Defined - Jacob Black {2}

Chapter 16: Turmoil

Jake climbed onto the lounge chair and slipped himself behind Aria so she could lean back against his chest. His fingers wound their way into her hair as he twisted in around his fingers, his eyes flickering from the side of her perfect face to the spectacular view that was laid out before them.

"I know." She sighed, a little too heavily for her own liking, she didn't want to let anything slip. "I love you." She breathed out, leaning her head back to rest against his bare shoulder.

"I love you, too." He kissed the top of her head and hummed to himself. She seemed fairly normal again, hopefully she was now out of her funk, especially as they were moving onto the next resort later that morning. He just wanted her to go back to enjoying herself again.

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Aria's POV

His thoughts seemed clear, he was worried about me, that was certain, but he didn't suspect my change in mood was anything to do with blood. He mostly believed that I had wedding blues, he had heard Alice say once that some brides feel a bit down after their wedding, all that build up of planning a wedding, only for it to be over after a day. I'd rather he think that than knowing that I had drank blood and liked it.

I tried to be more animated, more excited about the new resort and the plane journey. It was safe to say that I think I had convinced him, despite his wariness. We arrived at the Ngorongoro Crater a little after midday, the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was visible from the road that scoured the craters edge, as we drove we had a perfect view of the land that stretched out below us and the large lake in the centre of the crater.

Perched on the edge of the crater was the resort we would be staying at for the next two nights, there were three major base camps, each with ten private suits for their guests, all of them perched on stilts on the rim of the crater. I think if you had a fear of heights this wasn't the place for you.

Our suite was adorned with beautiful antiques, grand chandeliers and elegant African treasures. The bedroom, sitting room and ensuite bathroom had amazing floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the magnificent crater below. I promised myself that I would make an effort to enjoy this time more with Jake. The first day at our last camp was amazing, but once the bloodlust started I fell into myself and didn't acknowledge Jake much. This was our honeymoon and I had to try my best to ignore it.

After arrival we were given thirty minutes to get ready and to meet back at the main camp as we were offered a complementary picnic in one of the resorts safe zones, a place which was next to a particular herd of elephants favourite spot to drink. The whole crater covered more than eight-thousand square kilometres, and was home to twenty-five-thousand animals. The elephants in particular are what I was actually really excited to see, the people that worked here had a special elephant sanctuary programme where guests sometimes got to interact with the elephants. I just hoped Jake and I could be that lucky.

We were taken to a fenced off area towards the centre of the crater where the flat earth stretched out for miles around us. The levelness of the ground allowed me to see for much farther than what I was used to. In every direction there was animals, it did make me a little nervous to be so exposed to predators, obviously not for my sake but for the humans around us, and I was also so eternally grateful that the scents of the animals did not entice me one bit.

The small dedicated area was reserved for picnics, the fences were chainlinked, it kept the medium sized animals out but anything that was much larger, like a rhino or elephant, they would easily be able to get through. There was a small dining area set up in the centre with a cooking area covered under a marquee, we were guaranteed a gourmet meal and I could have squealed with happiness that my stomach rumbled with the thought of eating.