~

 

Griffin Tate looked out over the land. Summer was all around him in the air and on the land, and it felt good. He took a good, long whiff of the humid air and his wolf sprung around happily inside of him.  

The damn beast got that way every year around summer time. It acted like a pup again, full of the joys of spring, but with the added bonus of decent weather, and lately, he’d found there was a need to find a mate.

Griffin had all but given up expecting one to just drop in his lap. He was seriously considering enlisting the help of a witch to find the one woman that would seal his fate and his future, and give him the family life that he was missing.

Living with his two brothers was all well and good, but there came a time when he needed more out of life – that time had raced up on him in the past year – what with some of the other members of his pack already mated and with pups of their own or on the way – he felt – restless.

He wanted that.

He felt that urge within him to settle down and join the ranks of the responsible. Not that he didn’t have enough responsibility in his life – being the alpha wasn’t exactly a cake walk, and it hadn’t been something that he’d looked for or relished with open arms when his time had come to step up for the sake of the pack.

But the pack had needed an alpha, and he was the only alpha around.

Griffin caught his brother’s scent on the morning air, and it snatched him back to the reality of his life now. He could wish for a family all he wanted, but for now, his main concern was his pack.

“There’s rain in the air, brother,” Neal announced. “Tourists won’t be happy.”

The beta’s deep tones cut into the peacefulness of the day that Griffin had been reveling in. It was the time just after waking and before problems tended to occur on pack land, and he relished it as his own.

“Let me enjoy the day before we get to the madness of campers and camper vans crawling all over our lands, would you brother?”

Griffin certainly didn’t relish the reality of so many loose cannons invading their space, not when one or more of them might just wander across one of the pack in their wolf fur. He lifted the coffee mug to his lips and sipped, lost in thought, or trying to be, but for his brother’s presence.

“I guess you’ll not want to be reminded that we have three tourists arriving today for the pods on the back lands then?” Neal relished the look on his brother’s face as it dropped from mildly peaceful to something that strongly resembled constipation.

“That’s today?” Griffin grumbled a low, deep growl within his chest. He’d planned a midnight run out that way later, and he wasn’t best pleased to have to change his plans.

“It’s the first real long weekend of the season – tourists everywhere, and what with the festival.” Neal grinned widely as his brother shot him a dark look and muttered an even darker curse.

“Festival, damn. I’d forgotten that too. Tell me why I agreed to this whole… no, don’t bother.” He gave a small shake of his head. He knew why.

“Money,” his brother offered back with glee. “We’re sitting on a goldmine of beauty, and the tourists are lapping it up.”

“What part of don’t bother don’t you understand?”

“All of it. But, I understand money…” Neal chuckled, and the alpha resisted the urge to punch him in the gut and watch that smile drop from his face like a lead balloon.

“We’ll have to let the pack know that shifting and letting their beasts loose is going to have to be confined to the other side of our lands, and to be mindful of any lost, bloody tourist stumbling around in the woods,” he sighed at the thought.

It was bad enough that they’d jumped on board with the local trend to offer giant wooden self-contained pods for tourists – the humans called it glamping, or some such nonsense, to him they were glorified sheds.

With all of the amenities of staying in a fixed structure rather than a tent, he couldn’t understand the appeal. All he knew was that it was for people who were too precious to crap in the woods or sleep under the stars as nature intended.

But, the real problem was the inconvenience to his pack of having to be mindful of strangers, and human ones, on their lands. Still, he wasn’t about to turn down the money – they had their fingers in the pies of a lot of local businesses, and his pack was flourishing.

Now they had a God damn summer festival on their doorstep – organized by the local church, no less, and he shivered at the thought of that nun that the local priest had visiting – he’d faced vampires that were less intimidating.

“Will do,” Neal nodded.

“How long are they here for?” He grumbled.

“Long weekend,” Neal offered back, still grinning from ear to ear at his brother’s dislike for the whole tourist industry.

