Tender Mate

Bright Eyes

7:30 PM

               "Momma! Can I wear my dress?"

               "Hang on, baby. Let mommy put her hair up first. What shoes do you want to wear? It will be colder now that it's dark."

               "My bwue boots. Because my coat is bwue too!"

               "That's right. You're getting good at matching. What color is your dress?"

               "Lellow!"

               "Yellow. Very good. Do you want yellow bows in your hair?"

                "No, I would like bwue, pwease."

                "No more yellow?"

               "Lellow scawf!"

               "Very good! We will need to leave soon. Did you like your bath?"

               "It was pink! And smelled like bewwies!"

               I scoop Emma up to carry her to her room. We'd gotten a little settled, all of her clothes were hung up or arranged in the dresser drawers. Mine were a different story. I'd hung up a few things, but the possibility we'd have to keep moving had most of my things sill in my suitcase and the bare necessities in an overnight bag by the door.

                "You smell like berries now. That is one good bubble bath. We'll have to ask around where it came from."

                "I'm gonna have pie! See fireworks, and play wiff Evewette!"

                 Everette. They'd been in Gillam not even an entire day and within the first hour of arriving he had insinuated himself into their lives. Noelle felt she should be wary of him, but at the same time the thought of him being there warmed her. She didn't even notice how peaceful her life and all the cosmos circling her seemed as soon he'd appeared. It was just different somehow. A very good different. A different she'd like to get used to.

                 "I must say, I've missed pie. You're gonna love it baby girl."

7:40 PM

                 Everette stood watch at the front of the festival grounds. A sentinel with a single rose for a sword and a Paddington Bear for a shield, both tucked away from view behind him. He'd donned a green military style jacket to blend in better with the locals. The chill in the air grew with the dark and coming autumn freeze, it would soon be just over thirty degrees out and his wolf blood pulsed warm enough for it to seem sunny and seventy-five. His wolf was in full force tonight, wanting to run with the pack under the full harvest moon and claim their mate, but Everette's calm he'd steeled himself with kept the beast at bay.

                 Young and old couples padded by, laughing and huddling together to keep warm or simply to be near each other. The latter for werewolves of course, mated pairs were almost always in a state of honeymooning even half a century or more later. To the humans of Gillam it must have just seemed that their town had the greatest relationship success rate. Everette looked over at a young pack member at his own crowning moment just then.

                It was Philip, his nephew even, just 12 years old and he'd looked across the front lawn to a carnival booth where a family with a similarly aged blonde girl were tossing pennies into empty fish bowls. So young, but in that instant he knew. Everette and a few lucky pack members watched as Philip approached the girl, grabbed a penny and sank it for her. Her parents were unaware and thought it sweet and told their daughter, Eloise, to thank the nice boy, but it was plain to Everette that the girl felt the pull as well. Eloise stood on tip toe and whispered a thank you and kissed Philip on the cheek. To the dismay of the girl's father and the slight shock of her mother, the two young love birds held hands and walked on ahead into the main building. The simplicity of it struck Everette as absolutely perfect. Those two would hold hands together, share their personal milestones, be able to talk about his first change and what that means for them, and finally after graduation the pack would hold a sacred mating ceremony in the woods for them and they would claim each other. A love forever young. It was beautiful. When you know, you know.