Eternal Wolves Chapter 26

Gally and Hope picked up their plates of food and stopped in the middle of the mess hall scanning the room for anyone from their group. Gally smirks widely and pats Hope's shoulder gently pointing to their regular table where it seems that Brenda has spotted them and is determined to cause a scene jumping and hollering and squealing around from the excitement of seeing them for the first time today. Hope locked eyes with Gally smirking. Both of their eyes danced with laughter as they made their way through the crowded tables of the mess hall over to where Brenda and the rest of the girls were seated. When they arrived at the table Brenda pulled Hope into a fierce bear hug rocking her back and forth excitedly. Harriet waited until Gally had set his plate down next to her and then jumped into his open arms. She giggled like a little schoolgirl while he spun her around, before dipping her and kissing her senseless.

The girls cooed at their display of affection before everyone finally settled down to continue eating. After a few minutes of filling everyone in on their various day's activities, Hope looked around and noticed that Newt and the rest of the guys hadn't shown up for dinner. Their group always ate together at the end of the day. It felt really strange when it was just the girls and Gally. She started feeling a little bit sad knowing that Newt was still busy and was probably going to be busy the rest of the night. She turned to Brenda and pulled out her notebook writing out a question that had floated into her train of thoughts. When she was done she handed it to Brenda to read while Sonya read over her shoulder. She had said "Have you seen Newt or the other guys all day? I thought at least we'd get to see them at dinner." Brenda smiled and nodded in understanding. "I think we saw Newt come in here a few minutes ago grabbing some dinner and then rushing back out the door. I guess they're really busy today." Hope's smile faltered at the mention of Newt being here but her not being able to see him.

Sonya rubbed her arm comfortingly as she spoke softly. "I know how you feel. I've been missing Minho like crazy today. It's pretty weird being by yourself when you're so used to them being with you all the time. Sadly we can't be around them 24/7 but once they come home it'll be the greatest feeling in the world." Brenda wrapped an arm around her shoulders pulling her into a side hug. "I know it's hard but this is the only downside to your other half being one of the only leaders of everything. Someone has to keep everyone under control. If not, we'd have the thing that our guys hate the most. Chaos. And we can't have that, so it's either we let them go do their leader duties or everything around here falls apart." Hope nodded and smiled tiredly as everyone continued on talking until it was time to go home for the night.

Newt had been working tirelessly with Minho and Thomas all day today. He was completely worn out from all the meetings and going around camp to talk to all the keepers. Currently he was sitting in one of the final meetings for the day over at Minho's. Minho and Thomas were currently debating whether or not they should continue patrolling the forest at night searching for the mysterious wolf that made the foot prints that one night a couple of weeks ago. He was so tired of listening to Thomas and Minho arguing over whether or not it was even a wolf to begin with. Thomas was looking at the situation with complete scientific logic while Minho was flying off the handle letting his emotions get the best of him.

He sighed heavily as he let his mind wander away from the meeting and onto the one thing that had kept him going all day. He wondered how Hope had done today without him and if Gally had managed to keep her out of trouble and take care of her while he was busy. Newt had always been at odds with Gally for years, but recently since he had integrated his way into their circle of friends he quickly proved himself to be worthy by acting as a big brother to Hope. He was forever grateful for Gally's change of heart with his mate because he didn't know what he'd do without him nowadays. Hope responded better to Gally even more than Newt sometimes. Newt understood though that it was because Gally was like family and they often confided in each other things that they felt like they couldn't tell anyone else. He was completely okay with that too. Gally was definitely not a threat to him. Hope had never shown any other type of love but sisterly love to Gally and the same went for Gally.

Leaning his head on the back of the couch he closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples trying to rid himself of the headache that his stress had caused today. All he could think about today was how much he missed Hope and wondering how she had managed without him. The need to be back with his mate was starting to become physically painful as he pressed down more on his temples trying to deal with the pain for just a bit longer until it was time for the meeting to be over. Whenever he was away from Hope for more than a couple of hours, the bond often made him feel weak and uneasy with pounding headaches. It was becoming painfully clear that Newt was never going to be on his own again. There were stories in the books on lycanthropy that stated that if two mates that had not fully mated were separated for too long that there was a great chance of one or both becoming ill if not reunited with their other half immediately.

Figuring that it would only be a little while longer before he got to go home, he lifted his head off the couch and tuned back into listening to what his friends were arguing about. "Damn it Thomas you were there when we all frickin went out the next night and saw the tracks. Don't tell me that there's no wolf out there. Just because it didn't show its self yet to us doesn't mean it's not there." Minho shouted as Thomas stood up and put his hands on his hips glaring at him. "And Newt was there and sniffed all around it and found no trace of this so called wolf. I say it's a waste of time trying to locate something that might not even exist. It could've been another type of animal out there. Wild wolves in this area is unheard of an extremely unlikely. You're not using your brain you frickin slinthead!" At the mention of his name, Newt quickly stepped in the middle of his two angry friends and pushed them back away from each other while wearing an extremely tired, bored expression. "Are you all bloody done? Honestly I'm surrounded by idiots…if there had been another wolf pack out there then we'd probably have seen them by now. Wild wolves are notorious for staking claim on land that they come across. If there were any wolves anywhere close to camp, Hope and I would've been alerted automatically by their scent. I agree with Thomas. It's a complete waste of time to go out looking for something that's most likely not there at all. Now if were all done here, I'm bloody tired and need to go home to my mate. I should've never left her alone for this long. You two sort your shit out and only talk to me when you have something of actual importance to discuss." With that Newt walked briskly out of the door slamming it behind him, leaving his completely stunned friends behind him.