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“Happy Birthday Leni,” he whispers into my ear as we move into the house towards the dining room table.

Mom comes around the kitchen island with the same vase from the last time Cal left flowers, already full with water. She places it in the center of the dining room table before grabbing the flowers from my hands.

“These are beautiful Caelon, you did a great job picking these out for our little Moondrop.”

“Moondrop?” he asks, looking between my mom and I.

My cheeks warm with embarrassment. There’s only three people who knew that nickname, and now there’s a fourth.

I tuck a strand of my long, curled hair behind my ear, ducking my head down. “Yeah, Mom has called me that since I was born, claiming I was a gift from the Moon Goddess.”

Mom walks back in with a huge dish of lemon garlic shrimp pastaas Dad follows behind her with a stack of pasta bowls, forks, and napkins.

“That’s not the only reason.” She winks as she places the dish down on the tabletop. “When she blinked open her eyes, her wolf’s unique moon eyes were glowing up at me. I felt as though a tiny drop of the moon had fallen that night, and I wasthe blessed one to receive it. That’s why I named her Selene, after our Moon Goddess and because of her unique eyes, her nickname was given as well.”

Dad takes his seat at the head of the table as Mom makes her way down to her ende. Odessa takes her normal spot on the right side of my dad and I take the seat to the left. Cal patiently waits to see where everyone’s going before taking the seat next to me. We don’t have a large table, just one that seats six comfortably.

Each of us serve ourselves some of the pasta before Mom blesses our meal and we dig in. We are all eating along and chatting before Mom directs a question to Caelon.

“Caleon, tell us about your family. Are you close with your parents? Don’t you have a brother as well?” She swirls her fork in the pasta.

He wipes his mouth with the napkin. “I’m not at all close with my family. But, to answer your question, yes I do have a brother. He was in the same class as Silas and Warrick. Although, he did take on a scholarship to play for Fairview University before he was drafted. He now plays for some professional football team, and my parents couldn’t be more proud.”

My eyebrows scrunch as I look over at him. There is something there, an almost disdain towards his brother.

“Oh, well that’s good for him. We are sure glad to have you with us and part of our family. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we are quite close.”

He nods his head. “I have Mrs. Calloway.”

“Oh dear, you can call me June or Mom, whichever one you are okay with. No need for our son-in-law to call us by formal names.” She reaches over and places her hand gently down on top of his forearm. His eyes follow the movement, as if he isn’t sure how to feel about her touching him.

“Th-thank you. I look forward to getting to know you guys.”

We spend the rest of the meal chatting with each other and Cal starts to loosen up the longer he spends time with us. He even banters with Odes, something I never would have imagined. Though, he sucks at the comebacks, but we die laughing regardless.

It’s finally time for cake, and Odes clearly is up to something with that smirk on her face. She sets down the beautiful lavender and honey cake that Mom made and there are candles around the edge of the round cake, but right in the center is the tube with a wick sitting on top of it.

She lights all the candles, everyone begins singing Happy Birthday, and right before they finish the tube in the middle explodes as tiny confetti rains down on top of all of us. Odessa is dying laughing, holding her side. Mom and Dad are both chuckling. But, Cal? He is sitting there picking the pieces of confetti from his arms.

I can’t help but laugh when I see all the confetti sitting on his hair that he hasn’t noticed yet. Reaching over, I pull each of the pieces from his hair as he just glares at Odes. Who only laughs harder at the look on his face.

Mom cuts each of us a piece, handing them off as we each dig into the delicious cake she made.

“Oh no.” Odes looks at her phone. “We have like ten minutes to make it to the campfire on the other side of the pack land.”

She scoots back before scooping the last chunk of cake into her mouth and rushing into the kitchen. Cal and I watch as she rushes back and kisses both my parents on the cheeks before looking at me.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” I sit back and look at Cal, who looks completely lost and confused. “It’s the bonfire for those who just turned eighteen. Since Silas and Nova live in the Pack House now, we don’t throw parties there anymore. It’s moved to the bonfire pit by the Ancient Ash Tree.”

He only nods his head before scooting his own chair back and walking his dish to the sink.

“What are you doing?” I ask him when he walks back into the dining room.

“Going with my mate of course. Wherever you go, I go.” He kisses my cheek before walking over to shake my dad’s hand and then kiss my mom on the cheek. “It was wonderful spending time with you two, I look forward to more nights like this.”

We are about to walk down the path towards the bonfire when Cal holds his elbow for me to slide my hand around. He leans in as Odessa walks in front of us, chatting with another person heading towards the bonfire.

“Should I grab my wolf mask? Would that make it better for you?”