CHAPTER TWO #2
Not many people were headed in the same direction as me, but one omega wolf power walked past me with his trunk on his heels as if it was chasing him. He moved over the snow as if it wasn’t there at all. He’d been close to his true-mate recently.
A flash of a band tee and a bar. No scent.
“He’s not lucky, huh?” my bear chimed off into my thoughts.
If I had a few less items to haul around I would’ve shifted into him and got this show on the road.
Though, truth be told I wasn’t in any hurry to get there.
I was sure Lero was kind and charming and all the things a host was supposed to be, but these bears were some of the most social creatures I’d ever heard of.
They had at least four feast days a month if Rune was right about them.
The wolf glanced back over his shoulder and squinted at me. Had he heard my thoughts? Had he just picked up my scent?
“Headed to the village?” he shouted turning around.
His trunk circled his feet so that it stayed a foot or so behind him.
“Yeah,” I said.
What did he want? Was it unusual for a bear to head toward the village?
“Need help with that?” he pointed at the trunk on my shoulder.
“I’m able,” I said, unsure of what he meant to do to help me with it. Did many people pack things they were unable to carry?
“Do you know the way?” he asked.
“I have a map,” I called back.
The wolf trailed back through the snow and extended his hand. Mine were full so I merely nodded at the gesture.
“I’m Mori. My dads lead the Nightshade Bears,” he offered and I nodded.
Of course! That’s why he was so nice. Children of leaders are either nicer than their parents or are secret little tyrants with dreams of ruling with an iron fist. There was no in between from all the history I’ve seen and heard.
“I’m here for Mated for the Holidays,” I said instead of offering my name.
What if Mori wasn’t who he claimed he was? What if he was some fay wolf intent on taking my name or my ice or leading me into an ice pit so that he might eat me? He’d have a difficult time doing the latter, but I liked my name and wasn’t willing to hand it out to those I didn’t know.
“Oh!” he said, the sound half surprised and half recognition.
He sniffed the air, and I fought off the urge to roll my eyes.
“Yeah, I’m an alpha. Your nose isn’t lying,” I said and took a few steps past him to ensure he wasn’t trying to block my way. I didn’t want to turn the little wolf into an ice statue so far from my garden but would if I had to.
“That’s fine,” Mori said and followed me. “Are they expecting you? Usually, Dad sends someone out to meet new arrivals. Especially in the winter.”
“They offered. I said I’d manage,” I shrugged.
He sniffed again. What was he doing? Seeing if I was a bear? Was it my appearance again? Was it because I wasn’t bundled up like he was? Was this little omega wolf about to ask me if I wanted his hat or something?
Only he didn’t say anything else. We walked in silence for many steps as the snowflakes grew bigger and bigger. As the snow piled up around our feet, I almost offered to carry him on my other shoulder, but he navigated the snow as well as I did.
“Who are you here to meet? If you don’t mind me asking?” Mori asked, tacking on the last part when he realized how nosy he sounded.
“Lero,” I said. “I think he’s your nephew or something like that.”
“Yeah. My nephew. Colton’s my older brother and his sire.
Lero’s only lived in the village for a decade or so now, but I think he likes it.
He has a really nice house too. Big house.
He added on a balcony that hangs over the lake on the far side.
He lives a bit out from the main village square. It’s quieter there.”
The wolf rambled on as the thick line of trees came into view. I stopped and squinted, trying to discern where this secret entrance was.
“Gotta follow them to the left when you come this way. You can come straight on from the train station but then you risk walking by a car that will offer you a ride.”
“And you didn’t want a ride?” I quirked up an eyebrow.
“I’m working some stuff out.”
“Because you missed encountering your mate?” the words flopped out of my dumb mouth before I could stop them.
“How do you know that?” he stopped in his tracks and sniffed the air again. His scent turned suspicious and his trunk floated a little higher like it might bowl me over if I made the wrong move.
“I…”
“Do you talk to Dern too?” he asked when I didn’t come up with anything discernable to say.
“Sorry. Never heard of him. I see shit sometimes. Not all the time. Not enough to be helpful. No, I don’t know where he is right now. I take it that you’ve been a little out of the loop of the happenings on Hemlock Mountain recently? Like really recently?”
“I’ve been on a train,” Mori said, eyeing me up and down as if I tried to pull an insurrection on the mountain.
