The tongue in his mouth was not helping with the vertigo Darcy was already suffering from. But it tasted so good. They became completely, desperately entangled. Luca’s arms wound around him and his fingers pressed into his body. Darcy's legs twisted around his. With a startled groan, Luca stumbled backwards until he hit the tree trunk. It did not dissuade his tenacious tongue.

They broke apart gasping. Frustratingly, Darcy’s blazing fury had dissipated. He had enough coherent energy to know he had been angry with Luca, and that he had intended to still be. Luca’s sharp brows, pointed at the ends, pulled his face down into a desperate, pleading look. He tilted his chin back towards Darcy, slim lips reaching. Begging another kiss.

“I need a lie down,” Darcy admitted dazedly.

Luca chuckled, but didn’t argue. His expression slipped back to its chilled neutral setting. “You look like you’ve just finished a marathon,” he teased.

“I like running, remember?” he joked weakly. Darcy's own words echoed in his mind. The blush that had already taken over his face spread to the tips of his ears. Somehow, he had managed to indirectly admit to liking Luca’s kisses. Darcy looked away over his shoulder, feigning sudden interest in the bustling bushes around them.

Luca brushed a kiss along his stretched neck. Darcy felt his smile on his skin when he trembled under his affection. His hands at his waist hoisted him up to sit on Luca’s hip. Darcy caught sight of his palms for just a moment, they were littered with cuts and grazes. A smattering of blood had dried to them.

“Let’s go back to base,” he announced. Darcy cuddled in close and nodded.

With Darcy comfortably balanced at his side, Luca began the trek back to their picnic blanket.

The rumpled blanket was exactly as they had left it, with backpack and containers piled on one corner. Luca squatted on the opposite corner and lowered them to the ground. Darcy peeled himself from his side. Luca allowed him to scoot away from him and took the opportunity to spread himself into a lounging position across the blanket. Darcy mimicked him, balancing on his elbow.

They laid in silence for a while. Darcy's eyes couldn’t stay off him, no matter how hard he tried to focus on the beautiful scenery of the blooming forestry. The heat of his mate’s returned gaze was worse than the sun beating down from above.

“I’m sorry for not listening to you,” he said suddenly. “I just… want to make sure you know that I mean it. I never feel like you believe me.”

“I believe you want to be forgiven,” Darcy admitted. He chose each of his words carefully as he continued, “I don’t know if I believe you’ll change and listen to me in future. I feel like… you’re just learning the right things to say or do to still get what you want in the end.”

“I don’t always have an evil ulterior motive,” he argued.

Darcy rolled his eyes. “You usually do.”

His tone suddenly turned far more serious. “My ulterior motive in the tree was for you not to fall and die.”

“We wouldn’t have been in the tree if you had listened to me,” he reminded him.

“You’re not wrong, but-”

“But you don’t like being not right,” Darcy finished.

Luca looked away, scrunching his delicious lips. Darcy wished he could look away, but his face was a magnet and his eyes were oppositely charged.

After a few moments, Luca connected their eyes again. Gold with black. “I was in the wrong,” he conceded. He spoke sincerely. Darcy quirked a brow at him, surprised and somehow even more turned on than he had been making out against the tree that almost killed his. Now that could definitely develop into a very weird kink.

Darcy hurriedly swept away his strange, perverted thoughts to respond, “yep.” He would have liked to berate his ex-bully eloquently and wittily… but his mind refused to release its grip fully on the replay button showcasing the tree kiss. Over and over and over.

Luca’s silky voice was the required brake switch. “How do I make it right?” he asked.

Darcy considered his answer for a few seconds. Finally, he suggested, “do better next time.” The finality in his voice silenced him, for now. Luca seemed deep in thought. A handsome philosopher lounging about amongst nature, thinking of the universe. Darcy rolled slightly and let his chest, shoulders and head dip to the blanket until he was completely flat. His eyelids slid down.

Darcy dozed, neither fully asleep or awake. The combination of sunny warmth on the bare skin of his arms and face, and the gentle breeze cooling him over his clothes felt incredible. Darcy hummed happily and cracked his eyes open to glance over at his darling dialectician.

Amber eyes were upon him again. Darcy blushed under the heavy gaze.

“Shall we shift?” he asked pleasantly. Luca didn’t budge from his lounging position on the blanket, though.

“I don’t- I’m not really comfortable in my wolf form,” Darcy mumbled into his forearms.

“Do you mind if I still do? I need a stretch.”

Darcy shrugged awkwardly. It wasn’t his place to tell another wolf they couldn’t switch forms. “Sure.”

Luca clambered up from the floor and kicked his shoes off next to the backpack. Next he pulled off his socks and t-shirt. His torso was long and bespeckled with light brown freckles. The way his golden skin pulled tightly over his shifting muscles had Darcy’s underwear sticking to his tip. The power in Luca’s oversized frame brought a hazy feeling over him; a desperate need to be pinned down, with his mate’s teeth at his throat. Darcy averted his eyes the moment his fingers reached his zipper. Luca caught him with his own, and grinned salaciously before Darcy could get a firm lock on the trees behind him.

“I’ll turn away,” Darcy stammered.

A grin twitched at the corner of his mouth. Luca was fighting it off poorly. “Why?”

Darcy plucked out the first excuse he could find in his head. “Privacy?” He wanted to slap his own forehead. Wolves didn’t care about their bodies being seen by others. Only an omega would worry about such things.

Luca humoured him, though. “Why would I need privacy with only the two of us here?”

Darcy forced out a barely audible, “I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” His lips and throat were suddenly bone dry. Darcy pressed them into his squishy forearms. Nothing about his body was taut or tight like Luca’s.

His mate’s reply rumbled from his mouth-wateringly bare chest. “I feel very comfortable with you looking at my body, Darcy.”

A squeak escaped him and he buried his head into the small circle created by his arms on the blanket. Luca laughed and he heard the sound of his jeans hit the dirt.

The huff of a wolf informed him that he was finished shifting. Darcy peeked out at him.

Darcy's mate was glorious. Proudly trotting around their small clearing in all of his golden-furred beauty. His huge size was matched in wolf form, with his furry back sitting at what Darcy guessed to be his shoulder height. After a few dawdling laps he leapt forward, startling Darcy into an upright position. His laugh was a borderline bark and Darcy shook his head in faux annoyance. Luca winked and shot off, disappearing between thick tree trunks. The pad of his paws hitting the earth faded instantly.