Page 85 of Luna Trials

“Nope.” I shook my head to clear the intrusive thoughts.Get ahold of yourself, Aspen.

Please do.

I took another deep breath. This was totally fine. It was only a nest. All shifter females could make one. And I’d just think of it like a test.

I was going to make the best nest the world had ever seen. Not for them oranymale though. This nest would be for me.

*

Maybe perfect was a bit of a stretch.

I pushed a piece of sweaty hair out of my face and finished nailing in the floating shelf that hung across the room from the bedframe.

That monstrous frame had taken too much time to build. As much as I liked the rustic style that whatever female Jesse had sent to deliver it picked out, she could have printed me some better instructions. The mattress sucked. It still smelled of chemicals from being squished in the bag and I had to pinch my nose as I dragged it outside. I wasn’t sure the bed was sturdy enough to…

Definitely not going there.

The deer antlers with the wildflower wreath I’d mounted on the wall would have been cliché if it wasn’t so stinkin’ cute. I put the cedar candles on the floating shelf and stepped back to admire my handiwork.

The bones were solid–Jesse deserved a thank you gift–and it was a decent start.

I carried my gram’s trunk to the center of the room and my wolf finally relaxed as I lifted the lid.The scent of home filled the small space. Soft furs tanned by my papa were wrapped around the strands of battery-operated string bulb lights. I hummed to myself as I strung them up around the ceiling.

The furs went on the floor and I sighed as I dug my bare toes into them. It made me feel closer to home, more in tune with my true self, and connected to the earth again. Maybe that was half my problem, being cooped up in the resort.

I hadn’t been able to ground myself much.

Well, that was going to change.

I dragged the mattress back inside and shook out my favorite of gram’s quilts. It was the same one I’d shown off in 8thgrade when we did our extra credit reports. But it didn’t have the frayed edges now and had lost some of her fading scent since I’d meticulously restitched it by hand after that shitshow of a day.

I breathed it in, letting the whispers of my heritage surround me and quiet my inner beast. My gram may have been taken before her time, but I carried her love with me.

I placed the quilt on the bed. A little to the left. An inch to the right.

It shouldn’t hang off in that corner.

Frustrated, I bunched it up and then shook it out again. My stomach was starting to hurt under all this stress.

What if he didn’t like it?

I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed. It didn’t matter if he didn’t like it.

But what if the viewers laugh?

Also, didn’t matter.

It was simple and sweet. Not garish or over the top. Comfortable and homey. There was bound to be at least one or two other Alphas who would cast a vote for this space.

I ran my hand across the top quilt, smoothing out the wrinkles. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do because this was me.

*

The buzzer sounded with fifteen-minutes remaining as I sat down on the ledge of the large fish head fountain in the front of the resort. Edith came walking up the gravel driveway, stopping to chat with one of the cameramen, before sitting next to me.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

“I’ve been making nests since I was five in all our different properties.” Edith shrugged.