I stopped walking.
He'd let go of my hand and stood slightly to the side so as not to block my view.
As if he even could.
I'd been to this backyard a number of times, and in my opinion, the term 'backyard' didn't give this place justice.
It was really large for one and wasn't fenced, so it looked like it had enough space to build another mansion.
The grass was low cut here, almost always, there was a wooden and glass shed at the far end and a giant pool right in the centre. With a cute little summer hut a little behind the pool.
The pool was always covered, therefore never actually used, so anytime I was out here, I'd sit on the lounging chairs and relax.
But today, it was uncovered. And practically glowing.
The first thing that caught my eyes, as usual, were the lights.
Blue and green, coming from inside the pool, making it appear like some glowing elixir, ready to grant me three wishes.
Next were the yellow and white floor lights that lined the edges of the pool, all around.
I looked further and saw that there were even lights surrounding the little hut, those weren't too bright but they still illuminated the area.
And the small round table that stood under the hut had something white on it, like a table cloth. And two candles giving of a soft glow.
Hm.
Candles?
At this point in my confusion I turned back to Damon who only took my hand and led me further, still not saying anything.
We passed directly by the pool which I also noticed had little streams of bubbles in it.
It was just calling me to swim now.
We walked up to the summer hut and I wanted to 'aww'.
It wasn't a large hut, it was small and made out of some type of hard clanky wood and had straw lining the roof.
But that made it all the more cosy looking.
The place had obviously been cleaned because the last and first time I ever stood here, I remember walking into quite a number of cobwebs and dust was lining everything.
But it was all neat now. And I had been right, there was a white table cloth on the table now, and two seats facing each other that weren't there before.
And now for the showstopper, the two lovely round candles on the table, along with two trays and dishes, both covered and separated by an ice bucket with,
"Is that wine?" Was the first thing that slipped out.
He breathed out a laugh and I turned to face him.
"Non alcoholic champagne actually." He said, his voice a bit quiet.
I nodded, looking at the little arrangement once more.
I didn't know what was under those lids, but it suddenly made my hunger come back a tenfold.
It smelled good.
"Do you like it?" If we hadn't been the only two people out here I would have said someone else was speaking.
The voice almost didn't belong to him.
He sounded so..., hesitant.
It threw me off a bit, so I didn't even catch the meaning of his question right away.
"What?" I asked, my voice also quiet. I felt like speaking loudly now would just scare him off. For what reason, I wasn't sure.
"All this?" I gestured towards the little set up which seemed romantic now that we were cast in the soft glow of the candle light.
He nodded slowly, never taking his eyes off me. Like he wanted to catch every single reaction and feeling coming off of me.
And then I realised that he'd done this, for me?
He made this whole place a beautiful scenery again, for a candle lit dinner. For me?
For me.
Suddenly the place looked a hundred times more romantic. It was beautiful.
And thoughtful. And that's what really touched me.
I didn't care if it was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in those saucers, as long as they're coming from him, I'd love it.
And I liked bread. In fact I really still wanted to eat the bread I had decided on earlier.
I looked back at the pool, with the beautiful gleaming lights and bubbles, where we stood, with the scented candles and the lights around us that added to the soft glow of the candles, and the food hiding under those covers.
I looked back at him.
"I love it." I smiled.
He smiled back at me, looking somewhat more at ease, and moved forward to pull out a chair for me.
I sat and eagerly awaited my meal. Because at this point I was ready to eat absolutely anything.
Once he sat down he took the covers off our plates and all I saw was gourmet treasure.
A slight exaggeration, but remember, I said I was ready to devour plain bread a call it an evening.
What stared back at me was a nicely sized grilled steak, practically still sizzling, with mashed potatoes and gravy. And also what seemed like sautèd mushrooms on the side.
Woah.
The scent wafting in through my nostrils right now was incredible. So incredible, I just had to ask.
"Did you order this?"
He laughed. "No, I made it."
My eyebrows shot up. "Really? All of it?"
I knew he could grill a mean steak, but the gravy on my plate, along side the mashed potatoes with parsley and the mushrooms made me wonder.
I poked a mushroom with my fork and ate it.
Mmm, that was really good. I took another one right after I swallowed and looked at him waiting for his answer.
He stabbed his steak with his fork and started slicing. "Not all of it. My mother made the sauce." He shrugged. "And insisted on a large bottle of red wine." He said smiling and shaking his head a bit.
Latifah, huh.
I wasn't surprised then.
But the rest was his work, and it was delicious, I thought as I ate some mashed potatoes.
And very hot too.
I cut some steak and ate it as well.
"How come the food is still hot? Shouldn't it have been sitting here for a while?"
