by Kallie Frost
The afternoon flew by in a blur of scary movies and laughter. As far as days on house arrest went, this was one of the best. As the evening drew near, Jacob set about preparing a huge dinner, with some assistance from other family members. We all ate at the table; one ridiculously huge, happy family. I couldn't believe there were a couple more siblings and their families who weren’t here. It seemed like more than enough of a crowd already. So very different from my own upbringing with a single mom, and after she passed, my grandparents. Even in my wildest dreams of a future boyfriend with couple of siblings, I never imagined a family quite like Rion’s. Whatever fates had chosen him for my true mate had done well.
When dinner was over, we took a little time to digest, while Tessa put some treats in the oven. Instead of going straight into dessert, once everyone was ready, we all headed back onto the back porch. Someone, I was fairly sure I knew who, had taken all of our finished jack o' lanterns and put candles in them and lined them up. They were all merrily flickering away in the dark.
Each one surrounded the large one Rion hollowed out, and Verona instructed us to set Vee into it for her photoshoot. While we didn’t have a ‘Baby’s First Halloween’ outfit, it seemed Verona found the time to craft a little sign that read My First Halloween. It was arranged, of course, decoratively in front of the pumpkins, and the whole display was adorned with gourds, and corn, and straw. Vee didn’t seem to mind being inside a pumpkin, and I swear she even struck some poses. Everyone crowded around, in and out of the pictures, as Rion’s idea for a cute, quick photo turned into a family affair. Kessel stepped in and took some shots of the entire family together for us.
When it was over, we spread out and each found our own spot on the porch. I tucked into a little corner with Vee and started kicking off my clothes like everyone else. I was used to changing in front of the entire family now, although it had been pretty weird at first. Inside, I felt as though my wolf was spinning in circles after his tail, and I could almost hear him barking eagerly. He knew what was about to happen. After I was naked, I pulled Vee's clothes off too, and tucked them in the corner on top of mine. Her latest diaper was dry, so I folded it neatly and set it down on top of her onesie.
Ready, I closed my eyes and focused on the wolf inside me. My skin began to itch and tingle as fur sprouted and after a few, almost painful, moments I was a wolf. For a moment the wolf was in control. He sniffed the air, shook his head, and looked over at all the other wolves and people, as one by one they changed. After a few stern mental prods from me to relinquish control, my body was my own again, albeit a furrier one.
I shook off and lifted each paw in turn, then I gave myself another good shake and took one big long sniff. All I could smell was pumpkin.
‘How are you doing Brooks? It smells a little like pumpkins,’ I thought to him.
‘Great,’ he replied. ‘The pumpkin smell isn’t nearly as bad now. Although it's a hell of a lot stronger.’ Across the porch, I saw him shake himself.
I heard a giggle and looked down at Verona. She was still human, waving her arms and legs at me while giggling. I lowered my head and wuffled at her with my nose. She squealed in delight, grabbing for fistfuls of my fur.
‘Come on, little one. Time for you to change too.’
She laughed with joy at the sound of my voice in her head, and then fur begin to sprout from her body.
‘She's getting better,’ I said, as the transformation quickly progressed.
‘She is,’ Rion agreed, coming up to join us. He bumped his shoulder against mine and I felt my wolf start wagging our tail.
In a moment there was a perfect little wolf pup, rolled over onto her back, waving her legs. Unlike her normal mostly-stationary human form, baby shifters were just as mobile as their animal counterparts were as babies.
Little Vee quickly rolled over to her feet, got up and shook herself off. Nobody could really tell me whether or not an infant could gain control of their wolf, or if it was the wolf in control when she was shifted, nevertheless, it hadn't seemed to matter yet. Verona barked a couple of times and tested out her puppy legs, jumping and spinning in place.
‘Is everyone ready?’ Rion’s mother asked.
There were several barks and mental murmurs of agreement. The family matriarch threw back her head and howled. Everyone joined her in a beautiful chorus, with a medley of different howls, that I was beginning to learn to discern. And one tiny little woo-woo-woo from my daughter.
One by one, we went out and down the steps for a family run. I smelled the bear before I saw him, and soon spotted Larkin’s shadow lumbering through the trees in the distance, keeping an eye on us. I couldn't see Kessel, but I knew that, somewhere, circling above the trees was an owl. I thought of Kessel and pictured him in my mind, and then thought hard about my question.
‘How’s the weather?’
His voice was distant and far away, but clear. ‘It’s a beautiful night for flying. Practicing your shifted speech?’ he teased.
‘How did you guess?’ I laughed.
Then, I turned my mind over to the wolf and we just ran. I enjoyed it, feeling almost like a passenger in my own body, just experiencing the rush of the wind and the almost overwhelming smells and sounds of the island. There was always an amazing amount of birds, and frogs, and all kinds of little critters making noise. Several of the wolves around me played and wrestled, and although my wolf felt tempted to join, he somehow instinctively knew to stay close to little Verona and she knew to stay close to her daddy.