“Eh. I’ve got to learn how to keep my mouth shut,” I sighed. “Anyway, one of my ancestors used to help Frost and Juda’s wolves find their mates sometimes. He was waaay better at it than I am and plus, I don’t want to be asked every day all day about it, okay?”
“I get that,” Mori said. “I see dead people and stuff.”
“Cool,” I nodded.
“Mori!?” Someone’s voice called from the other side of the trees. “Who are you talking to out there? Get your butt in here!”
“Do you know them?” I asked, lowering my voice in case we needed to flee or fight.
“I know everybody inside that tree circle,” the wolf sighed.
“I’M ON MY WAY!” he howled back to whoever spoke on the other side of the thick lines of trees. “WE HAVE A NEWCOMER! TELL LERO HIS GUY IS HERE!”
The sound cut up and down my eardrums and I nearly dropped my trunk. Mori caught it with one hand without missing an ahwooo of his howling words.
“I’m not worried about Lero’s new mail-order boyfriend! Rune says he’s not been off the mountain since Frost and Juda ran things! He’s not going to be any trouble! ” the guy called back. “I’m wondering why my little brother is standing on the wrong side of the trees talking to a man with horns!”
“Colton?!” Mori sniffed the air as if he hadn’t recognized the guy’s voice until then. “Why are you here?! Oh---” he snatched at my shirt. “Come on!” He tugged me toward the trees, and I swore under my breath as the shoes Rune insisted that I wear dragged across the snow.
“Who is that?” I asked, praying to the snow gods that no one shot me with an arrow.
“My older brother! Oh! Yeah! He’s Lero’s sire too!”
“Doesn’t sound like he’s my biggest fan,” I said, dodging a tree because Mori was trying to pull me in a straight line through the trees when there wasn’t a discernable path.
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” he laughed. “How do you think we snuck in and out as teenagers?”
“You’re the guy who’s kept one of my mates up worrying all night,” Colton said, pulling Mori into a hug as soon as we broke free of the trees and their grabby, naked branches. “Bolt is sure you’re going to eat him and turn him to stone or something.”
“Why would I turn your mate to stone? Or even ice?” I blinked, raking my eyes over the backside of the village.
“Lero’s moved all the way out here?” Mori asked and Colton, the bigger bear-wolf, ignored my question.
“Bear and wolf,” my bear agreed.
“Yeah. He doesn’t know,” Colton said.
“Doesn’t know what?” I asked.
“That Kodiak and his brother used to live out here. Brother’s dead now. Not a great guy. Together they nearly killed me but eh, I’m here,” he shrugged.
I was about to ask why they tried to kill him, but another wolf came out onto a nearby back porch.
“Don’t sound so fucking nonchalant about that!” a beta wolf called from the back porch of the nearest house. “The next time someone raises a gun at you, I’m going to give them a reverse birth and shove their head up their ass!”
“Hey, Ivan!” Mori waved, hugging Colton again.
“Don’t mind him,” Colton said and stopped short of extending his hand. “I’m Colton. I’m Lero’s sire. Ivan’s his dad and his carrier is inside.”
“Oh! Another polycule!” I said.
“Uh… We’re a closed polycule so don’t you get any ideas, snow boy,” Ivan said.
“He’s not mad at you. He’s just grumpy because Bolt kept us up all night,” Colton said, taking my trunk from my shoulder and starting up the back steps.
“Your twin’s inside too, Mori. You two come in out of the cold.
Lero’s made up about fifty thousand gallons of eggnog and hot chocolate.
He’s gone overboard with this. Well, maybe,” Colton looked me up and down over his shoulder.
“I bet you eat a lot, huh? Maybe even more than the bears here. Are you like carnivore only?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I can eat whatever’s good.”
“Well, damn,” my bear sounded off in my thoughts. “Didn’t expect to meet the whole damn family!”
“Let’s just get it over with. I bet Lero is mortified too. Can you imagine your own parents thinking so little of your ability to protect yourself that they all have to show up and crash your holiday fling?”
“Platonic fling. Sex doesn’t come with the package,” my bear reminded me.
“I’m not sure I want to have sex with him at all. Not if this would be my family if something snuck into him through the condom,” I shook my head. “They’d probably come over and watch to see if we’re doing it right.”