I wake up to this delicious scent. It reminds me of my mother's cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven. I leave my bedroom and walk downstairs without even looking at my hair or my pajamas. The smell is divine so I follow it in a daze. As I enter the kitchen I see Dante in there and oh my goodness, it is cinnamon rolls! He even made bacon to go with them. Then, just as I get ready to attack the cinnamon goodness, another scent hits me. It went along with the cinnamon rolls so well that at first I did not notice it. It has a slight vanilla and cinnamon swirl smell, kind of similar to a snickerdoodle cookie. As soon as I register this scent, I look up at Dante with my eyes wide. The smell is coming from him! This is absolutely amazing!
Not being able to control myself, I leap at him. He catches me, chuckling. "I warned you that you are my mate. I can't believe it took you this long to notice."
"Is that why you smell so amazing?" I ask nuzzling into him like I was in my wol
When Amora arrives to the packhouse I have finally built up my nerves enough to not want to bolt from the room. She knocks on my bedroom door and walks in when I call her. "Happy birthday, dear." She says."Thank you. This isn't exactly how I pictured my birthday to go. Hiding in my room, away from my mate." I say rather sadly."That is quite alright. After this you can go and talk to him if you would like. I did not realize with you being so young when your parents died that they had not yet told you about how the mating process works. I have had to give this talk to a few other young ladies in the pack a few times so I should be able to answer any questions you might have." She says nicely."Alright. I just want to know what I have to do." I say nervously."It is so much of a have to as what you are going to want to do later on. Whether you want to now or not, eventually your bond will drive you both crazy until you end up completing the bond. It'll be
After taking a brief nap, I decide it might finally be time to brave the rest of the house. I did not wait impatiently for my birthday just to hide in my room after finally finding my mate after all. Heading to the kitchen I find more cinnamon rolls still on the counter so I grab one and head towards Dante's office. Before I can even knock I hear him yell, "Laina, come on in."I walk in to the sight of him sitting at the desk, sorting through some papers. As I sit down across the desk from him, he looks up. "I am sorry if we scared you. I just did not want you not knowing what you will be getting into. I am in no hurry to complete the ritual though so please, do not worry about it. Everything is up to you. Right now, I am looking for my favorite cookie recipes though. Which kind would you like to make?" He asks.I had forgotten about making cookies but the thought makes me grin back, "Any. I loved cookies. Chocolate chip, peanut butter, monster, and sugar cookies. My f
The afternoon was spent fantastically just telling stories with Dante and getting to know him better but as dinner rolled around I found that I was not quite ready to leave his company. Luckily for me, he had other plans."So, I hope that you are not tired of me yet. I kind of made some dinner plans for us. I thought that you might like going out to eat for your birthday instead of having a big pack dinner." He said."That sounds really nice. Do I need to change or anything before we go?" I ask."No, it is nothing fancy. You look great just as you are anyways." He says helpfully.Blushing, I take his hand to get off of the couch and we head out to dinner. It is such a nice evening that we opt to just walk to the restaurant. Luckily, pack life means not needing vehicles much unless there is an emergency. Dante leads the way and we shortly arrive at a little Italian restaurant that looks nice and cozy. When we walk in they direct us to a table immedia
Waking up after the best night's sleep I can remember, I notice that the bed is empty next to me. Reaching over, I notice a note laying on his pillow. It simply says thank you for the great night's sleep and that he will be back at lunch after a meeting. Stretching, I notice a cart sitting at the end of the bed. Walking over to it, I lift up the metal lid to find an array of chopped fruits, bagels and some bacon. Grabbing a piece of bacon, I walk into my room to get dressed. After I have some proper clothes on, I go back to my breakfast. This is the closest thing to healthy I have eaten since I got here and my stomach begins to growl a happy thank you.Once my food is consumed, I decide to walk to Scarlett's house and see if she is free to hang out for a while. Luckily, Dante has a map by the door of everyone's residences so I have no problems finding out where she lives. It is only about a block away and the walk feels nice. I have not actually done anything alone sinc
Shopping with Scarlett was quite fun even if shopping is not really my thing. We got to talk a bit and I did not feel pressure, intended or otherwise, about the expectations for me. No word of me being Luna besides the talk of the present, no talk of the mating ritual, and no talk of my past. It was a nice change. Dante and I have been doing well, but even though he is not pressuring me about mating, there is always that sense of anticipation. We both know that it has to happen and we both know that eventually it will but he has not been pushing it. The anticipation still makes it a little harder to relax so having what Scarlett called a 'girl's day' was nice.After we get back to her house, I help her unload the gifts and try to help wrap them. Turns out, wrapping presents is more difficult than I thought. Sure, it is easy to cover each present but to make them look nice, that is ridiculous. She picked out a yellow wrapping paper with storks carrying werewolf pups in a
