Kyle
Moving was a bigger deal than I thought it would be, given that Falkan’s house already had everything we could ever need. We moved Griffith’s things first. We didn’t keep any of his furniture. His younger cousin would be moving in and could use it all.
The reality was that moving sucked, and we were doing it times two. It was best for us to make it as painless as possible. Falkan offered multiple times to buy a service to do it all for us, making it even easier, but that didn’t set well for Griffith and me. We wanted to be able to sort through things and make sure the important items arrived at our new home unscathed.
Technically, Griffith and I were both in the “same” field, working in tech, but I was blown away by how much techie stuff he had, including old computers he’d frankensteined together. His new venture was going to soar. I could feel it.
After getting all of his things unpacked and where they belonged in Falkan’s house, we began the more difficult process of getting my belongings from my apartment in the city.
Like Griffith, I didn’t have any high-valuable furniture, but I did have a couple of bookshelves I wanted to keep. They didn’t fit in at all with Falkan’s decor, but they were ones I’d refinished on my own, and I felt proud of them. Both of my alphas agreed they needed to live with us.
Other than that, it was basically just my clothes and books that we had to transport. My silverware was mismatched, and an embarrassing number were pieces I accidentally stole while borrowing a spoon from a workplace, or intentionally took back to my dorm when I knew I had a pint of ice cream waiting for me and no spoon to eat it with. All my pots and pans were amismatch from yard sales. And my plates numbered two. No sense bringing those.
But even with leaving all of that behind and more, we still managed to fill the back of the rental van we were using.
“Did you want to explore where I used to live, or are we in a rush to get back?” I asked.
It was going to take us a long time to drive. A hotel was in our future for the night either way. But that didn’t mean my mates didn’t want to get on the road, but that turned out not to be the case, both of them wanting to see where I used to call home.
I took them to all my favorite places: my favorite diner, my favorite coffee shop, my favorite park to walk around in. Walking in my skin, not fur. True, shifting hadn’t been part of my life then, but had that not been the case, that wouldn’t have changed anything. The park wasn’t a safe space for any of our beasts. We were hardly the variety who would blend into the landscape.
As much fun as we were having all too soon, it was time to head out on our road trip home.
Being pregnant on a road trip was exponentially harder than being on a road trip not pregnant because bathroom stops became a very real necessity, and it was like we were always on the lookout for the next one.
I had to give it to my mates. Every time we passed someplace that had a facility, they would offer to stop. In some places, that meant asking every five minutes. In others, it was asking every hour and a half. But no matter how close together those rest stops were, I never tired of the sweetness that was their asking.
We spent the night at a motel along the way. It was run-down, but the owner was nice. And even though it hardly fit Falkan’s lifestyle, it was clean and worked for us. In the morning, on the way out, we had a wonderful meal at the local diner, leaving with a whole pie for later—because, pie.
My mates and I finally pulled up to our new home late that next night and decided to leave everything in the van until morning. It was still hard to believe I lived there. Falkan called it a house. Six bedrooms and six bathrooms, to me, was much more than simply a house. I supposed, compared to his parents’ place, it was on the small side.
More than once, he offered to have us build our own place. That felt like a waste to me. Anything I could think I might someday require in a home was already in this one, and any changes I needed to make would be far less expensive than building a new place. A can of paint, even with inflation, was under $100, and nothing about new construction was that cheap.
“We’re home.” I leaned against the door as we came inside, inhaling deeply, loving the way our three scents intermingled in this place.
“Shower, bed,” Griffith offered.
“How about shift then shower then bed?” I countered.
“I love the sound of that,” Falkan said.
They each kissed me on my cheek at the same time, and I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled over from just the joy of it.
We went out back and shucked our clothes. Falkan took his wings first. He was stunning, his scales reflecting the moonlight. He watched as I took my fur and then Griffith took his. We hadn’t shifted together as much as I wanted, and we were still figuring out how it worked best for us. And it wasn’t as if I’d be able to shift for long. Soon enough, my beast was going to decide it was too late in my pregnancy to shift at all. The midwife assured us that as long as my maned wolf thought shifting was fine, it was.
The three of our beasts loved to chase each other. It made sense, being kind of a universal shifter thing. But also, we likedto just relax in the sun on a nice Saturday afternoon, or watch Falkan showing off in the sky doing tricks, or watch Griffith as he ran full speed, trying to catch up to prey. We were figuring it out, just like we were figuring out how to live with each other, how to love each other the way we deserved, and how to be the mates we each deserved.
Tonight, we ran and flew, letting out all the pent-up energy our beasts felt being trapped in a car all day. And when we couldn’t run any more, we went into our new home, piled into the luxurious shower, and eventually fell into bed together, where we found our second wind and something much better to do than sleep.
Chapter Twenty
Griffith
After my former little home, Falkan’s felt massive, and at first, it was a little hard to adjust. The log home my mates had seen was new to our family, and I hadn’t grown up in it. Rather, we lived in an ordinary A-frame cabin with two bedrooms. My fathers wanted more, wanted fancier, and had spent my frugal grandparents’ inheritance to up their living standards. The little house I’d lived in was required by the will to stay in the family, and one of my cousins had been delighted to move in and even more delighted that I was leaving all the furniture and appliances behind.
But it was no loss to me. Falkan had furniture that suited the home we were moving into. And my cousin was just starting out. My parents were limited—again by the will—on what they could charge in rent, so Barney would be fine.
Our home was not as big as his parents’, fortunately. We could keep it clean and neat ourselves, and I think we all preferred that. Our privacy was very important to us, especially as a newly mated triad. We joked about making love in every room.
