After a few hours, and another Shakespeare play read, I was feeling drawn to Adam's words.

Frosting.

I'm sure they could use some help frosting.

But maybe they'd be done by now? Perhaps there was something I could do to help with dinner anyway.

I swallowed my fear down and peeked out into the hallway. I looked back and forth and found Danielle clear back by the stair landing reading on a bench.

She stood and walked close. "Anything you need Miss Elise?"

"Um," I cleared my throat. "Are the kitchens done with frosting the cupcakes yet?"

"Oh, I don't know. Let me check." She closed her eyes a moment, then opened and smiled to me. "The cakes are cooling while they've been preparing the roasts. Debra says you are welcome to join them if you're interested."

I nodded. "I want to help."

"Then let me show you the way," she beamed.

We walked the stairway and passed the brilliant, windowed entrance. Another hallway down, Danielle knocked on a large door and then strode in.

The kitchen was a bright yellow color with white cabinetry and tiled floor. It was like a commercial kitchen. Massive refrigerators, many stoves, and two of the floor mixers like I had at the farm. It felt like home.

Three ladies looked up with sunny smiles. "You must be Elise."

The lady with long blonde hair that dropped off dinner last night, stepped toward me wiping her hands on her apron. "I'm Melanie." She pointed to the slightly squat older lady with greying hair, "this is Debra." And then a girl in her late twenties with short dark waves. "Olivia."

They bowed. "Nice to meet you."

Melanie continued. "We're part of the kitchen staff here at Lone Raine. We take a shift every day."

My brows furrowed. "That's a lot of work."

Olivia grinned. "But we love it! You love baking, right? Wouldn't you rather be in here than say, re-roofing houses?"

A slight smile spread to my face. "Yeah, I guess I would too."

My eyes glanced behind them to the mountain of cooling cupcakes.

Debra followed my look and smiled. "I hear you have quite a cake recipe Dear. My son was sure taken with it."

Oh yeah, Debra was Jeff's mom.

She continued, "would you be interested in making the frosting for us? We're still plenty busy searing the roasts."

"Okay," but a hollow feeling started. "But it would just be regular frosting. I can't get to my farm ingredients anymore."

"Oh Sweety," Debra's loving arms came around me. "We heard about your home. That's so, so sad."

Melanie patted my back. "We have lots of ingredients. You decide what to make and we know it'll be perfect."

I tried to pull back any tears that wanted to break free. "Do you have honey?"

Olivia pulled open a cabinet full of a baker's dream. It was a breath of fresh air, I could almost cry again.

Danielle cut in. "Elise, have anyone call for me if you need anything. I'll go refresh your room."

I nodded to her and began pulling down ingredients.

Melanie pointed to a drawer with measuring utensils, and I went to work in the mixer.

My pains drifted away.

It was like it always was. Just me and frosting.

I even found a box of food coloring for my signature pink.

I felt like me.

The other ladies finished searing the roasts and placed them in slow cookers. They came and sat by me as I frosted the tops of the beginning of hundreds of cupcakes.

Maybe they knew I was in my own zone. Maybe they knew I was still hurting about my loss. But they didn't beg me into the conversation as we all worked.

They chatted to themselves about their families and current events, but I never felt excluded. It was exactly what I needed and my mind silently thanked Adam for the invitation.

This felt like life to me.

Frosting was a piece of me.

As the last box filled with frosted cupcakes, Melanie handed me a leftover one. "Your frosting may not be what you'd hoped, but it is darn good, Girl." She took a bite from her own pink frosted cake. "Oh, so scrumptious!"

I smiled and took a messy bite. It wasn't my cake, but it was my frosting and that felt good. It was also the first thing I'd eaten all day.

Debra and Olivia came up beside me holding their own cupcakes.

Olivia licked the top of hers. "Elise, this is marvelous! Best frosting ever."

"It is quite sensational. No wonder Jeff talked about it," Debra exclaimed.

"Thanks," I said with a slight blush.

We sat and nibbled our cupcakes.

Debra asked, "So the honey. Is that the secret ingredient?"

I nodded, pulling the wrapper away for another bite. "The honey gives it a richness to the sweet that all granulated sugar frosting doesn't have."

"Sounds good to me," Melanie nodded.

Debra washed her hands from the sticky frosting. "Alright ladies, I'd love to keep chatting, but potatoes need to be washed."

Melanie looked over. "Thank you for the help with the cupcakes. We're glad you were here."

I spoke delicately, not really wanting to leave now that I was there, "I could help with potatoes too?"

Debra smiled. "We'd love your help Dear!"

I smiled and washed up. Olivia set me out a station, so we could wash and wrap potatoes in an assembly line. I was in charge of rubbing on the oil and salting before passing them on to be wrapped.

"Elise, tell me about your family," Debra urged.

"Okay, uh. I was raised by my grandparents at the farm. I lived there all my life. I have no memory of my mother or father and my grandparents were rather tight lipped about it. Just said they couldn't keep me. I never met them. They could be dead."

"Oh, that's horrible Girl. And now your grandparents are gone too, correct?"

"Yeah," I nodded with a salt sprinkle between my fingers. "They died when I was sixteen."

"It was Alpha Milo, right? Can we ask?" Debra asked softly.

"I guess," I bit my lip. "He came to my grandparents wanting something they used to have. They couldn't tell him where it was so he, uh, had his wolf warriors attack. He saw me there, but I didn't know anything, so he let me go."

"What did he want?"

I swallowed nervously. "I don't know."

Lie.

He wanted her. But she was already dead.

