While Luca was stretching his legs, Darcy checked his phone.

The trio group chat was filled with concerned messages from Melody and Reece. Reece was threatening to call Darcy’s mother if he didn’t reply in the next fifteen minutes and let them know he was safe.

Darcy: You guys are so dramatic

Melody: You could be dead in a ditch for all we know!!! >:|

Darcy: That’s right, I’m texting you from beyond the grave

Darcy: Boo.

Reece: We didn’t see you walk to the pack buses and you didn’t answer our messages about meeting up tonight for a movie.

Melody: We thought you’d been kidnapped!!!

Reece: Are you at home?

Darcy: No, I’m just out. Not sure what time I’ll be back, but we can hang out tomorrow.

Melody: With who???

Darcy: How is that your business lol

Reece: His mate, then…

Darcy’s fingers froze. He hadn’t said a word to them about Luca being his mate. Darcy intended to take that knowledge with him to the grave.

Darcy: What are you talking about?

Melody: I can’t believe you didn’t tell us, Darce. Not cool.

Darcy: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Reece: Luca told us.

Darcy: Luca is only 17

Melody: But MYSTIKA told him early

Darcy: MYSTIKA is a crazy old bat covered in sequins, you can’t trust a word she says

Reece: You already turned 18, Darcy. And Luca thinks your 18^th birthday is in August. Why lie to him?

Darcy: To get him off my back because it’s not true. When I tried telling him that he wouldn’t believe me. After his birthday he will realise.

Melody: Wow. Of all the people to lie to.

Darcy: I’m not lying to my soul-mate.

Reece: She meant us, Darcy.

Before Darcy could come up with anything decent to write back, a great ball of fur bounded back through the trees. Darcy forced his friends from his mind. That dumpster fire could be dealt with later.

Luca skidded to a halt in front of him and bounced on his paws, almost stomping on his legs. Darcy’s body stiffened up like doll with rusty joints. He had never had natural instincts for wolf behaviour.  The wolf was watching him. Whatever he wanted to tell him, he wasn’t getting it. Darcy watched him back nervously.

Luca tilted his head in a harsh jerk that flopped his ears to the side cutely. Darcy shrugged back. He crept forward a little more and tilted his head to the other side.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I don’t understand.”

He stepped over his lap, front legs over one side and back legs over the other. Darcy scooted back, clearing the space he was trying to take. Luca followed him with deliberate side-steps.

“Where do you want me to go?” Darcy asked exasperatedly. He could just nod with his nose if he wanted him to move. He made a huffing sound and Darcy made one back. Babies learnt their behaviour through mimicry, maybe he could do the same.

He pressed in close again and flopped onto Darcy’s legs before he could shuffle his butt back again. He was heavy, but had made sure to land his limbs either side of him.

“Oh,” he whispered.

A low grumbling sound came from the wolf, as though he were saying ‘finally!’. He dropped his head onto the blanket beneath them.

It took at least a full minute before Darcy could move. Not because of the weight, but out of fear of a wrong action. Darcy had never interacted with another wolf in this way. And yet, his mate seemed more than at home. Luca lounged in his lap as though he belonged there.

Darcy peeled his hands from either side of his hips and hesitantly laid them over Luca’s side. The golden fur was soft and ever so slightly wavy, A woven blanket of ochre. The blanket huffed and Darcy snatched his hands back. Luca glanced over his shoulder at him and wiggled his head a little. Darcy couldn’t tell if he was encouraging him or warning him he was about to get bit.

“Are you going to bite me?” he asked quietly.

Luca shook his head with the limited space he had pressed into the ground. Darcy could only assume that head shake directions were the same in human and wolf code. That meant no, he wouldn’t eat any of his fingers. Unless he was lying.

This time Darcy slid his fingers through the fur of his neck. He held unnaturally still and Darcy felt as though he were winding up a jack-in-the-box. He was waiting for his moment to spring and scare him for a prank. Darcy stroked at the golden fluff, anticipating a jump scare at any moment. Luca’s breaths deepened.

Darcy allowed the tips of his fingers to skim up to the base of his skull and watched his eyes flutter shut. A soft groan rumbled over his legs.

When Darcy allowed his own breaths to slow and lengthen, he was overwhelmed with how intense his mate’s scent had become. It had infected near enough every inch of his own skin, but having Luca laid across his lap in wolf form was engulfing him in it. Straight from the source, the distinct smell wafted from him with his body heat. Claiming everything it pressed in on. Darcy being the main target.

Darcy continued to stroke at him, alternating between his palms and his fingertips. Tracing shapes onto him as he relaxed, under the sun and over his mate. Eventually, Darcy was able to relax, too.

They received a message to Darcy’s phone from the reserve that their time-slot was almost up; it was time to head back. Luca grumbled as he pulled himself up. Darcy silently agreed with the sentiment, he wished the day could last forever. Darcy missed the weight of him already. Although his scent would stick to his omega skin for a good while yet. It gave him at least a minor comfort.

He trotted away, shaking his fur and nabbing his clothes from the ground with his mouth. Once he had dressed (of course, Darcy made sure to only accidentally peek one time while he packed up the picnic remains) they dawdled back to the entrance.

When Luca dropped him off outside his pack grounds, he grazed a kiss across his forehead as he stepped out of the car.

Darcy walked the mile-long driveway into his pack’s land in a trance-like state. The scent of his mate lingered with him every step of the way.