Into The Woods (mxm)

Eighteen

Ansel

     Greyson finds me on the rooftop of one of the palace towers, watching the sunset. He climbs up next to me and sits beside me in comfortable silence.

         After a while, as the sky begins to change from a light blue to bright oranges, pinks, and yellows, Greyson breaks the silence with a soft chuckle.

     "I guess you won," he says.

     "Won what?"

       "The last time I saw you when we were children was when we were playing a game of hide and seek. It has been fourteen years since I've seen you. Fourteen long years that I had been searching for you. And finally when I found you... you won. You are officially the master at hide and seek."

       I giggle, Greyson lacing his fingers with mine.

      "Well, in the end, you found me, didn't you? If we are speaking technically, you won in the end. And I only succeeded in being hard to find."

      "Very true."

     Greyson lifts up my shirt to take a look at my stomach. Now, a quite noticeable bump had formed.

     "I have swelled quite a bit," I murmur, running my fingers along the beginnings of stretch marks.

       "You are beautiful." Greyson leans down and presses a firm kiss to each of the pink stretch marks. After, he kisses my lips softly.

      "Mark me," I say suddenly. Greyson's eyes widen a considerable amount.

      "What?"

       "I want you to mark me. And I want to mark you in return. I want to be fully mated before our pup is born. Most, if not all mated couples have fully completed their bonds before starting to have pups. We need to do this the right way. We will have a proper ceremony and a wedding before. And then we can rest well knowing that we are one."

Greyson smiles, pulling me up into his lap. He laps at the side of my neck that is available for his mark to be placed. His canines elongate, and he bites down.

Collin

      I stay in the kitchen all day, save for when I went to the town market to buy ingredients. I make a (what I hope is) grand dinner for my mate.

I start off by making a light cabbage soup for an appetizer. I make roasted quail with rice and wilted spinach for the main course. I make some pears poached in wine, rice pudding and custard tarts for desserts. I set up the food on a table in a small room off to the side of the barracks that the warriors' mates would use for a one on one dinner alone with them.

I smell him before I see him. I spin around and hurry outside the small room to greet him.

"Collin?" Keir calls out.

"Keir!" I exclaim. He turns at the sound of my voice, smiling when I run into his awaiting arms.

"I made you supper." I guide Keir into the room and his mouth opens in surprise.