Winterlust (COMPLETE)

Food Court

Violet is exhausted and frustrated. She and Cassie have been shopping for hours, and her stomach is beginning to grumble. “Cass, it’s 3:00 already and I haven’t found my dress for the gala. I’m hopeless”, she pouts. Cassie pokes her head out from a row of dresses, “Let’s go refuel and come back”, she says in a sing song voice. Cassie is in her glory, and has already purchased three dresses for herself. One for the gala, and two others as well as new leggings, a pair of jeans and a crop top. Violet looks down at her lone bag of underwear she got on sale and sighs. “Give me some of those bags to carry for you”, she says as they’re making their way down the mall toward the food court.

It’s December 7 and all the shoppers are out in full force, rendering the mall very crowded. As they shuffle bags off of Cassie’s arms and into Violet’s hands, they’re still trying to make their way forward in the crowd. Finally as Violet gets the bags into her hands, she looks forward just in time to see a flash of green before she smacks into what feels like a brick wall. “Oof!”, and she wobbles backward. Right before she lands on her a**, an arm grabs her and steadies her.

Standing before her is what can only be described as an Adonis. The man holding her by the elbow is wearing black work boots made for snow, and a lighter wash pair of jeans. Her nose is practically in the green hoodie across his incredibly muscular chest. She tips her head a way back to look up at him, in complete shock. His five o’clock shadow is black around his square jaw and his black hair is falling around his forehead and ears in the most handsome way. What’s most striking are his brown eyes. Wait, black eyes? Nope, brown. For sure brown. She can feel his breath on her face, he’s so close. Do I smell cinnamon? Her elbow is tingling where he’s still holding her. For Violet, it feels like time has stopped.

“We are SO sorry!” Cass says, wrenching Violet back to reality. The man doesn’t take his eyes off of Violet’s face, “it’s no problem”. His voice is deep but gentle. He still has a firm hold on Violet’s tingling elbow. Finally his also ginormous friend says, “Trav? We should be on our way and let these ladies continue on”. The man swings his head to look at his friend, finally breaking eye contact and nods as he releases Violet. “Thank you”, she mumbles as Cassie yanks her arm and they scurry forward.

Cassie can’t stop giggling. “Your mouth hung open that WHOLE TIME!” She says while dragging Violet along. Violet is still shell shocked, “Those guys were HUGE and smoking hot!” Cassie swoons.

Violet takes one last look over her shoulder before they reach the food court, but the men have been swallowed up by the throngs of shoppers. Why do I desperately want a cinnamon bun? “Let’s go to the cinnamon bun shop” she mumbles, “they smell so good”. Cassie looks at Violet quizzically. “That place closed down in the summer”, Cassie reminds her. Right.

Travis POV

The meeting wraps up around 2:30, and the guys are starving. Werewolves are pretty much always hungry, it’s true, but still they need to eat before getting back on the road for the two hour ride home. Travis and Owen settle on burgers and fries as they sit down in the food court to go over the finer points from today.

Travis is mid sentence when all of a sudden his wolf Shadow starts to howl. Maaaaaaaate! Owen stops slurping on his giant soda when he notices Travis’s eyes are flickering back and forth from brown to black. Owen shoots to an upright position in his chair, staring at Travis and then wildly looking around the crowd. “What? What is it?”, he mind links to Travis.

The aroma of cheesecake lays an assault on Travis’s heightened senses. She’s here, find mate! Shadow insists. Travis fights Shadow for control of his body, but Shadow isn’t having any of it. Travis gets up and follows the scent. He strides across the food court in seconds and heads out into the mall. Owen is screaming in mind link behind him, “Dude, what the hell is happening!?”

“Mate” is all Travis says as he keeps searching the crowd. She’s getting closer! The moment Owen catches up and falls into step with Travis, he stops. Here! She’s right here! There are people all around. Travis’s head is on a swivel as he scans the area. Just then, two girls with their heads down and a ton of shopping bags approach. Mate mate mate. One girl has strawberry blond hair, and the other has dark brown hair, but he can’t see their faces. Surely it can’t be one of these two, they seem oblivious.

“Oof!” The brunette says as she walks face first into Travis. He grabs her by her elbow so she doesn’t fall over. Lightning is shooting through his chest where she bumped into him, and his hand is buzzing from their contact. When she finally raises her head to look at him, Travis is spellbound by this girl’s beauty. What’s happening? Why isn’t she reacting?

“We are SO sorry!”, the strawberry blond exclaims. Travis can’t tear his eyes off of the brunette to look at her. “It’s no problem”, he murmurs. “Um, that’s a human with her!” Owen links him. “You HAVE to stand down.” “Trav? We should be on our way and let these ladies continue on”, Owen says aloud. Reluctantly, Travis lets go of the girl’s elbow and her friend drags her away. No! He takes a step to follow her, but Owen steps in to block his path. The men are nose to nose, almost. “Not here, Travis. Not with her having a human companion and an audience of hundreds of other humans”. Shadow begins to whimper.

“We will figure this out, but you have to play it cool, man”. Owen says firmly. He’s right, but Travis wishes he wasn’t. “Did you catch her scent?”

“Cheesecake”, Travis says, dazed. He’s still fighting Shadow.

“We can follow at a pretty safe distance, then”, Owen says as he claps Travis on the back. “Let’s go”.