Chapter 21

**Winter**



As we walk into the mall, I am already dreading this. I just sat in a car for the last hour and now I have to endure this. Gale looks at me. “Let’s start from the inside out.” what does that even mean? I think. I just follow her as Linus follows us.

She stops in front of a very pink store front. Then she glances back at Linus. “Linus dear please wait for us at the entrance. I’m sure my brother would not want you to see what his mate will have on under her clothes.” He nods at and moves to a bench to watch the store front. Gale grabs my arm and pulls me into the Victoria secret.

“Now let me look at you. Hmm... I would say a small.” She starts picking out underwear and putting it in a bag. Some I notice don’t even look like underwear! I have to say something. “Umm... Gale I don’t really think I need those.” I say pointing to the strings she placed in the bag.

“Are you telling me you don’t wear thongs?”

Oh, so now the strings have a name. “No, I have never worn them.”

“Well, there is a first for everything.” She says tossing a few more in the bag. I roll my eyes. “I saw that eye role Winter. Just relax okay, after all you are my sister now, and this is what sisters do. Although they don’t normal sexy up their sister for their brother. But you know what I mean.” It feels weird to have Gale do all this, but I suppose if I had a sister, she would have done something similar.

Oh well, at least I have help in this; even if it’s a little weird. I have never had to worry about my outward appearance. I mean it’s not like I ever needed to impress anyone. It has just been me, so I never gave any thought to what I wear. As she leads me around, she puts Several pairs of PJs in the bag too. Then she asks, “What size bra do you wear?”

“Umm a large, I think. I don’t really remember. The inside tag wore away.”

Gale chuckles. “Not a sports bra, I mean what cup size?” I just stare blankly. I have no idea what she is talking about. “That’s alright, we will find out.” She has a lady come measure around my chest. She says a combination of letters and numbers to Gale that I don’t even bother paying attention too. She goes and grabs a bunch of different bras and puts them into a second bag. As we keep walking through the store, Gale picks out some bras that I’m much more used too. Cole said I had to let her buy me whatever she thought I needed. He never said I had to wear any of it. And I will not be wearing any bra other than to train in.

Lastly Gale leads me over to a bunch of bottles and sprays. Humans need this stuff I guess to have a pleasant aroma to show how clean they are. I however do not. It’s not like being clean is bad or anything. I fully intend to bathe when I need to, but I’m not going to be using anything scented for sure. “Look Gale I don’t need soap right now, but if I have to get more of it I can. Please can we get soap somewhere else though? Nothing scented please.”

“Yea that’s fine. I figured you might be weird about all this perfume crap.”

“So, you get it?” I ask.

“Oh yeah, humans are weird. They don’t smell like we do so they need this kind of shit to make them more attractive. Besides, I figured you don’t need any of this now that you aren’t a rogue anymore.” She gives me a small squeeze. Then she heads off to the register. She doesn’t even look at the price a she hands them her card.

“So, if you knew I wasn’t going to get any of that body stuff why did you take me over there?”

“To see what you thought. I had been dragging on you about being a smelly rouge. So, wanted to see if you took what I said too personally. If you picked something out, then I would have known you were still self-conscious about yourself, butut you aren’t. You pass.”

“Also, I’m glad you are now in our pack. Don’t take shit from anyone. After all you are my sister now, and soon to be Luna. Becoming part of the family means I have your back. Now that I know what I said yesterday wasn’t too hurtful, I can bombard you with questions... Well, if that’s okay with you?”

I like Gale. She seems silly and confident I can tell she doesn’t take shit from anyone. Also, it makes me happy to have a sister. I always wanted siblings as a kid but that never happened. I wonder what questions she has. “Yes, Gale you can ask me questions.”

We make our way around the mall popping in and out of stores. Gale gets some more things for me, and some things for herself. I don’t mind anymore about the clothes. It’s just nice spend time with her. I haven’t had any kind of friends for a long time. So, I decide to focus on enjoying her company. Finally, she says “Alright, we are done with your wardrobe. Now let’s get something to eat in the food court before we head on to our last stop.”

