Work Text:
Family get togethers didn't happen that often any more, the family had grown apart somewhat as the kids had all got older. Work, college, university and families, casting them all to the four winds. She’d known of course that it would happen, all mothers do. But that didn’t make it any easier, really.
John would laugh, claiming she had empty nest syndrome and Peter wasn’t beyond a poke or two at her. But unlike John who was mostly human, he could feel the pack bonds that were stretched thin not that they were even close to breaking and would never be, woven as they were with heat tempered steel.
And John was enough something else that he could feel echos of her bonds, turning his teasing easily into a family joke. Making the laughter of her children, grand children, and soon to be great grand child even more precious.
The splash and shriek that came from introducing one of the kids to the lake at the back of the preserve had her smiling. Shaking off the melancholy that had cloaked her this morning.
Still strong arms wrapping round her waist more than helped, as did the nuzzling under her ear. Bringing the same purring growl it had done for the last fifty years from her.
“Come on birthday girl, no hiding in the bushes, unless you want me to chase you that is.”
Even though she slapped his shoulder and jokingly told him off, she was more than happy that her mate still wanted to chase her through the woods.
The shout of ‘get a room you two’ had them both laughing as they walked hand in hand over to the table. Where a birthday cake had suddenly appeared. The decoration obviously done, with much love, by the younger members of the pack with the embarrassingly big number of seventy on it.
The very out of key rendition of happy birthday had her laughing, as did the calls to cut the cake from those who had a sweet tooth.
And while she really couldn’t believe and certainly didn’t feel seventy, she was sure as heck going to enjoy the party and then start planning for the next one. After all, John was coming up on a major birthday.
So maybe with a little push, these get togethers wouldn’t be as few and far between. There was a reason she was the Hale Alpha, after all. And at her age she was permitted to have some fun with it.
And that thought really did amuse her.