Waking up, Nat once again could not move. Looking to her left, Kali was sleeping beside her as always, but did not seem to be laying on top of her. Turning to her right, the problem instantly became apparent. Maia had not gone back into the Soulscape, resulting in her maintaining the shifted form. Apparently, none of the canines felt that this form drained them at all. Now, though probably by accident, she was able to see that a shift would last at least a day, however if there was a time limit longer, that was currently unknown. Nothing pointed to it having a time limit, but with everything that they had learned in the last month, it was still anything goes. As Nat lay there, trapped as a warm huggable pillow by Maia, she realized that it had been almost a month since the event. While it had been that, in reality it felt so much longer. The things they experienced, and the distance they had travelled felt so long, that her days in Waterton felt so distant, as if it had been another life.

Reaching around, Natalie started scratching Maia in the small of her back. Unconsciously, Maia slowly released her grip as her breath slowly became more ragged. Once she felt the hold on her sufficiently loosened, Nat slipped out of the wolf's grip. As she did, and the scratching ceased, Maia reached back out for her warm cuddle buddy. Since Nat escaped the spot, the still asleep Maia grasped a few times without purchase, before finally coming in contact with Kali's prone body. In an almost effortless motion, Kali was slid across the mattress into Maia's embrace. The whole scene made Nat wish that video cameras still worked, as she wanted to document the entire scene just to replay it over and over. She stood there for a few minutes, doing her best to commit the sight before her to memory.

Once she felt as though she had enough to never forget the sight, Nat turned out of the tent and headed toward their fire pit. Today was the last time they would be in this location, as they needed to press on. Most of the canines had given birth, with all of the pups now able to open their eyes. All that was left was Seeka, who already agreed not to leave the Soulscape unless they had set up camp already for the night. She did only agree to that when Scout made the same agreement. Hearing that, it was incredibly easy to pressure him into the deal, as he wouldn't want to be the source of any stress for his pregnant mate. As she came up to the fire pit, three coyotes sat there, yipping back and forth while keeping watch. While she could not understand the yips, Nat had a pretty good idea on what the topic was. After all, the one doing most of the talking was Copper. He had become a doting and caring parent, who had seemingly no filter. Thankfully, his audience most of the time was Lucille and Edwin. Both of them being caring parents, very much understood why he was so obsessed, and had no issues listening to the new father. Though, while Lucille was mainly being polite, Edwin was far more into it. At least, that was if you went by the speed his tail was wagging.

Sitting between the mated pair of coyotes, Nat got a morning fire started before proceeding to scratch the two behind the ears. She knew that she needed to start with these two, but that was because they would notice immediately if she scratched Copper first. Copper was too far gone in his own world of what his pups had done during the night that he was not liable to notice for a while. And sure enough, it was not until the fire had been crackling for five minutes did he notice her presence. Taking a quick look around, he meekly moved over and laid his head in Natalie's lap. He rarely communicated with words to Nat, and focused on body language. Probably because he was still struggling with picking up English, and the broken bits he could speak embarrassed him. Realizing his want, she moved her hand from Lucille's head to his. As soon as her hand was removed, Lucille got up, nuzzled up against Nat for a few seconds before continuing on around to nuzzle against her mate. It was at this point that Natalie was glad that Edwin's tail was extremely fluffy. The speed that it moved at after Lucille nuzzled up against him increased so much, that it began to have its own motion blur. The repeated swats against Nat's leg felt as if long grass was constantly dragging across it aggressively.

Not long after, Shannon came out of her tent and sat down on the other side of the paired coyotes. Following her was Scout and Seeka, still incredibly happy with one another. As Scout went into the Soulscape to grab some food for breakfast, Shannon started giving Lucille's head some affection. After a few more seconds, food had been brought out for Scout, Seeka, Shannon, and Nat. Seeing that breakfast had been brought out, and more than one person was up, the coyotes bid the group good day before retiring into the Soulscape. Edwin and Lucille nuzzled Nat for a second in thanks for the head scratches, while Copper ran straight in to spend more time with his adorable children. Breakfast was peaceful, with more and more of the pack waking up and joining in. After about twenty minutes, everyone had finally woken up and eaten. Knowing that having more than one would be more useful, Nat got Kali to join Maia in being shifted outside. While it was draining, it was not nearly as bad as when they had first discovered it. Nat was still able to walk, so they could resume their travels post-haste. Taking a few minutes to make sure that there were as minimal traces of their presence left behind, the two women, two shifted wolves, and Sol started heading north once more on Highway Two.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Erudual, Hades, Krimson, Neal, Juuso, Sebastian, Sir Hellington, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!

 

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