We sit with our mountain of bags. As Linus brings us over some pizza. Ahh the joy of pizza. I have not had this in a long time. It is just as I remembered, cheesy and delicious. We finish up and head back to where the car was parked.

We pull into a spa parking lot. As we get out, I ask, “what are we doing here?”

“Hold on Winter. Hey Linus, why don’t you go take care of the phone stuff and then come back to get us I have a feeling we may be a while.”

Linus finally speaks for the first time all day. “Gale, you know I can’t just leave you here. Alpha said I need to be your protection.”

“Look Linus, you see Winter here; she was a rogue before joining Red Dawn, and I’m sure that means she can handle anyone who may threaten us. So please just let us have some sister bonding time. If by some miracle we finish before you get back, we will wait in the lobby. Sound good pumpkin? Okay goodbye now.” Gale pretends to shoo him away with hand gestures. Then she turns on her heel and locks her arm in mine as we head inside the spa.

“Damn I can’t believe you got Linus to go away.” I say smiling as we step into the lobby.

“Oh, yeah, he’s usually the one that takes me places as my protection. So, I know exactly what to say to get him off my back.”

As we head toward the front desk, Gales explains “Alright I brought us here for a few reasons. First, it’s owned by werewolves from our pack, secondly maintenance, and lastly you need toiletries. We’ll start off with waxing since it is painful, then hair, and we’ll finish with makeup. Since it’s owned by us, we won’t need to make a point of asking for anything unscented.”

“Umm... Gale, I don’t know what a wax is. Also, I don’t wear makeup, I don’t want to, and what’s wrong with my hair?”

“Oh, well waxing is removing body hair using hot wax to rip the hair out. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I don’t think you shaved your body living out in the woods. It’s how I remove my body hair. So, I figured you would do it this way too.”

“Gale for Goddess' sake” I whisper, “I don’t want anyone near my lady parts other than me or a doctor, okay.”

Gale interjects “if you don’t want anyone but yourself or a doctor down there how do you expect to fully complete the mating bond with Cole?” She says chuckling.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” I say blushing, “but I don’t have anything to remove down there anyway. I take care of it. See look at my arms not a single hair.”

“All right, then they can start with your hair, and I’ll join you after my wax.” With that we separate.

Shit she never told me what was wrong with my hair. The lady with blue hair leads me over to a seat and motions for me to sit. As I sit down, she starts making conversation. “So, Gale tells me you’re Winter, and your Alpha Coles mate?”

“Yes, nice to meet you. What’s your name?” I ask.

“Oh, I’m Zelda. So, are you looking for a certain style or anything you want done specifically?”

“No, I mean... um... l do not mean to be impolite, but I don’t want you to touch my hair. If you can just tell me what to do, and I can do it myself.”

Goddess she must think I’m a psycho, but my mother made it a point to teach me that family does your hair. She would tell me stories while braiding my hair as a little girl. She talked about how her mother did her hair, and how my grandmother on my father's side did her hair on the day of her Luna ceremony. She would say “hair is a crown the Goddess gave to you. You should not cut it other than to keep it healthy and only entrust your crown to your mate and family.”

Luckily Zelda didn’t pry. She told me where everything was, and I washed my hair. I used the products she showed me. Just as I finish washing Gale walks in.

“Why isn’t Zelda doing your hair?” Gale asks with her eyebrow cocked.

“Oh, long story.” I say as I start to brush my hair out and notice how there is not a single knot. Hmm, maybe there is something to using all these hair products and not just a bar of soap. I am incredibly happy we came; I think to myself. Gale asks me about how I remove my body hair. She is flabbergasted to when I tell her that I pluck every hair out individually. I assure her it isn’t hard if you do it every day and just keep up with it. For some reason she doesn’t believe me. Then she asks why I wouldn’t let Zelda do my hair. I explain my reasons and she smile.

I wait while Gale gets her hair done and then we head over to makeup area of the spa. She picks out a bunch of things, and asks “are you sure you don’t want anything?” I shake my head. We get two bags full of bath products and head to the lobby.

Linus is waiting for us. He hands me my new phone, and tells me all the numbers I need are already in there. Gale pays and we finally head home.