Cold as Winter

"Sweetheart why don't you take Maria out for ice cream? It's been a long trip from Canada, she needs a nice treat." Luna Stone says

Alex throws her an almost quizzical look, and then glances at his father across the room.

"So Maria, you wanna grab your coat?" Luna Stone says.

I sweep on my coat and head to the car, the pack house had started emptying around nine and there were only six or seven older people still speaking with the alphas.

I stand in front of the Lambo and Alex stares at it for a full minute.

"Alex? Are you alright?" I say.

"Yeah, just fine." A fine blush has settled across his cheeks and he glances at the time on the dashboard as he slaps on his seat belt.

"So, was that everyone in the pack then?"

"Huh? Just about. We have a lot of people living a bit further out that couldn't make it. Not even my brother was here, he was out too."

I can take a hint.

Alex glances at the time again.

"Oh okay."

We drive to a nice ice cream store and we get our ice cream.

I sit down with a double scoop cone of chocolate chip cookie dough and Alex spoons some mint chocolate chip in his mouth. We busy ourselves eating ice cream.

Alex glances at his watch. It was actually kind of cute the way he kept worrying over the time. I wonder what's up? Being naturally curious is part of being human, but I see a little bit of secrecy as a challenge. Perhaps my years of training teenagers to be on a better path has made me so sensitive to it.

Maybe his mother pushing us together in hopes that we are mates is making him-wait, his mother doesn't know that look in his eye. She doesn't know about his mate. So that's it.

Well, let's see what I can find out.

"I actually want to stretch my legs, mind if we take a walk?" I say.

"Sure." Alex says.

We start walking, a good fifteen minutes in and five checks to his watch and Alex begins to relax as we reach an odd looking diner. I glance at him. He stares at the diner.

"Hey Alex, are you hungry?"

"Why, are you? We can get some nice Mexican food not too far from here."

"Why not this place?" I say and hear Alex's heart beat pick up.

"Well sure, but to be honest the food here's not great. We should go to the Mexican place or the pizza place. You know I should take you to my parents favourite place, it's that way." Alex points to the opposite direction.

"I just want some fries. There aren't many places like this in Saskatchewan." I say and stride inside.

A bell rings. A tired looking human waitress glances over at us and grabs a jug of coffee and stands up. Before she can step towards us a tired teenage girl comes in front of us. She's a wolf, I can smell it.

"I got this one."

She happily plops into her chair and adjusts her white stained shirt.

"Hello, table for two please." I say.

She glances at me very curiously and stares at Alex.

"Hello Charlotte."

"Alexander."

So this is her, eh? Looks like we have a pair of angry mates. From my years as a trainer, especially with my friends that were having a lot of trouble, I got a lot of experience with mate fights.

Teenagers who had discovered their mates before they changed to wolves in our pack always had trouble with their starting relationship. Sadly it was one of the aftereffects of some bad relationships around them in our pack. Again back to the lasting affects my grandmother's hate left on some couples. Love and hate, with a pinch of longing always strung their paths, and eventually all of them got into a steady rhythm of happiness and peace. Well most of them, one couple pulled apart the mating bond in front of my eyes.

Never wishing to see that again I let my open curiosity guide me.

"Can I ask you both something?"

"I guess so?" Charlotte says, with a look of confusion and tinge of anger.

"Are you mates?" I say to kill the tension.

Their eyes pop open and their mouths drop.

I try not to grin too broad.

"I knew it!" Both of their cheeks burn red.

"A-alex who is this?"

"This is Maria, Luna Pines sister from Canada. They have a pack spread out through the middle of Canada."

"How did you know we were mates Maria?" Alex says.

Now what? Do I tell him that I was so interested in finding my mate connection in him that I realized he must already have one from his lack of interest?

"You kept checking the time." I say.

Charlotte looks a little upset, her cheeks a little red and jaw tightly clenched.

"Are you two going to order anything?" Charlotte says with a bit of anger.

"I'm really sorry, I think it's time we leave." I say, not understanding why someone would want to cut their time short with their mate.

But like I said, I know the worst of it. So give her a light smile and wave. Her eyes soften slightly, but the waves of annoyance towards me, the tidal of jealousy, makes me take a few steps away from Alex.

I don't need an angry Luna after me.

We slide into a silent ride after Charlotte heads back to the kitchen. Alex drops me at the guest house and I rush inside.

I change into my pajamas and lounge on the bed to think. My eyes begin to close as the jet lag settles in.