“Let’s go eat,” Dash says and starts walking down a path, his hand holding mine as he guides the way. In a turn in the path a building comes into view which by the smells wafting towards me tells me that it must be a restaurant and the place where we are going to eat.
“Do you come here often?” I ask.
“Not often enough,” Dash says as he opens the door for me to proceed him.
“Well, look what the Wolf dragged in.” A petite woman that must be in her fifties says as she walks towards us with a wide smile on her face, her arms wide open. Dash lets go of my hand, and then he’s lifting the woman up off her feet as he hugs her. The woman enfolds him in a hug just as tight.
“Well, look at that, our boy has found himself a mate.” My eyes snap towards a tall man making his way towards us and there is no doubt that he is related to Dash as even though his hair has white in it, it is still black and his green eyes so similar to Dash’s looking over me until they finally meet mine and then he is smiling.
“What?” I hear the woman say which now I know must be Dash’s mom, “put me down let me meet her,” she says as she slaps Dash’s shoulder playfully.
“Here I thought you missed me,” Dash says with a grin as he lets go of his mom. She immediately turns towards me, a big smile on her friendly face.
“Welcome home, son,” his father says as he pulls Dash into a bear hug.
“She’s beautiful,” the mom states.
“Alaska, meet my parents” A bit late to tell me, but I am so touched that he is introducing me to his parents that I’ll berate him later. I smile at them, feeling my stomach knot with nerves. What if they don’t like me?
“Hello, nice to meet you,” I say holding out my hand but his mom looks down at my hand and then instead of taking my hand she pulls me towards her. “Oh,” I say in surprise as her arms come around me in a tight hug.
“Hello Alaska, it is so nice to meet my boy’s mate.” Her warm welcome has tears rising to my eyes.
“You are strangling her mom,” Dash teases, which has his mom loosening her arms and stepping back. “Nonsense, she loves it,” she says as she takes my hand and then is looking behind me.
“Welcome boys, I’ve missed you,” she says, “why haven’t you come to see me it's not as if you live too far.” And then I see her eyes widen, “Hawk, are you also mated?”
“Yes mam,” he states, which has Dash’s mom looking over her shoulder at Dash.
“And you didn’t tell me?” she asks with a frown as she lets go of my hand and walks towards Hawk and Onix. “Hello dear,” she says as she pulls Onix into a hug which clearly surprises Onix as much as the hug I got surprised me as I see Onix’s face of shock I grin.
“Oh, umm hi,” she murmurs as Dash’s mom steps back.
“Let’s move inside dear and get out of the entrance,” Dash’s dad says as he looks at his woman lovingly.
“Oh, of course,” his mom says as she points to the inside of this cosy little restaurant. “Go on in and make yourselves comfortable.”
Hawk takes Onix’s hand and starts guiding her towards a long table that is situated by a window that has the view of the lake. Blue leans down and kisses Dash’s mom on the cheek as he walks past, which has her smiling at him. Gunner pulls her towards him and hugs her, “Hi, I’ve missed your food,” he says, which has her shaking her head in amusement as he lets go and follows the others.
Frost looks at her and nods in greeting, but she doesn’t allow that, “Frost, I’ve missed you,” she says as she wraps her arms around him and hugs him close. To my surprise, I see Frost wrap his arms around her and hug her back just as tightly.
“Come, let’s go sit down,” Dash says as he takes my hand and starts making his way towards the table. I see Onix smiling happily as she looks behind me towards Frost and Dash’s mom.
“You are smiling like a Cheshire cat,” I say when I take a seat next to her.
“I now know how to get to him.” Looking at Frost say something to Dash’s mom as he lets go of her and her happy nod, I smile thinking of all the hugs Frost has coming.
“Oh, boy,” I say with a grin.
“What?” Dash asks as he sits down.
“Why didn’t you tell me that I was coming to meet your parents?” I ask only to receive a shrug from him.
“I knew you would be nervous, so I didn’t tell you, and you were fine the whole way.” At his statement I shake my head. Only a man could think like that.
“I had planned this differently, but it has turned out okay”, Dash says loudly, which has everyone looking at him. “Alaska, I know that you thought I didn’t know but babe Happy Birthday.” At his words I tense and then a smile splits across my face as I realize that all of this was for my birthday.
“Alaska!” my eyes snap towards the door and then I am jumping out of my chair and rushing towards the door. My mom is smiling, my Dad standing behind her with a wide grin on his face.