The smell of lemon-mint tea hit my nostrils as Red and I came down the hall into the living room. Snow was falling gently outside, but a fire was crackling pleasantly in the hearth at the end of the room where a woman with a mane of red hair was seated across from a stoic-looking alpha, smaller than most, but who held himself with a poise that let me know he was a warrior.

“Red!” The woman cried out, leaping up from her seat. “And who might this be?”

She was looking right at me. Normally I would probably have been slightly nervous meeting strangers under such scrutiny, but something about the cabin was welcoming and made me feel right at home.

“Osana, this is Casper,” Red said warmly. “Casper, this is Osana. And the one over there on the couch is Kitchi.”

“Hello,” I said, nodding to both of them. Kitchi simply nodded back, but Osana hurled her arms around me like she’d just met her long-lost brother.

“Oh, Red!” she gasped, hugging me like she wanted to pop me. “Does this mean you’ve found him? Your fated mate?”

“It does, Osana,” Red replied without hesitation.

How did she know that? I wondered, but as though she could read my mind, Osana turned to me.

“Red would never bring an omega back here if he wasn’t his fated mate,” she told me. “That’s just the kind of alpha he is. But I’m sure you already know that. How did you two meet!?”

“Osana,” Red chuckled. “We are both hungry. Let us eat and then we can regale you with our tale.”

Osana smiled and backed away. “Of course, of course! There are some more pancakes in the kitchen and we have plenty of eggs!”

Red took me by the hand and led me into the kitchen. I instantly made my way to the refrigerator and found the eggs. I found a frying pan drying by the sink, turned on a burner and starting to cook.

“Scrambled okay?” I asked Red, who was leaning against the counter with his eyes on me. I winked at him. “I make a mean scrambled egg.”

“You know the last time a beautiful omega made me breakfast?” he asked.

“No,” I replied.

“Never.”

I tried not to smile like a complete idiot as I whisked the eggs and poured them into the pan.

“Where is everyone, Osana?” Red called to Osana.

“Down at Tate’s,” she replied. “And some of them went with the wolves on a run into town for some things.”

Red nodded and watched as I made the scrambled eggs. He handed me a few plates and I spooned them out. There was some extra bacon on a tray and I split it up evenly between us and Red placed a few pancakes on our plates. We sat down and started stuffing our faces, and I realized just how hungry I really was. Between the run back from New York and all the…fun we’d had together, I’d probably burned more calories than an Olympic sprinter during training.

I could feel Osana’s eyes on us, but every time I glanced in her direction she was already looking away. She didn’t seem mean or malicious, though. I got the feeling that she was happy Red had found someone – and that someone was me.

“It’s a nice place,” I told him as I finished my first pancake.

“Very nice,” Red agreed. “At some point I can introduce you to the rest of the pack. There are so many wolves down the driveway, you won’t be able to keep track of them all.”

“Wolves and foxes living together,” I said, shaking my head. “You don’t see that every day.”

“You should,” Red said. “They are wonderful and we all get along well. We are more the same than we are different.”

“Kitchi is your friend?” I asked quietly.

“He is,” Red nodded. “A friend and a soldier. We have been through a lot together. He is someone you can count on.”

“You know…I’ve been thinking,” I said slowly. “What…what if Sonny somehow finds out we’re here?”

“I do not think he will,” Red replied quickly, but I could hear something in his voice that worried me – like he wasn’t quite sure himself of what he was saying. “You pheromone blocked, and if they picked up my scent, they have no reason to track it. Besides, we are a long way away.”

“That’s true,” I agreed with a simple shrug. Even if Red wasn’t completely sure about what he was saying, his logic was sound. We were a long way from Sonny’s house, and I’d blocked my scent. It was just hard not knowing whether one night Sonny and his men would show up trying to get me back.

We finished our meal in silence – not an awkward one, more like a content one. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I felt at home somewhere. I’d always been aware that Mrs. Brown’s was an orphanage, and while it had been the only real home I had, it was shared by countless others.

And then at Sonny’s – well, that wasn’t even close to a home. It had been a prison, one that I had gotten slightly used to, but it was still a prison. There were Sonny’s men everywhere, coming and going, business meetings, and sometimes violence that I tried to stay away from. But at the cabin, with Red and the others, I was finally starting to feel like I’d found somewhere I could be comfortable.

“Want some more?” Red asked me, eyeing my empty plate. “There’s more pancakes.”

“I’d better not,” I replied, taking our plates over to the sink. “I’m going to be getting fat enough here soon when I’m pregnant.”

I winked at him and ran the water and grabbed the soap. Red grinned back and came up behind me and wrapped his strong arms around me, placing a palm on my belly.

“Hearing you talk like that makes me very happy,” he said gently into my ear. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted a family.”

“I just can’t believe – I can’t believe you waited for me,” I told him, feeling a lump in my throat.

“Well, you waited for me too,” he replied.

“Yeah, but you didn’t know that.”

Red turned me around to face him and looked into my eyes. “Well, you know what it was then, don’t you?”

“What?”

“Fate.”