Chapter Text
The rainfall had become a curtain between them and the world behind the tiny cavern they were scrunched up inside. Georgie sat in Casey’s lap and they watched it clatter over rocks and mud, their faces only inches from the leafy threshold.
“As soon as it lets up a little we need to find a bigger hiding spot,” Casey murmured into his hairline. “Somewhere we can start a fire and warm up.”
“Mmm.” It was an affirmative hum, but also one of comfort in exactly where they already were. Where he was: in his mate’s arms, stealing his body heat. The smell of wet dog wasn’t appealing, but wet alpha? Georgie would lick droplets of water off the plank of muscle that was Casey’s torso any day. Right now they were more soggy than sexily dripping. Still, a girl could daydream.
“I might only have the night with you,” he continued, hushed as though Cove might hear from all the way back through the forest.
“You’ve got lots more nights with me,” he countered. More than Cove, if they were being fair to themselves about it.
“Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about alphas…”
“That your foreheads align spectacularly with door frames?”
“That we can be possessive.”
“Can be?” Georgie sputtered through his laugh. “That implies there’s a time when you can not be!”
“Hey, most wolves find it a sexy trait,” he cooed. Georgie could feel his cheeky grin against his throat.
Georgie feigned rigidity. “I dare you to name someone who has told you they find you sexy.”
Casey chuckled. A mite nervously. Good. “Georgie, I have eyes for no one but you. Never have. I’m not sure what I would have done if I’d woken up twenty-one and soul-bound to someone else.”
“You really should get to know the others more.”
The look he pointed around him and at him was incredulous.
“So that you can be a better leader,” he added with a scoff. “They want a personal connection to their alpha. To feel noticed and known.”
Casey was quick to defend himself. “I know them.” There wasn’t a whole lot of passion behind the words.
“You know those that own businesses or patrol,” Georgie countered. “The kind of people that file into your father’s house for official means.”
“What about your parents? I know them.”
“What about the other pups we used to play with?” Georgie asked softly. Their cohort of similarly aged wolves, the ones they took classes with sometimes. Over time they’d drifted away into their trio and never looked back.
Casey smiled awkwardly as he stated the obvious, “They’re not pups any more.”
“We should socialise more. Your dad is right, maybe we hide a bit too much out here.”
This finally forced his face into a frown. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Just been thinking…”
“Are you worried about that rogue wolf? Because you’re never in danger out here with me-”
“I know!” He sunk into him again, reassuring him physically as well as verbally. His presence was all he needed to feel safe. “No, I’m not worried about that… I just… Watching you two work together to co-ordinate the search and the guards and everything, it made me realise that you’re ready, I guess.”
“Ready?”
“To lead. Alpha Calvin sat back and watched you do it, I think he was having the same feeling.” Until now, it had seemed that all that was keeping the pack from devolving into chaos was Alpha Calvin’s control… yesterday they proved something to him, he could feel it. Now to work out how they could keep their own control over the pack going forward.
“And you’re, what? Trying to give me the edge over Cove with this socialising advice?”
“I-” Georgie faltered, crinkling his brows at the blurry green ahead. “No, I just-”
“Because it can’t be like that. Both of us barking at the same time, I mean.”
“You worked well together.” They would make a great leadership team… if they could just get along at times when they weren’t frothing at the fangs. Unfortunately, there could only be one alpha.
“Yeah, we did.” The finality in those three words silenced them. They let the storm fill their ears instead, waiting out the best moment to spring forth and find another hole to hide in.
―
Distant drips of departed rainfall filled the clearing. The sky remained grey and the wind aggressive, warning them that the storm would return soon enough. That, and the day’s end was near. They pointed themselves in the direction of the mountains with plenty of roaming room to their sides to spot a good stop. They weaved through the trees at Georgie’s top speed. Or, Georgie weaved the trees and Casey weaved Georgie.
Without their human mouths they couldn’t share their thoughts aloud, but it was clear from Casey’s chin lifts every few metres that he was wary of their getting ever-closer to Borderwatch. When they had paddled to the boundary before it had been exciting, now they had the possibility of aggressive mountain clans crouching at their backs.
As soon as Georgie spotted a deep enough cave, set into a hefty rock cluster, he stole the lead again. Casey chased him, sending watery mud splashing up around them.
―
“Morning, beautiful.” Casey kissed his temple and rolled onto all-fours above him – minus his fur and tail. “We need to head out soon if we’re going to make it to Borderwatch.”
Georgie groaned and curled into his side. “A little more rest, please,” he whined. Maybe he was nervous to return to the mountains too. Maybe it was easier to pretend to be sleepy than to admit that. Such feelings would only make Casey anxious over him…
Another kiss and he shifted off of him. “Fine. But not too much more, we’re losing the morning.”
Despite his stern words, Casey re-fuelled the campfire and pottered about as he made breakfast at a meandering pace. The sizzle and scrape could easily lull Georgie back to sleep… only, he could sense an approach in his chest. Beneath his sternum, a buzzing was growing. His other mate honing in. Georgie buried himself deeper into the bedding and awaited whatever would erupt when he arrived.
A howl cut the air before he reached the mouth of the cave. Not of warning or distress, a greeting or announcement that he was near. Maybe he expected to find them entangled inside. Why else would they not be on the trail this late into the morning?
The clattering of breakfast stilled. Then, Georgie heard the utensils placed down on stone and padding steps getting quieter.
“He’s asleep,” Casey called lowly.
