Chapter 13.

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I walked into Karabo's room opening the door as quietly as I could and peeked in to see him sleeping soundly. He looked so peaceful and unsuspecting. I smirked stepping into his room quietly as I clutched the glass of icy water in my hands. I had been helping his mother make breakfast because we were both early risers and she asked me to wake him up. Since he was planning to head to training later than usual, he was sleeping in.

"If you pour that on me, I will kill you." my brows rose when my mate mumbled that before his eyes lazily opened to glare at me. My face melted into a grin.

"I wasn't going to..." It was true, I had just poured myself the water to drink when his mom asked me to wake him, but since he brought it up... "Well... You're going to take a shower anyway, just think of it as a pre-shower."

"Eli, don't –!"

I emptied the glass of water on his head causing him to let out a shout before I laughed running out of the door while he yelled from behind me.

"Eli, what did you just do?" Tamia asked as I made it to the dining room, slowing my pace so that I was walking.

"I woke Karabo." I grinned and Thandi laughed. 'You told me to try to make it work, I was just helping him.' Tamia's eyes narrowed at me.

"Oh my God, it's like living with my parents again," Ashton said as he sat at the dining room table. I chuckled.

We all sat down and began eating breakfast while we spoke about what we were planning to do throughout the day. Karabo's mom was going to have lunch with Richard's parents and the rest of us were going to the beach. I looked up and smirked when my mate finally joined us and he frowned back at me, his glaring, narrowed eyes telling me to sleep with one eye open before he gave a smile while kissing his mom's cheek and sat down beside me.

"How did you sleep?" I grinned at him teasingly.

He looked at me with a smile that made me feel uneasy. I didn't like how he seemed to suddenly brush off his awakening; obviously this smile was hiding something. He was definitely not just going to let go of how I woke him.

"Great. Did you sleep?" He asked, his devious smile softening for a moment.

"Nope," I replied reaching to pour some juice into Karabo's glass.

"Again?" Ashton asked concerned.

"I'm fine." I smiled at him.

"Why haven't you slept?" Thandi asked, her voice mirroring Ashton's concern. They didn't need to be worried, it was just silly nightmares.

"It's nothing. Probably just the travelling – I'm not used to the change in time-zone yet." I assured everyone before turning back to my mate. "You're coming to the beach, right?"

His face skewed into uncertainty and he began to look apologetic. "I really would like to, but I have to –"

"Ashton and Richard can take care of it." I cut him off.

"What?" Ashton asked.

"You guys get to be in charge for today." I looked at my Beta. 'You said you wanted more responsibility back home, show me you can handle it with Richard.' I linked to him.

"Alright, yeah, we'll take over." He said confidently.

'It'll be good for your Beta.' I linked to Karabo.

He studied at me thoughtfully before looking at Ashton. I watched as he gave a slight nod still looking uncertain as he dialled Richard's number. Richard sounded ecstatic about the idea of being completely in charge for once and Karabo pointed out that it was just for the day before he hung up.

"If something serious happens, you call me." He said to Ashton.

"Of course."

We ate the rest of breakfast before Ben called Paige to invite her and then began sulking about how she couldn't join us. The four of us left letting Ben drive us to the beach without argument just to cheer him up a little. Karabo and I ended up seated in the back as he pointed out sights to everyone while we drove but when we arrived at the beach, the sky was starting to cloud up causing most people to leave. We decided to stay anyway because it looked like it was not going to rain for at least a couple more hours and no one had a suggestion of what else to do at the moment.

"What are you doing?" I asked Karabo as he grabbed my hand and began dragging me along the beach once we had been walking along the shore for a few minutes.

'Just let him lead, Eli.' Tamia linked to me. I frowned. I don't want to, disliking the idea of not knowing where I was headed and just following someone... but fine. I could put up with it for a bit.

"My favourite part of the beach."

"Where all these weeds and rocks are? Do you want us to swim and or get concussions?" I asked my mate confused as we stepped over the rocks, "And it's gonna rain soon."

"Just come," he said shooting me a frown.

I laughed following him for a few minutes longer until he stopped and put his backpack down. I stepped up beside him and my brows rose as I looked down. We were a few feet above a huge pond of water. It was dark and there seemed to be an easier way to get into it on the other side but Karabo seemed to have chosen the high area for a reason. We were going to dive.

"You sure this is safe?" I asked trying to study what was beneath the water. The rocks we were standing on were not very smooth, how were we to be certain that the seawater we were staring down at wasn't littered with sharp rocks we could not see?

"Eli, I've come here for years. It's fine." Karabo said pulling his shirt off. I felt my chest tighten, my breath hitching in my lungs as he did not wait a second before diving into the water below. For a few seconds, my mind seemed to go blank, my heart stopping as he disappeared until I let out a low, relieved breath as he surfaced and waved up at us. "See?!" His yell just made me slightly annoyed while I let out another sigh of relief.