"I set the place up and left everything in the oven. Once we got here, I took it all out."
My eyebrows furrowed lightly getting confused again. We arrived here together, didn't we?
Having sensed the confusion in my mind, he added, "I do not, in fact, need ten minutes to put on a pair of pants or a shirt and shoes for that matter." He gave me a sly smile and I remembered what had been going on in my mind when he was taking forever to change.
"Wait, you could hear that? My, my thoughts?" I was raving on and on about food, I felt so silly all of a sudden.
"Parts, your mind was all over the place."
He plopped a bit of steak in his mouth.
He tried to keep a straight look, but I could feel him laughing at me.
I was even laughing at myself now.
I kept quiet from that point on and focused on my food.
Which I did with pleasure.
***
The water was warm all around my feet, practically begging me to jump in.
We finished eating and sent our dishes into the kitchen and placed them into the dishwasher.
After that, we came back out and I wanted to sit by the pool under the night sky.
So I pulled off my shoes and placed my feet in the pool, wetting the legs of my jeans.
But I didn't really care.
Damon sat beside me and dipped his feet into the pool as well, but he'd rolled the legs of his jeans up a bit to avoid the water.
Don't want to get wet huh? We'll see about that.
The bubbles felt nice against the sole of my feet, like a little massage. Were there jet engines in this thing?
The steady stream of water hitting my feet felt very soothing.
The lights on the floor and along the walls of the pool alternated between blue and green, all blue lights swapping to green and green lights swapping to blue simultaneously.
The sky blue tiles used in the pool gave it more of an overall blue glow, but the green peeked through as well.
I had no idea why I was getting so fascinated with pool lights.
Ssto..
"How long were you watching me?" I asked him.
Damon, who wasn't as fascinated with his pool lights as I was and was staring off into the distance looked back at me.
"Pardon?"
"Back in the forest, how long had you been hiding there before I saw you?"
He seemed to think about it for a while, "After you were on your fourth tree I think."
I almost nodded and then had a second thought. "Fourth tree? If that was the moment you arrived, how would you know that that was my fourth tree?" I narrowed my eyes at him.
He was turning into my own personalised stalker.
"You asked me at what point I started hiding from you. When I arrived initially I was standing out in the open, but you were too busy running that you didn't see me, or sense me." He paused, like he found that weird. And then he continued. "I only took cover once you started attacking the trees."
Huh?
"What? Attacking?" Oh.
I fake gasped when I realised he was making fun of my tree climbing skills.
"I was climbing." I protested and couldn't help my laugh.
"Oh. You were climbing?" He said acting like he was genuinely surprised.
I punched his arm, he only laughed it off.
Or maybe I should just shove him into the pool?
"So I'm assuming you got my mind link then?"
"'I'm going for a run, don't wait up. Send.' Yeah, I think I got it, more than you intended even." He smiled again.
What!
I mentally facepalmed. He got the 'send' as well? Awesome.
At least I got the message to the right person. Props to me on that one.
My brain was so haywire today.
What else did he hear. Goodness.
It's been a long day.
"Yeah, I had to clear my head a bit." I said remembering what made me go for the run in the first place.
I sighed.
I'll think about that tomorrow. Right now, I didn't feel like having any serious discussion.
I just wanted to admire the beautiful glowing stars in the clear night sky.
I looked up and saw... zero stars in the sky.
I frowned.
Only a few miserable dark clouds holding the promise of rain.
I rested my head on his shoulder and admired the forest ahead of us. I was tired again.
"Thanks again, for this." I said quietly.
Today had been a long day, but I wouldn't have ended it any other way.
He didn't say anything, he only turned his head a bit and placed a soft kiss on the top of my head.
That's more than enough of a response for me.
I smiled, probably blushing as well. Good thing it's dark.
"So is this what you were doing all day before you came to stalk me?" I said a bit sleepy.
He laughed again at what I just said, which was pure fact by the way.
"No actually." He said and I immediately caught the change in his tone of voice. He sounded serious all of a sudden.
I lifted my head to gauge his expression to find out what was going on.
He looked tense now.
What happened?
He sighed."I went to the packs archives first. To get some books."
"Cook books?" I teased.
He only shook his head, still serious.
I was begining to get a bit worried. I didn't want the light atmosphere here thick with tension again.
"A book of formalities and ceremonials." He stated.
I nodded encouragingly as if I understood and urged him to go on.
But I still had no idea what was going on.
"Before today, I didn't know that Alpha Females were a thing anymore. I know that females are born as heirs to packs on rare occasion, but all I thought was that their mates would automatically be named Alpha."
Oh, so this was about Sarah's issue.
Well, my issue.
