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

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

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

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

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

Luna brushed a kiss along her stretched neck. Darcy felt her smile on her skin when she trembled under her affection. Her hands at Darcy’s waist hoisted her up to sit on her hip. She caught sight of Luna’s 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,” Luna announced. Darcy cuddled in close and nodded.

With Darcy comfortably balanced at Luna’s side, she 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. Luna squatted on the opposite corner and lowered them to the ground. Darcy peeled herself from her side. Luna allowed her to scoot away from her and took the opportunity to spread herself into a lounging position across the blanket. Darcy mimicked her, balancing on her elbow.

They laid in silence for a while.

Her eyes couldn’t stay off Luna, no matter how hard she tried to focus on the beautiful scenery of the blooming forestry. The heat of her mate’s own gaze returned on her was worse than the sun beating down from above.

“I’m sorry for not listening to you,” she 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. She chose each of her words carefully as she 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,” she argued.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “You usually do.”

Her 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,” she reminded her.

“You’re not wrong, but-”

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

Luna looked away, scrunching her delicious lips. Darcy wished she could look away, but her face was a magnet and Darcy’s eyes were oppositely charged.

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

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

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

Darcy considered her answer for a few seconds. She finally suggested, “do better next time.” The finality in her voice silenced her, for now. Luna seemed deep in thought. A fresh-faced philosopher lounging about amongst nature, thinking of the universe. Darcy rolled slightly and let her chest, shoulders and head dip to the blanket until she was completely flat. Her eyelids slid down.

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

Amber eyes were upon her again. Darcy blushed under her heavy gaze.

“Shall we shift?” she asked pleasantly. Luna didn’t budge from her lounging position on the blanket, though.

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

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

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

Luna clambered up from the floor and kicked her shoes off next to the backpack. Next she pulled off her socks and t-shirt. Her torso was long and bespeckled with light brown freckles that crept up and under her sports bra. The way her golden skin pulled tightly over her shifting muscles had Darcy’s underwear sticking to her lips. The power in Luna’s oversized frame brought a hazy feeling over her; a desperate need to be pinned down, with her teeth at her throat. Darcy averted her eyes the moment Luna’s fingers reached her zipper, suddenly conscious of her gawking. Luna caught her with her own, and grinned salaciously before Darcy could get a firm lock on the trees behind her.

“I’ll turn away,” Darcy stammered.

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

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

Luna humoured her, 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.” Her lips and throat were suddenly bone dry. Darcy pressed them into her squishy forearms. Nothing about her body was taut or tight like her.

Luna’s reply rumbled from her mouth-wateringly half-naked chest. “I feel very comfortable with you looking at my body, Darcy.”

A squeak escaped her and she buried her head into the small circle created by her arms on the blanket. Luna laughed and Darcy heard the sound of her jeans hit the dirt.

The huff of a wolf informed her that she was finished shifting. Darcy peeked out at her.

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