Everett

I knew my mother well enough to know that Felix's gender wouldn't be an issue. If anything upset her, it would be that I had known him for two and a half weeks already and hadn't moved in with him or told her about him before now. I was counting on her excitement to drown out her disappointment in me.

I drove through pack lands until I reached her house, which was on the edge of the property. Mom had chosen to move us to the Delta pack when I was a teenager because they had a daycare position available for her and because I dreamed of living in a pack like this one, where I would be encouraged to nurture my brains over my brawn. Even then, I had loved numbers and had known I would go into some STEM-related field.

Mom missed our old pack, though she rarely admitted it. She didn't like how built up things were here, how close together the houses were. That's why I had to drive out to see her, because her house was on the edge of pack lands, tucked away from everyone else.

I knew Mom had a late start on Wednesdays, not going into work until eleven. I also knew that she would be awake now. She claimed she was easing into the retirement lifestyle, slowly cutting her hours back as years passed. I didn't think she would ever quit entirely. She loved working at the pack's daycare too much.

I pulled my car behind hers and got out, completely unsurprised to see my mother standing in the open doorway of her home with a fuzzy pink robe on and a steaming mug in her hands, waiting for me.

I made my way up the driveway, unable to fight back the smile I'd been wearing since my conversation with Felix. She would know something was up, but I couldn't help it.

"Everett," Mom said, looking surprised. "You know I'm happy you're here, but what's the occasion?"

"Jeez, Mom, aren't you going to invite me in before interrogating me?" I teased.

Mom pulled a folded-up newspaper from her robe pocket – one that was sure to have a completed crossword in it – and swiped lightly at my nose like I was a misbehaving child. "I never raised you to be so insolent," she said, laughing. Mom stepped back so I could follow her into the house and poured another mug of coffee for me.

We sat at her kitchen table, where I fidgeted nervously, feeling oddly shy. Mom just watched me patiently, her lips twitching in amusement every now and then. She always had been good at waiting me out.

Finally, I broke. The persistent smile on my face widened and I said, "Mom, I found my mate."

She set her mug down so hard its contents splashed on the table and rushed out of her seat to launch herself at me in a tight hug. "Oh, Everett!"

I patted her back and tried not to laugh too hard. I'd always badly wanted to find my mate, and part of what I had dreamed of was telling my mother. It felt good to see her so happy. I had never understood why she wore a haunted expression so often while I was growing up, not until I learned about mates and what it really meant for her to have lost my father. Once I understood, I lived to make her smile.

Now that I had Felix, even after knowing him for such a short time, I couldn't imagine the pain my mother lived with every day.

I pulled myself back to reality, where my mother was gushing. "Tell me all about her! What pack is she in? How many kids does she want? When can I meet her?"

"Slow down, Mom," I said, laughing at her assumption. And why shouldn't she assume my mate would be a woman? After all, that had been my assumption, too.

"What's her name?" she continued.

I wondered how long my mother could go on asking questions before giving me a chance to answer any of them and decided to cut in. "First off, you should know that my mate is a man." The words were easier to get out than I ever could have imagined. In fact, I kind of enjoyed saying it because the look of surprise on my mother's face was so comical.

Mom recovered quickly. "Well, what's his name, then? And his pack? Oh, and what's his family like? Wait, no, tell me about how you met!"

"Calm down! I'll tell you everything, okay? His name is Felix."

"Felix," she repeated, and smiled.

"Felix Holt," I added. "His only family is his two younger siblings, Meleri and Magnus. They're both great. You're going to love all three of them."

"Oh, so you've met his family and I'm only just hearing about him?" Mom asked, stepping back and putting her hands on her hips.

I winced, knowing she wouldn't like what was coming next. Better to just get this over with, though. If I told her about the parts that would annoy her first, I could quickly change the subject back to the parts she would love, like hearing about him. "Yeah, I've met them. Actually, I met Felix a couple of weeks ago, a few days before my work blew up and I went into crisis mode."