She tagged along with me as I jogged through the trees, sometimes circling back to keep an eye on her, sometimes waiting, as she tried to keep up or lost interest and started sniffing something. Soon I could tell she was starting to get tired. With newly perfected ease, I nudged my wolf aside and took over again. I picked Vee up gently by the scruff of her neck, and laughed as her little feet ran in the air, as if she still wanting to keep going. In spite of her feet, she opened her mouth into a little fanged yawn, with her tongue lolling out.
'I'm going to take Vee back,' I said into Rion's mind.
'Do you want me to take her for you?' he asked, from somewhere nearby.
'No, no,' I said. 'She'll need to nurse before bed, and I don't have any pumped.'
'Do you want me to come along?’ he offered.
'Stay out here, have fun.'
'I love you,’ he said.
‘I love you too.'
Now that I was holding Verona, I could run at a much faster pace. As I loped quickly through the trees, I heard Kessel's distant voice again.
'Who's that running away from the pack?'
'It's me, Elliott. I'm bringing Vee back for bed.'
'Gotcha.’
A shadow passed over me as I padded across the lawn, I looked up and spotted an owl up in the sky. I crossed the rest of the lawn and went up into the house. Once on the porch, I changed back into my human form and quickly got dressed. Verona was spinning in little circles, chasing her tail. She yelped in protest as I picked her up.
“You need to change back too,” I told her. It didn't really matter though, once she fell asleep – which judging from another large yawn would be pretty soon – she would change back into a human automatically. I headed into the house and was surprised to see Cambry sitting in a chair, reading.
“You're not still out there?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don't really do running in the woods for extended periods of time.”
I nodded, supposing that romping probably was not exactly a cat thing.
“Can I get you a coffee or anything?” he offered.
“No, thank you,” I said. “I'm going to head up and try to get Vee to bed.”
“Good luck with that,” said Cambry with a chuckle. “Will you be back down?”
“Probably, the night is young.”
I headed up the stairs to our room and adjusted the top level of the bassinet, so that I could put Verona in the bottom. She didn’t use the lower l
evel as a human, but as a wolf she could easily climb out of the top. She ran around the small space, sniffing a little bit, and then curled up into a ball with another yawn. I gave her a little scratch behind the ears, which didn't seem so strange anymore.
I went into the bathroom to clean up after my woodland romping. By the time I came out, there was a sprawled out, little human girl at the bottom of the bassinet. I carefully picked her up, adjusted the top level, and set her back down. She wiggled and fussed a little bit, but stayed sleeping.
I could hear voices from downstairs, so I grabbed the baby monitor and headed back down to see that everyone was sitting at the large family dining table. Rion met halfway through the room.
“Is Vee down?”
“Sound asleep.”
Rion gestured to the table. “Shall we?” As he spoke, he handed me an envelope.
“What is this for?” I asked curiously.
“We're going to finish off the desserts that Tessa made earlier,” he said as we walked to the table. “Cambry is whipping up some drinks. And we are going to play murder mystery.”
“Murder mystery?” I asked with a laugh.
“Yep.” He tapped my envelope with one finger. “You have the name of a character, a few stats about you. Some motive, some backstory. And more importantly, whether or not you are the killer. We’re all going to sit at that table and eat, in character, while we try to figure out who the killer is.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of dinner murder games,” I said. “Although I can't say I've ever played any.”
“Neither have I,” he said with a grin. “It was Finch’s suggestion. He came across one a little while ago on a year away and has wanted to try it.”
“Alright,” I said. We sat down and I opened up my envelope. “Let's see…”
It looked like everyone else was studying their own characters. Even Brooks, although he looked tired and was sprawled on a nearby couch instead of at the table, was tapping an envelope against his leg while reading over the contents.
“What if Brooks is the killer and he falls asleep before we solve it?” Dell asked.
“I guess we'll find out,” Tessa said merrily.
Cambry set a steaming mug of something in front of me, followed quickly by a plate of Tessa’s pastries.
“Okay,” Finch said, standing. “I’m going to read a little intro, and we’ll begin. Thanks for indulging me.”
Sure, this wasn't where I expected to be even a few short months ago. And the house arrest thing sucked. But, if this was any indication of what my new life would be like, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
As if reading my mind, I glanced up and saw Rion looking at me with a smile. I puckered my lips like a little kiss at him, and he returned the gesture.
“Happy Halloween,” he said softly.
I smiled back. “Happy Halloween.”
~~~***~~~
Espresso for his Omega
Full Moon Mates
Book Three
M/M, Alpha/Omega, Shifters, MPREG
Kallie Frost
&
Harper B. Cole
Copyright 2019 Kallie Frost and Harper B. Cole
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The Full Moon Mates Series
His Omega Roommate
Icing the Omega
Espresso for his Omega
The Last Alpha Dragon
An Alpha a Day
Beneath His Alpha’s Wings
Chapter One
Cambry
I’m going to die. And it isn’t even a full moon.
The irony of the thought wasn’t lost on me. I always figured loneliness would eventually drive my cat insane and it would turn on itself during a full moon, and that’s how I’d go. I was right about the dying alone part, at least.
Just like I lived.
I didn’t miss that irony either.
