Page 45

Selene

I ’m really excited about today’s hike. Caelon and Chase, a mountain lion shifter, have both agreed to come with me as I explore the higher parts of the mountains.

Lou recommended I try out this trail that nobody really knows about, and I’m not even sure how she knows about it.

This last week she has been assigning challenges for me to help stretch my eye and ability to story tell with only a single image.

It’s been the most fun I’ve had with photography since finding Shadow in my valley.

This week's task has been capturing connections in unexpected places. Which is why I’m dragging myself out of bed super early on a Friday morning and bringing along Chase and Cal.

She swears we will find an old abandoned fire pit on a lookout with views that could “make the soul believe in magic”.

Whatever that means, I’m down to find it.

I’m hoping for the perfect shot and for Cal to make a new friend, which is why I asked Chase to come along.

Honestly, after everything I’ve learned since my birthday, I’ve really felt this urge to find a friend for Cal, someone who will understand him, push him, and support him.

I didn’t realize just how alone Cal was until our bond snapped into place.

Chase is such a loving, friendly, caring individual with a super chill personality to match that I personally feel will be a great match to Cal. I know Chase can be a bit much sometimes but I think once Cal is used to it, he will get along with him beautifully.

“Do you think that Nat Geo will pay my loved ones if I die not even ten minutes into this hike?” Chase huffed, dramatically adjusting the pack on his shoulders like it weighed five tons and he can’t continue to hold the weight.

He sure is bitching quite a bit today. I don’t even bother looking back as a smile spreads across my face. “You’re not dying, you’re winded. There’s a difference. You know for someone who loves hiking, you sure are acting like this is your first time.”

“I’m dying because someone decided at six am that we needed to find a connection in unexpected places and she didn’t even have the decency to take me to breakfast first. Someone failed to mention that it would be a brisk, uphill, mountain climb with a risk of mountain lions.”

My eyes roll. “You are the mountain lion risk,” I mutter as I snap a photo of the sun spilling through the canopy along the path.

Rays of light perfectly spotlighting the trail.

Lou wants me to improve my light work. She said she would settle for more texture or emotion in this set of photos.

I’d settle for not pushing the whining lion off the cliff.

Cal chuckled behind me, quiet, low, with a hint of fondness. “He volunteered to come.”

Chase scoffs in mock offense. “I did no such thing. I was bribed, I tell you! She took advantage of my love for coffee and muffins.”

“I said coffee and muffins if you behaved,” I toss over my shoulder.

“I’m still waiting on that, sunshine,” he clips back.

I turn around, grinning from ear to ear as I catch the smug mock outrage in his upturned nose as he even adds in an exaggerated stomp of his feet.

“You’ll get them when you stop whining and start posing.

Lou wants emotion. I think this exasperated idiot best friend energy you are giving might just be the winner,” I say as I hold my camera up snapping photos of him.

Seeing my camera up and trained on him, he pops his hip and throws his head back in a dramatic model pose.

“Be sure to get my good side, can’t have horrible photos floating around of me.” He continues to pose like he is going for the next supermodel of America.

Cal leans in close to me. “He really is an orange cat like you said he is. At least you can count on him for lighting up any adventure.”

I can’t help but smile behind the camera as I continue to snap photos. I love that he has a hint of fondness already in his tone. If everything keeps going the way I hope, by the end of the trip, Chase will have won over Cal.

Just to razz Chase further I say, “Sweetie, this lighting isn’t doing you any favors. Maybe we should move on, don’t want you to ruin my photos or anything.”

Chase clutches his chest. “You wound me Sunshine. Here I thought you were the quiet, sweet one.”

“Good. If you could bleed dramatically over here in the better lighting, that would be great.”

Cal laughs as he walks over to lean against the tree, watching as Chase continues with his antics and I snap more photos.

“Tell my story, sunshine. Let the people know I perished helping you find your art.” He throws his arm over his face as he leans against a moss-covered rock. His backpack lays in the dirt like a discarded lover. Honestly, I regret all the times I’ve hiked and not brought him along.

“Lou is going to die when she sees these.” I chuckle as I flick through a few of the photos on the tiny LED screen on the back of my camera. “You look like you belong in a tortured renaissance man’s play. Just add those puffy sleeves and tights and the image is there.”

Chase’s head pops up from the rock. “Oh, am I giving broody and misunderstood?”

“More like dramatic and under-caffeinated,” Cal says dryly, pushing off the tree.

Chase gasps as his hand covers his mouth. “Eu tu, Caelon?”

I laugh, tucking my camera against my side as we continue down the path.

Chase scrambles to grab his discarded backpack and catch up.

The trees are thin, sunlight streaming through like speckled love marks across our cheeks until we come upon a clearing.

There, tucked underneath the opening of a rock cave is a half-buried fire pit.

The stones around it are blackened with age.

Chunks of charred wood sit long forgotten inside the stone circle.

Glass bottles are littered around the opening of the cave.

“Well,” Chase says as he kicks one of the bottles. “This feels like we stumbled into a memory.”

I squat down, running my fingers along the moss on one of the rocks. “It looks like it hasn’t been used in years.”

Cal steps in close behind me, his eyes scanning over the area. “The older pack members, long before Orion took over, used to come up here as a way to connect with our Goddess. Seems when Orion took over this was another thing our pack lost.”

There’s something heavy in his voice, something I can feel through our bond. I glance up at him, but he’s already crouching down beside me. His fingers tracing over the rocks right along with mine.

Chase sinks down onto a nearby log with less flair this time, looking around at the lost memory. With a faint frown on his face as he looks at me, he says, “Lou said she wanted raw emotion, right?”

“Yeah,” I say in a hushed tone as I lift the camera. As if any loud sound would disturb the area. “I think we found it.”

Chase is mid-pout while poking a piece of the charred wood with a stick. Like a kid who got socks for Christmas, I can’t help but chuckle.

“Fine,” he grumbles. “One serious photo so Lou knows at least I tried.”

He strikes his most dramatic pose yet beside the pit, hand on his heart, his eyes misty as he looks up at the trees. You would think he was auditioning for the lead of the pack’s Shakespeare in the Pines and not just taking photos with me.

Cal laughs behind his hand, trying to stifle the sound. He leans in close to me and says, “That one’s going on the wall.”

“I will sue,” Chase deadpans, before grinning and flopping across a log, thumping his arm against the ground. “Tell her I love her,” he sighs before bubbles of spit foam at the side of his mouth and his eyes roll back.

I lower my camera, shaking my head. “You’re lucky you’re pretty.”

His head pops up, winking at me he says, “Obviously, now shh. We are acting out a dying lover here. Be sure to get that foam from the poison, really gotta sell it here.”

We linger a while longer. Snapping photos, tossing pine cones, swapping funny stories, and bringing life back to this long lost fire pit, before finally turning back down the trail, boots crunching against the fallen pine needles.

For the first time in a long time, I feel complete as if this is exactly what I needed. A mate who sees me, a friend who can turn any moment into a memory, and the whispered words across the winds as they breeze through the pine trees.

Even if Chase complains the entire walk back, I wouldn’t trade this for anything.