I braced myself for another newspaper swat, but one never came. I opened my eyes, which had been squinted shut in anticipation, and saw my mother frowning at me. "Everett, are you ashamed of me?"

I rolled my eyes at the exaggerated pout on her face. "No, Mom, I just had to work through some personal stuff. Felix came as a total surprise to me."

And there was the anger. "You can't possibly mean his gender. I know I raised you better than that."

I winced and leaned away from her. "Hey, I think I'm handling it really well, considering I still have no idea how any of that works with a man."

Mom snorted in amusement. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry. That's a talk we never had, huh? I think I have a couple of cucumbers in the fridge. Should I bring them out?" She laughed some more and sat back down in her seat, the anger seeming to have faded as swiftly as it had come. This was the thing I loved best about my mother: she was naturally disposed to be happy and never clung to anger.

"I think it's a little late for the talk now," I grumbled, deciding a subject change was in order. I explained to Mom how Meleri had found me and brought me back to Felix and how I had spent a few days with him after he woke up, getting to know him and getting used to the idea of being together.

"So what now?" Mom asked. "You can't possibly stay separated like this, Everett. I know it's hard with your job, but no alpha would ever ask two mates to stay apart. Or maybe Felix could come up here for a while?"

I shook my head slowly, unsure of how she would take this next part. "No, I can't ask Felix to leave Lakota. His siblings need him there, and I don't think he could he happy in Delta, anyway."

"Lakota," Mom said ponderingly. "I've never been there before. I hear it's beautiful."

"It is," I told her, "and Felix insists I'll be safe there."

"I believe him," Mom said. "As your mate, he isn't going to lie about your safety."

I nodded and glanced at the clock. I wanted to get on the road with plenty of time in case of bad traffic, so I had to leave soon. "I'm going to Lakota today. I'll be back here regularly, at least for a while, to help Harry get used to his new job, but I'll be back as a visitor. I'm transferring packs."

Mom's eyes welled with tears. "You come see me whenever you can," she demanded.

"Yes, Mom. And you'll have to come down and stay with me and Felix, too. You're welcome to stay any time you want."

She sniffled and said, "Oh, you don't want your mother getting in the way."

I got up and crouched by her chair so I could hug her. "You're never in the way, Mom. And really, don't worry about imposing. Felix is the one who mentioned that you should come visit whenever you like. He's excited to meet you. Just give us a day or two to settle in, okay?"

When I pulled back, excitement had overtaken the sadness. "Can I come visit this weekend? Maybe drive down after work this Friday?"

"Sure, as long as I don't have to come back up for any meetings. I'll let you know if something comes up."

Mom nodded. "Okay, then."

I stood and made my way back to the front door. Mom followed, pulling me into a huge hug before letting me leave. I glanced back to see her eyes streaming with tears and groaned. "Aw, Mom, don't cry!" I spun back around for another hug.

"I'm sorry," she said into my chest. "I'm just so happy and I'm going to miss you so much!"

I wiped away her tears and said, "You're going to see me all the time, Mom. And our family is growing. I know how much you always wished our family could be bigger."

That only made Mom's tears come faster. "Oh, off with you. I'll never get my act together with you standing here, saying so many wonderful things. I love you, Everett. Let me know when you get to Lakota so I know nothing happened to you on the way."

"I will. Love you too, Mom." Then, even though it felt awful to turn my back on my crying mother, I headed back for the car. She would be fine. In fact, if she wasn't on her phone within five minutes calling her friends to tell them about my mate, I'd be surprised.

--

Usually when I packed up for a trip, it felt high-pressure. Packing to move back when Mom and I first came to Delta had been even harder. I had always been so afraid, not only of leaving things behind, but of packing in a way that made it hard to get to what I needed. Everything in my bags needed to be carefully layered so that I could reach in and immediately find what I was looking for.

Though I packed in a rush, I didn't feel pressured at all this time. I would be back to my apartment soon and in the meantime, Felix would have anything I needed at... our house. Every time I thought of his home as mine, it felt foreign and like playing pretend. It wasn't, though. This was real.