Although I guess the true irony is that I didn’t have to live, or die, alone. It was my own choice to isolate myself from my family. Clinging to the feeling that I didn’t fit in, no matter how many times they told me I did. Time and time again, I used my nature as a cat as an excuse for why I couldn’t do something with them, when the truth was I was just scared I’d fail. Maybe if I tried to fit in, I’d find out I really didn’t.
Maybe if I let myself get closer to them, my cat wouldn’t be as lonely. Maybe I wouldn’t wake up beat to hell the morning after every full moon; surprised to be alive. Glad to be alive. Disappointed to be alive…
It wasn’t that I was suicidal, no. I was just suffering from the same ennui that eventually struck every lone alpha. I was getting older and I had no true mate. My own self-imposed isolation didn’t help. It wasn’t as hard when my cousins were all in the same boat. But after Rion came home with his true mate and their baby, it hurt. I watched him the morning after each full moon, happy and uninjured, and full of life. And I was jealous.
But losing Carrick… He was like a twin to me. I was closer to him than anyone else in the family and losing his attention to his true mate cut like a knife. I knew he couldn’t help it, but now I felt more alone than ever. If he wasn’t fawning over Brooks, he was caring for their son. Or sleeping whenever he could get the chance.
It was time for my year away, anyway. It was too claustrophobic in the family house, avoiding the werewolf hunter who was potentially still threatening Half Moon Island. I was sick of escaping the confines of my aunt’s house, only to find a warden staking out my coffee shop. I was already falling out of love with my little café, but the wardens’ constant presence just sucked the rest of the life out of it.
My only problem was the matter of where to go for a year. Thanks, once again, to the hunter, our usual nearby retreat was compromised. The other popular option was to go stay with extended, out of town family, but they were all wolves. Well, not all of them. My cousin Lysee’s true mate, Ailina and her family were foxes. I could have gone down to New Orleans to stay with them and their son, Adin. But Lysee was still a wolf and I wanted to get away from those cousins entirely. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have asked my cousin, Dovar, what he was up to. Out of the entire Silvanus clan, Dover and I were the most alike. Our mothers were both dead, and our fathers were alphas who weren’t wolves, which set us apart from our canine family. Dovar was a raccoon, and often as much an outcast as I was during family gatherings. Unlike mine, however, his father was still alive. Uncle Gavil and Dovar left Half Moon after my Aunt Willow was killed. They would have welcomed me for a few months. But no. Instead my misery drove me to just try and be more miserable.
I grabbed a handful of cash from my dresser drawer, hopped the next bus, in the direction it was going, and went as far as my change took me. Hours later, I ended up in a little seaside town, on the tip of Maine, called Port Canard. It was cute, I supposed. It reminded me a lot of Half Moon Island. I couldn’t decide if being somewhere like home was good or bad. It didn’t matter; after a grand total of six hours, Port Canard would be my grave.
I hunched my shoulders against the cold and forced myself forward. I tried to sniff for something, anything, but all I could smell was ice and snow. Maybe my nose was frozen. My whiskers certainly were.
Upon arriving at Port Canard, I found all but one of the hotels were closed. That wasn’t unusual; Half Moon emptied out during the off-season, too. I checked in and dropped off my bags, before going out to explore the town. I saw all of two people, both of whom warned me a winter storm was on the way. I didn’t pay much attention; I grew up by the shore and was familiar with w
inter storms. I neglected to take into account the fact I was considerably further north than usual. I took a long hiking trail out of town and down the beach. I couldn’t say how far I wandered, only that it was a couple of hours later, when the first snowflakes fell. That was the first time it occurred to me I wasn’t prepared for the winter in Maine. I turned and headed back to town, but was still quite far when the snow began to fall harder.
I had still been on the beach when the sun set, stumbling in the sand on tired human legs. Shifting seemed like the best option; running as a human hadn’t been getting me anywhere. I shifted and abandoned my winter clothes. I had never been more envious of my wolf cousins and their ability to carry a full outfit while shifted. Instead, I ran through the sand, slipping and sliding, while the icy wind cut through my thin fur. By the time I reached Port Canard I was freezing. Literally; my paws were numb, and my whiskers actually had ice on their tips. And then the full impact of the empty town hit me.
I couldn’t get inside.
It wasn’t a winter storm, it was a fucking blizzard, and I was trapped outside in an unfamiliar town. My night vision did little good in the thick snow; I couldn’t see more than a foot in front of me. My heightened ears heard nothing but the wind that stung them. I couldn’t smell anything but snow. Even if I could smell more, the town wasn’t familiar enough for a scent I knew to lead me to the hotel.
Every door I found was locked. I even risked shifting a couple of times to try doorknobs and windows. All I succeeded in doing was probably giving myself frostbite and wasting energy. The insane snow was already drifted to my feline shoulders and each step was nearly impossible. If I were a wolf like the rest of my family, I may yet have survived. I could have dug myself a cave in the snow and curled up with my thick coat to protect me. The snow wouldn’t have been nearly as hard to push through either. Instead, I was a tiny cat, practically hopping through snow drifts. I couldn’t feel my paws, my ears, or even my tail. In fact, I was pretty sure most of me was numb.