A grunt. Cove shifting, Georgie guessed, since there was a stumble of feet and then a human-like throat-clearing.
“Have some.” Whatever Casey was offering, it sounded like Cove accepted. Georgie refused to let either know he was eavesdropping, maintaining steady, slow breaths and squeezing his eyes shut even though he wasn’t facing them.
They ate and talked of their father’s projects, of their tasks ahead, of everything Cove had wrapped up the day before to be here. It was pleasant enough. They soon ran out of amicable topics, though… Georgie wondered how long he had to let the awkward silence drag before he miraculously awoke to interrupt it-
“Thank you,” Cove murmured.
Only the crackle of fire filled the air for a pause. Georgie strained to hear if anything else was being offered in that near-whisper. Perhaps he’d not caught something right before.
“For what?” Casey replied. He sounded weary.
“For coming to me about this trip first.” Another fire-filled break. “I know I’ve been a grumpy fuck about all this… but I do appreciate you trying to…”
Georgie frowned, shifting his head in case his ear was too covered. Had he missed the last words?
“Y’know…” Cove tried again. Casey let him. “For still trying to talk with me.”
“Not to sound like those cheesy leadership videos that Alpha Daniel laps up… but communication is literally the only way we can manage this.”
“We never used to have to… I don’t know.”
“No, I know what you mean.”
“Exactly.”
“They say twins have their own language sometimes, but we never even needed words.”
“Words were for Georgie.”
“They still are.”
A crackle-and-pop filled silence lasted so long Georgie almost nodded off again genuinely. This time, it was Cove who interrupted it.
“You got the first night alone,” he said with almost crude insinuation. “You won’t go home early to give m-”
“Not a chance.”
Cove huffed. Casey snickered. Georgie smiled to himself and nuzzled a little deeper into his pillow.
“You wanna wake him up or shall I?”
A pause. “You’ve already tried once, haven’t you?”
Casey’s sigh was his answer.
―
Opting for his hiking boots to protect his paw pads from pine needles, Georgie trod between his mates on the trail to Borderwatch.
Gnarly-rooted hedges often blocked them from walking as a crow would fly. Casey or Cove could clear one in a four-pawed leap. They remained upright either side of Georgie – protective flanking or possessive flanking? He was just happy to be sandwiched by them.
The mountains had crested the trees by mid-afternoon, they were making great time. Casey said so regularly, an attempt to raise spirits, Georgie assumed. He was hiding his concerns in front of his brother, whether because Cove had visited Borderwatch already and had the upper hand in experience or because he didn’t want to look like he showed weakness in front of their mate, Georgie wasn’t sure. He appreciated his efforts, though. It was nicer than fixating on his attempts to hide his worry from him.
It was a long walk, and only the growing snow mounds deterred him from pulling off his boots to free his sore feet. His toes couldn’t bear the cold like his paws could, the regret would be pretty instant. Thankfully, the trees thinned suddenly when they met the base of the mountains, a rush of realisation striking him that the end was near.
High fells followed the forest for as far as the eye could see. A physical marker of the boundary line between Ivy Paw and Wild Mew. The Borderwatch range eventually led seaward. That was, according to the maps of Alpha Calvin’s personal library. They had never been that far beyond Ivy Paw’s territory. Maybe one day.
“It’s a plateau at the top,” Cove murmured, eyes up.
“No, there’s points- peaks, I mean.” Casey pointed to the snow-capped tips spearing the clouds.
“There.” Cove nodded up. “It’s flat.”
Georgie and Casey squinted in the direction he was directing them to.
“He’s right,” Georgie whispered.
Cove tossed handfuls of salt and grit he gathered from the lake bed over the snowy slush that had slid down from the mountain’s top crevasses. A veiny pathway that he must have remembered from his last visit was formed as he walked. Georgie moved to follow, Casey snatched his wrist.
“Wait until he’s checked ahead.”
Georgie nodded obediently. Not that Casey was watching him, he was watching just about everything but. His emerald eyes darted between his brother traversing the tight walkways, the rustling trees that could be hiding an ambush, the enormous boulders that may shield an enemy. The water he trusted.
Cove’s climb to the high plateau chilled Georgie more than the wind. The fog in the upper crags had a ghostly hue. Georgie wouldn’t envy anyone attempting to wade through it. He watched Cove’s ascent with a tight throat, even an alpha had no place underestimating mother nature.
No sooner had he reached the top of the smallest mountain was he turning back to collect the pair left below.
“Borderwatch is through a crevasse that you can get to from there.” He snatched Georgie under his arms and hoisted him up against his front. “I’ll carry you, Casey can bring up the rear.”
Casey didn’t argue, but his scowl caught Georgie’s eye over Cove’s shoulder. He stuck out his tongue in a hope he would take it playfully. Casey shook his head, a small smile tweaking the corner of his mouth. Keeping himself to Cove’s footprints might have been the highest act of respect he could offer his brother, and Cove wouldn’t even see it.
The crunch of snow and grit underfoot was unnerving, and it wasn’t even Georgie having to decide where was safe to step. The wind got worse the higher they got, too, and it was all Georgie could do to cling closer to his mate and squeeze his eyes shut. When Cove froze, almost faltering in his step, he snapped them open again.
Casey was questioning him immediately. Why had he stopped? What could he see? Was something wrong?
Cove brushed him off and continued upwards. Everything was fine. He thought he saw something but he hadn’t.
And Georgie knew in his soul he was lying.