do you think? Will you take me to be your mate? Or do you think we should ask the snowman, see if he has an opinion.”
“What?”
Curt stepped away, walking up the front walk toward the house. He stopped and stood next to the snowman that was nearly his height. It was a perfect structure, three perfectly rounded snow balls, two pieces of charcoal for his eyes, a carrot nose. Someone had spent a lot of time on this guy.
“What do you think, Mr. Snowman? Should Tyson take me as his mate on the full cold moon? Move into this house with me? We can fill it full of pups.”
I wanted that. All of it and more. “Wait, what? This house—”
“It’s ours if we want it. I spoke to Byrom this afternoon, when I realized I needed more to offer you than a mating ceremony.”
“Our own place?” My eyes widened as I looked over the home in front of me. A porch, with a swing. A large bay window. Two stories. All ours?
“Yup. Mr. Snowman has the keys, he’s ready to hand them over.”
On the twig that was the snowman’s arm hung a single key. I grabbed it and laced my fingers into Curt’s. “Show me our house, alpha,” I said.
He grinned. “Gladly.”
8. Curt
Being that we’d adopted some human holiday traditions, such as gift giving, in the wolf pack, we didn’t have much trouble filling our new home. Once other pack members found out we would be moving in, they began giving us things. Within days we had the place nearly furnished.
One family was getting a new couch as a family gift, so we picked up their old one. Another family was replacing their dishes, so we took on their old ones.
Our home was being filled with second hand items, and we didn’t mind at all.
For my gift to Tyson, for our new home, our mating, and Christmas all wrapped up into one, I asked Ozzy, our resident wood worker, to build us a bed. He, being the generous omega that he was, completely outdid himself. We got a bed, two nightstands, and a dining room table.
The four poster bed had intricate designs carved into each post. The headboard had a line of pine trees carved in it. Upon closer inspection, we discovered it was the line of pine trees that lead into the north side of our pack territory. He’d captured the image perfectly, in spectacular detail.
I couldn’t stop staring at it. Neither could Tyson.
I had my arm wrapped around his middle and we stared at it in awe.
“We should sleep with our head on the opposite side, so we can look at it,” he said.
I chuckled. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“It’s just so beautiful,” he said.
“It really is,” I agreed.
“Thank you, mate,” he said.
I kissed his temple. “Thank you.” A feeling of absolute happiness rippled through me. I was happy, elated, completely overjoyed just to be standing in my bedroom with my mate. This was our home, where we would raise our family together.
“I haven’t gotten you anything,” Tyson said.
I shrugged a shoulder. “I’m just happy to have you. Happy that we concocted this crazy idea of you being my fake boyfriend so my family would stop setting me up with omegas.”
“Yeah, how’d that work out for you? You wanted to avoid being mated, doesn’t seem to me like you succeeded.”
I tickled his side and he yelped. “I suppose it worked out okay.”
He turned in my arms until we were facing each other. I kissed him. Just as I was about to tug at his shirt and unbuckle his pants, he was bolting out of my arms and into the bathroom.
I stood stunned for a moment until I heard the unmistakable noises of vomiting coming from the other room.
“Tyson?” I said and I walked into the bathroom.
He was kneeling on the floor directly in front of the toilet. I wet a washcloth and ran it over his face. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”
“Well, I think I know what your getting as a solstice gift.”
“What’s that?”
“How do you feel about being a father?” he said.
9. Tyson
“It’s been another beautiful year for our pack,” Alpha Byrom said. “On the new moon, our packmate Tyson returned, on winter solstice, his wolf found his mate in Curt, and now on the full cold moon, they will complete their mating and begin their life together. And also, in some months time, will bring new life into our pack, beginning the cycle again.”