"Come on!" Tamia yelled out as she pulled her sweater off before following my mate's lead, Ben was next.

I stared down at the three people as they swam back creating space for me to dive in and bit my lip feeling uneasy, as though there was something I needed to check on or be doing. Was it Ashton and Richard? My father and Sean? I guessed that Tamia was right. Work was all I could think about. We were supposed to be on break, but that was not usually something I did. My eyes moved to Karabo and I felt myself smile seeing him laugh as Ben splashed water at him before they yelled at me to jump. I sighed pulling my shirt off before cannonballing off the edge of the rocks.

I slammed into the icy liquid before surfacing and brushing my hair back only to get shoved back underwater. I resurfaced and splashed water at Karabo as he laughed. The four of us messed around for a little while longer before Karabo suddenly stopped swimming and spoke up.

"Wait, guys, calm down," he said.

We listened to his instruction and I realised the water was only dark because of how deep it was and how far up we all were earlier. Once we were still enough I saw tiny fish swim out beneath us. I snapped my hand out and caught one gently, feeling it wiggle in my hand before letting it go.

"What's that?" Tamia pointed above us.

"A tunnel. It leads to the ocean." Karabo said.

"Seriously?!"

"Tamia –" I began as she began to climb up to it, her fingers barely gripping onto the jagged stones that stuck out of the side of the rock she was climbing.

"I'll be careful, Eli." I knew she was rolling her eyes even though she didn't look back down at me. I frowned watching Ben and Tamia climb all the way to the tunnel.

"Ben." I hissed when his foot slipped and his knee hit a sharp edge causing him to cry out lightly.

"Mistake, seriously calm down, Mom. It's already healed." He replied. It was so annoying, if they fell they would not land directly in the water, why was I always the only responsible one around?! Yes, they would probably heal but they would still get hurt and there was always the chance of a fatality even if we were werewolves.

I was relieved when they disappeared into the tunnel, but it was short-lived when I suddenly felt seaweed splat against my face and hair. I wiped it away as Karabo laughed.

"It helps with skin – like the mud did." he said with a laugh, "It's supposed to help you relax."

I gave a tight smile as I grabbed more weed. "Alright, your turn then."

"I'm allergic."

"Ha." I dived after him and he laughed as he swam away. I stopped as the memory of the last time we messed around in water came to mind. It made me glance up at the tunnel before I sunk underwater noticing that Karabo had still not looked back at me.

I stayed still and listened to where Karabo was kicking in the water before I swam over to him slowly as I heard him call for me. I felt him jump as my hands grabbed his sides before I gave him a peck on his chest and then surfaced with a laugh at his initial reaction to my touch.

"What did you think I was?" I teased, "Are there fish with hands here?"

"Nothing, no. Stop laughing." He shoved me looking embarrassed before chuckling as he grabbed my arms and pulled me close to him. I watched his eyes drift to my lips and felt myself smirk lightly.

"How about finishing what we started?" I asked.

He smiled and I chuckled as he kissed me before he pulled back. "But..." he looked upwards. I lifted my hand to his head to guide his face back down to mind,

"They're exploring." I shook my head immediately learning to kiss him.

As his arms circled my neck, I felt warm drops of warm water begin to hit my shoulders and back, but I was too focused on how close I was to Karabo and how amazing it felt to have his grip locked around me to care that it was raining.

"Hey guys," I held back a sigh hearing Tamia's voice as Karabo broke the kiss and bit his lip while he looked down, "It's beginning to rain. Maybe we should head home and watch a movie or something." Her voice was hiding a clear giggle.

"Yeah. You guys can watch The Longest Ride." Ben didn't even try to hide his amusement.

"For the last time, Ben. We're not watching The Longest Ride with you." I called out throwing some weeds at him as Karabo and Tamia laughed. Ben loved Romance movies and he was not ashamed of it – at least not with Ashton, Tamia and me.

We climbed out of the water and up to our bags before getting dressed in our already soaked clothing. Karabo mumbled that we should have put the clothes in the cave and I just shrugged. It did not matter, we were all wet anyway.

When we arrived back at the house, we all got changed and actually ended up watching The Longest Ride in the living room where I tried to quietly add in narrations that would emphasise the movie's sad moments in an attempt to make Ben cry, he didn't but he was pretty close to it. I broke out laughing when his lip began quivering at the part where Ruth died and got a punch on my shoulder from my mate and a glare from my sister. I sunk into my seat and gave Karabo a smile. He rolled his eyes before he chuckled and looked back at the movie.

