Chapter 64: 2

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.

Aster smiled. She loved it when couples gave her 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 would you prefer?”

The two men talked it over. “Thursday.”

Aster put them in her schedule, and they all said goodbye. As the older men walked to the door, Tyler lingered. “About that dinner?”

“I thought I said no.”

“I thought I would ask again.”

“The answer is still no.”

“What if I promised you a gourmet meal?”

“I’d still say no.”

“What if I promised flowers and Champagne?”

“Still no.”

“What if I promised beer and pizza?” He grinned.

“Well, now that is tempting, but I’m still going to have to say no.”

“What’s a guy got to do to get traction with you?”

She folded her arms on the counter and leaned in, 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 Sven.”

“What if I rented a limo?”

Aster laughed. “You are persistent.”

“Come on, one date. If you don’t have fun, I will never bother you again.”

“Interesting offer. Here is my counter offer. No date, and you never bother me again.”

“You are a tough nut to crack.”

“Like a brick wall.”

“Pull out the right brick, and the wall will fall.”

“Tyler, let’s go.” His father called from the door.

“I’m coming.” He called back to the men. He then looked back at her. “I will be back.” He promised.

“I’m sure you will.” She said, watching Tyler walk over to the door and leaving with the others. She had to admit. She liked Tyler. He was kind of cute… for a human.

Aster when back to the kitchen, where she set right back to work on her intricate pearl work. “New client?” Katelyn asked.

“Seems so, nice couple, but their son I’ve seen before.”

“Oh?” Katelyn perked up, ready for gossip.

“I swear he’s been following me around. Every time I see this guy, he asks me out. He just won’t take no for an answer.”

“Is he ugly?”

“No, actually, he’s very attractive.”

“Unemployed?”

“No.”

“Married?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Aggressive?”

“Doesn’t seem so.”

“Then why do you keep saying no?” Katelyn asked, confused.

“He’s human,” Aster said.

“And you don’t date humans?”

“I think there are enough lycanthropes hooking up with humans. Some of us need to preserve the species.”

Katelyn shot Aster a nasty glare as she ran her hand over her swollen belly. Katelyn was a human married to a Lycanthrope only days away from delivering their first baby. Her child would be the second hybrid ever in existence, and it was a hot-button topic within the pack. Some felt that breeding with humans was the beginning of the end of their species. As much as Aster adored Katelyn, she did not agree with bringing hybrids into the world. She was willing to accept it but not to contribute to the problem.

Aster cringed at the upset look on her friend’s face. “Katelyn, I’m sorry, that wasn’t what I meant. It’s fine. I just feel I owe it to my pack to mate with a Lycanthrope.”

“No one is telling you to have a baby with him. Just go to dinner. No harm ever came from just going to dinner. You might like him.”

“I don’t want to like him.” It would be way too easy to like Tyler. She didn’t want to get caught up in the complications of a relationship with a human. It was easier to just blow him off.

“I love you, Aster, but you have a very narrow view of the world.”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“Alright,” Katelyn said, going back to her task. They didn’t say another word. Aster felt like crap for having wounded her friend’s feelings. Everything lately was falling apart. It was only 1:00 pm, and she already needed a drink.

***

Aster staggered to her car from the bar. She was searching her purse for her keys but for some reason walking a straight line was proving challenging. Reaching her car Aster propped herself up by bracing her hip on the door. She found her keys and dropped them as she fumbled to make her fingers obey her brain. Aster cursed and bent over to pick up the keys. She nearly fell over. Stabilizing herself, she rose and smacked the back of her head against the side mirror. Covering her hand over the painful spot. Aster cussed once more and tried to slip the key in the keyhole… or at least she would if the keyhole would quit moving.

“Success!” She cheered when she finally got the door open. Aster climbed inside and had the same struggle with the ignition that she had with the door. When she managed to turn the engine on, she jumped, startled when the wipers came on. She fumbled around, trying to turn them off. It took a minute to turn on her headlights, then she stepped on the gas, the engine revved but nothing happened.

Confused, she stepped on the gas again and still nothing but noise. Who the hell had been fucking with her car? Oh... wait… she forgot to change gears. Aster put the car in drive and stepped on the gas.

The car launched forward. Aster pulled out onto the main road and headed out of town. She had been driving ten minutes when a siren went off, and red and blue lights began to flash behind her.

Who were they chasing? Maybe she should pull off the road and let them pass. Aster pulled onto the should and could not understand why the cop was stopping behind her. The officer got out and walked up to her window. Aster rolled down the window and looked up at the man. The officer was a tall fit man with blond hair who resembled Thor. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Sven, would it?” The officer glared at her raising one golden brow in question. “Never mind. What do I did, officer?”

“What did you do?” He corrected her drunker grammar.

“I kind of feel like it’s your job to tell me.”

“I was correcting your grammar.”

“I thought the Grammar Police was just a metaphor. Ok, Officer, what is the fine for poor sentence structure?”

“Ma’am, have you been drinking?”

“Ma’am? I’m not old enough to be a ma’am.”

“Would you please step out of the car?”

Aster opened the door, stepped out and twisted her ankle-breaking a heel. “Fuck!” She snapped, standing up. “Who puts rocks on the side of the highway?” The officer chuckled and then instantly wiped the smirk off his face trying to remain silent. “What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing.” He cleared his throat and held out a breathalyzer device. “Blow.”

“What?” She gasped.

“The machine, bow into the machine.” He clarified with a smile. Aster leaned forwards and closed her lips around the end, then blew. The officer looked at the results and took out his handcuff.

Aster grinned. “Kinky, but you should at least buy me dinner first.”

He stepped behind her and pulled both hands behind her back, securing her in cuffs. “You’re under arrest Ma’am for Driving Under the Influence.”

“Crap.”