“Got it.” We say in unison.
“You can both go, it’s been a long day. Be ready for a call at any time.”
“Yes, Sir.” We both answer again and then turn to head out of the room and up stairs.
“I just want a shower and to stretch, my legs are sore. We need to run harder more often.” Mina half laughs and half whines at me as we both feel the tightness in our legs just from walking up the stairs. Mina goes to grab her towel and head for the shower. I head for my desk and see my phone light up with a notification.
“Oh sh*t! I totally forgot. It’s Sierra’s birthday! We have to call her when it’s not the middle of the night.”
“Is she 17 or 18?” Mina asks.
“17 one more year before we find out if Sam is her mate.” I giggle. “I swear their connection is so strong I could feel it click into place when they met. He turned to complete jello, it was really cute.” “Aren’t all your friends having birthdays soon too?”
“Yeah, all the guys are just a few weeks apart. March is basically a party month for all of them.”
She laughs and then stops, lost in thought. “Isn’t your birthday like April or May?”
“End of April.”
“Does your pack put something in the water so everyone gets pregnant in the summer and has kids in the late spring?” She’s laughing, but I’m sure kind of serious too.
“Il never really thought of it like that, but I guess.” I laugh at her grimacing a bit. “What about you? When’s your birthday?”
She closes her eyes for a second and smiles, opening only one to look at me. “June.” – “Hah!! You can’t say sh*t about it then!” I keep laughing as she walks into the bathroom to shower the night off. I She’s out quickly and I do the same. Once I am clean and in comfy clothes the long day kind of hits me and I look at the clock. At this point it is 4am and I have been up for almost 24 hours straight. I need to get some sleep if I am actually going to make it through classes today. I set an alarm and so does Mina, just in case, and we both quickly fall asleep.
I shoot up as my alarm goes off, then I groan as mother nature calls and decides I don’t get to sleep more. When I get done in the bathroom, I’m too wide awake to even think
about going back to sleep even though I’ve only gotten about three hours. This is my normal internal clock and it is immovable at the best of times.
I decide to wake Mina up and we can call Sierra before we get started with our day. Neither of us bother to get cleaned up before we video call her. She’ll appreciate the thought that she is more important than our appearance.
The phone dials for longer than it should and I’m afraid we might be waking her up or she doesn’t have it with her.
When she finally answers, it’s extremely close to her face, but she looks genuinely excited to see us.
“Oh my Goddess! How are you guys?!”
“We’re great! Happy Birthday!” I basically shout at the phone.
“Aww, thank you. No offense, but you two look rough, what have you been up to?”
Mina and I both laugh. “We’re on a mission right now and last night was a late night.”
“Wait! What do you mean ‘on a mission?” A male voice I would recognize anywhere, shouts from somewhere behind her. Then the phone is snatched and blurry for a second before Sam’s face comes into view “Little Bit, what do you mean you’re on a mission. You are just supposed to be in training. You aren’t even old enough to actually qualify for that part, what is Warrior Brogen thinking putting you on a mission with fully trained warriors?”
