~~

Shane

~~

When I left Shawn's side, leaving Dietrich's room, I met Lena in the hallway. She had been waiting for me.

"I wanted to give you your privacy. I didn't want to intrude." That both made me happy and broke my heart.

"You're my mate, you could never intrude." I pulled her into my arms and hugged her tight. "I am sorry for losing my composure."

"I understand. I would be just as worried if it were one of my brothers. I can't imagine how you're feeling. You have a bond like no other. You're twins, you shared a womb, you were born together, you were each other's first and best friends. I would be more concerned if you weren't this upset."

"Thank you Lena." I squeezed her tighter, letting her know that I was grateful for her.

"Come on, Shane, let's go home." She had said that earlier too. Did she want me to go back to her place or did she want to come back to mine?

"OK." I agreed nonetheless.

I let Lena drive to wherever it was she wanted to go. I was sitting in the passenger seat with a hand over my eyes so I wasn't really paying attention. We seemed to get to our destination sooner than we should have. This was too close for my apartment and definitely too close for her place.

When I sat up and looked out the windshield at where we were I saw that we were in the driveway of a nice looking house in Reece's new housing development.

"Why are we here?" I asked her with a proper amount of shock in my voice.

"Come with me." She smiled and got out of the car.

I shrugged and followed her. I figured she just wanted me to meet someone or see something so I followed her inside.

The first thing I saw was a really nice entryway with stuff that looked and smelled like it belonged to Lena. The further I went into the house the more I smelled Lena's scent.

There was nice furniture and the place was beautifully decorated with colors that fit the both of us.

"What is this Lena?" I asked her with shock written on my face.

"I wanted to be in Colorado Springs. So, I decided to get a place here."

"You could have moved in with me." I told her, still confused.

"I know, and I thought about that, but then I thought we needed a place that was ours." She smiled at me sweetly. "I'm sorry I did this without talking to you, but I wanted to surprise you too."

"So, this is 'our' place?" I asked her to make sure I was understanding things properly.

"If you want it to be." She was looking nervous now.

"Of course I do. This is amazing Lena. I am so happy that we could have a place together like this."

"I'm glad you're happy."

I hugged her again, a smile spreading across my face that I didn't think would come back anytime soon. This was amazing. Dietrich said Shawn would be OK and Lena wanted us to move in together. I was the happiest man alive right now.

~~

Falena

~~

The day after I had shown Shane our new house, which he loved, I took him to go meet Landon. Landon had insisted I bring him since he didn't have a chance to meet him during the battle. Actually I was really surprised that Landon had gone to the fight. He hardly ever left the pack house or the office.

Today, however, Landon was back home but not working. He was recovering his energy from the fight we had all participated in. So, just before lunch I drove the two of us to meet Landon, my Alpha.

Shane looked nervous as we got out of the car and I led him to the door. He probably thought that Landon was going to have a problem with me being with a wolf, which was ridiculous. There were fewer felines than wolves so we never questioned a mate bond. The Goddess provided our mates for us and we accepted them with no complaints. Or at least most of us did.

I swear I think Shane was sweating when I led him into Landon's office. I think this was like the equivalent of meeting my parents, which Shane had already done. My mom and dad loved him by the way and both of my brothers had approved of him as well.

"Landon, I'm coming in." I said as I opened the door without knocking.

"Hey Lena, how're things?" Landon was sitting comfortably on the couch in his office for once. He didn't have a pen or a stack of files sitting in front of him.

"I brought someone to meet you." I smiled at him.

"Oh, the infamous mate." Landon got to his feet and walked over.

Landon was a good guy, and a great friend, but he was also like a protective older brother to me. He took my safety pretty seriously when we were kids and that never went away.

"So, wolf, I hear you mated with my Beta. You know she's like a kid sister to me right?"

"No, no I did not know that." Shane sounded scared, he didn't want Landon to disapprove of him. I knew he wasn't afraid of a fight, Shane would be more than capable of handling that, I think it was the relationship aspect that scared him so much.

"You're going to treat her right, aren't you?" Landon glared at Shane and there had been a menacing growl in his voice.

"Of course I will." Shane stopped sounding nervous and started sounding offended when Landon asked him that. "I love her and I will never do anything to hurt her."

"That's what I wanted to hear." Landon laughed then and held his hand out toward Shane who took it with a confused look on his face. "I was just giving you a hard time. I'm glad to finally meet you, Shane. Welcome to the family.

Following that awkward exchange we had lunch with Landon. After that I took Shane for a walk around the lake that was outside the pack house, we walked hand in hand. It has always been a place for me to find comfort and solace and I wanted to share that with Shane.

We were on the far side of the lake, near the trees, when Shane stopped and looked at the water. It was like he was trying to figure something out but was having trouble with it.

"Is something the matter?" I asked him. My arm had been pulled slightly as he stopped and I kept walking.

"Lena." He pulled me toward him, a smile on his face. "I love you." He had told Landon he loved me, which shocked me because we had barely said the words to each other, it was still a shock every time I heard it. But right now it was like he was being extra affectionate.

"I love you too, Shane." I was still a little nervous when I said those words, I hadn't expected this to ever happen for me.

Shane hugged me to him then kissed my lips gently. His arms around me felt like the most natural thing in the world. When he broke the kiss I watched in shock as he smoothly lowered himself to one knee as he held my hand.

"Falena, I love you. I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone. There isn't a thing on this planet I wouldn't do for you. I want to spend all the rest of my days with you by my side. I want to fall asleep next to you and wake up to your beautiful face every day. I want to start a family with you and I want to grow old with you. Will you marry me?"

While he was speaking Shane had smoothly pulled out a box from his pocket. Inside the little black box as a ring. The ring was beautiful with a large oval shaped diamond in the middle and smaller flecks of diamonds on the white gold band.

"Are you sure?" I asked him, still nervous that I might be hallucinating all of this.

"I want nothing more than to marry you."

"Then my answer is yes. I want to marry you Shane. Yes. Oh Goddess yes." I felt like jumping for joy, which is probably why I jumped straight into Shane's arms when he stood up with a big grin on my face.

I couldn't believe this. I was marrying Shane. I was marrying the man that I had fallen in love with and had mated with. This was wonderful.

We set to planning the wedding and decided to get married on September first, it was my grandfather's birthday and he had recently passed away, so it would be a wonderful way to include him on my big day. Plus, I was going to make Landon be there, no matter what.