Before he met Kaiden and Nate, Sean figured nothing would ever make him comfortable with the idea of leaving his family or the coven. But it'd been almost three months since he'd seen his wolves, and he found himself thinking more and more seriously about going back to Wyoming.

His birthday was in thirteen days, and he'd be nineteen—old enough to move out. He hadn't figured out how to talk to Trevor about it yet. Sean wouldn't be capable of forcing his best friend to move back to the pack's ranch with him. It wouldn't be fair.

It was bad enough that they were nearing the end of another year and he still hadn't been able to find a way to re-house Trevor's spirit. It was still sewn to the body of the tabby Sean had put it in nearly five years ago.

Sean glanced at Annalise as she turned on the 'all-wheel-drive' to better scale the path leading deeper back into the trees. Even though she didn't seem to have any plans of leaving Aspenview anytime soon, Sean would still want his cousin's opinion on the idea as well.

A chime drew Sean's attention back to his phone. After a few messages back and forth, Annalise had parked the car and got out, without Sean even noticing.

"Are you coming?" She bent over to look through her open car door at Sean. "Or are you just gonna sit on your phone for the whole ceremony?"

Sean's brow furrowed for a second from where he sat planted in her passenger seat. "I'm coming," he said, fingers working furiously to finish his text.

As soon as he hit 'send', he opened her glove box and tossed the phone inside.

Anna closed up the back of her hatchback once they'd both grabbed their pails out. Well, Anna was using a pail. Sean had an old Folgers Coffee can.

The leaves of the aspens were well into their fall colors—vibrant yellows, with orange crowns. But it wasn't as chilly as it had been this time last year. It wasn't even cold enough for Sean to see his breath.

Not far from them, leaves were being kicked into the air as Trevor divebombed a sizable collection of fallen, golden foliage. He blended into them like a tiny tiger as they softly settled before darting through the next unsuspecting pile.

When Sean called, the tabby abandoned his game, galloping over until he fell into a trot behind them. Trevor was sporting his own new attire—a tiny reflective harness with the words "Emotional Support Animal" across it. It had been his idea to avoid people trying to rudely eject him from local businesses when he and Sean were out. It also allowed him to take the bus with Sean.

"I can't believe he's really wearing that vest like a little dog," Anna commented as they hiked.

Sean grinned, glancing back at the proud tabby. As embarrassing as it was for him sometimes, Trevor seemed to be really pleased with himself for that one.

"Yeah, he doesn't seem to mind it, does he?" Sean said.

"You know you can talk to me too though, right, snowflake?" she teased.

Sean snorted. "I'm fine, seriously."

"If you say so."

The two of them fell silent, enjoying their surroundings as they followed the path up to the winding stream's waterfall. They both had a rock in their containers that shifted with each step.

There were several groups of other coven members at the base of the falls when they arrived. All with their own sacks, buckets, and pails. Some had already unloaded their contents and were now heading up the trail to the top of the peak. The rest were waiting for friends and family or in the process of returning their stones to the river.

Trevor hopped up onto a large boulder a safe distance away from the water to watch as some children tossed their stones into the river and made a wish just like pennies into a fountain. In the clear mountain waters, below the spray of the waterfall, thousands of smooth rocks littered this particular stretch of river, accumulated over several decades. It brought back a lot of memories from his own past before he was a cat.

"Hey, Sean, remember when I convinced you there were bears around here?" The voice coming from the cat held a mischievous tone as he cast a glance back towards his friend.

Sean laughed, plucking his grounding stone out of his coffee can. "You're such an ass," he said lightheartedly before tossing the piece of quartz into the water. The splash and following ripples obscured the rock's descent to the bottom. Sean loved those memories, despite the deep sense of loss that often accompanied them.

"Hmph, yeah." Trevor snorted.

Trevor's golden cat eyes glowed in the afternoon sun that bounced off the water's surface and danced across the rock-riddled shore. He stilled as he watched, reflecting on his own childhood experiences. In those days, all he knew was that his parents loved him, he hated celery, and that he and Sean would be friends forever. But thinking of his parents made him wish that they would, for whatever reason, be at the ceremony. 

Sean turned to Trevor. "Ready to go meet up with everyone?"

"Do they have the food set up yet?"

"Probably not... but if we find a couple of rocks now, I bet it will be by the time we get up there."

Sean took his time, palm stretched out towards the ground, guiding him as he felt for energy. After he'd collected a few stones that had attracted his attention, he led the way towards the Beaumont residence.

The smell of pine and dead leaves permeated the air as it passed through the tall trees and mountainside.

"Can you imagine owning a whole mountain?" Trevor asked while they were still alone.

"No, much less that house on top of it."

They'd both been inside parts of it on several occasions. Mr. And Mrs. Beaumont used to host most of the coven's more extravagant celebrations. Once they'd passed, their son seemed happy to continue the tradition of flaunting his affluence.

Sean had nothing against Tobias Beaumont. But since he really didn't know him on a more personal level, either, it was easy to assume the man was a snob.

"Right? What does a guy do with a place that big? If it were me, I'd just have an entire room full of pillows—no bed, just pillows." The tabby then continued to list off all of the absurd things he'd do with each room until he noticed Sean had grown uncomfortably quiet. "What about you, Sean? What would you do?"

