Winter's Dawn (4 page)

Emma rubbed her arms and shivered. “It’s not healthy to bathe in cold water.”

“But, I like it.” Susie said unapologetically and gave a sigh of relief as she left the shallow side of the tub and swam over to Max. The bathtub was so large that when standing in the deeper end, the water reached clear up to Max’s chest. Susie, who was as petite as Max was large, usually hung onto him rather than fight standing on her toes to keep the water below her chin. She wrapped her tiny arms around his neck and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “I’m sleepy.”

Susie yawned and Max waded over to the shallow side of the tub. “Aunt Emma, why can’t we go to school?”

“You have wonderful tutors.” Emma started to pick up all their discarded clothes. “You already speak four languages. You read and write very well and your arithmetic is extremely advanced. What school could offer you that?”

“Max wants friends.” Susie sounded sleepy as she crawled off his back and lay back against the sloping marble on the shallow side of the tub.

“Max, your queen is your friend.” Emma kneeled down and rested her arms against the tub. “You shouldn’t need any other friends.”

“But, I do,” Max whined, as he took the bar of soap Aunt Emma held out to him and started making quick work of washing up. “We want to be like human children. Go to school and play baseball—”

“Susan could learn baseball,” Aunt Emma started washing Susie’s hair, working it into a lather as Susie’s head kept falling forward in exhaustion.

“You need a team to play baseball. Susie can’t be more than just Susie,” Max argued as he set the soap aside and then waded back into the deeper end of the tub. “And she needs little girls to have tea parties and play dolls with.”

“You play dolls with me, Max,” Susie said, before she sank under the water to rinse her hair.

Max’s cheeks flamed as he glared at Aunt Emma. “We need friends.”

Emma sighed. “If there were other wolves your age—”

“There’s not.”

“My father was human.” Susie reached out to Max, silently beckoning him. “So was Max’s mother.”

Max walked to her and leaned down so that she could wrap her arms around his neck once more. He carried her over to the deep end on his back. He sunk lower in the cool water as she rested her cheek against the nape of his neck.

Susie’s hair was so long now that it floated around him like moon-spun silk and he fingered a lock of it in the water. “We want to go to school,” he whispered, still watching the way her hair floated around him. “We want to be normal.”

“You aren’t normal,” Emma said softly. “And you aren’t human, even if you had parents who were. You would never be able to fit in at a human school. Your magic is too powerful. You need to remain with your own kind. Besides there are rogue wolves out there who would love to take our alpha pair. It’s dangerous.”

“We could hide it.” Max felt a kindling of hope burst inside him. “And you know I can protect Susie.”

“Maxwell, I know you can. That’s just it. You are stronger than humans. Their offspring can’t do the things you can. You aren’t just a werewolf. You’re an alpha werewolf. It would be impossible for you to blend in and not call attention to us.”

“No, we could do it,” Max pleaded. “I watch the them all the time. I know how they act.”

“It’d be like playing pretend.” Susie stifled another yawn. “I love pretend.”

“Please, Aunt Emma,” he begged.

She pinched her lips and shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s more than your magic and strength. Humans think differently than we do. Their customs are different. Their whole genetic makeup is different.”

Susie was twisting his hair, wrapping it around her fingers like she always did when she was sleepy. Despite the uncomfortable tug, he leaned his head forward to give her better access. “We could learn their customs. Maggie could help us.”

Aunt Emma finally sighed in defeat. “I’ll discuss it with your father.”

“Really?” Max asked, jerking his head up so fast that it startled Susie, but just as quickly she rested her cheek against his back once more. He obediently let his head fall forward when she started twisting his hair again. “Do you think he’ll say, yes?”

“I doubt it.” Emma stood. “Help me get Susan dry. She’s fallen asleep in the bath again.”

“The cold water makes her sleepy.” Max pulled Susie off his back, making sure not to get her face wet as he carefully settled her in his arms. She sighed contently and curled into him, her breath warm against his chest as he waded into the shallow end. He yawned, finding that the cold water had relaxed him to the point of near exhaustion. “Makes me sleepy too.”

“Don’t drop her, Maxwell,” Emma said as he started to get out of the bath with Susie in his arms.

Max was insulted despite his exhaustion. “I never do.”

Emma covered Susie with one towel and draped the other over Max’s shoulders. She worked diligently at drying Susie’s long hair as Max carried her to bed. Max and Susie had the largest suite of rooms in the palace. Everything was bigger and more opulent in their suite than it was in the group of rooms his father and Aunt Emma shared.

Their bed was so big that Susie looked like a tiny winter fairy when he laid her down and she curled into the blue silk sheets. Aunt Emma went to get their nightclothes and Max took over the task of drying her hair, wishing she would wake for just one more minute. Susie could dry her own hair at will by turning the water to vapor, but she was dead asleep, probably having nice winter dreams. The only reason she had let the snow melt on her clothes was her need to be reminded that winter had finally arrived. Neither of them were comfortable in temperatures above freezing.

“Finish drying off, Maxwell.” Aunt Emma returned from the changing room. “I’ll dress her.”

He left Susie to Aunt Emma and pulled on a simple pair of boxer shorts once he’d dried himself. Ignoring the pajamas Aunt Emma had laid out for him, he grabbed Susie’s brush and hair ties off her vanity in their bedroom and walked back to the bed to find Susie wearing a long sleeve nightgown.

