Page 19 of Warrick (Rocky Mountain Pack #1)

Aspen

Three Years Ago

“And that’s it for today's class. We will see you all after winter break,” my Lit Con teacher announces.

The room fills with the sound of everyone packing up their belongings and excitedly talking about their plans for their winter break.

Willow and I plan to go home. When we came up with the idea to attend college, it seemed so grand, but now, we really miss home.

It doesn’t help that Hazel wasn’t able to get into the same college with us, so we are missing one part of our trio.

The strap of my bag is already digging into my shoulder as I make it down the stairs of our seating area.

When you first see the classrooms in college, you think the elevated seating is cool and edgy.

After walking up and down it four to five times a day, five days a week, that idea wears off.

They never tell you that you won’t care about cute outfits and shoes after trekking across the entire campus to get to class.

You will swap out those strappy heels for a comfy pair of tennis shoes not long after the first few days.

“There you are!” Willow exclaims, as if she didn’t know which building I would walk out of. We exchanged schedules and marked them on maps the minute schedules were released.

With a roll of my eyes, I turn to look at her. “Willow, you know exactly where to find me.”

Giggling, she wraps her arm around mine. “I know, but sometimes I pretend that it’s only coincidence that we ran into each other.”

With a shake of my head, I pull out my cellphone to scroll through socials as she pulls me through the crowds of kids all going in different directions.

“You ready to be home for two weeks?”

Honestly, no. I don’t want to tell her that, though.

She is excited, and I don’t want to dampen that with my lack of interest. Ever since I found out that Warrick was my mate, I have wanted nothing more than to see how far away I could get from him.

I promised Gail that I wouldn’t break the bond, which left only putting distance between us.

We don’t live in a town big enough to avoid each other.

It was nice to be in a place where people didn’t know that your mate had rejected the mating bond, rubbed other women in your face, and that you hadn’t had any other boyfriends since.

Here at Fairview University, nobody cares about any of that, because nobody knows about it.

It’s been a breath of fresh air, for once.

Willow nudges me in the side to draw my attention back to her question. “Uh, yeah. I can’t wait to see Hazel. Hopefully, she is enjoying her time at Jasper Springs Community College.”

“Ugh, I know. I hope she can get in here next semester so she can be with us instead of by herself there,” Willow says.

Thankfully, it doesn't take us long to walk back to our dorms. As much as I am dreading going home, I do love my mom’s baking and hearing my dad yell about football. It’s the playoffs this weekend for the NFL, so goddess knows, there will be yelling.

“You better be packed already, Aspen. I want to get on the road in the next 10 minutes before everyone starts clogging up the streets trying to leave,” Willow calls from the bathroom as clunks of products hitting each other rings out.

“I was packed yesterday. I just have to throw in my hygiene products, but it sounds like you are doing that for the both of us!” I yell back to her.

Willow peeks her head out of the bathroom. “Hey! Not fair. I just want to make sure that we don’t need anything while we are home. Don’t judge a girl for thinking she might need to wax her eyebrows again while being home.”

Shaking my head with a smile on my face, I fall back onto my pillow to wait for the princess as she finishes packing.

I open Instagram and immediately, videos of people sharing their road trip home mini vlogs flood my screen.

Social media is a strange world where you think everyone wants to know everything that you are doing, so you share every aspect in hopes that you will get a like on that post. I’m mindlessly scrolling through it when Willow claps her hands together, startling me back into the present world.

“That’s all of it. Once we have the car packed up, we can head on home,” she says as she places one last bag on the pile of suitcases by the door.

My eyes bulge. There are seven full size suitcases with an assortment of bags piled on top of them. “Goddess, Willow. We aren’t going to be gone that long. Did you pack up all of our personal belongings?”

She simply shrugs her shoulders. “You never know what you are going to need and when you are going to need it. You will thank me when you think of some random item you wish you had, and I just hand it to you.”

Pulling myself up to a sitting position, I slip my feet into my shoes. “I highly doubt all of that. Too bad the dorms don’t come with those cart things that hotels have,” I say with a sigh.

It takes us every bit of thirty minutes to lug all the luggage downstairs and load it into her Nissan Altima. You would think we were moving out for the two weeks instead of going home to see our parents.

After a long two-hour drive of car karaoke, we finally pass the ‘Welcome to Jasper, Colorado’ sign.

The butterflies in my stomach take flight as the idea of bumping into Warrick becomes a real possibility.

I wonder if he looks different or if he will look at me differently now that we have been apart for several months.

As we roll through town, I watch as everyone mills about, just like they always have.

It’s one quality I love about small towns; nothing really changes.

You always know that Gail is going to be at the diner giving everyone a run for their money.

That Moe will have some new dish he has created.

Sally will have new flavors of ice cream she has come up with.

There is consistency in small town life that you don’t get anywhere else.

I’m not shocked to see that my parents are both home when Willow pulls into her spot in the driveway.

I’m also not shocked when Hazel comes bounding down the steps toward us.

Willow puts the car in park and we both step out of the car.

Squeals of excitement ring out as we run to each other, wrapping ourselves together in a tangle of limbs.

“I’ve missed you guys!” Hazel's muffled voice says between our smushed cheeks.

Looking over her shoulder, I find both my parents standing together on the porch. Dad with his arm wrapped around Mom’s shoulder while Mom is wiping tears from her eyes.

Once Hazel finally lets go of us, I rush over to my parents for one of those welcome home enveloping hugs.

I’ve never believed that home was a physical place, but more the people you consider home.

When my parents' arms are wrapped around me, I know I’m home.

The drops of liquid wetting my shoulder tell me that my mom has gone from gentle crying to full-blown sobbing while we are in each other’s embrace.

“Mom, I wasn’t gone that long.” I wipe away the falling tears.

She sniffles. “I know, but you are all grown up. My last baby is home from her first semester of college.”

Dad chuckles before patting me on the back. “She has been like this since you left. Empty nest syndrome and all that. Wait till you see the seventeen different projects she has started to fill her time.” He shakes his head before heading inside.

Mom wipes the tears from her eyes quickly before saying, “He doesn’t know what he is talking about. I just can’t decide which hobby I want to do, that's all.”

The girls and I follow my parents into the house. That first inhale of breath settles the butterflies in my stomach. I might run into Warrick, but at least I feel a sense of ease just being in my familiar space with my parents.

“Where’s Jakob, Mom?”

She waves her hand over her shoulder. “You know your brother is around here somewhere. Probably in the woods, if I had to guess. I texted him when you got here to let him know you were home.”

We all settle onto the couches in the living room. Dad has Sports Center playing in the background.

“Hopefully he will be here soon so I can convince him to lug all this luggage in that Willow is determined we will need,” I say, glancing over at Willow out of the corner of my eye.

She crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m telling you that you will need something out of what I packed and will thank me for bringing it.”

Hazel leans around her to look at me. “How bad is it this time?”

“Seven full size suitcases with more bags than I know what could possibly be in them.”

Hazel playfully slaps Willow on the shoulder while her mouth hangs open. “Willow! We have talked about this. It’s okay to go without it, too!”

My parents watch with warm, loving expressions on their faces. I can tell by looking at them that they missed this the most out of us leaving. I can imagine the house has been quiet without us here.

Mom claps her hands together. “So, what are the plans while you are here? I can’t imagine you have done any runs as your wolf while cooped up at Fairview.”

Willow pipes up before I have any chance to respond, “Well, Maeve, the first thing I’m dragging our girl here to is a welcome home party we are throwing.

Since so many of us left for college, Hazel and I thought it would be fun to throw a party to celebrate finishing our first semesters of college. ”