I missed my family very much. Though I was reaching my mid-twenties, I hadn't been away from home for an extended period of time, until now. Not many pack members left the territory, and most certainly didn't leave permanently unless they were mated outside the pack. Hearing all of the Christmas celebrations on the radio as I made the drive only made me miss my family more. Though, we didn't celebrate Christmas exactly, and we didn't have a Santa Claus, we had adopted some of the other human traditions, like giving gifts.
For our month of December, our celebrations began on the new moon that took place mid-month and usually concluded on the full, cold moon run at the end of the month. In the middle of all that there was the winter solstice, where tradition stated that we had to spend the duration of the dark time, the longest night of the year, in our wolf form.
It was one of my favorite nights of the year, because in our wolf forms we were free, and we had quite a bit of fun.
Cold moon matings were a time honored tradition as well. Some believed that it was a sign of good luck to have your mating on the full cold moon. I was sure that there was some sort of superstition related to all the different full moons and any mating that took place on any of them was blessed.
I had just heard the cold moon superstition more often because my parents had been mated in December some thirty years ago. They had a special love for the full cold moon.
My phone rang, startling me from my thoughts. I still wasn't used to having a cellphone, but when I had left the pack Alpha Byrom had insisted that I find a way to maintain contact with my family, which in turn meant I maintained contact with some of my friends as well. I recognized the ringtone as Curt’s and my heart rate increased, which was silly. Curt wasn't anything more than a friend. I was still waiting for the day that my childhood crush on my closest friend would disappear.
Even though I didn’t really want it to.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Dude, tell me you're on your way home, please?”
I chuckled. “I am. I am only about five minutes out. What's up?”
“Oh, thank goodness. Listen, my parents have been on my ass ever since Archer got mated with that porpoise of his.”
I grinned. I knew the story. It had been a bit scandalous at the time. Archer had met Sanford because Sanford was his dad's very best friend in the world. He was twenty-five years older than Archer, or something close to that. In my mind, it might as well have been fifty, but it worked for the two of them and that was all that mattered.
“And now that Ben is mated, they've been wanting me to start dating again. But I just haven't been feeling it. And I'm afraid that if I don't give them some sort of reason soon, they're going to start setting me up with people. So for the holiday festivities, I need you to be my boyfriend.”
I groaned. Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to be, in close proximity to a wolf I had a crush on when he didn’t have the same feelings for me. Curt and I had been close growing up, the best of friends, and we still were. He had never indicated that he wanted more than that and I, being the somewhat shy omega that I was, didn’t let on that I wanted anything more than friendship.
“C’mon, man. You really think that's a good idea? Why don't you just tell them you're not interested in dating, or better yet, start dating.” Even as I said it, I didn’t want that to happen. I didn’t want to watch him date someone else.
“Nah,” Curt said. “I just haven't been feeling it. My wolf is not interested in anyone. He’s been super quiet since I broke up with the guy from Northbay.”
“So, tell them that. Your parents will appreciate that you're listening to your animal. There's no reason to concoct some story.”
“Of course, there is,” Curt said. “You don't get my parents. They want more grandbabies.”
I chuckled. I was halfway tempted to agree to this nonsense already. But it seemed silly to even think of doing something like that.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “And what would this fake boyfriend business entail? Would I get any