I had a couple of duffle bags on me, their straps crossing over my chest, as I took one final look around my apartment, trying to cross the bridge between the life I had lived here and the one I was making my way toward. This apartment felt like it was part of a completely different world than the one Felix's cabin was in. Where Felix's cabin was tidy, my apartment was sterile. He had space inside and nature just outside the door, and I was crammed into one of hundreds of apartments in a building surrounded by concrete. When I really looked at my surroundings, moving to Lakota didn't feel like such a sacrifice.

If only it weren't under regular attack.

But Felix had promised I would be safe, and this was his area of expertise. I had to trust him. Living with fear shadowing me would be better than living here in this cold apartment without him.

I locked up my apartment and started making my way back to my car, which was parked in the garage next door. Even burdened with my bags, I took the stairs. People here only took the elevators when they were injured, elderly, or exhausted. I was none of those things, and if Felix really insisted on training me, I needed to take every chance I could get to do a little conditioning. He had to know I wasn't in fighting shape, but I didn't want to totally humiliate myself.

As I rounded a bend, about to start the next flight down, I almost collided with someone. "I'm so sorry!" I said automatically.

"Dude, calm down. Hey, what's going on?"

I blinked. "Gareth? What are you doing here?" Gareth lived in the same building as me, but on the other side. He usually took the southeastern stairwell, not the northern one we were in.

"Zara told me I should go looking for you, so I did. I already tried your apartment earlier and got no answer, but then I saw your car in its usual spot, so I figured I'd try again."

I shook my head. Of course everyone in the financial department probably knew by now that I was leaving, and of course Zara warned Gareth. "Walk with me?" I asked.

"Where are you going?" Gareth asked again.

"Lakota. I'm switching packs." I started heading down the stairs again since I really didn't want to see Gareth's reaction. He grabbed my shoulder when we hit the next landing and held me in place as he walked around to face me.

"Dude, weren't you going to tell me? I thought we were friends." And, damn me, he looked genuinely hurt.

I rubbed at the back of my neck uncomfortably. "Yeah, of course. I was going to call you later. Don't look like that! I'm going to be back up here soon. I can't just leave my job, not as things are right now."

"Our Saturdays are done."

I looked away. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm going to miss them." My eyes burned and when Gareth pulled me into a hug, I hugged him back just as hard.

"Me too. We'll still hang out like that sometimes, right?"

"Of course. You'll have to come down to Lakota for a weekend sometime soon. My mom already has dibs on the upcoming one and I'm going to be back up here for work most weekends for a little while, I think. Our Saturdays aren't totally over, they just won't be so regular."

We separated and I fought back the need to sniffle. I refused to start crying in the stairwell.

"Yeah, and I need to meet this mate of yours. He must be great if it only took him two weeks to convince you to move."

I shook my head, smiling a little. "He didn't even ask, Gareth. In fact, he told me he would move if that's what I needed. I'd like you to meet him."

Gareth smiled crookedly at me, one dimple flashing. He was the same age as me, but whenever he smiled, he looked just like he had at eighteen. I was going to miss him. "Soon, Everett. Want me to carry one of those bags for you?"

I gratefully passed him one and we made our way to the parking garage. Gareth didn't say much, which was unusual for him. Part of the reason our friendship worked so well is that he was good at filling silences, and I was good at maintaining them. When we finally reached my car we jammed my bags into the trunk, then stood awkwardly, not quite sure how to part this time.

Finally, I hugged him again briefly and said, "This hugging thing, it's not our new normal. I'm just going to miss you."

Gareth laughed and patted my back a couple of times. "I'll miss you too. Let me know next time you're coming up, okay? You can pick the pizza toppings."

That made me smile. "Tomatoes and olives," I said in an exaggeratedly dreamy voice.

Gareth pulled a blech face and waved. "Take care, Everett."

"See you soon."

I got into my car and drove, thinking that I would have to text Zara later thanking her for sending Gareth to find me.