Dinner is going to be something new again. Dante said that he wants to make me a steak dinner with baked potatoes. He asked how I like my steak and at my blank look he just chuckled and said he would make it the right way then. Now, I am trying to decide how I would like my hair done if I were to go and get a haircut. I cannot imagine short hair but maybe I should go that far? Time for a whole new me. I am sick of being the girl that does not belong and that lived in the woods. It is time to find who I am. Maybe shorter is better. Not short short like I saw some of the women wearing. Maybe just shoulder length or so. There is one that I saw at the pack dinner the other night that I liked. It was shorter in the back and longer in the front.I look into the mirror in the bathroom and I do not fully recognize myself. I have little ears that my mother used to call fairy ears, a nose to match but nice, full lips. My hair is the same red of my cardinal and reaches almost all
When we sit down, Dante places a steak on each of our plates. The baked potatoes are all wrapped in aluminum foil so I grab one of those as well. I cannot remember if I like these or not but I am willing to try. Dante also made some asparagus to go with the meal. That, I know that I like so I grab some of that as well. I am still not sure what the butter sauce was for but after watching Dante pour some onto his steak I follow suit. Taking my first bite, my tastebuds erupt with flavors. The butter sauce adds an amazing kick of garlic and herbs that pairs well with the asparagus as well. Before I know it, I am done with my steak and moving onto my baked potato. I open it up and cut it in half like I saw the other do. I slather the inside in butter and dig in. This is not my favorite out of the food on my plate but I do still like it. I can understand why people eat it with steak. I eat only about half of it before giving up and admitting defeat. I am stuffed.Looking arou
For the first time, I wake up with plans for the day. That has not happened as long as I can remember. Sure, I have had things that I want to do but I have not made plans for the day before. These plans are with a friend too at that. I can't remember ever having a friend before either. These are entirely new grounds that I am trying to circumvent. Not sure how excited I should be, but I do know that I am excited, and nervous. Very nervous actually. A new haircut seems really daunting considering it is something as silly as having having something cut that will grow back. Still, it is slightly nervewracking to be taking on something like this only a week after leaving behind a life of solitude.Dante and I eat a light breakfast together and talk about some of the pack members. He tells me a bit about the one that is pregnant and how her mate tragically died not long ago, meaning that the fact that I picked out a present for her means more than it might have for any other pack
"Wait, you can do that?" Frank asks shocked. "Yes, of course I can. It is not something that I have done often, actually only one other time but it is an option. It is one that terrifies her." I admit. "Who did you do it to before?" Rand asks me. "I did it to Morden. There was no other way to stop her from coming after my pack or my family." I answer simply. "Your grandmother said that Simonetta was behind that the entire time. That only makes it right that she gets the same punishment if not worse than what Morden received." Rand points out. I had not thought of it that way but it is true. Still, we need to have a system set up for something like this. Otherwise, there will always be somebody that takes advantage of the power and that is not something that I can condone. "That is very true. I had not thought of that but this is not a decision to be made lightly. There might be longer reaching consequences that even I am not aware of by using this ability. Still, I see no other o
It did not take long at all for the Hybrid Council to arrive. They all file in looking a little shocked to see Simonetta there, unable to use her magic as she floats slightly in the air. Quickly, they find their seats. Then, both Rand and Frank walk in as well. I had not thought of inviting them but I am glad that Dante did. With how long she terrorized their pack it is only fitting that they are here for this as well.I smile at them all as they whisper among themselves for a few moments. This is a bit of a shock for those that were not here to see Simonetta arrive. For Frank and Rand, they finally see their enemy tied up and floating in the air. They are not aware that I can take away her ability to use magic so this is going to be a shock to them when the meeting starts. "I take it you called us all here for a reason?" Elle says once everyone starts to calm down."Yes, I did. As everybody here knows, Simonetta has caused quite a few problems for us. She has terrorized werewolves,
Simonetta rushes towards me using wind to guide her speed. It is not enough to throw me off guard though and I shove a wall of dirt up in front of me. She almost crashes into it before she is able to skid to a stop at the last second. If she had prepared then she might have been able to use the air that was helping her speed up to me to jump over the wall but instead, she is used to using her other powers for combat and did not make the decision in time.As soon as she begins to stop, I tear down the wall and shift into werewolf form quickly to land on top of her with my teeth to her neck. Out of all of the forms that I could have turned into this was the only one that registered as an option. I would like for her to see the one thing that she thinks is beneath her be the thing that brings her down. For once, she surprises me when she throws me off of her with some air. I quickly flip over and land on my paws. I shift back and face her again. She is breathing hard and I find myself a
