My Halloween Wish Alpha

Maria I can’t stop looking at it. It shouldn’t upset me anymore, not when I have so many other things in my life now, like being friends with an entire, real-life wolf-shifter pack. But... it does. “Are you over there torturing yourself again?” Neviah, my best friend who is taking the night off from Luna duties to have a girls’ night with just me and her baby, asks. Said baby, one-month-old Elias, the most beautiful little chubby-cheeked sweetheart ever to grace this planet—and I’m not biased at all as honorary auntie, no, not at all—is sleeping like the cherubic angel he is in the little bassinet I bought for him specifically for moments like these. “Don’t I always?” I attempt to contort my mouth into a smirk to make a joke of it, but I know she’s right, and I fail at the attempt. “You know, you can still live that dream.” She pops a barbecue chip in her mouth from the monstrous spread of snacks I put together for this night, then plops down beside me on the sofa. “I know you really had your heart set on that place. But I’m sure another will come along soon.” “But... the building on Cedar Drive was so perfect,” I argue, leaning back on the sofa and sighing. “I was already picturing it.” I’ve more than pictured it. I’ve dreamed about it so much, and I’d even drawn rough sketches of the layout and everything. It’s been my dream forever. My own full-service salon was going to be perfect in that space. I’d already imagined having a beautiful sign made to put out front, with maple leaves and other symbols of autumn—my favorite season ever—showcasing my name right in the center. That sign was going to fit perfectly right there on Cedar. She scoots in a little closer and puts an arm around me. “I know, and I’m so sorry that someone else rented it out, Maria. But there are plenty of other buildings that will work just as well.” “They’re all so much more expensive.” I shove a whole handful of cheesy popcorn in my mouth and lean into her. Might as well wallow in my misery while my best friend is here for support. “Rent is pretty expensive down there,” she agrees. “But maybe it’s cheaper to buy a place if you have enough of a down payment.” This time, I smirk for real. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” “Why not? You’ve saved up a lot.” “Right, but that’s for emergencies and just... living,” I argue, gesturing broadly to the room, or the whole world. “I’m not working many days in Heather’s salon. My savings wouldn’t be enough for a down payment anyway.” “How about asking your parents for a down payment?” she suggests. I shake my head vehemently. Yeah, we’re not going there. “Maria,” she says, elongating my name like she does whenever the subject of my parents comes up. “You’re not seriously still avoiding your parents?” “No, not completely.” “Maria.” “Nev, you know I can’t accept money from them,” I insist. “There are always strings attached. They act like I’m some kind of a freak for not going to law school or med school like they did.” “Your parents do not think you’re a freak,” she says firmly. “Well, no, but they think my chosen profession is,” I say. “You know I had to pay for cosmetology school all on my own. And I had to buy all my equipment and do it all while having a part-time job plus the gig work.” I can’t even count the number of fast-food orders I’d delivered on weekends. “Yes, and you worked hard,” she agrees. “And that’s exactly why you shouldn’t hold back now. I just know that Maria’s Manes is going to be successful!” She smiles at me, and it warms my heart, especially since she still remembers what I want to name my own salon despite how busy she is as the wife of Alpha Fenric of Ponderosa pack, human Luna of the entire pack when there hasn’t been a Luna at all there in years, and now, a new mother. She’s the best friend I’ve ever had in the world. But asking my parents for money is impossible. No, thanks on that suggestion. “I’ll think about it,” I say. It’s not a lie. I’ll think about it—for about ten seconds. “You’re not going to do it,” Nev says. Nope. “I officially thought about it, and... no, I’m not,” I tell her. “But Nev, I appreciate the way you care about me. Let’s just enjoy the movie now, and I’ll do your hair after.” “Sounds like a plan,” she says, glancing back to check on Elias. He’s still sleeping, so I put the solar generator I bought to work and plug in my laptop so that it’ll stay charged while we watch the movie I downloaded. Technology is a bit of a challenge up here in my cottage. Well, it’s technically Nev’s cottage. But she’s living in the underground packhouse with her handsome hunk of an Alpha, leaving the cottage nearby that her father bought her as mostly mine whenever I’m here, with occasional roommates when her parents also come up from the city. Her parents are a lot more understanding about things. They’ve totally embraced this “our daughter is a Luna in a wolf-shifter pack” thing. And mine won’t even accept my skills as a stylist. Why does everything have to be so complicated? I have to say, life up here is a lot simpler. Sometimes when I’m visiting up here, I start to wonder whether