After Amie’s birthday, things changed between us. For the better, if you ask me. The tension that had been smoldering under the surface had been released, and it felt like a relief. Our deal had me frustrated at times, but it did give me a timeframe for when I would finally get what I had longed for. I understood her fear; she had been let down by someone she trusted, someone who should have been the one person she could rely on. But I had no doubt how all of this would end. No matter what happened during the games, when we got back home, I would make her my Luna. Now I knew she felt the same for me as I did for her, and with that, I knew the future was with her.

I had also stopped holding back when it came to social touching. When we interacted on a day-to-day basis, I let myself place a hand on her shoulder, or on her back when we were walking. Amie did the same. I had seen the looks my aunt was giving us; the smile on her lips told me she approved.

It was almost a week after Amie’s birthday and I had asked the top tiers to meet in our meeting room. It was time for us to choose who would go to the games. Amie was already sitting in her chair when I arrived. I smiled and walked up to her. I bent down and placed a kiss on her cheek. “Hello, beautiful,” I told her.

Her hand went up and caressed my neck. “Hi there. Having a good day?” she asked; I heard her smile in her voice. “I am,” I told her, creating a little space between us as I heard Sam and Medow arrive. I enjoyed our brief moments of intimacy.

We took our seats at the table, and Medow put Martina on the playmat we had set up. “Time to decide who will be going to the games,” I told them, and they all nodded. “We have five places to fill for the game, and we are allowed another ten people for support staff. Let’s make sure we get the best of the best. The floor is open.” “You and Amie are the obvious choices for participants in the game,” Sam said, and Medow nodded. “As are you, Sam,” Amie added. “I don’t know,” Sam said, looking at Medow. We all knew Medow was not a top candidate for the games. She had a lot of good qualities and I knew we were lucky to have her in our top tier, but her strengths were not relevant to the games. “Medow, it would be good to have you as part of our staff,” I said.

She smiled at me and then glanced down at her daughter. “Thank you, Alpha. But I don’t think I will join this year. Martina is too young. I don’t want to bring her to a place with so many unknown wolves, and I can’t leave her here for a month. But my mate will be going,” she told us. Her reasoning was sound, I thought. “Baby,” Sam objected. “No, sweety. You need to go. You have trained hard for this. You are the pack’s best warrior, and one of us needs to bring glory to the family name,” she told him with a smile. “But it’s for a month. I will surely die being separated from you and the little one for that long,” he complained. “I think you will survive.” “Fine,” Sam surrendered. “Good,” I said and put his name down. “I’m thinking of Jake and Ramses as the final two for the game. Jake has worked hard, he is brilliant, and he has even made progress on the physical parts. Ramses has been with us for a year and he is dedicated to the pack. His life as a lone wolf gives him a good, rounded skill set,” Amie said. I felt a brief pang of jealousy towards Ramses. He and Amie had a lot in common, but it went away just as quickly. I nodded; they were both good choices. “Any other suggestions?” I asked. There were none, and I was happy with the group we had put together.

We turned our attention to the support staff. The games weren’t just about the games, even if that was the focus. The games were spread out over four weeks. In between them there were council meetings, social gatherings, panel discussions, and time for packs to sit down and talk. It meant we needed a diverse group of pack members to take with us. Healers, in case of injuries; wolves that could feed us; we decided to bring the pack lawyer and two of our elders. I sent out mindlinks to those chosen who were not in the room. I asked them to come by the meeting room throughout the day. We talked to all of them, asked if they were willing and able to join us. To my relief, no one turned us down. Then we talked about what we expected of them. By the end of the day, it was only my aunt left. She walked into the room and smiled at us. “What is this all about?” she asked. “We want to ask you to come with us to the games, aunt,” I told her. “An old woman like me? I don’t think I will be any good at climbing and jumping. Surely we have better wolves in the pack,” she said. I was stunned into silence. Did she think I had offered her to take part in the games? Amie looked at me and laughed. “Matilda, you know you can’t tease him like that. He takes you too seriously to see the joke,” she told my aunt and patted me on the shoulder. My aunt laughed, as did Sam and Medow. It looked like I had been the only one who hadn’t caught onto her joke. “Oh, right. Funny,” I said. It made everyone laugh even harder. “Why do you want me to come?” my aunt asked. “We could use you both in your role as an elder, and with you there we know we will have amazing food to keep us going,” Amie answered. “That is sweet of you. What about the pack, who will be looking after them?” my aunt asked. “I will. I don’t want to bring Martina to the games. And Shelly can help me as well,” Medow said. “I could use you,” I told my aunt.

She looked at me and her face turned serious. We both knew my brother was likely to try something. She nodded. “Okay, you need someone to take care of you, I guess,” she said. “Let me know when we are leaving, and I will be ready.” “Thank you, aunt.” “Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes; I expect to see you all there. That includes you, Alpha,” she said and walked out. We all chuckled. “I think we have a stinker that needs to be changed,” Medow said, scrunching her nose. She picked up Martina and headed for the bathroom, Sam trailing after her to make sure they were safe on the twenty-foot walk. Amy stood up and walked to stand behind me. At first, I was confused by what she was doing. Then her hands started kneading my shoulders, and I let out a huff as I felt the muscles relaxing. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. My brain was too focused on her hands to make sense of what she was asking. “Huh?” I asked. “Your brother,” she said, and I heard the smile she had in her voice. “Not really. I don’t enjoy talking about him in general, and I definitely don’t want to ruin a nice moment like this by thinking about him.”

She hummed in the way I knew meant she wouldn’t press me, but she was filing it away to bring it up later. She continued to massage my shoulders, and I tilted my head back to lean against her stomach. My eyes were closed, and I enjoyed the moment. After a while, she stopped and leaned down to place a kiss on my forehead. “We need to get to dinner before your aunt comes and drags us to the table,” she told me. I sat up, took one of her hands off my shoulder, and placed a kiss on it.