He snorted. “She’ll never keep that on.”

“There’s a chill in the air thanks to all your snow.” Emma turned to him and arched an eyebrow in annoyance. “You need your pajamas.”

He crawled into bed with Susie. “We like the chill.”

“We should have settled in Alaska,” she huffed. “If we’d have known for certain you two were going to be Winter Alphas, we would have.”

Max leaned over and started brushing Susie’s hair, being careful not to tug at any knots and wake her as he ran the brush through the long, white blonde strands.

“Make quick work, Maxwell.” Emma turned off the main light in their bedchamber, leaving only the dim light on his nightstand to work by. “Little kings need their rest too.”

Max nodded and turned to her before she left. “Talk to my father, please, Aunt Emma.”

She smiled. “Quick work.”

When she left, Max resumed his work on Susie’s hair, which was made more difficult due to it being so long and still wet. She was tossing on the sheets, uncomfortable in the nightgown Aunt Emma had chosen.

Max finally huffed in defeat and pulled her to him. He settled Susie with her back against his chest and undid the buttons on her nightgown blindly. “Lift your arms, Susie Bee.”

“Mmm, sleepy,” she hummed.

“Real quick.” He tugged at her nightgown. “Help me get this thing off.” With that promise, she sat up, raising her arms as Max pulled her nightgown off and tossed it aside. “Make my life easy and dry your hair too.”

“What?” She turned heavy, ice colored eyes on him.

“Your hair.”

Her hair dried as she leaned back against him and Max noticed that she had dried his hair too, probably by accident as she turned all the water in the room to vapor.

“One or two?” he asked as he started brushing her hair again, this time with far more success.

“Two.”

Max rolled his eyes, but obediently started to work at parting her hair, so that the two braids she requested would be even. He never thought to question this task that had been assigned to him from the moment Susie’s hair grew long enough to be braided at night. His father diligently brushed and braided Aunt Emma’s hair every night, as did every male with a female mate who had ever lived or stayed at the Winter Palace. Max’s job was to take care of as many of Susie’s needs as possible and he never complained, or even thought to ponder on his duty.

When he was done, leaving Susie’s shining hair braided into two neat ropes that hung clear down to her waist, he fell back against the soft bed with a heavy sigh. His eyes closed instantly as Susie reached for his hair, twirling it between her delicate fingers. He let his head fall to the side to give her better access and then promptly fell asleep.

Chapter Three

Early 1950

“And don’t be too familiar with Susan.”

Max frowned at Maggie as he buttoned his winter coat. “I have to be familiar with her. She’s my mate.”

“Humans don’t have mates, Maxwell,” Maggie explained as she sat down on one of the benches in the changing room of their suite.

“Yes, they do. I’ve seen them. They hug and kiss and do all the things our people do with their mates.”

“They aren’t born with mates,” Maggie clarified. “We find them later when we’re grown.”

Max set down next to her and studied his hands. “Maybe this is a bad idea. Their customs are quite different.”

“No, I believe you need to go school,” Maggie said soothingly. “You need friends. You just have to keep a few rules in mind and number one is that Susan is your cousin, not your mate.”

“Cousins are familiar with each other. They hug and hold hands.” He turned back to her again. “Don’t human cousins do that?”

Maggie shook her head. “No, Maxwell, not really, not like that. We don’t mate with anyone in our family. That is quite wrong in the human world.”

He grimaced in disgust. “They mate with strangers?”

“You’re too young to discuss this with.” Maggie’s voice was slightly stern. “Just don’t be too familiar with her and don’t mention that you two sleep together. Human children generally sleep alone.”

“Oh, how sad.” Susie walked in from the bedroom, wearing a long, buttoned up pea coat that hid her blue dress. Beneath it she wore white stockings and black shoes that gleamed from the bright lights in the changing room. “I would never be able to fall asleep alone.”

“I don’t know if this is a good idea.” Aunt Emma stood at the doorway, having followed Susie in from the bedroom. “Our queen and king should not be going to school with humans.”

“I think it’ll be a good experience.” Maggie’s sounded optimistic. “And they’ll be fine. They are both quite bright and good at playing pretend.”

“But, wolves don’t lie,” Max argued, looking up to his aunt for confirmation. “Not ever.”

“That is true.” Aunt Emma nodded in agreement. “It goes against our nature.”

“You’re not lying,” Maggie argued. “You are just keeping a few things private.”

“We can do it,” Susie said brightly. “It’s going to be great fun. You’ll see, Max.”

Max decided to put aside his reservations because Susie was excited. “Come here. I’ll do your hair.”

Susie smiled and skipped over to him, handing him her brush that she grabbed for him. “I don’t think I want braids. I want it done up like human girls.”

“Human girls wear braids.” Max started brushing her hair. “I’ve seen them.”

“No, most tie it back.” Susie pulled up her hair, holding it high on her head to show him. “Like that.”

“I don’t know how to do that.” Max looked to Maggie again. “Perhaps the other males can show me.”

Maggie winced. “Boys don’t generally do hair. That would seem like a very odd request.”

“Who does it then?” Susie gasped, turning around to look at Maggie in shock. “They all have their hair done.”

“Their mothers do it for them,” Maggie said patiently. “And then they learn to do it themselves as they get older.”

“Oh, she can’t go.” Emma shook her head in horror. “Our females should never do hair if they have a male in the house to do it for them. Susan could pick up bad ideas.”