8 years later

“Wake up, Red,” Finlay told me and kissed me. “Is something wrong?” I asked, worried. “No, just scent the air,” he told me. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and took in the scent. I sat up in bed and looked out of the window. It was early, but I could still see the show. It was snowing, and a good deal was already on the ground. “Snow!” I told him excitedly. He smiled at me and nodded. “I will get the pups ready and mindlink Jake,” he said. “I will make breakfast and pack lunch as I mindlink Meadow and Ramses,” I told him. We both got out of bed and got dressed. I was almost done with the oatmeal porridge when Asher came running into the room. “Mom, it’s snowing!” he exclaimed and hugged me. I hugged him back. “It sure is. Please set the table so we can have breakfast,” I told him. He did as he was told, and I enjoyed the excitement I could feel from him. Finlay came into the kitchen still trying to wrangle Lilly into a sweater. When he finally got her head to pop out of the thing, her red curls were a mess, and she pouted. He kissed her nose, which made her giggle. He put her down in her booster seat. While I served breakfast, Finlay managed to get Lilly’s hair into two pigtails.

“Lilly, it’s snowing today, so we will have a snow day,” Asher excitedly told his sister. Lilly made an excited squeal. I wasn’t sure how much she remembered from last year’s snow days, but she knew her big brother was excited, and that meant she was excited. After the relatively calm breakfast, chaos erupted as everybody needed to get into their winter clothes, the lunch needed to be packed, and the sleds needed to be found in the storage. We emerged from the chaos without any injuries and with two excited pups. We walked the short distance to the pack house to wait for the others. Cadence and Jon came walking with Rose in between them. No one had been surprised when it turned out Cadence and Jon were mates. They had been inseparable since they first met as pups.

“I could have come here on my own,” Rose told them. “You could have, but Dad asked me to walk with you on my way to my shift,” Cadence said. “And what is your excuse?” she asked Jon as she glared at him. “I just like keeping an eye on you,” he told her. She rolled her eyes, but I could see she enjoyed the attention. I heard the sound of the group of pups before they reached us. Ramses was walking with his two daughters, Martina and her younger brother, Sam Junior. “Sam says thank you and don’t feel like you need to come back too soon,” Ramses said and laughed before he kissed both his daughters and waved as he walked away. “Everyone ready?” I asked. Everyone cheered. “Maybe I can skip patrolling today,” Cadence said and looked longingly at the group of pups. “Maybe don’t say that in front of the Alpha and Luna, babe,” Jon told him, and both Finlay and I laughed. We took the group of pups and headed for the slope in the woods. The group of pups were like a little pack of their own. They had grown up together and were used to being in a group. Asher, Rose, and Martina took the lead and helped the younger ones who needed a little help. Tonya, Ramses’ oldest daughter, was a little bit shy and enjoyed sticking with the younger pups. Lilly was her usual curious self. Even though at five years old the snow was giving her some issues, she persisted in exploring the woods. Asher made sure she didn’t wander too far away. From time to time, he would point out things to her and tell her what they were.

We arrived at the sledding slope, and the pups went wild. Finlay and I had trouble keeping up with their never-ending energy and their running up the hill to sled down. “What are we feeding these beasts?” Finlay asked me after an hour. “I don’t know, but it makes for happy pups,” I told him and laughed as Martina hit Asher with a snowball. The indignity on my son’s face was so much like the expression his dad used I had to hold my breath to keep it from cramping.