post malone, candy paint.

It had been a few days since we returned home and nothing. Honestly, I actually don't know how I expected Micah to even find me since I hadn't told him where to find me or how. How fucking stupid of me, genuinely. Hearing someone call my name coming from behind me I turn from the lounge chair and look away from the crystal clear pool in front of me.

"Yes, dear brother." I sigh deeply. If Anathi is calling, it really can't be good.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. I just want to spend some time with my littlest sister."

"I'm genuinely your only sister, geek."

"Exactly, so you're my littlest sister." He sits beside me... on the same lounge chair, there are four more folks. Four.

"Anathi, you can't be serious. There are four more chairs, come on dude." Hearing this he swings his arm around me, basically trapping me under his armpit.

"Ugh." I shift a little so that my hair isn't touching his armpit hairs that no male on the planet ever feels like shaving. I mean, what is up with that guys? Honestly, would the razor kill you in the process of shaving? I wish they would make me understand.

"I barely got to see you at the Ball." He huffs.

Sometimes I doubted that Anathi was the one who was twenty-four here, honestly. He acted two years younger than me, nevermind older.

"Well, it is a large venue. Did you honestly expect to see me? Every year I feel like I see brand spanking new faces." New faces like Micah, I couldn't help but think to myself.

"You've only gone these past two years, jeez, you are dramatic."

That was true, you could only start attending the Ball when you reached the age of twenty-one. You did not have to be twenty-one when you went but you had to be turning twenty-one in that very year. So that would make this year's Ball my second one.

I smiled broadly, "Always, all those years of drama and not a touch of dramatism? I can't imagine the blasphemy." I place the back of my hand on my forehead, earning chuckles from my brother.

With TJ being so consumed in his future role Anathi and I had a lot of time to bond, we had always been close but never as close as the two of them. However, TJ has consciously or unconsciously drifted a wedge between him and us. It was heart-breaking really, we already hardly got to see our parents now it was our brother too.

My phone chimed from the little table over on Anathi's side and he squealed like a little girl, "Oh my gosh, Leeeeraaatoe you got a text!"

"You sound like a girl that belongs on 'Love Island.'" I snicker, "Who's it from?"

"Not afraid it's a nude and I might see?"

"No. How would you even see that? The phone is locked, babe, all you can do is tell me; who is it from?"

"So you do get nudes?" He raised a curious brow.

"Yes, yes I do." He scrunched up his nose in pure disgust and mortification I guess to the thought that his 'littlest' sister actually gets such x rated content via text, "Sometimes previous clients just wanna know how –"

"Oh goddess, I don't need to know."

"– their coats look, y'know." I smirked.

"Their what?"

"Coats. Their fur, you buffoon. Ew, I don't want human nudes. Ugh." I gag, then laugh at my brother's relieved face.

"Goddess, you really had me there. I really thought you were going to say they want to know how big their penis is or something." He shivered at the thought.

I let out a laugh, "Oh no thanks. I don't get that intimate with patients." I chuckle and he joins in.

I work at the Pack Hospital, to put it plainly I'm a vet. I deal with the wolf related stuff, not at all the human stuff. I wouldn't know what to do with a broken leg but I sure as heck would know what to do with a broken paw. It seems stupid to only deal with wolves, but I assure you it is more gruelling and busy than you'd think. Sometimes when so badly injured one can't shift back into human form, sometimes they can't shift into their wolf and generally there's just other things. Patches in the fur, loss of colour of the fur, eye sight, teeth, you know, all that... well vet like things.

I just call myself the wolf doctor because goddess knows how offended everyone gets when I say I'm a vet. I don't understand it, our natural form is wolf form so... you are by all means an animal sweetheart and I treat you so... I'm a gosh damn vet.

"Who is the blasted text from, Anathi." I repeat for the third time now. C'mon brother.

"Oh yeah," He raises a brow, "It's a blocked number... Are you in business with the feds?" He raises a playful eye.

"No." I say, taking my phone into my own hands and unlocking it. I click onto the message. An actual text message folks, not even a Whatsapp message. No, an ordinary SMS.

I'll be outside your pack line at the east border at 16:30.

See you then, Lee.

"How did he..." I stop short when I remember I'm not alone and nor am I at the stage of sharing information about my mate.

"So, Detective Zamo, what's the case?" Anathi asks.

Thank goddess he's not the kind of snoop who would peak over my shoulder to see. Otherwise this text would ring red flag to him, when it comes to his overbearing over protectiveness our age gap might as well be twenty, I therefore being like his child rather than sister.

"I thought you said we'd be swimming, not lounging with Junior Junior." I probably have been but, I had never been happier to hear my best friends' voice interrupt a conversation in my entire life.

Amanda Ramazan you are a true freaking life saver.

