Aster softly sang the song her father sang to her when he would tuck her into bed as a small child. She had always loved when he would sing to her. It always made her feel safe, especially when her home was in violet chaos. “When I was just a little girl... I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me. Que será, será… whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Que será, será….”

“That’s a nice song. I’ve always liked it.” Katelyn said from across the stainless-steel table in the middle of the kitchen, where they were both working on the fine details of a wedding cake. “But I never knew the words.”

“I know the whole song by heart. When I was scared, my father would sing it to me. He sang it a lot.” Aster said as she used very small tweezers to pick up tiny little fondant pearls dusted with edible gold dust and very carefully placed them on the side of the cake to give it some bling.

“Strange song for a man to know by heart.”

“Dad always said it was his favourite song because his mother would sing it to him to soothe him. He said it wasn’t the words that he liked. It was the tone of the song. The tone of his mother’s voice, I suppose. In a way, I think that was probably what I liked about it too.” She said, staring off into space with a sigh. In a strange way, singing it kind of made her feel closer to him now that he was gone. Aster sniffled slightly as she tried not to let the tears in her eyes fall.

“Do you need a few minutes,” Katelyn asked. Katelyn was not only Aster’s baking partner in crime. She was one of the two human members of the pack.

Katelyn was the young bride of the pack’s new Alpha and a close friend of Aster’s. Darrell was a gorgeous young Alpha who had only just taken over the pack because her father had been incarcerated. Before Katelyn came around, Darrell was distended to be Aster’s mate, but then he went and fell in love with a human. At first, Aster had been offended, but when she thought about it, Aster had never wanted to be with Darrell. She was only settling for him because others told her she should. When Aster learned how good a baker Katelyn was, she hired her on at the bakery. Spending so much time together, they had become the best of friends, and the best part was she never had to lie to Katelyn because she already knew and excepted all their secrets.

“No, I’m fine.” She refused to fall apart.

“It’s going to be ok, Aster; five years will fly by. Besides, Gordon is the biggest and badest thing on the inside. He’ll be fine.”

Aster smiled, picturing her father stepping into the general population and lying down the law right off. “Every bad ass wants to pay Alpha until a real Alpha walks into the room.” They both laughed.

Chimes above the door in the front echoed through the bakery. “Do you want me to get that?” Katelyn offered.

“No, I’ll go. I could use the break.” She said, wiping her hands on her apron as she rose from her chair and headed to the front of the house. She walked through the door that led to the front room, where customers browsed all her sweet treats and her portfolio book for custom cakes. There were three men standing over her portfolio, flipping through the pages. “Hello, gentlemen, how can I help you?”

The three men turned to face her, and she instantly recognized Tyler, who was smiling at her. The two men he was with were much older late fifties, maybe sixty, but it was hard to tell. The older looking of the two strangers was a First Nation gentleman whose dark hair was cut short, and the third was a Caucasian man with short sandy blond hair and beard.

Aster chuckled in disbelief. This man was everywhere. “You again. Are you stalking me?”

“Do you mean, did I know this was your bakery? No. Just a happy coincidence.” Tyler snickered.

“You know this woman?” one of the men asked Tyler.

“We’ve run into one another a few times,” Tyler answered. “This is Aster Wilder.” He told the man. “This is my father Andrew Winthrop and my soon-to-be step-father Joseph (soon to be) Winthrop.” He introduced the men to her.

Aster did not know what to say. “We’ve been a couple now for twenty years,” Joseph told her happily.

“Now that same-sex marriage is legal in Colorado, we have decided to make it official and get hitched,” Andrew said happily as he took Joseph’s hand and squeezed it. “So, we need a wedding cake. We hear great things about this shop. Everyone raves about your cakes.”

“Wedding cakes are my specialty.” She said, taking out a requisition form. “What date is the wedding?”

“July 10th. Can you do it in that time?” Asked Joseph.

“Absolutely. Two months is plenty of time. We could set up a tasting, say next week and pick your flavours. In the way of décor, was there anything you wanted? Colours? Themes?

“Our colours are blue and white. We were hoping for a glitzy glam kind of feel. Something with a big wow factor.” Andrew said.

creative freedom. “I can definably do wow.” She said, jotting the information down. She then checked her computer for her schedule to see when she could fit them in for a tasting. “I have an availability for a tasting next Thursday at ten in the morning or the following Monday at noon. Which

men talked it

they all said goodbye. As the older men walked to the door, Tyler lingered. “About that

thought I

thought I

answer is still

if I promised you

“I’d still say no.”

I promised flowers

“Still no.”

promised beer and

that is tempting, but I’m still going to

guy got to do

maintaining eye contact with a smile. “Come back when you are a seven-foot blond Olympic Swedish swimmer with the body of a Nordic God named

if I rented a

“You

If you don’t have fun, I will never bother you

Here is my counter offer. No date, and you

tough nut to

“Like a brick wall.”

right brick, and the

let’s go.” His father called from the

back to the men. He then looked back at

over to the door and leaving with the others. She had to admit. She liked Tyler. He was kind of cute…

when back to the kitchen, where she set right back to

so, nice couple, but their son I’ve seen

Katelyn perked up,

see this guy, he

“Is he ugly?”

he’s

“Unemployed?”

“No.”

“Married?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Aggressive?”

seem so.”

you keep saying no?” Katelyn asked,

“He’s human,” Aster said.

don’t date

lycanthropes hooking up with humans. Some of

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