"I'd want a library. A whole room just filled with books and plants, and a badass gaming room." Sean scratched the side of his face as his brows knitted together. "Although, I guess online play would still be out of the question. There needs to be a spell for lowering your ping."

"Heh, that's why you just install your own cell tower, of course!" Trevor tossed back.

Sean snickered as he shook his head.

After several minutes the path leveled considerably. Just ahead of them, at the peak of their hike, they could see the twelve monoliths that encircled the area where they performed many of their group ceremonies. A few members of the coven were there, others were closer to the back of the Beaumont home, further down the stone-paved path.

In the center of the ring of stone pillars, was a large fire pit fashioned out of local stone from the mountain. In fact, the entire Victorian house, from the foundation up—the wraparound porch, the pathways,  all of it was cut from the mountain. According to the Beaumonts, it had proven a wise choice in building materials because over the past century, very few repairs had been required on the exterior of the estate.

Around the firepit, everyone who'd already made it to the top of the mountain had laid out the stones they'd collected on their way up. Sean quickly added his to the ring of rocks before finding a place to set his coffee can. The smell of the offerings for the potluck was drifting through the thin air even from yards away.

Sean swore his stomach had just gone from 'fine' to 'verge of starvation' within seconds as he looked at Trev. "Food time?"

The feline craned his neck lifting his nose into the air to scent what he might like first. "I smell tuna salad!" Trevor answered as he took off towards the food tables. His fluffy tail stood high in the air, like a flag, as he darted between shoes and legs and then disappeared under a white table cloth.

Sean grabbed a plate from the end of the table Trevor had darted under and drifted over towards Anna as he surveyed the spread.

A spoonful or two of his mother's oyster stuffing went onto his plate—followed by corn casserole, a small scoop of cashews and pine nuts, some roasted butternut squash, and a few apple slices. He'd just laid eyes on the roast when Annalise nudged him with her elbow.

"I love all the little pumpkins and pine cones on the table, aren't they pretty—"

When she paused, Sean turned to see her eyes had landed on his plate.

"Shit, Sean, where do you put all that?" Anna said, though there probably was some sincerity to her look of disgust. "You're making me gain weight just looking at it."

Snorting, Sean shrugged. "Hollow legs?"

She rolled her eyes and grinned. "Well, are you gonna save any for your little service body?"

"I think he'll manage. He always does, even without opposable thumbs."

Anna's grin softened. "You know, I was thinking on the way up here," she said, stepping away from the table with Sean in tow. "You've been looking for something, haven't you?"

Sean's brows drew together to express his confusion since he'd just shoveled another bite of casserole into his mouth.

"You've been pouring through the family grimoires more than usual again since finishing school." She moved some of her long, dark braids behind her shoulder. "I can help you. You just gotta ask."

Sean's gaze fell to his plate. "I know..."

"Alright, well, I'm gonna mingle. I didn't get cute just to stand here talking to your skinny ass till sundown."

A smile returned to his face. "Getting cute? And your boyfriend left for California—what? Two weeks ago?"

"Says the guy with two boyfriends."

"She's kind of got a point," the tabby remarked upon his return.

It appeared as if Trevor had been successful in his quest for food because Sean could see him licking his whiskers. Sometimes Trevor wondered why Sean had never told Anna about his secret. Well, their secret. Sean had explained it a couple of times, but Trevor seldom paid attention long enough to remember it for more than a day.

The smile on the witch's lips turned down slightly. "Is being with two guys bad if they're both cool with it?" Sean said under his breath as he scouted out a place to sit that didn't have much traffic.

"I think that depends on who you ask," Trevor replied as they settled on some boulders that were near the edge of the party. The view from this side of the mountain was perfect--all of the trees had been cleared so they could see the whole town. As the sun sank behind the mountains, lights began to turn on in the valley below.

It was moments like this that Sean found himself missing Kaiden and Nate the most. Just a few quiet seconds, when it would be nice to squeeze their hands or ask them what they were thinking about.

"How do you feel about it, Trev," Sean said, reaching down to pull a stray neon thread off Trevor's little vest.

"I think you're lucky," he replied and after a moment, added, "And I think I don't ever want to be locked in a bathroom with you and Kaiden again."

Heat engulfed Sean's face and he lifted a hand to try to rub his embarrassment off his skin. "I'm still really sorry about that."

"I know." But that, of course, wasn't going to stop Trevor from bringing it up just to see that priceless look on Sean's face.

Sean finished his dinner and disposed of his paper plate and flatware. The two of them then meandered over to join the rest of the coven around the fire pit. Sean found himself a spot between his mother and Anna.

The warmth from the fire felt good—heating only what faced it, while the cool night air hugged the rest.

Now that the last remnants of the sun had left the sky, their grounding stone ritual could begin. It was an annual event: the returning of their used stones to recharge in the mountain river, while they gathered and cleansed new ones under the light of the moon and around the heat of the fire.

They all joined hands to spend some time in silent meditation. The witches focused collectively on the moon's neutral energy, willing it to cleanse the new stones they had collected and placed around the massive fire pit.

When the cleanse was finished, they took turns walking around the ring of stones in groups of five to seven, hands stretched out to find the one that "called" to them. Most witches did this in a clockwise manner, but as Sean and his group were taking their turn, he nearly ran face-first into someone who was going the opposite way.

Shout-out to Dark_Writes, laaazybones, and Elosky4groove!! Thank you so much for your support!