MATE AND HIS LOVER 9

#40 I'll be careful

Daisy walks on the lush forest floor. The rain had catalyzed an explosion of leaves and grass through the entire forest surface. The sky is newly cleared up from the dark clouds. It's blue and bright.

She stops before a tall tree, pulls out a mini GoPro from her fanny pack, turns it on and checks the feed on her phone. She then takes a few steps back, takes off the rope from around her shoulder, and throws one of its end to the sky.

The rope goes over the branch she aimed for and comes back to her from the other side. Daisy anchors the rope, clasps an ascender to it, then pulls it to check if it holds before starting to climb.

When she reaches the branch she places the camera over the bark and adjusts the angle, before pulling out a mini electric screw driver from her fanny pack and screwing it to the branch.

For the next thirty minutes she scouts for trees across the pack land's border to put up her cameras. After installing the last one she starts her way back home.

At the cusp of the main road she sees a familiar vehicle pull over near her. "What are you doing here?" Lily asks through the pulled down window of the pink BMW.

"Walking. Thought I'd get some exercise."

"Hop in. I just brought some take outs from aunt Christie's restaurant. We'll eat at my place."

Daisy gets in.

When they reach Lily's home, the first thing Daisy notices is that anyone can tell a girl lives here. She sees appliances the brands of which she didn't even know released those machines in pink.

It's bright from all the un-curtained windows. "I guess you don't worry about peeping toms at night."

"Oh, please," Lily says while taking a few dishes off the rack in the kitchen. "No one would dare come near my place because of Frank."

Daisy chuckles. "Must be nice."

"You'll know when you find your mate."

Daisy closes her eyes and nods.

They both sit in the living room. Lily moves the food onto the dishes from the boxes and hands over a filled plate to Daisy.

While eating, Daisy says, "How did you two meet?"

"We have known each other since we were kids."

"You are a native of this pack?"

"Yeah. I know everyone here."

"What was your relationship with Frank like?"

"He always had a big fat crush on me."

Daisy can imagine that. Lily is a blonde bombshell. "I'm guessing he wasn't the only one who did."

"No," Lily proudly says. "I was popular."

"Did you date Frank then? Or anyone else?"

"He wouldn't let anyone else come near me."

"So, the whole stay away from Frank's girl has been in practice since long before?"

Lily laughs. "Yeah. But, girl, he used to get under my skin all the fricking time. So I made sure he paid for it."

"You didn't like him back?" Daisy asks, surprised.

"No, I did. But I didn't let him know that. I pretended I wasn't interested in him."

"I should say I feel bad for him. But I don't."

"Well, he was a little pitiful, though."

"Why didn't you date him then?"

Lily puts down her plate. "It's kind of hard to explain, but I, like, felt, if he and I got together I would for sure end up falling for him, hard. Like, it wouldn't be a casual thing. Then I thought I might get hurt if he finds his mate and leaves me. That it's best to wait."

"When did you find out you two were mates?"

Lily smiles. "On his eighteenth birthday. I wasn't even in town at the time. I was at Ipstone. Around midnight, I suddenly felt so hot like I was inside an oven or something. When I checked the air conditioner it was on only, but I still felt very hot."

Daisy remembers her own random hot flash she felt one night when the weather wasn't even that warm. It was not long before she would leave the Stantons once and for all.

Lily continues, "I opened my window, went back to bed, picked up my phone, and was just scrolling through Instagram, waiting for the room to get cooler — it was much colder outside — when at about two o'clock I heard noises from outside."

Daisy laughs.

"I first thought it was a burglar trying to climb up to my room," Lily says. "I took out the torch from the bottom drawer of my bedside table, went near the window, and turned it on over whoever that was climbing up. He was startled and blinded by the light and fell back down."

Daisy laughs harder.

"And that's when I knew, looking at his whimpering face on my yard, late at night, that he was my mate."

"That is amazing," Daisy says, wiping tears off the corners of her eyes. "What happened after?"

"He climbed back up, I pulled him in, we kissed, kept kissing, moved to my bed, and stayed there until morning when he sneaked back out through the window — so my parents wouldn't find out — and I went back to sleep, with a mark on my neck."

"What?!" Daisy says, covering her mouth. "You slept with him on the first night?"

"You have to understand, it was something I was pining for years by then. It was truly a dream come true. Besides, I had given him enough chase already."

Daisy shakes her head. She believes that wasn't enough.

"We'll see how you'll fare when your time comes. How long you think you will give your mate the chase?" Lily says.

Daisy puts down her empty plate, leans back on the couch, and takes her hands behind her neck. "Trust me. He'll be running a whole fucking marathon."

They both laugh before Daisy notices the time. "I gotta go now. Thanks for the lunch, and the lift."

"No problem."

When Lily sees Daisy off at the door Lily says, "Look, don't take this the wrong way: But I've been looking at you and Nate, and I can tell there's something going on. He seems to be into you, a lot. I know you two aren't together or anything, and... I just think that's what best for you. Nate really is a great guy, but he had already turned eighteen, and will soon become our Alpha, too. I don't want you to get hurt by him when he finds his mate. Something like that happened with his parents. I don't want that for you and him."

Daisy gently smiles at Lily before giving her a hug. "Don't worry, I'll be careful." 

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