My feet imbalanced on the hill. My heart thrashed in my chest, my feet slid down the dirt and I was preparing to hit my head hard until William wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me to safety. "I'm beginning to think this wasn't a bad idea," William mumbled as he held me tightly.

That was scary.

"No, I'm just clumsy. I need to see what date you have planned for us," I declined and kept walking up the hill. William's hand slipped from my waist and instead, he held my hand with his. "It isn't much, Ev. I think it's more of a danger to make it up this hill," he protested. The happiness in his eyes when he told me about this date while keeping it a secret popped up inside my head.

I feel bad he's deciding against something he was proud of because of my clumsiness. "We could just run there," I suggested. Our wolves have met before, three times to be exact. Now I shift more often to make up for the months I didn't. "No, tomorrow," William decides against it.

It's has been exactly two months since Bradey left. And also, two months since I have last spoken to him. That bastard lied. He's been ignoring me, I'm convinced he changed his number as well. Instead of dwelling on it, I moved on with my life. I'm happier, much happier. Now when people ask me if I'm William's mate, I don't hesitate to say yes. Every time I think of Bradey, I get either sad or angry so I try not to think much of him. Nevertheless, I hope he's finding his happiness and I get to see him again.

William has been one of the sources of my happiness, but it's also because now I teach an art class for children, a painting class more specifically, at the middle school. It's also because I've gotten on Jayden's good side and he's actually not as bad as William told me he was. Renee and I have gotten much closer. I've spoken to Usha a couple of times and sadly, Vison was still no use.

Enrico and Zaire are still gone, there's a rumor that a couple of wolves saw them in Brazil though. Now, the sun was about to set and William found me in the kitchen. He rambled off about how we're going on a date and prepared me for this hike up the hill.

We're almost there.

William had me walk ahead with our hands still linked for my safety for the rest of the walk. We stopped at a small clearing at the top of the hill, there was a sheet in the middle with a food basket and unexpectedly, a tray filled with paint and paintbrushes beside two blank canvases. "What's this?" I asked, turning back to him. Alaska whimpered at the sight of how good our mate looks in the sunset light right now.

"Well, I thought you could paint the sunset here. You were ranting about you're losing inspiration for the kids to paint something," William explained, bringing me out of my thoughts. That's true, I've been looking for more inspiration in the nature category but this would be too detailed for them.

Well...I don't have to make it detailed.

We've already done a sunset but with the landscape in front of us, it's completely different.

"That's actually really sweet...wow, thank you, Will," I admitted and hugged his side. "Mhm, I just wanna spend time with you alone," he truthfully says and kisses the top of my head so casually that I found it unbelievable. We sat down on the sheet and I got to work immediately on the picture in front of me. I couldn't help myself from attempting to capture every single detail accurately.

This evening, it wasn't rushed. There was a point in time where my hands were messy that William had to feed me the burger. Later then I realized that he bought along with wipes for this exact situation but didn't mention it because he wanted to feed me. It's the times like these I live for, just William and I being real with each other...that makes everything worth it. The final touches were the blackbirds in the sky but sadly I had to wait a while for the painting to dry. So we somewhat packed up our mess and just sat there talking before I realized William zoned out.

"I actually think I might skip training tom-" I was saying but I stopped speaking when I noticed William looking at my lips without any care in the world. He swallowed hard, his lips parted slightly afterward. I tried my best not to grin at this, he hasn't even noticed I stopped talking. "William," I shout and watched as he blinked away repeatedly before they snapped back to my eyes. "Sorry, I was just remembering that day," he apologized after realizing I noticed him staring.

My smile deepens at the mention of that day. "I don't mind repeating," I say, my hand sliding up his thigh playfully. William smacked my hand away and glared at me. That day was a really nice day, I don't know what got into me and convinced me to give William head for the first time but neither of us regrets it.

"Not happening," he says and I pout. Now I craved the feeling of his juices shooting down my throat again. "Didn't know I was that bad," I say, trying in act to get what I want. William rolls his eyes and leans forward to claim my lips. He gave me a short and sweet kiss, that left me wanting more. "Far from it, and you know it," he smirked against my lips.

I rolled my eyes and fisted his shirt so our bodies were impossibly closer before pressing our lips together again. William slid his hand around my waist, and kissed me back even harder, his tongue evading my mouth like he has done so many times before. We only pull away when I became breathless. Stupid oxygen, I thought. It was always hard to maintain breathing while William kissed me like that.

I'm not done though.

William leans back slightly, his head rolling back as I kissed down his neck. The first thing that comes into my mind was sinking my teeth into his neck, step one of making him mine forever. I pushed the thought to the back of my head like I've done many times recently. William growled lowly as I rolled my hips, but he didn't stop me either. "What are you doing to me, Ev," he mumbled to himself as I brought my lips back on his.

At the taste of my lips again, William snapped and flipped us over. My body hit the ground hard but with the pleasure William gave me, it was forgotten. He kissed me so hard with a purpose that it left me speechless. His hands roamed under my shirt, his fingertips igniting sparks of fire in its wake. "Mark me," William bluntly says after tearing his lips off mine.

I pull away to look at him better. It took me a second for his words to register in my mind. My eyes studied his flushed features for any signs of regret or embarrassment but there was nothing. William meant that? "Do you mean that?" I broke the silence. His eyes lit up and it was hard not to smile. Soon I felt relieved that there wasn't any negative tension between us. "Don't you? I mean I understand if you aren't ready for that but...yeah. I mean it so whenever you're ready, I'm here," he rambled off.

In the seriousness of the situation, William sat down beside me and I followed him, rising from my lying down position. The greys in his eyes told so many stories, so many emotions. We've never spoken about this before, my mind is going through a war zone as I contemplated the final answer. All my life, my motto was fuck it, let's do it.

That was the first thought that ran through my head. But the more I think about it...I'm not just saying yes for the risk of it. I'm saying yes because I genuinely want it. Every time I thought about him marking me, never once did I think after that I don't want that. "Well, mark me," I simply say. William's eyes widened in shock, clearly not expecting those words to leave my lips.

"Holy fuck. I didn't think you'll actually agree to it. No worries, we don't have to if you don't want to," William assured me in a panic of forcing me into it. "Whenever you're ready, I promise," he continued. I rolled my eyes and threw my leg over his legs so now I was sitting on his lap again. My long fingernails trailed down the side of his neck. I listened to the way his breathing changed at the simple action.

"William. Can I mark you?" I casually asked. "I don't think you're ready for that, Ev," he mumbled with soft eyes before pressing his lips to my cheek. I rolled my eyes at the lack of proper response. "Okay, let me rephrase that because I am ready. Do you want me to mark you?" I changed. William inhaled sharply, there's no way he can fight it. I already knew the answer. "Yes," William admits with a sigh.

"Do you want to mark me?" I whispered next.

"Yes," he admits again, much more confident than the last. Praising him, I kissed his soft addictive lips. The moment was so right between us as the sky faded into darkness, we pulled away at a comfortable time. His eyes silently asked me which I nodded to before we gave in to our wolves and claimed each other at the same time by sinking our canines into each other's necks.