“You know what?” I said. “Why don’t you start unpacking the food, and I’ll see if I can find the bed linen.”
I banged around, opening and closing various cupboards, while Jules grumbled something about drawing the short straw. I found sheets, pillows, and a handmade quilt with elaborate embroidery depicting the eight phases of the moon.
“Holy shit,” Jules exclaimed as he unpacked. “Could they have sent any more protein? There’s literally a couple of bags of frozen berries and one bag of frozen peas. The rest is all meat, cheese, and eggs.”
It was peculiar. Jules’s mom was a stickler for healthy eating and mine wasn’t much better. They must have packed in a rush.
“We can go into town in a day or two and pick a few things. It’s only an hour or so from here. It’ll give us something to do.”
It was almost nightfall by the time we’d settled in. I’d managed to connect the fridge/freezer to one of the gas canisters outside and we were pretty sure we’d gotten both of the kerosene lamps in reasonable working order. We lit a fire in the fire pit, and when the coals were glowing orange and silver, Jules grilled our burgers. After we’d eaten, I sat on the bench and drank a beer, and Jules leapt from one log to another. The logs were spaced pretty far apart and each time he jumped, I was sure he wouldn’t make it, but each time, he did. He landed precariously, arms out for balance, but he didn’t fall.
“I like it here,” said Jules, sitting down beside me when he’d finally done all the jumping he needed to do for the day.
“Yeah, it’s perfect.”
And it was. It was quiet. There was not a sound to be heard that came from man. Not a car, not a plane, not an engine. Nothing. Not even the hum of electricity. Just soft animal sounds, the sounds of leaves rustling, and trees groaning softly.
“I think I’m gonna turn in,” said Jules.
“I’ll head in soon, too. I’m just going to take a little, uh, walk.”
Jules smiled. “Still patrolling, huh? Even out here?”
“Have to,” I said. “Or I won’t sleep.”
When I got back to the cabin, Jules was already in bed. He was lying on his back with the quilt pulled up to his chest.
“Do you want to take turns on the sofa, or what?” I asked after I’d cleaned my teeth and changed into boxers and a tee. I felt a bit stupid asking. Jules and I had shared a bed on sleepovers since before I could remember. It’s what we’d always done, but at the same time, it had been years since we’d had a sleepover and, at least for me, things had changed considerably since then.
“Don’t be a dork. Just get in,” he said, pulling the covers back for me. He was wearing sleeping shorts and was shirtless. I got into bed quickly. The bed was smaller than my bed at home and felt more than a little crowded. To say both of us had grown a lot since our last sleepover would be an understatement. The bed springs must have been past their best because the mattress squeaked under my weight and the entire thing seemed to rock when I moved. I lay on my back and then rolled over onto my side, facing away from him.
“You’re taking up too much space,” he said.
“I can’t help it. I’m right on the edge.”
“You’re on my side.”
“That’s why I offered to take the sofa. Isaidwe should take turns.”
“Sully’s on my side,” he whined in an exaggerated childish voice.
I realized he was teasing me. It was one of the stupid things we used to fight about as kids. I gave him a tolerant chuckle. “Night, Jules.”
We were both quiet. I thought he was drifting off, but then he said, “Too bad we don’t have a girl here, huh?”
His words hit me hard. We usually didn’t talk about sharing women. We just did it. The fact that we were in bed together and he was thinking about sex made me so horned up, my gums and skin tingled with something that felt way beyond a normal level of arousal. Way, way beyond it.
It took me a while to fall asleep, a very long while. I spent the whole time willing myself not to move and begging myself not to think of him naked. It felt even more wrong than usual to do it when I was lying so close to him. When I finally fell asleep, it didn’t take long for the shifting dreams to start. I managed to jolt myself awake a few times before they got too bad, but as the night wore on, I got too exhausted to fight it and eventually fell into a deep sleep.
The dream was different that night. I was still partially shifted. Just claws and canines. I was running in the woods. The woods at the cabin, not the woods back home. Jules was running with me. We were both breathing and snarling. Our feet were hitting the ground so hard and so fast, the mountain was shaking. We weren’t just running; we were being chased. We weren’t hunting; we were being hunted. We were the prey. At some point, I lost Jules. I looked around for him. I could only see the wood and the trees. Branches and leaves. I was frantic to find him. I was out of my mind. My heart pumped in fear, and that fear turned to rage.
Rage.
Red hot rage.
“Sully!”
It was Jules. I heard him, but I still couldn’t see him. I was flailing and fighting. I was desperate to save him.
