Chapter 44: Traveling to Canada

**Mateo**

The last few days have been busy, but everything was going well. Today we were going to fly to Canada. The best thing about this week was that I managed to get along with Liam. And I had some help from the other side, my cousin Bella, who was close to Liam. The two were only a year apart, so they grew up together. She told him the whole story that John told us and said that she cared a lot about my beta, because of that.

“He was respectful and discreet with her, in a moment of fragility, and that calmed me down. Like I said, I'm fine with him, but I hope it's not more than friendship, Mat. Not for me, but for my father, you know, a beta isn't enough for him. He puts business before marriage. I don't know if I can escape something like that. It's kind of a family tradition, but I wish Bella could have her mate predestined by the goddess.”

Now, all we could do was wait for Bella to turn 18 to see if she would find her mate among one of the guests or if fate would take her down another path.

I saw four SUVs park in front of the Pack House. It was time to load the cars. My friends started arriving and I went to pick up my mate, who was already saying goodbye to my parents.

The big Alpha Krig gave a little speech encouraging us, which drove everyone crazy. He was very competitive. I hugged my father and kissed my mother, who told me if things got too difficult to call her.

We left for the airport. I asked for a car just for me and Nat because she was the only woman in the group and I didn't want her to feel embarrassed. But I took advantage of the driver so I could go behind her, kissing my future luna.

It was hard for an entire hockey team together not to attract attention. Especially from humans, after all we were huge and unusually beautiful for them. We got on.

I could feel John's heart beating faster. It would be important for him to meet Bella in person so he could find out whether or not he was the goddess's destined mate.

It would be very difficult to arrange a meeting between him and Bella before her birthday. But Nat had a great idea. Since the two of them didn't know each other and we would be staying in a different hotel than the team, she invited my cousin to a family tea party. Liam would escort her, but I would invite him for a drink at the bar and John would have to find a way to show up at the tea room.

I didn't want to know the details so I wouldn't lie to my cousin. James had warned me that my uncle apologized, but he couldn't see me before the day of the game, which would open the celebrations, because he would have to personally welcome each member of the Wolf Council who had been invited and install them in their huts in the pack.

This birthday was really turning into a solemnity and I started to think that all that investment had something more behind the celebration, it was almost like a pretext to attract suitors for Bella.

John must have been really getting in the way of my mother’s brother’s “business.” And he must have been putting pressure on my cousins ​​to solve the “problem.” That was the old-fashioned way of making alliances. Wasn’t it better to accept that times have changed?

A few hours later, we arrived. We rented cars at the airport and went to our hotels. Later, we would have to tie up our plan for John and Bella's meeting.

The trip was uneventful. Nat snuggled into my shoulder and fell asleep. I loved watching her sleep.

...

The weather in Canada was mild, it was May and summer was approaching. I called Bella to confirm the tea with Natsuke. She thanked me for the game to celebrate her birthday and was excited to meet my partner. She told me how the weather was and I understood that this was code for John. “It’s great, looking forward to the game. They want to know if there’s a chance for the birthday girl to cheer for the guest time?”, I laughed.

“Mateo, you don’t know me well, cousin, we’ve had some contact, I’m not complaining about that, I know what life is like for an alpha, but you should know that there’s a Fan Club here for the Canadian Wolves that has already bought half of the tickets.” I was surprised, “Wow! How do you know all this?”, I asked. “I’m the president of the Club,” she laughed, “See you at 5 pm.”

Natsuke and I went for a walk to see Toronto. Afterwards, we had lunch with John at our hotel. “How are you, John? Did you manage to think of something to find Bella without being seen?” He sent, beaming: “A scent blocker and I bribed someone to get access to the Hall, it’ll be fun”. Nat added to my thought: “I hope Mat can hold Liam at the bar for as long as necessary, don’t take too long, after the game we can arrange another meeting between you two, before that it’ll complicate everything”, she suggested.

After lunch, I rented a room for James, in the name of my coach, just so he could disappear, if necessary, I thought it was safer. Since, for sure, my uncle would send undercover security guards to accompany Liam and Bella. We went to rest and get ready for the afternoon meeting.

At 4:30 pm we were all ready, I wished John good luck, I tested his blocker and it was working, I couldn’t smell him. “I need to know where to buy this, it might be useful”. “It’s expensive, but it’s worth it. “In the black market of the wolf internet, we found everything from silver to wolfbane,” John said.

Nat came down to meet me at the hotel reception, she was beautiful in a white kimono with cherry blossoms. She didn’t always wear traditional clothing, could it be that she was homesick? I could see us going on a trip to visit Japan if she wanted. I had to ask her.

Liam called me that he was almost there. We met at the reception. “You’re even prettier, Natsuke,” Liam said and I let out a low growl. “Calm down, cousin,” he laughed. Bella, this is Mateo’s mate. “You’re very pretty, but I thought you had oriental features, I’m surprised,” Bella said. “My father was Russian, as well as a wolf,” Nat replied.