Luna, Make a Wish

Well, you see...

Darren’s POV:

“You’re such an i***t, she easily could have caught you.” Erik hissed between his teeth as he gave Lenny a shove to the shoulder.

Erik and Lenny were brothers. Not twins, but they may as well have been. Both have dark brown hair with slight waves that somehow looked good even when they didn’t brush it. My hair took effort. I had to admit, as a man, I was a little bit jealous of another man’s hair.

Lenny, although two years younger, was about an inch or so taller than Erik. Erik had the stockier build of the two. Both carried a light mocha tone to their skin that only darkened in the sun. I’d swear the two never sunburned. If they did, they hid it will.

“Then I could have just played off a patrol. You’re over thinking.” Lenny said as he hopped from foot to foot, much like a training boxer would and took a mock jab at Erik.

“The goal is not to get caught. We’re only watching for a little bit to see if we can pick up any information.” I stated calmly. My arms were crossed over my chest as I watched my mate from the tree line. At the moment, she was scolding some sort of bug or another for attempting to use her coffee as a swimming pool. It was endearing. I don’t think I’ve ever been so thankful for that little bit of extra hearing that Alpha’s received from the Goddess.

Rylen had suggested that this whole endeavor was moronic… and he was likely right. He usually was, which is why I picked him as my beta in the first place. He was levelheaded. Logical. Even tempered. Exactly what I needed at my side to run this pack.

“So uh…” Erik scratched at the back of his head while looking down as he asked his question. “You’re fated right? Mates? Most mates just kinda… Let things happen, boss. I mean, I don’t think as your mate she’d be all to offended if you asked her what she liked.”

“That would be too obvious.” I stated plainly.

“But…”

“But nothin’.” Lenny interjected on my behalf. “I get it. Boss man wants to surprise his mate by acting like he knows something about it, but wants to try to do it in a way that won’t make him look like a psycho-stalker type mate she reads about in those books.” He shrugged with the biggest smart-assed grin on his face I think I’d ever seen him give.

I groaned in response. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Books? What books? How do you know about the books?” My attention had turned from Emma to Lenny now. Erik was looking at him curiously as well.

“She’s always been into them. We didn’t hang out in school or anything. She always kept to herself, but every break she could get she had her nose in one of those stupid romance books.” Lenny shook his head and gave a dramatic shudder. “She left one behind after Geometry one year. I was curious. I wish I hadn’t been.”

“So he’s trying not to appear to be doing… exactly what he’s doing now?” Erik smirked at me. Had we not been childhood friends, this conversation would have a whole lot less sarcasm, and a whole lot more direct ordering.

“It’s a little more complicated than that. Yes. I want to find out more about her, and I don’t want to be caught doing so. Which is why I brought you two along. One, because misery loves company and if I’m going to stand out here in the mud for some Goddess driven reason then I’m taking you with me.” This earned two eye-rolls. I chuckled and then continued. “Two, because as soon as word gets out that she is my mate she becomes a target for rival packs and I want watch on her just to be safe.”

We didn’t have many rival packs truth be told. Many of the packs worked together these days. There was always going to be an outlier or two and while I wasn’t necessarily concerned, I wanted to be extra safe where Emma was concerned. I’d barely met her, and already she felt like my reason for living. Like a magnetic draw that was near impossible to resist. How could anyone ever reject their mate if it felt like this? I’d never understand it.

We stood in silence for a little while. A very little while. Erik and Lenny started practicing their boxing swings on invisible enemies while giving each other pointers. Admittedly I had been lost in my thoughts long enough that I lost track of time.

“Hey boss.” Lenny said simply.

“Hm?” I looked up from the spot in the ground I had been staring at while I thought processed.

“She’s gone.”

My head snapped to the porch. Sure enough, she was no longer there. Her book was laid open and face down on her chair, I assumed to save her place. Her mug was gone, and her door was closed. Odd. I surely would have heard it open and close if it had. A small wave of panic crashed over me. What could have happened to her so quickly?

“Did she go inside?” I asked quickly.

“I don’t know, I didn’t see—” Lenny started.

“You were supposed to be watching her!” There was an edge to my tone that I hadn’t meant to be there from the worry that was creeping up my throat.

“Sorry! I got distracted!”

“Get undistracted!”

“Sorry! Sorry!”

“Fine, Let’s just g—” I whirled around to start a lap around the block to see if I could pick up her scent when I was met face to face with the very embodiment of my concern.

“Emma…”

Her name almost choked me coming out. Or was that the surprise that had made it almost impossible to speak? Most likely it was the latter. I had not expected her to be here. I realized then that I didn’t hear or smell her either. Was I losing it? I looked back to Erik and Lenny who seemed just as shocked as I was. So it wasn’t just me then…

She was still wearing the clothes that she had been back at the main house. Though they looked as if they had been completely soaked through. Why hadn’t she changed? Wasn’t she cold? The way the wet cotton shirt stuck to curves of her…

No, No. I couldn’t let myself get distracted like that.

She was watching me over the brim of her coffee mug. The one that had disappeared from the porch when she did. She took a very slow sip as she looked at me, and I knew that she had planned and likely waited to be able to do just that in this moment. She was enjoying this.

“What are you watching for? Is there something dangerous out there?” She asked in what had almost sounded like an earnest tone, but there was something just off enough to it that I could tell it was nearly mocking. I knew then that I’d really been caught, and that she knew exactly what I had been doing.

“Dangerous? We’re the most dangerous things in these woods!” Erik took the moment to boast, not catching that same bit of tone that I had from her to tell him she wasn’t at all serious. Which likely just concreted her suspicions. I was at a loss for words. Good ones, anyway.

“Well, you see…”