Neal knew that if the man had his way, then they’d go back to the days of horse and cart, limited technology, definitely no mobile phones or cameras, and troublesome travel that meant most people stayed put. It was his idea of heaven.

“Is it worth it?” Griffin asked.

“For us or for them?” Neal tossed back.

“Both. How many are there?” He growled.

He didn’t need an answer to the first question. It was worth it to his pack, but maybe not his sanity. And for the tourists, a long weekend was probably preferable to city life for most people.

“Three.”

“I thought you said all three pods were taken?” He frowned.

“They seem to like their privacy, one pod each.”

“I like my bloody privacy too… won’t be getting much of that this weekend.” He grumbled, eyeing his coffee, and deciding that he wasn’t enjoying it as much anymore.

“They might have picked a bad weekend for it – weather’s set to be raining at times – good for us though, might keep them inside of a night.”

“One can only hope,” Griffin grumbled.

Then the alpha turned on his heels and stalked back off towards the house without another word.

“Nice chat – bye yourself then,” Neal chuckled. “Well, I’ve managed to ruin his day – let’s see where my other idiot brother is and do the same for him.”

 

~

~

~

 

Isla eyed the thing from the makeshift car port, twisting her head this way and that, and then snorting in contempt from the three odd shaped things that looked out of place in the middle of a field surrounded by hedges, and with the woods all around them.

“What is it again?” Isla asked Penny as the woman reached into the back of the car and yanked out a large overnight bag with a huff for the effort that it caused her.

“Plod.” Penny frowned at the small units that looked like someone had cut a really big barrel in half and plonked it face down in the earth. It was more of a big sauna than a caravan or a tent.

“It’s a pod,” Keri called as she slammed the driver’s door and rounded the back of the car to join her friends.

“So, we’re pod people,” Isla said, raising just one eyebrow and giving the three wooden structures a sideways glance.

“I’d always thought of you more the village of the damned myself,” Keri grinned and got a backward elbow in the ribs for her troubles.

“So, where’s the staff?” Penny asked, and Keri snorted a chuckle back at her.

“Staff? It’s a pod, not a hotel room.” Keri reached in and yanked out her bag, slinging it up and over her shoulder with ease. Unlike her friends; she traveled light.

“But someone has to let us in.”

“Key locks on each pod and I have the combinations.” Keri fished out the slip of paper from her back pocket. Then she started off across the field that had equal amounts of tufts to flat grass. “Come on … time is a wasting.”

“I thought that was the idea. No tech, no time ticking away … s-l-o-w-l-y does it with nothing to worry about,” Penny called after her.

“But we still have some daylight with which we can explore the area and get back to nature,” Keri tossed back at them.

“Glamping?” Isla whispered to Penny, screwing up her face at the thought of it.

“I know. I know, but it was her turn to pick this weekend. Give and take, remember?” Penny offered back.

“But even one of those caravan holiday park things would have been an improvement on the plod, because if you hadn’t noticed – there’s no pub, club, or booze venue of any kind within miles…” She tossed back, hissing the last bit as if her very life was in peril and civilization was falling apart all around them.

“That’s why…” Penny reached in and dragged a large, thick walled suitcase towards her. “I brought us a mobile mini bar.” She grinned back with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

“I like how you think,” Isla giggled.

“Oh look, they’ve got a fire pit so we can toast marshmallows and… stuff,” Keri called back after her, before reaching the first pod and tapping in the number to get her keys.

“Did we bring marshmallows?” Isla looked to Penny, and the woman shrugged.

“Don’t look at me. I took care of the most important thing,” Penny dropped her eyes to the mini bar.

“There’s an information pack on the area,” Keri said as she strolled back outside clutching the map in one hand. “Apparently, there’s a shop about a mile…” she looked around her. “That way.” She pointed into the woods.

“Car,” Penny said, and Isla nodded.

“The car isn’t getting us in touch with nature. Feet. A good walk will give us all a good appetite for whatever we bring back.” Keri announced, and both friends groaned in unison before turning to look at each other.

