There was comradery and dancing after everyone finished eating. The young cubs danced around the living room while the teenagers and elders warmed themselves by the fire. It felt a lot like being at a festive ski lodge deep in the snowy woods. A shifter girl with a long red braid brought out her violin and started to play a merry tune. Before long, half of the shifters were dancing around the living room, warmed by the light of the fire.

“Care to dance?” Aidan extended his hand.

“Me?” I fluttered my eyelids. “I don’t dance. I haven’t in a long time, anyway.”

“Well, you should. Life isn’t about working all the time, you know. You should loosen up a little. Live in the now. Life’s not some race you have to win.”

“Okay, fine. You’ve convinced me.” I scooted out to the middle of the floor in my wool socks, and slid across the gleaming wood planks. The redhead played “Oh, Susanna” on the violin. I suddenly felt like I’d been transported back to Little House on the Prairie. But in a good way.

The energy pulsed inside the lodge as everyone danced to a lively beat. Maybe it was the beer they’d started drinking that made everyone so happy. There’d been a lot of alcohol consumed in the past hour.

I glanced around and noticed how fit and healthy they all looked. Even most of the old shifters were buff and lean. They had no extra fat on them, and they were full of vitality. What was it that made them stay so vibrant and young? Whatever they were doing, I wanted in on their secret.

As I tentatively stepped onto the dance floor, and Aidan caught me in his arms and spun me around like a top. Just as we’d worked up a sweat, the redhead started playing a slow song on the violin. Aidan took me into his arms and held me close.

“God, I love the way you smell,” he said.

“The way I smell?” My eyes locked with his, and I saw a look of tenderness reflected in them.

“You smell like heaven. I just can’t get enough of your scent.”

I pressed my hands to my cheeks, so flushed, and remembered the intense sex we’d had only an hour or so ago. I smelled anything but sweet. I needed a shower more desperately than I’d ever needed one.

“What do I smell like?”

“Sex, love, passion. Your scent makes me so hard.” He leaned up against me and I felt the outline of his bulging cock against my thigh. So big and wide, and already completely ready for me.

His hands traced along my back, and down to my hips. He pulled me close to him, and I could feel the animal attraction between us growing stronger.

As the song wound down, I glanced over at him. He looked breathtaking in the warm light of the fire. When I looked at him, an unfamiliar feeling overtook me. Unconditional love.

Becoming his mate for life was over-the-top and way too fast. But it felt right, too. I wanted him in the way he wanted me. I loved the way he looked at me like I was the most precious being in the world. Maybe that wasn’t the smart or logical thing to believe, but I didn’t care.

“Okay,” I whispered in his ear. “I agree.”

“You agree?” Aidan shook his head. “What do you mean?”

“To be your mate. To the ceremony.” I looked at him expectantly, waiting for his reaction.

He staggered back a bit, and then lifted his arms up over his head. “Woo-hoo!” His face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Do you mean it?”

“I really do.” I nodded with tears in my eyes. It was nuts, but it was the truest thing I’d said in my whole life. Maybe Alaska did make people crazy, after all.

The girl playing the violin stopped, and everyone in the room stared at us for a moment. Aidan broke the silence. “She said yes! You’re looking at the soon to be new Mrs. Channing!”

The crowd exploded with cheers of congratulations. The whoops and hollers filled my ears, and I had more people than I could count patting me on the back and hugging me.

“The new Mrs. Channing?” I said to myself. I hadn’t thought about taking Aidan’s last name. I didn’t know that’s how shifters worked. I knew there wouldn’t be bridal magazines and white dresses at our ceremony. Or would there? I realized maybe I didn’t know anything about shifters at all.

Aidan took me by the arm and led me over to the long, sectional couch on the other side of the main room. We settled into the supple leather seats and he stroked my thighs gently with his smooth fingertips. After a moment, one of the elder women came and sat down at the other end of the couch. Her kind eyes crinkled as she extended her hand to me.

“It’ll be so lovely to have you in the pack. Some of those other shifters won’t like having a human amongst us. But I won’t mind. I had an uncle who married a pig once. Nicest little pink squealer you ever saw. Everyone wanted to eat her, but we didn’t. Until…” her voice trailed.

My eyes widened. WTF.

“Ignore that old biddy,” Aidan said under his breath. “She’s out of her mind.”

“Clearly,” I laughed.