When we finished the movie and the rain had stopped, we decided to head out again and ended up going go-carting. Being as competitive as we were, Karabo and I obviously had a race... well, a few until Tamia declared the overall score a tie after Karabo and I kept demanding rematches until we had gone twenty rounds with each of us winning ten. We began to protest and ask for a tie-breaker but Tamia's eyes turned fiery as she stared at us and I knew to just let it go, Karabo followed my lead.

I began to feel fatigued around three and suggested we call it a day but Ben wanted to see a museum we had driven by earlier and we ended up going there instead. I was completely out of it and could not really remember anything we saw, but I did remember my friends imitating statues in one of the rooms before Karabo grabbed my arm and I looked at him.

"Hey guys, mind if we catch up with you later?" Karabo asked.

"Where are we going?" I asked making sure to hide how tired I actually felt in my voice.

"Just the park." Karabo shrugged.

"But we –" Ben began.

"Fine, we'll just look around here." Tamia cut him off.

"Alright. GPS has home saved if you get lost." Karabo said tossing his keys to her.

I really needed to sleep, but some alone time with Karabo seemed to overshadow that.

"See you later." My sister smiled.

"Be careful," I said.

"I'm older than you are," Ben said.

"You cry while watching movies." I gave him a flat stare.

"Because I'm more emotionally mature than you are," he said.

"What?"

"He is actually." My sister agreed.

"Wow. I've never felt so betrayed," I said holding my hand to my chest. They laughed even though I was being partly serious, when did my twin start opposing me so much? I let Karabo pull me out of the museum before leaning against the wall as he called an Uber before looking at me.

"Tired?"

"Nope," I replied. He laughed and I smiled taking his hand again as he kissed my cheek.

I tried to find out where we were going as we waited for the car to show up but he rambled on about how he was certain unicorns existed but, like mermaids, hated when anyone saw them. I listened amused as he told me about how he was hell-bent on finding both. I knew a mermaid would not be that hard to find, they just weren't usually in the part of the ocean where he lived, unicorns, however...

I almost fell asleep during the ride to wherever my mate had decided we were going and ended up leaning my head against Karabo's shoulder as we drove until he chuckled poking me when we seemingly reached our destination. I could hear waves crashing and the smell of the ocean was stronger than it was in the city.

"We're back?" I asked once we were out of the car.

"You never got to go into the tunnel," he replied.

"Ah," I nodded. He chuckled and I followed him the same way we had gone that morning but we did not enter the water before climbing into the tunnel. It was much safer to enter the tunnel when not climbing up from the water.

I followed Karabo's lead in the dark as he pulled me along before the tunnel slowly lit up as we reached the other side. I stopped and gasped at the view of the sun reflecting onto the ocean as it was setting. The late afternoon ocean was rough yet watching the waves crash violently was unusually calming. It honestly was breathtaking as water droplets seemed to glitter after every wave hit.

I sat on the edge of the tunnel and looked down at the waves crashing against the rocks below me while Karabo sat down beside me.

"This looks better than it does in pictures," I said. Galaxy was situated nowhere near a beach, and though I had been to several in the past, this was the most beautiful.

"See? Another reason you should move here." Karabo joked.

I looked at him and he turned to me grinning, his brown eyes appeared almost gold lit up by the setting sun. I chuckled lifting my hand to his face to pull him closer so I could kiss him softly. I ran my hand down onto his neck knowing he would feel lingering sparks where I traced my fingers on his skin; I could feel them in my fingers as I touched him. I wanted to keep touching and tasting him but sighed dropping my head onto his shoulder as sudden exhaustion just burst through me. Days of not sleeping had caught up with me and I was feeling terrible.

"You alright?" he asked, his fingers gently running through my hair and I gave a nod.

"Yeah, I'm great," I mumbled into his shoulder. He gave a huff.

"I don't even know why I asked; you clearly need some sleep," he said.

I didn't reply but lifted my head as he moved away from the edge of the tunnel and I followed him until we were a few feet away from the edge. It probably was not the best idea to keep sitting there when I felt like I was going to pass out at any second.

"What are you doing?" I asked when he moved behind me.

"Just sleep, Eli." He replied pulling me backwards until I was lying flat on the ground with his jacket beneath my back and my head resting on his crossed legs. He patted my shoulders before running his hands onto my chest and I looked up at him as he smiled down at me before his eyes lifted to the ocean ahead.

I watched him for a few seconds, just admiring the view of my mate in the fading sunlight. I felt at ease and I loved that. It didn't feel like either of us were Alphas, it didn't matter that we lived so far apart, it just felt so great to be there with him. I lifted my hands to where his rested on my chest and held onto them as I shut my eyes before drifting off to sleep.

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