1 year later. . .

The water of the harbour sparkled as if the stars had fallen from the sky to glisten on the surface in the morning light. The smell of the sea mixed with coffee from the dock full of coffee shops and restaurants, all busy with the breakfast crowd. The clang of plates being cleared, the hum of chatter from the diners and the squawking of the seagulls only added to the atmosphere and seeing the couple put down their menus, I took that as my sign to go.

"Welcome to Dockside, are you ready to order or did you need some more time?" Smiling at the couple in front of me, I got out my notebook in preparation. My instincts paid off and heading back to the counter, I'd just put their order through on the computer when the kitchen bell sounded out. Before long I had picked up the plates of pancakes and bacon, swiftly moving around the tables to another waiting table. "Enjoy!"

"Seriously, slow down. You're doing all the work and making the rest of us look bad!" Fiona hid her coffee under the bar ledge as our manager walked past, showing another small group to a table in the back.

"That's not true and I can't help it. It's a good, no it's a great day!"

"You're glowing, I love it. Then again if I had what you did waiting for me at home each day, I would be too!" She winks and bends down to gulp more of her coffee. "Do you think if I went as blonde as you I could attract a Nate of my own?"

"Trust me, being blonde has nothing to do with it!" I try assure her.

"No it does, look over at five - Hunky McHunky is with a blonde. Twenty two I would gladly do and oh look, not only is he with a blondie, he is with the ultimate blonde - Barbie!" She laughs, throwing her mass of ebony hair over her shoulder.

"You know, I don't like you tone. Blonde doesn't mean Barbie!" Joey our manager, stops beside me and Fiona doesn't hide the coffee quick enough making him groan and shake his head.

"What are you two arguing about now?" He sighs, jotting something down for the order he just took.

"Tell Fiona she is beautiful and she shouldn't be jealous blondes have more fun." The 'are you kidding me' look makes us both laugh and we're sent back to work.

Living and working among humans has been a refreshing experience. In the year since we left the pack, Aiden's Uncle was able to arrange for us to move across the country under new names and be granted permission to live on our own. The Alpha of this area lets us be and I know Nate kept in touch with him weekly to be respectful. Apart from that it was just him and me in our own little world.

Paradise.

By the time our shift is over, its nearly two o'clock and in the six months of working together Fiona has taken it upon herself to be my best friend. It's a novel idea since she is human and completely unaware of what other races live around her. After getting up the courage to apply for a job, I met Fiona during the interview. From there she took me under her wing, acting as if she was twenty years older than me rather two. She never asked questions about my past, and took all my insecurities in her stride. I loved her for it.

Since it was a beautiful day, neither of us were ready to go our separate ways home. Actually I was but I knew Nate had classes till four and wouldn't be there. Deciding to take a break we joined the tourists on the stairs by the wharf and while eating gelati from tiny plastic cups decided to soak up the sun.

"So what has Romeo got planned for your birthday?" Humans always put all their emotions out on their sleeves and her jealously only amuses me. In the early days of moving here, and meeting her at the restaurant, it had bothered me. I was still adjusting to being 'normal' yet here, I still wasn't. I was different to the people here, not because of a reputation built on lies by an alpha with a vendetta, but because I wasn't just a human.

It made me feel safer knowing that I was stronger than ever the meanest looking of their men. My keener sense of balance and stamina helped with work. Being constantly around people, no matter what they were helped me get over some of my fears and I actually enjoyed being a waitress. It helped that Nate had been nothing other than encouraging and supportive, just being around him had my confidence growing and while today marked a year since we ran away, that life had become a distant memory.

"Not sure, he is being very secretive about it!"

"If I know him, it's going to make me want to kill you tomorrow when you tell me all about it. I bet he is going to propose. Never in my whole life have I seen two people more in love than you are, it's freakily cute and annoying." She winks, quickly catching the drips off her ice-cream from the spoon.

The human tradition of marriage didn't bother my kind. The more adjusted I became to their world and customs though, the more it excited me. What Nate and I had was more than anything Fiona could even begin to comprehend and sometimes I wish I could just tell her.

"I dont know. I'd be happy just by sitting here all night with take out!" I laugh, causing her to roll her eyes and make a gagging sound. The more I thought about Nate, the happier I got and thinking about tonight had a swarm of butterflies taking off in my stomach.

"Well maybe thats what he has in mind, at least I get to find out now!"

"What?" Looking around, I don't see Nate anywhere.

"I give it, thirty seconds before he is here. I swear you two are telepathically linked or something. I joke but it really is sickening how you just seem to pop when ever he is around." She takes another scoop of her icecream and shake my head.

"Impossible. He has uni today!"

Looking back at me, her eyes widen slightly before her smile grows. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..."

She starts to countdown and looking behind me, my heart still manages to skip a beat when I see him. Since we don't do the farm work anymore and he is paranoid something might happen to us one day, he makes sure he works out in a gym. It has only built his muscles up to a more intimidating level and makes me feel even tinier in those arms.

