Page 24 of Apricity (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse)

Jax

We had a perfect night. I cooked dinner.

We enjoyed the cookies me and the guys worked so hard on.

Well, Aly enjoyed the cookies. Hawk, Cole and I sat back and enjoyed watching her eat them, moaning around all the sugary bits.

We danced with Aly, one-on-one, while listening to no music whatsoever, just the rhythm we each had in our hearts as we whisked our girl all over the cabin floor.

We told stories of past holidays. We remembered.

We honored our loved ones. And dreamed of future memories yet to come.

We made love to Aly, together and each in our own ways, and are now in our perfect little dogpile on the bed.

Aly's in my arms, her back to mine, while Hawk's on the other side, holding her close to his chest. Cole is behind him, his arm draped over Hawk’s side so his hand rests on Aly’s hip.

Together we surround our girl with love and adoration.

She’s our everything. And she deserves everything we could ever think to try and give her.

That’s why we went above and beyond to make sure she was able to celebrate the holiday as normal as possible.

If it brings her happiness, any one of us would bend over backwards to make it happen.

We’ve fallen that far for her. But, unfortunately, just when you think you’ve found Heaven on earth, paradise can be fickle.

Upon looking in the cupboard for ingredients to create the cookies that didn’t stand a chance once Aly caught sight of them, it became more apparent to me that our situation here is of a limited capacity.

For now, it’s shelter. It’s safe. It’s home. But supplies are running short. The dry storage underneath the cabin is almost empty. Much of the stores have been used up apart from some canned goods and jarred items. We’re also out of any and all meat that I previously had stashed down there.

We can still hunt and trap game, but it’ll have to be a daily chore in order to feed the four of us on a regular basis.

Even more so than we needed to at the estate.

Back there, at least we had the chickens gifting us eggs every morning.

It was reliable. Not to mention we had multiple ways to bag some kind of meat every day- fishing, hunting, trapping- in addition to the eggs. Here… not so much.

Unbeknownst to Aly, I let out a sigh of relief when we stumbled upon the flock of turkeys and managed to shoot one on the fly. The squirrels would have kept us satisfied for a meal but the turkey will get us through the weekend, thankfully .

There aren’t nearly as many residences down in this part of the lake as there were up north. Many of the surrounding houses are part of the agricultural district and as such are few and far between. There are suburban areas, but we’ll have to travel a good half a day to get to those.

Without a vehicle. Without the resources we had at the estate. Without a town within a reasonable distance from the cabin, I’m not sure we are going to have much of a choice in the near future.

Soon enough… we’re going to have to leave.

Soon enough, our story is going to have to continue.

Soon enough, we’ll have to start all over again,

and begin a new journey in desiderium…