~Tristan~

We woke to someone banging on our bedroom door. I heard Alyce groan and roll away from the sound, snuggling into my chest. “Make it go away…” she grumbled.

I wrapped my arms around her, ignoring the door but whoever was out there wasn’t giving up, they banged again. Now I was grumbling, rolling out of the bed with a growl. Alyce burrowed into the blankets, trying to hide from the door and the morning. I cracked the door open, Kami standing there impatiently. I growled softly, “What?”

“Don’t growl at me, Mister. Beauty is a long process and I need our Luna. It’s already ten, not my fault if you all stayed up all night.”

She shoved in past me and ran, jumping on the bed, right onto Alyce, “Time to rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!”

“Noooo, go away. One more hour…” Alyce whined, trying to shove her off her, but she was tangled in blankets, “Go bug Mattie.”

“Speak of the Devil.” I said, the annoyance of being woken up evident in my voice.

“Well good morning to you too, Tristan.” Mat laughed as he walked into the room, “Aly, get your grouchy ass out of that bed or I’m climbing in it too!”

“Fuck off Mattie..”

“You have an awfully foul mouth for someone who is used to getting up at 4:30 in the morning.” Mat laughed, “Last chance…” He motioned at Kami to move and she did.

“Don’t you dare, Mattie!” Alyce growled.

Part of me wanted to step in when Alyce growled, my protective nature kicking in, but part of me knew Mat would never hurt her. Annoy her, motivate her, pick on her, treat her like a little sister, yes, but never would he hurt her. So I let my curiosity win and waited to see what he would do next.

“You were given fair warning!” He ran and dove on the bed, quickly disappearing into the blankets. It wasn’t ten seconds later Alyce was kicking and fighting, laughing. The blankets were thrown off and Mat continued to assault her, tickling her ribs and knees.

“I’m going to fucking kill you, you asshole!” She was trying to breathe, scream at him and laugh all at the same time.

Alyce got her left hand free and swung on him, but he was prepared, ducking her fist and going for her left ribs, causing her to draw her arm in to try and protect her ribs from him. I was trying desperately not to laugh at them. Alyce growled and flung her right hip up, throwing him off balance and she rolled on the follow through, bringing her right knee into Mat’s ribs successfully. She was tiny, but fierce and pissed off.

Mat took the hit like a champ, he grabbed her knee and shoved it up and backward, throwing her off balance. He took the opening to jump off the bed, laughing at her, “Come on Red! You can do better than that!” He was purposely taunting her, which given that she could take him, I found even more amusing.

“Call me Red one more time Mattie. I fucking dare you.” She shot off the bed like a javelin, her arms wrapping around his waist as she took him to the floor. She pinned him down and growled. Her Alpha aura was starting to leak out.

“You’re awake now Aly, come on. I’ll make you french toast.” Mat laughed.

She instantly let him go, “With extra cinnamon and vanilla?” Her eyes got big, like a kid in a candy store.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Deal.” She hopped up and offered him a hand, helping him to his feet.

“You two really are like siblings, hard to believe she’s the older one though.” Kami laughed.

“He’s always taken care of me, I was never in a position to be the older sibling and protect him, other than by drawing attention to myself and off of him and others. Besides, I’m only six months older than him. We’re practically twins.” Alyce explained.

“It shows.” I walked over and wrapped my arms around Alyce, discreetly making sure she wasn’t hurt. Mat was shaking his head at me in amusement as I continued, “I’m glad you were there to look after her. As I’ve said before, I will never be able to thank you enough for everything you and your family has done to protect her.” I kissed the top of her head and knew that I would have to make sure Mat stayed with our pack if it ever came to it.

“Alright, time for the boys to leave.” Kami tossed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt at me and made a shoo-ing motion with her hands, “We are taking over the room for the day. Stylist will be here in a couple hours.”

I glared at her and pulled the jeans and t-shirt on, “Are you seriously kicking me out of my own room?”

“Yes I am, you can’t see her until the ceremony. Go help mom and dad or something. Bruce, Victor and Titus will be collecting you later to get ready. Off with you!”

I growled a bit and gave Alyce a long, sweet kiss before grumbling and leaving my room, “Come on Mat.”

“Nope, I’m one of the girls today.” Mat grinned.

“Perhaps, but you promised Alyce french toast, and I don’t want my mate spending the day irritable because you didn’t pay up. So let’s go. You can return when her breakfast is ready.”

