'Daddy!!!!!'
Elif's shriek pierces our ears before we even see her bounding down the stairs. She's in Marc's arms just a second later. He twirls her around as if she weighs nothing, when we all know that is so not the case. She is 10. She is not light. But Marc doesn't complain one bit when she decides to use his upper body as a jungle gym and giggles full of joy. Suddenly, she stops, throws as a quick glance before whispering - yeah right - into her dad's ear.
'I've got the thing for Donovan and Raphael. Can I give it to them?'
Her eyes keep going back and forth between us and her dad, but I can barely pay her attention.
What becomes painstakingly obvious is the sudden pull I feel towards Raph. The tension from earlier has left and all I want to do now is finish the ritual completely. His arm around my body doesn't help either, but I don't find it in myself to step away from him. I can feel his tense muscles on my back and where his arms touch me, and I know he's feeling the same.
As much as I love Elif, right now she's in the way.
'Let them get some rest, love, and give them their gift tomorrow... or maybe in a week.' he shrugs innocently before giggling and then carrying his pouting daughter into the house. I don't miss the wink he throws us over his shoulder, but even that can't distract me now. I don't even blush. Instead, I get out of Raph's embrace, grab his hand and pull him towards the woods and our home.
On the way there is a flurry of shifting. The longer we don't touch, the more I lose control. I keep shifting back and forth between my human and wolf form, going from four feet to two and back in a matter of seconds. At this point, I can't even see Raph, I simply feel him close to me and so I keep going towards home.
The moment we get there, Raph bursts through the door and me, still being in wolf form, run right into him, making us topple over each other into our living space.
We lie there for a second, on our backs, me mid shift and Raph in his human form right next to me, too stunned about our clumsy selves to even react. And then suddenly we both burst out laughing. I can feel Raph's shoulder shaking next to mine, my stomach starting to cramp up with the amount of laughing I do, but I can't help it. It takes all the pressure off and makes the tension dissipate and it calms me down.
I end up kicking the door closed and snuggling into Raph's side, still chuckling.
'I love you.' I say, kissing his neck. His arm that is around my shoulders pushes my chin up, so that his lips can find mine, kissing me in between his own giggles. I push myself up on my hands on either side of my mate's shoulders, straddling him in the process and deepening the kiss. But before I know it his hands are pushing my torso up and to the side to switch position. I can't help but laugh again as we end up rolling around the room like idiots.
'Stop it!' I finally say, half serious and half laughing still, while standing up. I pull him up with me, ignoring his pout and lead him to our bed. We don't have a lot of furniture, but a kitchen and bed, along with a few other bits and pieces was a must.
Before I even reach the bed, he picks me off the ground by my hips. Not expecting that at all, I let out an embarrassing squeak before being dropped on the bed and squished into it by my very enthusiastic mate.
'That was cute.' he grins at me, our noses touching and eyes crossing to see each other.
'Shut up.' I reply as I punch him in the side. He groans, which doesn't surprise me, since I didn't hold back much.
Before he can retaliate I pull his head down to kiss him, my tongue meeting his in a matter of seconds and neither of us can help the moans that escape our lips.
Soon I get lost in the entirety that is my mate, connecting with him in a way that I never had the privilege to before. He ignites a lust in me that I haven't ever known, not even when we were playing around previously. The experience is so new and exhilarating that I can't find any argument to say no when my mate asks me to stay in bed for another day or two.
When we finally decided to get up, there is a simultaneous groan from both of us. We're sore, seriously so.
'You did me well, dude.' he chuckles. I roll my eyes at the crude term, but can't help and answer him: 'So did you.'
We decided on breakfast in bed, since neither of us wanted to sit on the floor, or chairs, or anything that is less soft than the bed.
Sitting next to Raph right now feels different. Everything is so silent. Our connection isn't as tangible as right after the ceremony, instead it's almost like a gentle hum, something to remind me that I'm never alone and that there's always something there for me. I close my eyes and focus on the sensation, trying to pinpoint what exactly it feels like, but it feels so far away from anything physical that it's just so hard to describe. The more I try to pinpoint it, the more it slips away from me.
'You're quiet' Raph says eventually.
'I'm trying to feel you.' I answer without thinking and when I don't get an answer immediately I know I made a mistake.
'You felt me for a whole two days, baby.' I don't even open my eyes to see his face, knowing exactly what I would see. But I suppose that was my second mistake. Because right after, my mug is taken from my hands and I can feel my mate between my legs. Immediately I grab his shoulders, pushing him away.
'Don't you dare. I'm sore as fuck. Stay away.' This time I open my eyes, if only to keep him in check, and I can see the reply forming in his mind, so before he can answer, I kiss him. It's a chaste kiss, nothing that is going to lead anywhere, but enough to shut him up.
'Hmm, can we cuddle?' he asks when I finally break away.
I roll my eyes but I also can't deny how much I wanted to ask that first. So I pull him down with me, making sure that all the food is a save distance away, and just lie there with his head on my chest and my fingers playing with his hair.
'I feel amazing.' he then says and I can tell from his tone what he means. The warmth that I'm feeling, the energy in my body and the calm in my mind. I only hum in answer.
We finally completed the mating. It feels surreal and almost as if I reached the pinnacle of my life right at this moment.
It's later that day that we leave the house for the first time since our mating. It's a weirdly personal feeling to walk outside with my mate, almost as if it's too private for people to see and I can tell from his slight squirming that Raph feels the same.
We take our time getting to the pack house, taking the long way around and stopping randomly to just sit down, or kiss, or hug. It's a weird need to always be close and it's completely new. Neither of us were ever really the public affection or overly touchy type and suddenly it feels all kinds of wrong to even let go of his hand.
When we reach the pack house, Elif is already outside. She is holding a something behind her, thinking her slender frame would actually cover it, but neither of us says anything as we approach a nervous Elif. She is excitedly rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, barely keeping still enough to not run around like a lunatic.
As soon as we're close enough to hug her, she lets out a high pitched squeal and jumps into our arms, keeping the box behind her still, even though we are definitely touching it when catching her.
It's only when we set her down and she sits us down on the stairs, which, to be honest, isn't the greatest feeling in the world right now, that she holds out her hands with a rectangular box.
'It's a mating present!' she says proudly, obviously eager to see our reaction. Raph and I just look at each other before he grabs it.
'Thank you, Elif.' I say for both of us.
'Open it though!' she says, completely disregarding what I said and way too focused on Raph carefully unwrapping the present. Obviously he's too slow because it's ripped out of his hands by Elif and apart in a matter of seconds.
'Here!' she now says even prouder as she hands us a book. It's a sleek black thing, nothing on the top and fairly thick.
When I open it I freeze.
On the first page is the first photograph that was taken of me, Raph and Elif, almost 5 years ago. She'd said that she wanted to take a photo of the two of us, so Raph was hugging me from behind, but then Elif sneaked up and jumped on both of us so now the picture shows all three of us mid fall, our eyes wide open and mouth mid scream.
Raph next to me is chuckling, probably remembering the day just as well as I do.
As we continue, there is more photographs of our time at the pack, most of which I don't even remember being taken. All of them are in black and white and I can't help but wonder why.
Towards the end, suddenly there are pictures from our pack ceremony and mating ceremony a few days ago. It's photographs of the pack, smiling at each other and the stage, some with Marc, Randy and Elif herself, some with us.
The very last photo shows me and Raph kissing. It's simple and I can't even remember exactly which kiss it was, but we just look so unbelievably happy.