To Grandma's House

Future Plans*

Finished with their late lunch, Xael curled up in bed to wait for clothes to dry. She had changed her mind about the movie and switched to the 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' instead. Shado joined her in bed, wrapping her in a hug from behind as she rested against his chest.

"Xael?"

"Hm?"

"Have you thought about what you want to do now that we're mated."

"You mean where to stay?"

"Yeah."

"No, not really. I know Grams is fine with us staying at her place, but I don't know. Her and Skylar might want to establish a Mate bond, if they do, I don't really want to stay there."

"Yeah, I thought about that too. What do you think about taking Skyler's place?"

"I want to see it first, I know he lives not too far from town. I've never been to his cabin."

"I think we should really think about it, taking his place I mean."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's nice being so close to the diner and everything but I really loved being out at your Grams and in the woods. I want that for us."

Xael looked at him and smiled. He still wasn't used to the change in her eye color.

"Okay."

"Seriously!" Shado was excited at the thought of having their own place out in the woods with freedom that they didn't have in town.

"Sure, Grams isn't alone anymore. All I have fits in my jeep. Will this be your first winter out here?"

"Yeah. I heard it can be brutal sometimes."

"Yeah, it gets pretty bad. As long as we have plenty of wood and stock up the pantry during fall, we should be fine."

"All right, I'll talk to Skylar about it when we get back to your Grams."

"Okay, maybe we can look at his place this weekend. I can help pay for it also."

"No, I got it babe."

Xael scrunched her face at him. He was just as stubborn as her. As the two set and watched the movie, Shado's phone rang again.

"I'm gonna get the clothes out of the dryer." Xael whispered to him and was out of the bed.

"Dad?" Shado was surprised by the call.

"Hey Adam! How are you doing, son?"

"Great, are you back in the States?"

"Yeah, got back yesterday. So how's the girlfriend?"

"Uh...she's not my girlfriend dad. She's my Mate."  There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end of the phone.

"Whoa...Really? When did all of this happen?"

"Almost 2 weeks."

"I'm happy for you Adam. So when do I get to meet her?"

"Well, we'll be in the city tomorrow."

"In the city?"

"She lives on tribal land with her Grandmother."

"Oh! So she's Native American? How about we all meet for lunch tomorrow?"

"Hold on dad." Before Shado could ask the question, Xael already had an answer. "Are you sure your going to be fine around another Alpha Xael?"

She was excitedly shaking her head 'yes'. "Yeah, I'm over the whole mating thing. Plus you've been able to help me heal pretty fast."

Shado didn't know what to think about his Omega.

"Sure dad, lunch tomorrow sounds good! 1 o'clock work?"

"Perfect! I'll text you tomorrow. You two take care and congrats on finding another Mate. Wait...is she your True Mate?"

"Yeah, she is."

"Whoa...you know how rare that is son? I'm really happy for you Adam."

"Thanks dad, see you tomorrow."

Xael changed into warm clothes right out the dryer and added a few of the towels at a time.

"So we're meeting your dad tomorrow?"

"Yeah, he seems really excited to meet you."

Xael folded the clothes from the dryer as the towels tumbled away. Shado washed up the few dishes that were in the sink. She also remembered that she had put the dog tags she always wore in her bag when she packed it.

She put on a clean pair of undies and one of Shado's t-shirts since they weren't going anywhere. She also grabbed the heating pad, once she stopped moving she knew her temperature would drop again.  Placing it on the bed, she wrapped herself in the blankets again and crawled into bed. Shado had called his old police Chief and the two were talking away.

Xael plugged in the heating pad and turned it on low. She squirmed over to rest her head on her Mate's lap while he continued to talk on the phone. Shado gently stroked her hair. Once she started to warm up, she was asleep. Shado decided to talk to Skylar for a bit also. It was already after 5 so he would be off work.

"Hey Shado, how are you two doing? How's Xael?"

"Good, she's sleeping again. Her body temp keeps dropping now that her heat has stopped."

"Ahhh I see. So what's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about your place. Xael is wanting to see it."

"Oh good! So have you two talked about it?"

"We talked a little about it. She's open to it."

"Okay. Saturday work?"

"Yeah, I think she's wanting to get back to her Grams, now that her heat is done."

"Sounds good. We can meet at the diner Saturday morning and head out there."

"Great, I'll let her know."

Shado finished another movie while his Mate slept. He finished up the laundry and folded the towels.  Around 9pm he called it a night, turned off the lights, lit a leaf of sage and crawled into bed next to his Mate to get some much needed sleep. It seemed that Xael would sleep through the night, which relieved him as he really wanted her to get more rest.