"Pack meeting everyone gathers around," Ajay yells.
What did I do now?
I walk towards the others. They all chat among themselves.
"Kiara, would you like to share the exciting news?" Ajay asks.
She smiles and her face lights up with glee. "I am pregnant."
Everyone claps, even me. "Did you take a pregnancy test?"
"Yes," she laughs.
"Oh, how, we just talked about this yesterday?"
Ajay laughs. "I have pregnancy tests in the first aid kit and condoms if anyone wants to know, but that doesn't help now."
We all laugh.
"I tell you this because now Kiara will need to stay back at camp, especially if we travel outside of Sandy Shores to help with zombies," Ajay explains.
Only a few times have we shown up to help with zombies outside of Sandy Shores, there are a few towns. All the zombies gravitate to Sandy Shores from wherever they're in the world. Well, the ones that don't get destroyed by other wolf packs first.
I am so excited I am going to be an aunt. I am nervous about the baby and my sister, though. It's hard living out here in the wilderness, and I'm not sure if I could do it pregnant. We are all going to have to fight to make sure she has all the nutrition and things she needs.
The pack goes their separate ways after the meeting. I see the boys working in the garden, and the girls are already starting to knit baby blankets. I feel like everyone has a place to help in the pack, but where's mine?
I move over to the garden. The boys are working hard digging up potatoes and carrots.
"Ajay."
"Zare," he smiles.
"Let me help, I can go pick wild berries."
"Let me know if Ash will go with you," he tells me.
"I don't need an escort."
He laughs. "AB and Alec, the redcaps, and now the sirens are all out there," he tells me.
I let out a deep breath of annoyance.
"Zare, enough," says Chetan, whipping the sweat from his forehead.
"Fine, I'll go find Ash."
"I want you to stay here considering what happened with the Sirens,"
Chetan says.
"Ash is more than capable of protecting me."
"The berry brushes are not far from camp, she'll be fine," Ajay says.
I stick my tongue out at Chetan.
Moving towards Ash, I notice he is walking in from the woods carrying pails of water. He sits them down by the camp. He sits down on the log. I move towards him.
"We will pick berries in a minute," he tells
Got to love super hearing.
He tosses me a dead squirrel.
"Ajay, is making Squirrel Soup, I figured we can help him out by drinking the blood," he smiles.
I bit into the squirrel, sucking the blood out of the already dead creature. I notice the other girls look disgusted looking over at us. I can't say I blame them. I am somewhat disgusted with myself.
"Ready to go?" He asks me.
I feel eyes on me, which are Chetan's eyes. He seems still worked up over the sirens. I see him walking toward me, he carries a pail.
"I'll come with," he says.
"Okay," I smile.
The three of us walk towards the woods down a small path, where the wild blackberry bushes are. We put the pile down on the ground and start to fill it up. I listen to all the crackling in the forest. It was becoming more and more active each day.
Once the pail was full, with the three of us, that didn't take long. Chetan carries the pile, and we all walk back. Chetan holds my hand with his free hand.
"I can't believe AB has been so inactive," Ash says.
"Yeah he's busy planning something," Chetan remarks.
"Building his army."
"Yeah, I hope we can stop him," Ash remarks.
"With all these creatures, I don't know what good odds we have anymore," Chetan says.
He must be so scared. He has never said anything like that before. I am nervous too.
Finally back at camp, we join the others by the fire. Ajay had the pot of soup cooking in front of it. It smells so good, I bet the other creatures in the forest can smell it from miles away.
Hearing thunder, we all stand up quickly. The wind quickly sweeps over, blowing all the trees rapidly, like they're going to fly out of the ground,
"I didn't get any weather alerts," Ajay says. The pack has one phone controlled by the alpha. We check weather alerts and news sources to see where zombies could be. It hardly ever thunders in Sandy Shores.
"Everyone inside, we're going to be cramped, but no one needs to be outside," Ajay announces.
"This is going to suck," says Smoke.
Looking up at the dark green sky, I see black thunder clouds swirling around in the circle. The wind shakes the trees with anger. Grabbing my head, I get a horrible, awful headache and the smell of a new scent.