“Fair point. Ladies, I will be back shortly. Kami, you want french toast too?” Mat asked.

“No thank you. I ate earlier.”

“I want whipped cream on mine too!” Alyce grinned.

“If I make whipped cream, will you wear heels?” Mat tried to bribe her.

“I’ll think about it…”

“I’ll take it.” Mat laughed and he and I headed out the door, closing it behind us as we headed down the hall towards the stairs.

“You’re going to have to teach me to make this magical french toast of yours.” I told him.

“It’s really, really easy. I’d be happy to teach you.”

“Maybe not today, but soon.”

“You can give me a hand today, and we’ll have an actual lesson or two sometime in the near future.”

“Sounds like a plan.” We headed down the stairs and into the kitchen which was currently pretty empty. Breakfast was over and the kitchen omega’s had already cleaned up.

We had a couple hours before they would swarm the kitchen to prepare for the ceremony tonight. Most of the main course options would come from a company in town. Mother had likely already made the cake itself and would personally decorate it later today. The omegas would mostly be making sides to go with them.

I pulled out the griddle and a shallow bowl for him while he gathered eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and milk. I turned on the stove top, setting the griddle on it to heat up while I observed what he was doing, taking it in as he worked, mixing his ingredients together, with extra cinnamon and vanilla like Alyce wanted.

“This doesn’t look too hard.” My eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion.

“It’s not, that’s why I can do it. I have no business in the kitchen other than as an extra set of hands for easy tasks, but I can manage this, and fortunately, it’s one of Alyce’s favorites. The first time I tried to make french toast I over did the vanilla and the cinnamon and she’s been making me add extra ever since.”

I laughed, “As long as she’s happy I’d keep doing it too.”

“I’m really glad you found her and got her out of there. She would have died fighting against going with Shane. I don’t even want to try and imagine what she would have endured under his command. He’s known for being heartless, soulless.” He shuddered and started dipping bread in the batter he mixed up, putting it on the griddle to cook up.

“Me too, I might never have found her if she had been taken there. We don’t interact with them, other than the annual alpha meetings.”

“I would have gotten her out, even if it cost me my rank, my life, whatever it cost I would not have let her be traded off like a piece of property. Neither would my parents, honestly.” He flipped the french toast slices and I prepped the next round of slices to go on.

“I know, there’s a reason Ryder and I no longer view you as a threat, aside from the fact that you like guys. Tonight I will not only be taking you on as my Beta, you will be Alyce’s personal bodyguard.”

“We might want to find another word to use. I’m not sure she’ll take kindly to having a baby sitter. Which is exactly how she’ll see it.”

“I will think about it since Kami won’t let me see her to talk to her about it and I can’t mind-link her without anyone looking at her knowing.”

“Actually… Her eyes are so pale and translucent most can’t tell the difference when she’s linking someone. I’ve just been around her so long I can tell the difference between Alyce, Aramyth and mind-linking.” He pulled the first batch off and put the second batch on, I set the plate he put them on in the oven to keep them warm.

“Aramyth has red flecks in her eyes, I noticed that’s the only difference in their eye color, and even then it’s very subtle. Someone would have to be very close up to her to be able to tell.”

“It’s even crazier when they’re both present at the same time.”

“I believe it. They don’t do that often do they? That’s an Alpha trait, it would be a dead give away if someone happened to notice.”

“No, I’ve only seen it once or twice since she got her wolf, and it was early on in Alyce’s punishments. I think Aramyth did it to protect Alyce until she was able to protect herself.”

“I’ve never met someone as strong and determined as that pair. It’s amazing.”

“The first time she showed up at our door after they used wolfsbane on her… I threw up. I don’t know how she’s done it, but I suspect Aramyth had a lot to do with it.” He flipped the second batch and I got one of the serving trays down that we use for parties.

I put butter, syrup, powdered sugar, milk and OJ on it, along with a couple of plates and silverware. I was going to at least have breakfast with my mate before they completely kicked me out for the day. Mat put the last of the french toast on the plate and then set the plate on the tray.

“I’ll try and buy you a little time for breakfast, but Kami is as bad as I am.” Mat laughed as we headed back up to the Alpha wing, using the elevator to go up this time.

“Ain’t that the truth.” I grinned as we exited the elevator and walked down to mine and Alyce’s room. Mat opened the door, I was carrying the tray.