I love it.

I love him.

"Hey babe, oh and hey Sylvie. That could have got awkward." Nate manges to ruffle the top of Fiona's head as he blows her a kiss, earning a scream of terror to be followed with her cheeks going red from blushing. Everyone nearby instantly looks our way. "Happy birthday gorgeous."

He slips in behind me and I lean back against his chest as his arms curl around my waist. Tilting my head back I welcome his kiss and as Fiona starts making gagging sounds again, we stop. "Happy birthday!"

"Well spill the beans, whats the plan for tonight?" Fiona instantly asks.

"Sorry, my lips are sealed!" Nate helps himself to whats left of my icecream and Fiona only groans.

"Why are you here? What happened to your classes?" Ignoring her, I twist around to look at him better and it was a sight I never got tired of. Despite putting off his studies after we left, he had finally enrolled at the local university and changed from agriculture to law.

"Lecturer was sick so got cancelled. Thought I'd walk you home, if you don't want me to I can always lgo and see you later?"

"I'd be happy for you to walk me home?" Fiona flirts shamelessly and slapping her arm, she only smirks. "Worth a shot. Love you honey, and I hope you both have a fab birthday!'

She gets up and practically falls against us creating a weirdly positions group hug and heads towards the bus stop and once she's gone, Nate goes to get up. "Ready?"

"Sure!" He helps me up and walking through the park, he keeps me close to his side. Our comfortable yet modest apartment was quite close to the harbor and I worked any shifts I could get to add to the money he had been able to transfer from his bank account before it was terminated by his parents. On the outside we were like any normal young couple, inside we longed for the weekends away to the bush where we'd go camping and get the chance to shift into our wolves.

"So, what have you got planned for tonight?" I look up at him like a lovestruck teenager and the best part is thats how he looks back at me too.

"Well there is something in the bedroom I've been meaning to show you..."

"Is it something I have seen before?" I ask coyly.

"Once or twice, but I know you're going to love it." He scoops me up easily, "It might actually be quicker to carry you, this something doesn't like to be kept waiting!"

"You're not carrying me. Put me down!" I call out laughing. Thankfully after the walk home, there isn't much waiting around. The front door is barely locked before I'm wrapped around him. My fingers are lost in his unruly dark locks and as he sets me down on the bed, I realize I've still got my bag on my arm. "Slow down there wolf man."

I slip the strap down and Nate takes my bag, throwing it towards the chair in the corner. "Now that I have you home, thats exactly what I intend to do."

The promise of those few words has me shivering with anticipation as he comes to stand before me. Instantly I lift my arms and let him remove my clothing. Despite how vulnerable I feel, I am also completely comfortable with it. We had been each others firsts, and after all the awkwardness and uncontrolled need was out of our system, what we had now was nothing short of magical. I can't help but giggle at that thought, imagining going to work tomorrow and telling Fiona I had a great night of magical sex with my wolf shifting mate would definitely cause an interesting reaction from her.

"What could you possibly be giggling about? Don't you know that's like the number one rule of what not to do when your guy gets naked in front of you?" Nate almost sounds offended, and now I'm ruining it all by completely loosing it.

"It's nothing, don't worry!" I manage to calm down and taking his head in my hands, kiss him in a way to reassure him nothing about his naked state is what is making me laugh.

"You have too many smells on your skin. I just want you." He growls, and before I can protest we're in the shower. The hot water feels almost as good as his body against mine and I wonder if there is ever a point in time where I'd ever be tired of him or worse, would he get tired of me? The voice in the back of mind scolded me for such stupid thoughts and as if proving a point, I became lost in the sensations his touch was able to pleasure me with.

-x-

There were times when I still worried about 'knowing my place' and the lingering fear of the pack returning to discipline our abandonment was never far from my thoughts. Yet wrapped in a tangle of limbs and blankets with the warm and stable body beneath me, they were barely a dot on my radar. I felt too content, too safe to give them a second of my time.

Beneath my ear Nate's heart beat in a steady rhythm and we both lay there completely at peace and satisfied, staring out the double window watching as the curtains softly billowed in the evening breeze. The sunset had our bedroom turning orange as the sky was tainted a blend of pink and red, slowly fading to purple and the inky black of night with the sun a quickly disappearing ball of orange on the horizon.

Linking my hand in his, Nate brought it up to his lips, his kiss sending a whole new wave of desire through me. Holding our hands up into the light, the shadow fell over my face for a few seconds before he lowered them, sighing contently. I never wanted to leave the bed and as my eyelids began to feel heavy, I saw the newly framed photograph I had found around this time last year and had given to him as a present.

We were only kids, maybe six or seven and he had been holding my hand at the end of a very low diving board. It had been in the bottom of a pile of photographs I had found in his parent's attic and the years before my parents died had always been our main point of reminiscing. Somehow in the rush of leaving, he had managed to pick it up too.

"I love you."

The comfortable silence gave way to his words and tilting my head I kissed his chest.

"I love you too."