◇

I had a million thoughts running through my mind as I waited at the east border, like how did he know what pack I was in and how did he get my number? Did he know my father and therefore knew who I was? Impossible. Thousands of Alpha's attend, how could he possibly know my father. And wouldn't I have seen him if he knew my fat –

His darkly deep voice reaches my ears and I perk up instantly, "What could you possibly be thinking so hard about that your face has to look like that, goddess. You have the most gorgeous face and I didn't think it could get any better but... I stand corrected."

I suck in a sharp breath, is he trying to make me weak. What the hell, where did that even come from. "Thank you," I smile brightly at him and he reaches out his hand, grabbing it I begin to walk with him, "Actually, I was thinking about you."

He shakes his head, "What did I say about doing that?"

I shrug, "Not to." His leading us further into the woods, I know there's a meadow up ahead because my mom used to take me there as a child. We're on neutral ground, a small strip of land we nor the neighbouring pack actually need.

"But... you're such a mystery." I look up at him only to find that he was already looking at me.

"I don't know what the moon was thinking bestowing me with you." He shook his head ever so slightly. I could tell something was bothering him, there was a storm going on behind those hooded eyes.

"Don't think your charms will sway me from the topic at hand here, Micah."

He chuckled, "I'm not even trying to distract you. If anything, you are the distraction Lerato. You've really done it. You've really fucked with my mind and... and a man in my position cannot be so royally screwed over in this manner."

I was royally confused, "What do you mean? Micah, are you in the Arctic Pack?"

They did not believe in mates. They just mate with whomever they want, human or wolf, they don't care. They barely shift too, trying so desperately to erase their wolf gene. The Royals let them be, the Royals hardly ever get involved in anything. To be fair though, there was hardly anything to even intervene. We were by all means living in peace, surely a peace the humans would envy.

So with my question, I was trying to find out if he didn't believe in mates because the way he was speaking and acting was very odd. By now I should be moved in with him and even marked.

"No, no. I'm not. Let's just forget I said anything... Well besides that you're distracting." He smiled at me and whispered, "We're here."

I looked in front of us and sure enough we were in the meadow, and array of pink, orange, purple and white flowers surrounding us. I breathed it in and nearly let out a choke, the memories were bittersweet because we stopped coming here.

"I used to come here often with my mom. Perhaps twice a month, she would bring me here and we would sit and talk or I would bring my tea set and she her picnic basket. We'd have tea parties all the time. I'd set up my tea set and she would open her basket and we'd have actual sandwiches and tea here." I smiled fondly when I saw his adorably set picnic blanket and basket with a bouquet of flowers sitting, waiting for me.

"Why'd you stop coming?" He asked gently obviously sensing that I was very fond of the memories.

"I grew up," I shrugged smelling the white roses, not picked from the meadow there are no roses here, "I had school then I had training to become the wolf doctor."

He made a noise so I knew he had heard me.

"I love the flowers, thank you... But, don't you think they're overkill?" I raised a brow, blatantly roaming my eyes around the meadow. He laughs.

"Actually they were for me. I had to award myself for all this. Laying out this blanket and fixing up this food seemed like a worthy enough reason to get myself some white flowers."

I rolled my eyes at him, "You are something Micah."

"As long as it's something wonderful." He says.

I smile and nod, "Something breathtakingly wonderful."

He sat beside me and pulled the goodies from the basket and I couldn't help but be incredibly excited. He pulled out a few Tupperware lunchboxes of all shapes and sizes, Pringles, coke, water, wine gums, speckled eggs (which I'm currently munching on because I let out a childish squeal when he took them out so he said I could have a head start, huh, amateur they're all mine now) and a bunch of chips and other unhealthy junky goods.

"Are you trying to get me fat, Micah?" I laughed looking at everything sitting in front of me.

"Not intentionally," He scratched the back of his head, "I see now how it might seem that way but in reality this is me trying to figure out what it is you like." I could a ghost of a shy smile.

This made me feel giddy inside, the more time I spent with him the more that is all I wanted. To be around him and within his vicinity.

"Well. Let's play this or that then." I start to group everything according to what they are.

"Let's start with the actual food," He presented me with a plastic plate with lasagne on it.

"Oh this, this I love!" I took the plate from him, "Thanks."

I gobbled it up, no really it was delicious. I couldn't help the moans and smiles. It was easily the greatest lasagne I had ever had – sorry Mom.

"Who made this? It's delicious, honestly."

"Actually, I did." He gave a cocky smile, "The moans are greatly appreciated by my ego... and my body." His eyes were swirling with black, he was trying to tame himself, "Goddess, you're so bad for me."

As I was about to question him he pointed at the chocolates, "Kit-Kat or Bar One?"