossed a look back at Jonah. “You can get food for you two, by the way. Don’t mind me.”

Jonah snarled, baring his teeth. But his grin made it clear he was just playing. “I don’t need permission to take care of my mate, thanks very much.”

I smacked Jonah’s arm playfully but laughed as Silver turned to roll his eyes playfully at me.

As Jonah joined Silver moving around the kitchen to make us breakfast, I settled on a barstool. I had given up on making our food if Jonah was in the room.

“So, how’s everything outside? Is it really bad?”

Silver shook his head. “No, not really in my opinion. Really just the land and the trees.”

“And he’s wanting it to be cleaned and forgotten?”

“Exactly. If anything, the major damage is in the relationship with the town and the feeling of security.”

Jonah came over with our food and sat down. He didn’t stop there. Instead, he reached over, grabbed my toast, and raised it to my mouth. I huffed in amused exasperation, my brow raising at him even as I leaned forward to take a bite.

“I told you I could feed myself.”

He chuckled and leaned forward to kiss my nose. “And I told you… I have many, many jobs when it comes to you. Making sure you’re fed is one of them. Just so happens I enjoy taking to that task with a hands-on approach.”

I laughed and shook my head. When I glanced over towards Jonah I saw him turning away with an unreadable look in his eye. Was he envious? I could see why but it would make things harder around here if we caused him to be upset every time we were near each other.

Turning back to Jonah I saw him give me a small, sad smile and barely perceptible nod. So I had seen right and he had noticed too.

Hoping to fill the silence, I started to continue eating. “So...what does Eric plan on doing with the town humans after? I mean the fact they’ve seen the territory. Didn’t he say he tried to keep the townspeople away?”

Both of them nodded but it was Jonah who answered this time. “I think he’s hoping the longer he keeps them here the more they’ll...I don’t know, be more inclined to keep it a secret.”

I nodded slowly, thinking about it. I guess it made sense in a way. Make it where they had no doubts or issues, so they are fine keeping things like the territory layout secret as opposed to feeling forced to keep a secret.

After we finished eating and Jonah washed the dishes, mainly because it still hurt to walk on my feet from being attacked by so many branches and tree roots, I offered to help Silver in the kitchen while Jonah went outside to help.

It took many minutes to reassure Jonah that Silver was just my friend and I would only help with stuff from my seat. Even then I had to remind Jonah that I was now wearing his mark and completely mated to him, so he had nothing to worry about. Besides, after a brief scare the day before, we now both knew how to use our mate link and were able to speak in each other’s minds. I was still getting used to that but he seemed ecstatic at the idea.

After a few hours the food and I, much to my dismay, were carried outside for what I liked to call linner. It was past lunchtime but much too early to truly be considered dinner, even if it was probably going to be the last meal of the day.

Silver had truly outdone himself and had somehow managed to cook enough food to feed an army in a few hours, all by himself. There were things to make tacos, enchilada platters, tamales, and more. Though, as Silver explained to me while I helped him, these people wouldn’t really be getting an authentic Mexican cuisine experience since he had to work with ingredients available here.

The meal was to both celebrate our mating and try and bring some semblance of security back to everyone here. Maybe even to highlight the similarities of how normal shifters were to the townspeople there. I had hoped Silver had just been joking about the mating part of the equation, but apparently not.

It was set up like a dinner buffet and we all sat on the ground or tree logs. I looked around. The damage from the fires didn’t look too bad just as Silver had said. Mostly, it seemed to be giving the pack more lumber and clearing space. If you ignored the charred grass and the burned trees that were still standing. Looking at that, I could understand what Silver had meant by the damage being more to the feeling of security for people here. With the constant reminder of how much worse it could have been, I could see why people would be unsettled. I mean, heck, I was the only one kidnapped and I wasn’t as upset as many of the other people looked.

I spent the entire meal stuffing myself to my delight while being completely embarrassed by all the well-wishers coming up to Jonah and me. Needless to say, at the end of the day I was mentally exhausted even when I did nowhere near the amount of work everyone else had.

The meal ran long after the sunset and the lanterns came out. When people finally began to stop eating it seemed to turn into a party. There was singing and dancing; laughter and fun.

I leaned into Jonah from my seat on his lap. He was sitting on the ground with his back against the building wall and hadn’t wanted me to sit on the floor. Yawning, I nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck.

“Tired, Mine?”

I nodded as I felt my eyes begin to droop. “I don’t know why. I haven’t done much yesterday or today.”

He chuckled in a completely smug way if I had to describe it. “Well, I did keep you up most of the night after keeping my out busy yesterday. And that was after seeing if your body could move through trees, and failing.”

I gasped and pulled back. But I couldn’t stop the smile from crossing my lips. “How mean.”

He laughed aloud then leaned forward. Nuzzling my nose and then kissing my lips he whispered, “Sorry. But it’s true.”

He grinned as he leaned back when I tried to push him playfully. When I yawned again Jonah bent his knees, slid his arms under me, and somehow rolled up to stand in a smooth transition I would never be able to do.

“Let’s get you to bed, my mate. I promise to keep my hands to myself tonight and let you get some sleep.”

As he carried me inside and up the stairs, I waited until I was sure no wolf ears would hear. Leaning back I grinned up at him cheekily. “And why would you do something like that?”

He growled down at me as his eyes darkened and then began to glow gold. With that, he began to bound up the stairs. Leading me to what I was pretty sure was guaranteed to be another sleepless night. But I wasn’t complaining.

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