When I woke up the next day, the sun hadn't risen yet and the sky was still dark. I felt unusually cold even though Ruka held me. I lifted my face to see the windows wide open and the white curtains moving gently due to the wind coming in. If an artist would have come upon such a sight he would have definitely sat down with a canvas or a paper to capture the view now. Ruka's chest was rising softly up and down indicating he was asleep. I gazing at him for more than five minutes until I felt myself shiver due to the cold wind and snuggled closer to him. One of his arms came around me, tucking me next to him which made me smile. Even while he was asleep he was holding me close with so much love with such a gesture. I let myself bathe in his warm embrace, inhaling his musky scent until I fell back asleep.

In the morning when I woke up, I looked to see Ruka sitting next to me with a concerned look on his face.

"I think you should sleep and take rest for today," he said placing a hand on my cheek and thinking something.

"Huh?" I reacted perplexed. I looked at the wall clock to see it was ten past two and abruptly woke up to have a headache, "I missed school," I said.

"You're having a fever, sweet Eve. School can wait," he said taking a thermometer, "Now do ah," he said playfully with a smile.

I could tell he was clearly enjoying this, playing doctor with me. I opened my mouth so that he could place the thermometer in it to check the temperature. He took it out and shook his head.

"If I knew you were having a fever since last night I would have taken care of it," he said frowning, "I should have closed the windows when you shivered before you were staring at me," he confessed and I felt my blood rush to my cheeks lightly.

"You were awake? I thought you were asleep," I said softly looking at him as he pulled the covers over me. I noticed he had let down the curtains to dim the light in the room.

"I wasn't," he sat on the bed next to me, "Still a child at heart," he murmured to himself.

"But I have an important class today. You know the-" I explained it to him but he put a finger on my lips to make me stop talking.

"Shh. As I said, school and class can wait. I'll ask the teacher to redo the class or get a separate class scheduled for you," he took his cell phone typing something in it before putting it back in his pocket, "I asked Lisa to prepare breakfast for you before you woke up, it should be here in few minutes. Then you can take the medicine and rest, okay? Alright," he said looking at the door and someone knocked before opening it.

A maid came in holding a tray in her hand. There were a bowl and a container and it made me wonder if it was what I thought it was to be. She was wearing the white and black attire as same as I had seen the other maids wear. She seemed new as I hadn't seen her around the castle, maybe she had been recruited when I was at home. She was young I noticed, around sixteen I believe. She placed the tray at the table and looked up but averted her eyes quickly when she caught me staring at her, fidgeting a little. She bowed her eyes down and left us alone.

Ruka opened the lid from the container and the smell of chicken soup hit my nose. I was surprised to know that he knew what I ate when I was sick.

"How did you know?" I asked him as he poured it in the bowl and brought it to me.

"I did my homework," he replied handing it to me as I stretched my hands, "I asked your mother about it long back. Just in case if you refused to eat during the time as these," I was at awe hearing it that he had taken the effort to know about that little detail.

Chicken soup was my favorite. I lifted the spoon to my lips and ate it, the temperature apt to my liking. I started feeling dizzy after finishing half of the bowl and gave it back to Ruka. I guess I was ill after all, it had been quite long since the last time I fell sick. He helped me with the covers again as I got inside to rest.

"Thank you," I said to him when his hand found mine and I continued, "For all the little things you have done for me, for being a caring, loving and protective mate," I saw him smile at it. I had meant every word of it.

"Anything for you my love, any day, any time," he said looking me in the eye.

"Like I hear stories in school sometimes about mates, some rejected, some irrational and some I don't know, I don't know everyone so," I said feeling a little cold. It was like my body temperature was changing every few minutes, first I would be feeling hot and sweaty then it would suddenly feel like I was in Antarctica.

"Do you want me to get a doctor?" he asked me concerned when I held the quilt tightly. I shook my head to it, "Then you should go to sleep," he advised as he brushed his knuckles on my cheek tenderly. Randomly the proverb came into my mind, an apple a day keeps a doctor away. Well, I didn't need an apple nor a doctor when I had Ruka.

Looking at the door I wondered why Lizzy or Sebastian didn't come to see me, not that it was mandatory or something but they usually came to see how I was doing. As though reading my mind, Ruka said,

"You were running a higher temperature in the morning, I asked them not to disturb," he looked at me intently, as though I was the most interesting thing now, " And…I didn't want anyone looking at you like this," it made me wonder how bad did I look. It wasn't new, I always looked bad when I fell sick, and everyone does. Was I looking that bad?

"Not like that, love," he sighed looking at me, "An instinct of wolves is that they are highly territorial, they don't like sharing things and I don't want anyone seeing you now. You look adorable, love. Your cheeks flushed with a tint of pink, that vulnerability. I could just gobble you," he said making me feel warm and fuzzy inside with his words.

"Then why don't you?" I blurted out without thinking and heard him chuckle, hearing it.

"I will but not now…but soon," the way he said it held some edge of darkness in it but I brushed it away as I might be hallucinating it.

Was there a reason why he was holding back? It might be, Ruka never did things without a reason. Though I could see and feel the love from him I felt something was hindering it. Like a calm atmosphere before a storm.

"Do you have work?" I asked him curiously.

"I took a day off. I left Sebastian and Leo in charge for today, it's going to take time to get everything settled," he replied looking outside through the window.

"You should actually go to work," I said to which he tilted his head slightly in question.

"Why would I do something like that when I get to tend to my lovely mate?" he teased me.

"You know, I'm sick. You'll go to work and when I'm awake I'll have a higher temperature and then you will rush from where you are to meet me," I told him and he looked amused at my blabbering, "And then-" his lips were on mine cutting off the sentence while I was speaking.

"I wouldn't like if your temperature rose, sweet Eve and though I would love to hear you speak now, I think you should rest," he stated, giving me a quick kiss on my nose, "I will be right next to you. Close your eyes, sweet Eve," he assured me when I peeked at him, my vision getting a little unfocused.