"You aren't serious," Rayne gasped, a laugh playing at the corners of her lips. Imagining a young Jarrah getting into mischief with the pixies elated her more than she thought it would. Somehow, they had gotten onto the topic of conversation that involved his playful childhood, and she found herself eating up his stories.

"As serious as you telling me about Ronan's mermaid mishap," Jarrah chuckled, shaking his head. "To be fair, he deserved that."

Ronan, as she had mentioned a thousand times before, was an idiot. He tried his best to use his "good looks" to seduce a mermaid without realizing it was the one he left hanging from a year before, and she helped jog his memory by dousing said "good looks" with water filled leaches. It wasn't pretty, but Rayne appreciated the badass actions of the young mermaid. In fact, she wouldn't have minded if she wanted to do it again.

"He did," Rayne agreed. "The lesson here? Don't mess with pixies or mermaids."

"Pretty much," he acknowledged.

Somehow Rayne's incessant talking had inspired Jarrah into asking her questions the following morning, and the exchanging of stories began. She found he had four younger brothers and three sisters, ranging from five years old to twenty, and he told her about how close he was with his parents. In fact, they were both similar in that way. Rayne loved them dearly, and he seemed to be the same, which was why he wanted to return home. He missed his family more than he missed his fiance, and he missed eating things like honeydew and watermelon. She couldn't even remember the last time she experienced such a treat, so seeing his features light up at the thought of getting to taste them again thawed her icy heart.

Jarrah loved looking up at the sun and the moon any chance he got, too. They brought him peace and reminded him of home, which made Rayne's chest ache for him. She knew the feeling of missing her loved ones all too well and would give anything for another phone call.

The sun began her slow crawl on the opposite side of the moon by the time they stopped their curious questions. According to Jarrah, they weren't at all far from Daphne's Garden. They saw the scattering of nymphs throughout the day, much to Rayne's delight, and found some to range in sizes. She asked Jarrah about that, but he simply said they could change their sizes anytime they wanted to.

Fascinating, she had thought. And now they were growing near enough to Daphne's Garden to glimpse a few more. Jarrah was hesitant about leaving the trail at first, but the garden was only five minutes off of it. So, he agreed with Rayne's suggestion and walked them over to the nymph-swarmed clearing. Rayne choked on air as soon as they broke through.

The first sight that seemed to capture Rayne's obvious interest was Daphne's beautiful tree. With an elegantly woven tree trunk bigger than her arms could wrap around, and lush leaves that dipped nearly to the ground by the bending of the branches, Rayne was in absolute awe. Garden nymphs and water nymphs of many sizes stopped in their tracks the moment the two of them broke through the clearing.

"Hello," a garden nymph with sunshine waves of hair greeted, her tone cautious. She was tall for a nymph, taller than Rayne, with a sunflower skirt flared out around the middle of her thighs and a yellow bodice for the top. Her hesitant smile almost looked—confused? Uncertain? Either would make absolute sense.

"I—I'm sorry—I mean, we're sorry to interrupt. We, er, come in peace," Rayne started, her hands out to show she had no weapon. A quick glance at Jarrah showed that he was rolling his eyes at her. She wanted to slap him, but she didn't have time to.

"A wolf . . . and the King of Fae, no less . . . together?" a water nymph questioned this time, snowflakes dripping off her lashes. She tilted her head, her lips pursing.

"We didn't mean to intrude on anything," Rayne said. "We just wanted to see Daphne."

"Daphne?" She rose her eyebrows. Then wearily added, "Why do you want to see Daphne?"

"I've never been to this side of the forest and heard many good things about the garden and wanted to see for myself. It's more beautiful than I could have ever imagined," Rayne said honestly. With the sprouting flowers and twinkling lights and dusting nymphs lounging around a pleasant pond that reflected the lowering sun, she couldn't have pictured anything better. Even Daphne in her tree form was the grandest sight she had ever seen.

A few nymphs smiled at the compliment. They seemed pleased enough that their tense shoulders relaxed in assurance.

"A strange wolf . . . but I like her," Sunflower nymph grinned, her teeth radiant. "Stay as long as you like. Daphne rarely gets visitors and she seems pleased."

"We'll be eating soon if you wish to stay for that too," the water nymph added.

Rayne smiled at them all and then looked to Jarrah, who seemed to already be staring back at her. He rose an eyebrow questioningly, but after watching her beg with those rounded chestnut eyes and those pouting pink lips, he couldn't resist allowing them to stay for a few hours.

Her heart leapt. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Sure," he murmured, but his gaze was soft. "But only because it sounds better than catching our food tonight."

Rayne couldn't agree more with that one. Each nymph grabbed hold of both her and Jarrah's arms, giggling like young girls as they did so, and led them both in separate directions. Jarrah's eyebrows furrowed when he looked back at her at the same moment she glanced at him, an anxious look in his eye that hadn't been there before. The nymph at his side said something about Rayne being fine, and then they both turned back around. Her face grew hot at the thought of him worrying about her so openly, though she didn't know why she cared.

They had no place in each other's lives. They'd just . . . been through a lot together lately. That was all it was.

Right?

"Oh, you look absolutely darling! Does she not look like an absolute rose?" Sunflower nymph, who Rayne learned was named Selestia, gushed. Her smile was bright enough to make Rayne blink a few times just to get used to it.

