Page 6 of Tinsel Time Treasure

It was going to be a good night. I was going to a fancy costume party with my best friend. Even if I didn’t find an alpha to go home with, I knew I would have fun.

Kaleb pulled into the parking lot behind me as I found a spot. Then we made small-talk as we walked in and waited to present our tickets.

The party seemed to be held in a mostly-empty exhibition hall, with only clothing and posters on the wall.

I stuck close to Kaleb as he seemed to inspect the clothes. But since I wasn’t interested in old clothes I turned my attention to the crowd instead, hoping to spot an alpha that I’d be willing to let take me home.

Then Kaleb laughed beside me.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, turning to him.

“A costume party to buy clothes,” he explained.

“Oh, is that what this is for?”

He nodded. “The ticket said it was to fund a new exhibition, but that was it. Apparently they want to start one focused on clothing over the years, with a local emphasis.”

“And you’re reading the info sheets rather than networking?”

He shrugged. “I figured it would help if somebody wanted to talk about it.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“One-track mind much?” he teased.

“You know it.” I laughed, once again wanting to scan the crowd.

Kaleb looked like he was about to say something else, then all the blood drained from his face and he snapped around to look around.

“Kay?” I asked. Was he sick? What was wrong?

“He’s here,” Kaleb breathed.

“Huh?”

He turned to face me, and his expression had me panicked. He was paler than I’d ever seen him, eyes huge.

“Jesus, Kay. Are you alright? You’re white as a ghost.”

“He’s here,” he repeated.

“Who’s here?”

He licked his lips. “My alpha.”

“Wait… what?”

He shook his head, then his eyes met mine. “I smelled him Justin, just now. My alpha, my mate. He’s here.”

“Are you sure? Maybe it’s a weird mix of competing colognes you’re smelling.”

He nodded, and what he was saying started to make more sense as I thought I detected his heat scent, though I knew he should have been between cycles. “It’s him. As sure as I know it’s you in front of me right now, I know that he’s here.”

“So which one is he?”

He turned and looked around again, but shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“So…”