As soon as my illsuion drops I see Simonetta's face blanche. Chelsea drops to the ground and has it swallow her up as she falls through it to meet the others. I send her a brief thank you as she helps to keep them all safe from whatever back up plan Simonetta could have.She sends me a sad farewell. Apparently she is worried about whether or not I am going to make it out of this one. I might not have used much magic recently but I guarantee that there is no way I will let her get away with this threat. Today, she is going to go down and she is not going to be a threat to anybody with werewolf blood ever again."Wait, you had the baby? No! You can't have had it already!" She screams in rage."Actually, I can. There was nothing stopping me from having it. There is also nothing in the way of me putting a stop to you and your bullying once and for all" I say. She takes a few steps back as she steels herself for what we bothk now is going to happen next. It is a shame that the rest of the
"Why would she ever want to go with you?" I ask Simonetta in shock."I am sure that she can see the benefits when she realizes that if she doesn't then she will never get to meet the bundle of joy in your stomach. I will personally make sure that you are unable to deliever them. After all, the more powerful the babes the less the mother can use magic so I am sure that you are not able to defend yourself very well." Simonetta says triumphantly.I try my best to look worried. I really do. I find that it is difficult to be worried about her though. She has never really had a lot of sway over me. Even when I first realized how much stronger than her I am I had found it difficult to be scared of her. "You really think that I am afraid of you? Even without being able to use my powers you do not worry me. I have plenty of other witches that are able to come and help me." I say."Not before something bad happens to you. Chelsea, I would hate to see for anything bad to happen to Laina. I just
Each team splits up and gets ready to make their way through the obstacle course. They are all going to have to take turns trying to make it through safely. Each team has a designated amount of time before they get elminated. The one that makes it through the fastest and with the least amount of mistakes, will be the ones to win the competition. The course is very similar to the one that we did with the entire pack when we first started training. The one that really got the women moving faster as they fought to make good time through the course to beat the men. This one is just a little more geared towards children and not fully grown adults.Some of the obstacles are smaller to better accomodate their size, some things are closer together and they have even added some new obstacles that would have been difficult for the adults. There are also some obstacles that are going to require teamwork to make it through. If they do not work together then they have no hope of making it to the
It takes much longer than planned to get the babies ready for travel. I have never packed a diaper bag before but luckily Scarlett shows up to help me get them ready and squeal over the twins for a minute. Or more precisely, several minutes."I can't believe that they are finally here! I swear it felt like your pregnancy was never going to end. Every time that I thought you were going into labor and you never did. Yesterday, I had no idea that you were going into labor. How did you keep that from me?!" She says to me."It was not exactly on purpose. I did not even know that I was in labor until I spoke to Dante and then Elle confirmed it. It was a really odd day. We had a lot that happened that day so I thought that everything I was feeling was just from stress." I admit to her."Ha! For once, I could have answered that if you had just talked to me. Instead, you have me doing made up jobs with you to help me out." She says excitedly.I shake my head as she begins showing me exactly h
The first night with the babies was quite a bit of a learning curve. Whenever we put them in their bassinets they just started to cry nonstop until we picked them up again. It took a couple of hours to find out that if we put them into the same bassinet they were able to sleep peacefully and not wake us up. By the time we managed learning that, I was beyond exhausted and ready to sleep. Thankfully, there was more than enough people in the house to help us out throughout the night.When I wake up I find that Dante is already standing over their bassinet watching them sleep. They have managed a few hours of sleep straight which for me was quite shocking considering that they are newborns. "How are they?" I ask him sleepily.Chelsea decided to sleep on one of the loveseats last night as well. She was just too excited to go to sleep in her bedroom after I had the babies. I do not blame her but as she shifts when I start talking I do realize that that might have been a mistake. She is goi
Chelsea comes running in once the babies start to cry for food. Her face is filled with excitement as she rushes over to me. Even though they are hungry, I allow her to hold and rock Caterine while I first feed Archer. I might get good enough to be able to feed them both at once in the future but for now feeding just one is tricky. I never knew that it could be this hard to feed a baby."Hi Caterine, I am your Aunt Chelsea. We are going to be best friends. You are going to get to go to school with werewolf pups and use magic. It is going to be wonderful. I can't wait to teach you everything that I know." Chelsea coos to the baby making all of us smile.It is a good thing that she already has so much experience being around babies because she does a great job holding Caterine while Archer is feeding. She does sit down though as she looks at her. Even though Caterine was crying just a moment ago from hunger, she is now looking at Chelsea with wide eyes. Werewolf pups have much better ey