"She looks beautiful, sister," Ravine, the water nymph, cooed, touching the flower crown upon Rayne's freshly washed curls. "Just as she did when she came. Daphne will be so pleased!"

Rayne's cheeks grew warmer than she thought possible at the extra attention surrounding her. Not only had they helped her wash up, crown her head, and did her hair, but they also put her in a flowing green dress that hardly came down to her knees. Emerald vines with colorful flowers sprouting out naturally wrapped around the curves of her body, illuminating what hadn't been there before and her bust. She didn't get to see her reflection, but she knew she wouldn't be able to recognize that girl in the reflection if she had.

She tried to protest against it at first. She explained how perfectly content she was in her jeans and t-shirt, but they insisted it would just be for the evening if she were comfortable. And the weird part was that she was comfortable. So she went along with it.

That was, until, she broke back into the clearing where Daphne awaited her presence.

And Jarrah was leaning casually against a trunk, talking to a flirting garden nymph who twisted her fingers into her hair. Rayne blanched at the sight of him standing there so casually, without a shirt in sight and only a vine crossing his shoulder to keep his muscled body company. The pants he wore were as bright as her dress, layered naturally with leaves to offset the dark ripples of hair that fell over his broad shoulders. She knew if she were to stare at his well-defined, naked chest any longer, she'd embarrass herself.

But it was too late.

He looked up from the garden nymph and froze.

Rayne froze too, her cherry painted lips stuck in movement.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Why was he looking at her like that? With his eyes nearly popping out of his head? And was that a blush pushing its way across his bronze cheeks?

The King of Fae was . . . blushing? Because of her? Did she really look that different?

Suddenly Rayne wanted her jeans and t-shirt back. Why did she let them dress her up like a doll? Especially when she was on a mission to save her pack? Why did they even come to Daphne's Garden in the first place? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Meanwhile, while Rayne was yelling at herself furiously in her head, she caught Jarrah moving towards her, his eyes slowly raking along her trembling form. He took in the vines that coiled around her body like the embrace of a snake, followed the curve of her exposed shoulders, and watched the waterfall of hair flow down her back in wild curls. Curls that seemed to make her brown eyes brighter and skin glow in the fairy lights overhead.

Somewhere behind her, wind music met their ears.

But they didn't pay any mind to it. They were too caught up in each other as Jarrah stopped a foot away from her, making her mentally freak out even more as she didn't know what to do. She didn't know what he was doing, what they were doing. They had people to save, and he had a fiance to go back home to. So, again, why the hell was he looking at her like that?

And why the hell did she like it?

"Different than the jeans and t-shirt thing, huh?" Rayne murmured, breaking the silence with a quiet joke. She rubbed the ballet style flats into the ground bashfully, then stopped at the thought of untying the ribbon the nymphs worked so hard on tying.

Jarrah's lips curved, the sight stealing her breath away. "Just a little."

She winced. "I knew it—"

"You look lovely, Rayne," he interrupted, ignoring the insecure tone of her voice. The flush from before reached the tips of his ears now, and she swore her heart stopped entirely.

"Lovely?" she echoed, hesitant.

"Beautiful," he admitted.

Rayne's eyebrows furrowed and a shaky breath freed itself from her parted lips. "You . . . think I'm . . . beautiful?"

Jarrah nodded. "I always—well, yes. Yes, I think you look beautiful, Rayne. You shouldn't feel self-conscious about yourself."

Before either of them could embarress themselves anymore, Daphne's tree quite literally moved. If they hadn't been so distracted by each other, Rayne would have been absolutely terrified at the concept. But seeing as how her tree branches pushed them together with a force only explained by the tree herself, she was lost for words. Because now, she and Jarrah were chest to chest. Not breathing, and stuck staring at one another with a dumbfound look on their faces.

Rayne couldn't stop herself from peering up into those pretty brown eyes, and she wondered if they had ever sparkled before that night.

"She wants you to dance!" Selestia called out, quickly drawing Rayne's attention at that one.

"What?" she hissed. "I don't know how to dance!"

Rayne didn't have time to dance back home. She was trained to be a fighter, not a lover. She didn't know one thing about moving one's body in a way of enjoyment rather than survival, as it seemed useless before then.

"It's okay," Jarrah said under his breath, recapturing her attention. He cleared his throat. "I can teach you."

Rayne's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"I'll lead us."

"I don't even know what that means—"

Oh.

Jarrah softly grabbed her hand, causing a flash of warmth to ignite and spark embers throughout her body at the simple touch. He looked up at her expectantly, his tone velvet. "Is this okay?"

Wordlessly, she nodded. With her heart practically out of her chest now, she didn't trust her voice.

With his other hand, he wrapped it comfortably around her body to her back, pressing them even closer together. He asked her again if that was okay and she thought she was going to pass out. Shuddering against him, she whispered the faintest yes and allowed him to instruct her on where to put her other hand. His shoulder rippled under her feather-like touch.

"Okay," he breathed, his voice strained. "Um, just follow my feet and go opposite of that. Ready?"

No.

Not at all.

But instead of saying that, she came out with a yes.

And from then on, he swept her off her feet.