When Alex finally pulled the rental car into the snow-covered yard of an enormous log cabin that put even his to shame, I knew that Tegan had been right. There were three women sitting on the front porch, all wearing long sleeve dresses of varying shades with tights and boots. They could have been triplets were it not for their different shades of hair.
The one with wavy blonde hair, that wore a hunter green dress, stood and wiggled her fingers at Alex as he stepped from the car. He nodded at her, and she beamed as if he’d just crowned her princess of the wolf world. Alex walked around the car and opened the door for me. As I climbed out all three females glowered at me until Alex turned around. Then they were all perfect smiles again.
“I told you I should have worn a dress,” I hissed as he looped my arm through his and pulled me towards the house. He just chuckled in response. I didn’t have any more time to consider my wardrobe choice because a gorgeous woman walked out on the porch. She was tall, probably on the upper end of the five-foot range, and statuesque. Her hair was raven black, and it fell in waves down around her shoulders. High cheekbones and full lips complimented her face, giving her a regal air. I knew immediately that she must be Alex’s mom.
“Zee, Alex, I’m so happy you’re here,” she gushed happily. I noticed that her smile reached all the way up to her chocolate brown eyes. Her enthusiasm wasn’t faked, and I was relieved that I would have at least one ally in the house. Then she turned to the three women on the porch and her face set in hard lines. “I believe they could use some help in the kitchen, if you girls have nothing else you should be doing.” All three of them ducked their heads and walked back into the house without a word.
“Hey Mom,” Alex moved up the steps and wrapped her in a one arm hug while keeping me close to his side. “This is Zee. Zee this is my mom, Ophelia Kallis.” As I prepared to shake hands with her, Ophelia pulled me into a tight hug. It took me only a moment to hug her back.
“Thank you so much for having us out to visit Mrs. Kallis,” I said into the woman’s shoulder. Ophelia pulled away to look at me, and I blushed at the inspection.
“You can call me Ophelia or even Mom, half the pack does,” she smiled as she spoke, “And thank you for finally putting a leash on my son’s heart. Come on in, you must meet Pearson. He is very excited to meet you, too.” She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me along into the house. I managed a look back at Alex, who was smiling as he followed us inside.
“I’m so excited to have you here,” Ophelia told me as she escorted me through the house. I briefly saw that they had a similar stone fireplace in the front room as we walked. The house seemed to be full of people, all watching me with various degrees of curiosity and wariness. I caught a glimpse of blondie talking with an older man and nodding in my direction.
“We have so much to talk about,” Ophelia continued, and I turned back to her so I wouldn’t look rude, even though I was curious about this much bigger pack. “We’ll want to start planning your mating ceremony immediately. I’m sure you’ll want to add in some of your own things. I can just picture you in a white gown, with that hair and some red lipstick. You would look just gorgeous.”
I opened my mouth to speak but Alex chuckled, and I turned to shoot him a glare over my shoulder. He raised his hands innocently and just kept grinning. Ophelia kept talking like nothing was going on around her, “Of course, if you want to invite friends and family we’ll have to have a separate ceremony for that because I can’t imagine how we could play off the wolf parts of the ceremony.”
“Wolf parts?” I asked, unsure of what she meant. Tegan had mentioned that the mating ceremony was a lot like a wedding, with a few differences. I hadn’t gotten a chance to find out the differences yet.
“Oh yes, dear,” Ophelia nodded, now we were going up a set of stairs at the back of the house. I was going to be lost if I tried to find my way back out of here alone. “Didn’t Alex tell you about it? I mean honestly, Alex, you can’t just expect her to know all of this. It’s your responsibility to teach her about our ways.” She turned to give him a reproachful look.
“Sorry Mom,” Alex shrugged a little. “I just haven’t gotten around to that yet. Other things keep coming up.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I felt my face heat up. I wanted to give him a good kick in the shin for bringing up our sex life right in front of his mother, but she beat me to it by reaching back and smacking him in the arm. I tensed up, waiting for something to happen but I didn’t know what.
“Alexander Ozias Kallis!” she reprimanded, “You don’t embarrass this poor girl like that. Right in front of your mother, I swear. Has Michigan turned you into a hooligan? Although, I hope this means I’ll have grandbabies soon.” I sucked in a surprised breath so fast that I choked on my spit like a complete fool. She patted me on the back quickly and I smiled weakly at her. She was just as bad as Teagan. Grandbabies?
Before I had a moment to say anything to either of them, she stopped at a door and knocked twice before opening it. A man sat at a large desk covered in papers, a