I wanted to postpone this topic, but since it has caught up to me, might as well deal with it now.
Damon turned to face me, his legs making a series of ripples in the water following his movements.
"I know you have Alpha blood running through you, but I had no idea that you had to be named Alpha female, I swear. I wasn't trying to deny you." His head made little shaking movements as he spoke, trying to relate to me how much he meant what he said.
He was getting so worked up over this.
I wasn't offended. Did he think I was?
I took his hands and held them in mine, "Its alright Damon. Before today I didn't know anything about that either. It's fine." I tried to assure him with a smile.
It didn't mean that I didn't want to be Alpha female, I wasnt entirely sure anymore, but I didn't want him feeling like he'd done something wrong by officially introducing me to the pack as his Luna.
He looked at me for a couple seconds further, searching my eyes.
Finally convinced, he nodded.
"So when do you want it?" He asked.
"What?"
"The ceremony? Apparently it's called a blue moon ceremony but it doesn't require an actual blue moon. Ancient wolf logic." He shook his head a bit. "We can have it this weekend if you want. I've already started making preparations."
What? How busy had he gotten just this afternoon?
"You're, you're gonna go through with it?"
Having the ceremony meant establishing the rule of an Alpha female in his pack.
Did he know this?
"Yes."
"You do know what me becoming an Alpha female means right?"
He only smiled, his left dimple making a small appearance.
He turned his hands and now it was he that held my hands in his.
He slowly lifted my left hand up to his lips and placed a gentle kiss against my knuckles.
"Equality I believe." He lifted the other hand and placed a kiss there as well, still looking at me.
Tingles shot up and down my arms at his actions.
"Yes?..." I said and waited for him to go on.
He cocked his head a bit and regarded me for a while.
"Adriane, I think I have a fair idea about what that means. Although I still have a lot to read about, I've got the basics down."
I narrowed my eyes at him, still not believing he understood all it entailed. Sarah had said quite a lot, a lot that might not agree with him. "Like?..."
"Like the fact that we'd share authority in the pack. We would both be heads. My power won't usurp yours and neither would yours usurp mine..." He started and I began to relax.
Huh, he actually knew what it entailed. At least a general idea. And he was willing to go through with it?
"We would have to make all major decisions regarding the pack together..." He went on.
I felt my heart warm up even further. He'd actually gone to look for books containing info about ancient ceremonies to find out more about Alpha Females. Something I never knew about, something he thought was just an outdated practice, something that was becoming our reality.
And he was willing to go through with it. Fully.
I smiled and allowed him to go on.
This sounded good.
"We would both have to attend all pack meetings and fulfil our pack alliance pledges, fill out our paperwork..."
I frowned. This wasn't sounding so good anymore.
"We both would have the right to challenge the other if one should feel like the other was doing something that was not in the interest or good for the pack..."
Okay...
"Having a joint account, which we already do by the way, and joint ownership of all business ventures and companies owned by each party at the time..."
Oh now he was just reciting the text he'd memorized back to me.
I didn't even have the mind to roll my eyes, because after each statement, he gave my hands another kiss.
Alternating between them. Caring for them both equally.
Equality.
I blushed again.
Wait.
Business ventures? Companies? I thought this was ancient stuff, where's all this coming from?
"Did they even have companies back then?" As outdated as I believed this whole Alpha female thing was, or at least how old the book he read from is, I was expecting all information to be like from a thousand years back.
"I made some slight alterations." He shrugged. "I don't own any herds or flocks of animals, and neither do you I assume?" He lifted a brow at me but he already knew the answer. His smug smile told all.
I ignored him and he only laughed and went on.
"Pack responsibilities and duties will be shared equally,..." He went on and on and I knew he was reciting everything for me just to show me that he knew what it entailed. And added more even after I was convinced, for good measure.
"...and you would have equal rights in naming our kids."
The last one caught my attention.
"What!?"
"We'd both have to agree on names for our kids. Weren't you listening?" I wanted to wipe that smug look off of his face.
"I heard you very clearly mister. Are you saying that before I would have had no say in what names my kids bore?" I rose my brow at him.
"Oh no, I would have put your suggestions into slight consideration. I'm a reasonable man." He wasn't able to keep a straight face till the end of his statement and I guess my angry expression made it harder for him.
He had to laugh. Both dimples waving at me this time.
I couldn't even be annoyed.
I laughed too.
"I hate you." I said playfully. But the moment I said it, I wanted to take it back.
Simply because he sometimes felt like I really did. And I didn't want him think that was true.
But when I looked at him, he wasn't angry or sad or hurt. He'd stopped laughing, yes, but his face was light.
"I love you Adriane."
I think my heart actually stopped there and then.