After calming down and having lunch, Mik was able to relax a little when he saw everyone engaged in conversation or playing games. He was invited to join a game and declined. Except when Sam said he wanted to play. Then an urge within him took over and he wouldn't let anyone touch Sam or help him to participate.
That male did it on purpose—he knew. He didn't miss the smirks Sam exchanged with others. He wasn't good at hiding his feelings and intentions.
About half an hour after cake, presents were brought to him to open. Sam got him an assortment of spices and an apron—courtesy of Luna Aki picking them up for him. Eloise and her mate gave him a couple of cookbooks—one for meat dishes and one for desserts. Cameron and his family gave him a beard trimmer, clippers, and care kit to keep his beard clean and healthy.
"If you decide to grow it out again," Cameron told him, his eyes trailing along the thickening beard on Mik's jaw and chin.
Alpha, Luna, and their pup gave him his own personal set of dumbbell weights—ten, twenty-five, and fifty pounds.
Oshki and his mate gave him some fancy cooking oils—long bottles filled with oil, one with all kinds of chili peppers, another with garlic cloves and rosemary, another with bay leaves.
Dr. Waaban gave him a knife set. Mik would have never thought of that until he felt the blade of one and sliced his thumb open. Never knew he was working with such dull knives until then. Made sense though as everything in the cabin was donated by pack members who no longer needed items or upgraded to better ones.
Now, if only he could get his hands on a new set of pots and pans... Maybe next year.
After presents, the adults started a card game. Sam wanted to play, so Sam sat on Mik's lap and Mik held his cards and Sam told him what card to play when it was their turn. Mik enjoyed it. He got the hang of it and let Sam call the shots. That way if anyone laughed or got upset, it was directed at Sam, and Mik would silently grin when Sam won a round or made a devil move and pissed someone off.
He enjoyed seeing a more competitive side to Sam, even if it was small. He got more frustrated than Sam once he figured out how the game worked and someone screwed them over.
Everyone was different: more laid-back and at ease with themselves. Even Noodin's guard was down and he laughed openly. Mik stared at him, at the lines that crinkled around his eyes and the corners of his mouth.
Laughter. He'd only heard Sam laugh a few times before he fucked up. Before Sam, he couldn't remember hearing a full-bellied laugh that pinched the eyes and threw the head back. Not since Jez and not before.
When the party came to an end and Mik and Sam were preparing to leave with Cameron, everyone bid them farewell, leaving Noodin and Luna Aki to clean up what was left at the lounge. Oshki slipped him a small wrapped object before he and his mate left and whispered into his ear, "Didn't want you to feel embarrassed about opening this up earlier. Wait until you get home. You'll need this someday."
He left it at that with a crooked grin crossing his lips before leaving with his mate.
Mik carried Sam on his back while Cameron took the wheelchair and they went down the stairs to the sled Cameron prepared outside. They secured Sam and all of Mik's gifts and some containers of food to eat later before shifting into their wolves and jogging back to their cabin and unloading.
"Did you have fun?" Sam asked as Mik helped him into a sitting position on the bed and tucked the blankets around him. Mik still had to find places to store all of his gifts. He had piled them at the door. They could wait until Sam was comfortable.
YOU ARE READING
The Defiant Claim (The Claim: Book 2) LGBT
Werewolf[COMPLETE] Revenge drove him. Bloodlust raged in his veins. All 22-year-old Mik (Mikwam) wanted was to reclaim his birthright and destroy the alpha that took it from him. He never expected to find his mate within the pack of his enemy -- nor was he...