“Chocolate!” They said together.

“Snap!” Isla said with a big grin.

“Jinx!” Penny chuckled.

“Ok, Miss Kickass, ninja – witch, but we’re not in tip top shape like you are and a mile is like ten to a normal person,” Isla reminded her.

“It’ll do you good, work off some of that chocolate,” Keri offered back. “Now stash your stuff and let’s get going. I hate to think how long a mile will take with the two of you tagging along behind me.”

“Hang on…” Penny grumbled. “A mile there means a mile back, or are we magically teleporting somehow?”

“Two miles!” Isla groaned.

“It’ll make you really good and hungry then,” Keri chuckled.

“Maybe we can kill and eat her on the way back,” Penny grumbled as she leaned in towards Isla and hissed.

“I heard that!” Keri lied.

“Ninja with superhuman hearing,” Isla chuckled back to Penny.

“Not just any witch – she’s super ninja witch,” Penny chuckled back.

“Let’s go – let’s go,” Keri said as she clapped her hands like a schoolteacher and urged them on.

“I vote we kill and eat her on the way there, and that way we don’t need to walk the full two miles…” Isla grumbled, yanking the handle up on her suitcase, and kicking the bottom to tip it towards her and start the wheels moving over the uneven ground.

“I like your plan better.” Penny hissed.

 

~

~

~

 

Three witches with backpacks trudged across the pothole and tufted fields. Penny looked as miserable as Isla felt as the gray sky that had closed in above them started to unleash some much-needed rain on the land.

The best thing about it was that it broke the humid heat of the last week or so, and all of them were grateful for that.

First, it was drizzle, and then it came down in earnest like sheets across the land. Keri was still swinging her arms like a Sergeant Major as she stalked across the terrain, but Penny and Isla had begun to wilt under the pace, distance, and the weather.

“I’m getting wet,” Penny grumbled.

“That’s called rain, nature’s shower, and it sometimes happens when you actually venture out of the house,” Keri shot back over her shoulder.

“I’m tired,” Isla moaned.

“Even an hour in the gym a week would solve that problem,” Keri said, showing absolutely no sympathy for her friends.

“How much further?” Isla asked, puffing out her cheeks and blowing out and exhausted breath.

“Through those woods there then it should be downhill through the field and we’ll hit the shop.” Keri offered back.

“I’m going to hit the mud before I hit the shop,” Penny grumbled at the ache that had already settled into her legs.

“You know, I don’t need children of my own when I have the two of you, right?” Keri said with a shake of her head.

“Maybe we should stay here,” Isla gave a small shrug off the shoulders, “we are only slowing you down.”

“Here?” Penny looked around them. There wasn’t much of anything to be seen in any direction, apart from trees, the grass, and the occasional bird flying overhead really fast as if it had a home to get back to.

The bird was smarter than they were – it was heading out of the rainstorm.

“Or we can keep going?” Isla gave her friend a hard stare, willing her to catch on.

“Here’s good,” Penny agreed.

“You’re going to get just as wet standing here and waiting for me as you are if you came with me to the shop.” Keri chuckled.

“But not as tired,” Isla offered back.

“I’m with her,” Penny said.

“Fine. But I’ll only be able to get half of what we could carry if we all went. So no booze, and no chocolate.” Keri strolled off.

“But wait – what about the chocolate?” Isla whined to Penny, and the witch sighed.

“Dead as a dodo? Or chocolate?” Penny gave her a hard stare.

“Fine!” Isla tossed up a hand in frustration. Her shoulders went up towards her ears, and her head went down as she started to trudge towards the tree line.

“Where are you going?” Penny asked.

“Shelter,” Isla grumbled back over her shoulder.

“Good idea.” Penny shrugged.

“I have them on occasion,” Isla grumbled. She wasn’t sure that she could do a whole long weekend of Mother Nature. She might have been a witch, but from where she was standing – in a field with the rain beating down – mother nature sucked.