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

The trio group chat was filled with concerned messages from Melody and Reece. Reece was threatening to call her mother if she didn’t reply in the next fifteen minutes and let them know she 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: Her mate, then…

Darcy’s fingers froze. She hadn’t said a word to them about Luca being her mate. She intended to take that knowledge with her 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. She forced her friends from her mind. That dumpster fire could be dealt with later.

Luca skidded to a halt in front of her and bounced on his paws, almost stomping on her legs. Darcy’s body stiffened up like doll with rusty joints. She had never had natural instincts for wolf behaviour.  He was watching her. Whatever he wanted to tell her, she wasn’t getting it. She 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,” she mumbled. “I don’t understand.”

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

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

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

“Oh,” she whispered.

A low grumbling sound came from him, 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 his weight, but out of fear of a wrong action. She had never interacted with another wolf in this way. And yet, he seemed more than at home. Luca lounged in her lap as though he belonged there.

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

“Are you going to bite me?” she 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 her fingers. Unless he was lying.

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

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

When Darcy allowed her own breaths to slow and lengthen, she was overwhelmed with how intense his scent had become. It had infected near enough every inch of her own skin, but having her mate laid across her lap in wolf form was engulfing her 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.

She continued to stroke at him, alternating between her palms and her fingertips. Tracing shapes onto him as he relaxed, under the sun and over his mate. Eventually, she 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, she wished the day could last forever. She missed the weight of him already. Although his scent would stick to her omega skin for a good while yet. It gave her 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 she packed up the picnic remains) they dawdled back to the entrance.

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

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