my Maria’s Manes dream isn’t even what I really want anymore. But then I come to my senses and blame it on the trees blocking my view and fogging up my head. I’ve worked too hard for this, for too long, to just give it up. The next handful I shove into my mouth is cheese balls. I admit, I kind of overdid it on our snack spread for our special two-gals-and-one-baby night. I just got so excited about the idea of one-on-one time with Nev that I may have accidentally put a dozen too many pillows and blankets on the sofa, and I maybe—probably—filled a bit too many bowls of chips, popcorn, pretzels, and other snacks I brought up from the city. But that’s okay. This time with my bestie is worth the trouble. For now, I let my worries go and giggle with Nev while we watch the rom-com, trying not to be so loud that little Elias wakes up. *** Two weeks later “Well, what do you think?” I step back and let the last customer of the day, Wendy, admire her new makeup in the black-framed mirror of Heather’s salon. A fuzzy spider plush dangles from the corner of the mirror, pretty much the only sign that Halloween is coming up in a month. I suppose it is a little early for full-on decorations, but by now, I’ve usually already gone all-out in my apartment, with pumpkins and ghosts and little purple fairy lights strung everywhere. Not this year. I’m taking the next six weeks off and going up to the cabin, leaving right after I’m done here for an intensive “what am I doing with my life” retreat. Half of those Halloween decorations—as many as I could fit along with clothes and other things I’ll need—are crammed in my SUV right now. “I love it!” Wendy says, giving her long, blonde hair, which was expertly styled by none other than Heather herself, a flip with her hand. “Thank you so much, Maria. You’re an absolute artist.” I take a mock bow, talking with her through our reflections in the mirror. “It’s my pleasure.” “We’ll miss her around here.” Heather walks up behind us and gives Wendy’s hair a little extra floof-up. “I’ll miss you all too, but Samantha will do a fantastic job on makeup while I’m gone.” “She’s good,” Heather agrees. “But she’s not you. Honestly, I can’t believe you’re spending even more time up in the woods. Isn’t it boring up there?” No, it definitely is not. “You’re going to miss out on handing out candy,” she adds. No, I definitely won’t. Since Nev introduced the idea of Halloween to everyone in the pack last year, the excitement about it has grown. We’re going to do trick-or-treating in the underground packhouse, with different rooms serving as “houses” where each kid can get a treat. The ladies have been having the time of their lives sewing costumes from the material and patterns I brought them months ago. But I can’t tell Heather any of that. After an extended goodbye—I really will miss Heather—I climb into my car and begin the drive to the forest. *** Evenings here at the cottage are amazing. I step out on the wooden deck with my hot cup of cocoa on my first evening here, and the cold bites through my jeans when I sit on the patio chair. It warms up fast enough, but I can tell it’ll only be a week or two before my bulky, warm sweater won’t even be enough out here. That’s okay. I’ve come prepared. The silence out here embraces me. There’s no traffic, no train horns off in the distance, no neighbors arguing about the TV remote through the thin apartment walls... just the cricket song, an occasional hoot of an owl, and bushes rustling gently as a small creature of the night makes his way through them. I begin to think I could stay out here forever. Could I? No. I’ve been working too hard to just abandon my goals like that. Nev found a life out here that fits her like a glove. But she has Fenric, and now little Elias, to fill her world. And now that we’ve got the generators here so she can charge up her laptop, she’s added the occasional freelance journalism gig to keep her talents sharp. Every part of her is happy and satiated. I can use my skills here, of course. I enjoy doing all the pack ladies’ hair and makeup. But I’d always dreamed of Maria’s Manes as a world-famous luxury salon, something my parents can look at and say, “Hmm, I guess Maria had a good idea after all.” This isn’t exactly the place for fame, fortune, and recognition. But is that really what I want? I groan into my now-empty cocoa mug and decide to just go to bed and stop thinking for once. It’ll never be the same for me here as it is for Nev. There is no drop-dead gorgeous Alpha waiting to sweep me away. No, luck like that just comes once in a lifetime. So, I head to bed. But as I settle down into my soft bed and click off the light on the nightstand, a rumbling in my gut—that’s the best way I can describe it—takes my breath away. I bolt up to a sitting position, pounding on the light switch to brighten the room again. Whatever it is, I force myself to breathe through it, and when I finally identify it, I realize it’s just a feeling of some kind, something powerfully strong coming from nowhere, and a thousand other emotions erupt inside me. Because it’s a feeling of... something drawing near.