Melanie cut in as she foiled a potato. "Do you think that's why Milo has become so violent these last years? He wasn't crazy before ten years or so. But now he's been taking lands and raiding our villages. Not just ours, lots of the packs around here. That's what started the war. Maybe he's looking for that thing specifically."

"Makes sense," Olivia added. "What do you think it could be? Like jewels? Some cool history book?"

"Something from the Moon Goddess," Debra spoke softly. "Maybe a powerful tool she once had?"

Olivia and Melanie agreed. "Oh yeah. That would be something to fight for."

"Moon Goddess has Earth tools?" I'd never heard of such a thing from Milo's teachings. It wasn't what he was looking for, as far as I knew, but the thought was intriguing.

"No," Debra spoke as she continued washing, "there's legends of course. But just silly imaginings of men. No such tools have ever actually been recorded."

Olivia giggled as she dried the potatoes in front of her. "It's just gossip."

I truly smiled, looking around at the ladies. This was exactly what I needed to get away from everything. I didn't need to sit alone. I needed friends.

"Thanks for letting me help," I mentioned quietly to the salt.

"Well aren't you sweet," Debra leaned out to see me. "We should be thanking you for your help. Not the other way around."

"I just needed something to do today. Frosting was fun."

Melanie grinned as she continued foiling. "You come help anytime you want. We'll put you to work. We trade meal shifts every two weeks. So if you get bored of desserts, we'll be on breakfast soon enough."

Olivia asked, "got any other good dessert recipes? Chocolate chip cookies get old."

"I've got a good snickerdoodle recipe. Oh! Or chocolate lava cakes? I can make those in bulk. We do it at the diner for Christmas," I added.

"Those sound great!" Debra thought.

"I need lots of cupcake pans but," I looked at the tower of cupcake boxes in the corner, "it looks like we might be set."

Olivia laughed, "oh we've got plenty of those!"

"Great! Add like ten pounds of good chocolate to your shopping list. We'll make them."

Melanie laughed to the others, "I like this woman."

Debra grinned. "And what will the rest of you eat?"

We stopped and laughed together.

Olivia giggled. "We better get more than that. The boys might eat it before it's off the delivery truck!"

"Sounds like them," I added. "At my diner we call it the footballer special."

"Footballer special?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah, like big football sized guys need big footballer sized portions. I ask for it for wolves that come in as well as the local athletic teenagers." I grinned at the memories.

Debra got a thoughtful glance as she rinsed. "Now wait. How do you tell that they are werewolves? I know us werewolves can pick each other out, scent mostly, but you sound like you can tell. Just how the men look? I've never known a human to be so confident."

"Huh." I shrugged, distracted. "I actually don't know. Maybe humans can pick out werewolves, we just don't talk about it with each other?"

"No," Melanie put in. "My neighbor, Shelly, is a mated human. She can never tell the difference."

"Really?" I asked baffled. "I don't know then. But I did go to Milo's packhouse once. And after that I just understood the difference."

Could I scent wolves?

No, that was crazy. I was just a human. But I knew Jeff and his friends were wolves as he walked in the door. Humans can't smell that well. Had to be by sight.

Melanie's eyes opened wide. "Whoa, you've been to Wilde Claw pack? How was it?"

I shrugged. "It was weird. I just barely found out about wolves when I went, so it all came at once."

"Why did he take you there? You aren't mated right?"

"No," I shook my head, trying to delicately word the answer. "I guess he thought I was someone else."

"Weird," Olivia remarked. "So he just randomly thought you were someone else? And happened to take a human to a packhouse?" She started laughing. "That wolf's got problems."

I laughed. "That he does."

Debra's head came up silently and she stared into space for a moment. "Oh, Elise Doll? Danielle is on her way to you. Nate needs you."

"He does?" I asked bewildered. "Isn't he in council meetings?"

"Yes dear."

"O..kay then." I breathed in deep and abandoned my station to clean up. "Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys today."

"Bye Elise!"

"Take care."

"We're buying that chocolate bar!" Olivia laughed.

Danielle knocked gently and opened the door. "Elise, will you come with me?"

"Sure, bye ladies." I waved then followed her down the hall. "Nate right? What does he want?"

She turned back, her long brunette hair flowing down her back. "They need you in council."

"In council? What do they need me for there?"

"There is a matter in the treaty that concerns you."

"Concerns....Wait. Me?" I paused, my eyes opened wide.

What could a werewolf treaty possibly want with me?

I ran to catch up and followed Danielle clear out of the packhouse and down the road.

"Did the council say what the treaty says about me?"

She shook her head, looking back to me. "I'm not allowed to know about those kinds of things."

"Is it normal for people to be zeroed out in treaties?"

"Not that I'm aware. Treaties are mostly things like 'I won't go on your land,' or 'let's share resources' or 'let's plan Mate and Mingles every year.'"

"Mate... Mate and Mingles?" I nearly choked on a laugh. "Oh. Please tell me that's a real thing."

"It is!" She giggled. "Mate and Mingles happen with a few of the packs around here. You see sometimes our mates end up being in another pack. When that happens it's hard to find your one. Every couple of months a different pack hosts Mate and Mingles so the singles can go and see if their mate is in another pack. It's how my mom found her mate and she moved here to Lone Raine."

"Okay, so that's not as weird as I thought it was." I chuckled. "Still a funny name though." I tried to picture Nate saying "Welcome to our annual Mate and Mingle my pack friends! Please have some hors d'oeuvres!"

I noticed she was leading us to a rectangular brick building with pillars out front. It was maybe the size of an old church house. Not too big, not too small.

"This is the council room. It's where the upper wolves gather to help keep the pack working, as well as any disciplinary actions that need to happen from rule breakers."

My pulse quickened as we got close.

Now what in the world did that treaty have to do with me?