Chapter 128
The sun shone through the open door of the tent, once more waking up Natalie from her slumber. Her head was nestled inside the cranny between Shannon's neck and shoulder, as they spent the night cradling one another. Tilting her head up, Nat gave a peck to her lover's cheek, and then left her gently so as to not rouse her from her sleep. Getting dressed, she left the tent to see quite a scene. Almost every canine had partied till they dropped last night, which was slightly confusing given how small of a thing it was. The area around where the fire had been was littered with the sleeping hounds, making it almost a maze to get through before she could climb on top of the hay bales to join the three coyotes. Together with them, she watched the sun rise gently into the sky. As they watched that and the surroundings, the coyotes filled her in.
Edwin had followed Eugene last night after he had fled. He had apparently ridden his horse straight back home, not stopping once till he got there. Not needing to see much more, he returned back to the camp knowing that Eugene was not circling around to wait till night fell and he could get revenge later that night. After getting back, he kept his vision mostly on the south, should he manage to rally the people that he was with to come out and hunt them down. He did seem to have quite a dislike for wolves, and he had seen Natalie shift into one after all. Thankfully, there was no movement noticed from the south, either meaning he had been unable to convince them or he had kept it all quiet. Personally, Nat was surprised that Edwin had even went as far as to follow him. After all, the coyote had usually been the one to stay stoic at most cases. Lucille explained though that it was because he was the best at not being noticed unless he wanted to be. After all, not knowing that he had been followed would have caused Eugene to act differently compared to if he had known he had a tail.
Knowing that he had gone through the extra effort for them all, Nat focused her attention entirely on him. After all, people who go above and beyond what is expected of them deserve to be rewarded. Sure enough, he just ate up all of the attention, enjoying both hands that were administering him a massage. Tin looked on the scene with jealousy in his eyes. Something told Nat that he would be far more interested in putting in extra effort if that was the treatment that awaited him. Meanwhile Lucille kept alternating her gaze between the surroundings and her pampered mate. The mirth in her eyes was extremely noticeable, to the point where she had issues stifling her giggles. After all, Edwin's face looked like he had lost all thought processes and was just enjoying the moment entirely. How could she not find enjoyment in that?
After nearly half an hour of massaging Edwin from head to tail, Nat noticed that Shannon finally stumbled out of the tent. As Nat stood back up to hop down from the hay bales, Edwin finally realized what kind of position he was. Quick as he could, he rolled over from his back and up to a sitting and vigilant position. Looking around, he acted as nothing was wrong, even though he could not help but notice his mate's glee. The look in Lucille's eyes told him he would get teased about this for at least a few days. Despite the embarrassment he was feeling, he felt that all of it would be worth it, at least, that what he displayed by having his chest puffed out while his tail wagged quite happily. Lucille decided to help him out a bit, and moved over to start help with his fur that was sticking up in some locations. Tin did his best to keep his own watch up, at least until the rest of the camp started to stir.
As Nat jumped down and strolled over to her still waking lover, Shannon was starting to set up breakfast. While the gorillas were lightly helping out, they still spent most of the time sleeping and eating. From the brief glances she had gotten at them, Nat estimated that it would be two to three weeks of Soulscape accelerated time before they were back up to healthy levels, maybe more. They had all basically been under starvation effects, and normally that would take months of recovery. There was little likelihood of being able to rely on them any time soon if they got into a fight. If anything, the pups would be the first group to fall back on if they needed help. Any awake gorillas would be treated as an absolute last resort, should they be in mortal peril.
Today's breakfast was chicken and waffles, however Shannon limited Nat to only one waffle. However, there was a massive pile of chicken in comparison. Regardless, she trusted her wife's nutritional knowhow and started going to town on the pile of food. Despite that trust, she still could not help but look over at Shannon's stack of waffles in pure jealousy. Thankfully for her, Kali, Maia, and Scout were joining her in the prescribed diets. None of the complained though, as the meat was all tasty beyond belief. Shannon's cooking ability had always been good, but it had grown by leaps and bounds over the past few weeks. Probably due to the mass number of mouths that she cooked for each day, as well as the fact that all of them were glad to eat and taste test anything she made.
After breakfast was done, camp cleanup was fairly easy, save for the fact that Tank was still sleeping. It took a while to rouse the big lug, as he slept like a rock. Lady resolved it though, by slinking up to him and whispering something in his ear. Never before had anyone seen a warg go from sleeping to bouncing on his paws so fast. With that, the group got off the property to hit the road once more. As they left, Nat took one last look south. Upon seeing no dust cloud or people approaching, she shrugged off the thought and turned north, hand in hand with Shannon once more.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Selvaria, Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Jacob, Onean, Neal, Sebastian, Ethan, Sir Hellington, Adam, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!
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