He stretches over to the bedside table and gets something out. Sitting up so I'm now straddling him, the blue box is placed on his chest where my head just was.

"Our human friends seem rather interested in this. I'm glad of glad they don't know what we are, what you are to me because i think ther jealously would make them crazy. Sylvia Thompson, I am as much yours as you are mine, so how about I put a ring on it so the humans can start to try and understand how much you mean to me?"

Being mates made some parts of our relationship, normal. Getting an insider glimpse on each others feeling and thoughts, having that sense of being whole - a companion to calm and control the creature inside of us. All normal things for shifters. To know and having experienced just how much you not only love, but how far you'd go to protect and help each other only made us closer. A life time of longing, hoping - dreaming turned reality was more than most of our kind got to have.

"Put a ring on it? Did Fiona put you up to this?" Despite the simplicity of the situation, the meaning wasn't lost on me.

"Kind of. So mate of mine, shall we get married?" He took the ring out from the box, the tiny diamond sparkling the stars as he slipped it on my finger.

"Yes!" The box is disgarded as I fall against him. In one swift movement he has rolled me over onto my back and is now hovering over me. Mate, fiance, husband... it didn't matter what he was other than he was mine.

"It's not a big diamond, but one day I will get you a bigger one. And we'll get a house, not rent this tiny apartment. I will make sure you have everything you need or could possibly want." He promises.

"A year ago today you already did all of that. Anything else is just a bonus and as long as I'm with you - I don't care!" Before last year, I only wanted to get away. I wanted to be able to live without fear and be accpted. I wanted to feel cared for, protected and loved. Now I had friends, a job and Nate. I didn't have the career goals to push back into school, i didn't want to become the next prime minister or an Astronaut. I just want to be happy and I was, more than I thought possible.

"I don't feel like it's enough, after everything-"

"Well it is!" I cut him off, not wanting him to go into one of his pity apology party moods. "Look at how far we have come this year Nate!"

"You're right. Come on, get up or we'll miss our dinner reservations!" He is practically bouncing as he gets out of bed, going into the wardrobe to get dressed. I take a second to admire the ring on my finger and pinch myself as I often do to try and work out if this is all just some wonderful dream and if it is, i don't want to ever wake up.

-x-

The birthday high lasts all week and by the following Friday, Fiona has arranged for us to go out to a new bar in the city with some of our other friends to celebrate the engagement. I'm more excited about our 'camping' trip we're leaving in the morning for and it takes me a while to work out my wolf's agitation isn't just for the prospect of tomorrow.

The bar has a decent group fo shifters by the dancefloor and the other perk of living human is we rarely deal with our kind. They're not interested in us at all and yet Nate doesn't relax for a second. That all changes once Fiona convinces me to go dance with her and some of that group come over to us.

In typical hunter style, one distracts Fiona and the other disrtacts me. My instinct is to run, so ignoring him I leave her to get back to Nate only he has other ideas. The second his hold tightens on my arm to stop me my body starts to shut down. My skin goes clammy as I struggle not to break down into tears or start throwing up.

This guy doesn't seem to notice. "Hanging around humans she-wolf? Why don't you come be with your own kind?"

My mouth opens and closes as slowly my confidence puts it's self back together. This time when I go to pull my arm away, I use force and succeeding in getting free, I keep moving until he grabs me again. "Let me go!"

He sniffs the air around me and smirks. "Mated hey? Well I don't see no mate around here."

"You will if you don't let me go." I snap back, letting anger take over my weakness and pulling my arm away again, he doesn't give it up. Not willingly at least as Nate is suddenly there. It's been a while since I last saw him looking like this, so angry and detached - it scares me as I don't know what he could be capable of in those few minutes of rage. The guy drops my arm, holding his hands up innocently. There is no competition here, Nate is too dominant.

"Just asking the lady to dance, no problem here." He weakly mumbles and I try to make sure I hide my fear to try and make sure it isn't feeding Nates' own emotions.

"She is mine. Touch her again and it'll be the last thing you do." He growls, and looking up the brighter colour of his wolf is reflected in his eyes.

"Understood." Even in human form the stranger ran away with his tail between his legs and focusing back on Nate, tried to calm him down.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, it's fine. Come on, lets go back to the others." After a few deep breaths he nods as he leads me through the crowd, Fiona is back at my side after her own little tango on the dancefloor.

"That was actually kind of hot when he went all all Alpha male and protective of you, especially since it was Nate. He is like a teddy bear!" Oh you have no idea, I think to myself.

We don't stay long after that and if things weren't tense, they only got worse. Opening the text, I saw Aiden's name pop up on the screen and every emotion possible went over Nates face as he read it.

"What? What is it?" A familiar sense of dread came over me and his lack of response didn't help. Going into our apartment he dropped the phone on the kitchen table and began to pace. "Nate? What is it?"

"My Dad. He's dead."

----

Typing/uploading this from my phone. Pretty sure I checked over this enough to avoid any bad autocorrect errors. Apologies if I missed some! :)