A waitress came over to get our drink orders, Kami got an iced coffee, and I ordered a banana milkshake.

“I’ll be right back with those drinks.” She said before heading back to the kitchen with our drink orders.

“What are our plans after lunch?” I asked.

“Your Luna dress and maybe 3 or 4 others to have on hand for various occasions.” Kami answered

“Well at least that should be a fairly quick stop.”

Mat laughed a little, and Kami gave me a look that said I was crazy.

“Maybe not?” I retracted my statement.

“No, you will have to try the dresses on. There’s no way to know how they fit just by looking at them dear.” Mat said.

“Well at least we only have to find a few.”

“Traditionally a dress for a Luna ceremony is white, but I don’t think that will work with your complexion.” Kami said, pondering an alternative option.

“What about a green or even a lavender shade?” Tristan offered up a suggestion.

“Either of those would work well with her red hair and pale skin.” Mat agreed.

“Will it be ok to go against tradition?” I asked, a little worried about ruffling feathers.

“Absolutely. If anyone has an issue with it they can deal with me.” Kami said.

“With us,” Mat corrected, Tristan nodding in agreement.

I smiled at them, “I’m so glad to have you all in my life. I don’t know where I’d be without you all.” Probably with Alpha Shane, the thought made me shudder and I pushed it away.

“You ok love?” Tristan looked down at me when I shuddered.

“Yes, sorry, the thought of being forced to go with Alpha Shane popped into my head. That’s enough to make anyone shudder.”

“I would have gotten you out before that happened.” Mat said with a low growl.

“It wouldn’t have been worth you risking your own safety and pack status, Mattie. Besides, Tristan found me and it is now irrelevant. Let’s just forget it.”

“Alright, we’ll forget it, but you’re wrong. It would have been worth the risk, and much more.”

I smiled at him, “Thank you.”

“Food’s coming.” Kami said and I looked up to see a couple of waitresses bringing over a couple trays, filled with plates of food for our table.

“Holy crap, that’s a lot of food.” My eyes widened at the sight. There were only six of us. Of course we did have four adult male wolves in the group.

“Here we are folks, thank you very much for your patience.” The waitress who had taken mine and Kami’s drink orders smiled at the group, setting our drinks on the table. She set the large tray of plates on a fold out holder.

“No problem. It wasn’t exactly a small order.” Mat said with a chuckle. She nodded and left the other waitress to hand out our food.

The other waitress started setting the food on the table, purposely leaning over to show her cleavage while eyeing Tristan. I glared at her, but she seemed completely oblivious to my presence. I knew he felt my irritation through our bond, and he lowered his arm to put his hand on my hip, pulling me closer to him. His touch calmed me a little and also drew the waitress’ attention to me and she did not look impressed or pleased to see me there. She gave me a dirty look and I just narrowed my eyes at her.

Kami’s hand shot forward, snapping her fingers in front of the waitress’ face, “Hey, if you’re quite done oogling my brother and glaring at his wife, you can make yourself scarce, and I don’t want to see you anywhere near our table after this.”

It took everything I had not to react when she referred to me as his wife, though it wasn’t far off from the truth in the wolf world. However there were Humans in this diner and so we had to be aware of that when speaking. The flirty waitress was a wolf though, but not from our pack. I wondered if the shopping plaza was neutral ground for the various packs in the mountains.

The waitress glared at Kami and finished handing out the food, but not without ‘accidentally’ knocking over a glass of water with a plate, right into my lap of course. I let out a startled scream, “What the actual hell… What is your problem?” I tried to escape the water, Tristan pulling me into his lap and stopping the water from spreading with some napkins. Now he was glaring at the woman.

“I’m so sorry, Miss, it was an accident.” She feigned innocence and tried to clean it up. The waitress that had brought our drinks came back out at the commotion.

“Jennifer, what is going on?” She looked at the scene, and instantly looked beyond pissed.

“It was an accident, Krista. I knocked over some water with a plate.”

“It was no accident.” Mat scoffed, “She purposely spilled water on my sister while oogling her husband.”

“That’s it Jennifer, this is the third time you’ve tried to pull something like this. You’re fired.” Krista said. I assumed she was the manager, and by her scent she was human, “Turn in your uniform and get out.”

Jennifer glared at Mat, Kami and myself. Thomas and Will were a bit stiff, watching everything quietly, and ready to intervene if necessary. Jennifer scoffed, and started to protest, but Krista held her hand up to silence her, “You heard me. Now go.”

Jennifer stormed off, pissed as hell. Krista turned to us, “I’m so sorry. I’m happy to move your group to a dry table and your meal is on the house.”

“No, we’ll pay for our food, it’s not your fault she was a jerk,” I protested, “But a dry table would be lovely.” I smiled at her, trying to dry my pants with some extra napkins.

“Of course. The round table in the corner is open if that is ok?”

“Absolutely, thank you.” Mat said.

We vacated the booth and Krista grabbed the second large tray that hadn’t been emptied yet, taking it to the other table. I grabbed up the first large tray and filled it back up with our plates to help Krista, balancing it on my hand and shoulder I carried it to the new table, unloading it onto the table. Kami and the boys were grabbing drinks and bringing them over.

“Thank you, but you guys didn’t have to move stuff.” Krista said with a smile.

“No problem at all, I have experience with extensive amounts of food so it’s second nature to me.” I grinned at her.

“Haha, you want a job?” She chuckled.

“Thanks, but no, not in the market for a new one.” I laughed with her.

“Let me get you guys some fresh napkins and silverware. I’ll be right back.” She headed off to the counter area.

We settled into the new booth, picking at our food, which thankfully was mostly fries, burgers and wings, no silverware needed. Though there was nothing I could do about my pants being wet I was glad it was just water. They would dry eventually. Tristan looked at me and lifted my chin with his finger and I let my gaze settle on him, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, it was just water. Haters gonna hate.” I giggled and smiled at him.

“I’ll find out which pack she was from and contact their Alpha. Her behavior is completely unacceptable. She knew you were there, she knew you’re my mate, there is no excuse.”

“Alright. Is the plaza neutral ground?” I asked.

“Unofficially yes. Officially it’s in our territory, but given that it’s the only shopping and outing option in the area we treat it as a neutral ground out of consideration for Dark Forest and Snow Moon. Humans occasionally wander into the plaza as a main pass through road for the mountains is nearby. Most of the Human employees know of our world in one way or another, but the patrons do not.”

“That makes sense. Have to be pretty ballsy to pull a stunt like that anywhere other than neutral ground.” Mat said.

“A few other adjectives come to mind other than ballsy.” Kami snickered.

“Crazy, desperate, has a death wish, or just plain stupid?” I laughed

“I was thinking psychotic, lunatic or slutty, but yours are great options too.” Kami grinned at me.

Krista came back over to our table with napkins and silverware and set everything on the table, “Y'all let me know what you want for dessert, the least I can do is comp that since you won’t let me comp your meal.”

“Maybe just some chocolate cake and brownies to go?” Tristan asked, “We still have some shopping to do, so we need something that will travel well.”

“Of course, I’ll bring it out with your check when you’re done. No rush of course.”

“Thank you Krista, you’ve been great.” I smiled at her and she left us to eat our lunch. We were now a little behind schedule so we all ate, keeping the idle chat to a minimum.