Jessie's POV
After the two of us had woken up from our nap, Sloan and I had a round two against the shower wall as we cleaned up. Once we took another to actually get cleaned, we decided to go on a walk to get fresh air and hopefully catch up on lost time.
These past few years haven't been easy on me, but I would do it all again for Carramel. The only thing I regret is not being able to meet my Mate sooner the sassy unapologetic wolf perfect in my eyes. We walk hand and hand down a trail we found behind the house, the sun shining softly through the leaves making this a lot more romantic than I expected.
"How does it feel to be a free?" Sloan asks and I chuckle deep in my chest shaking my head side to side as I think.
"It's strange. As much as I've been looking forward to it, it's almost creepy to see the world through my own eyes rather than through Carramel's." I explain and he hums his understanding and from my peripheral vision I catch him sneaking glances at me, making my lips pull into a smirk. "Do you like what you see, baby?" I ask teasingly and he immediately snaps his head forward.
"Of course not, you had a bug on your face." He sasses me and I laugh, knowing there was no such thing, the proud wolf too stubborn to admit to anything.
"It's okay. You're pretty enough for the both of us." I tell him raising his hand to my mouth to kiss it softly and he blushes wildly snatching his hand away.
"I'll kick you with my stilettos, leave me alone." He pouts but I notice he stays right where he is and even grabs back on to my hands after a couple minutes. We're silent as we walk to trail, hands swinging lazily between us as we enjoy our walk together.
"I dreamed about this, you know." I tell Sloan, taking a look at him, his head turns to meet my eyes with a questioning look.
"About what?" He asks.
"About meeting you. Or the idea of you, I should say. I wasn't conscious much, so I only got glimpses of you every now and then." I share and he tilts his head to the side, a sad look crossing his face.
"What was it like, having your human hate you?" He asks me and though it should be an offensive question, I know my baby is only curious so I answer.
"Imagine growing up with a twin, they're almost like a limb, you can live without it, but it makes life so much harder. I thought about passing a few times, but the only thing that kept me going was protecting Carramel and meeting you. And here I am." I say shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly not thinking it's a big deal.
Sloan shakes his head turning to look at me with awe. "I don't think I could do that." He tells me frowning as he thinks. "That's selfless and brave, there's not a lot of people who would do that at all. I'm really lucky huh?" He says, the last question to himself but I catch it, the words making my chest puff out in pride.
"As much as I love the praise, it's not really something I want to talk about." I tell him and he nods in understanding, dropping the subject much to my relief.
"What would you like to talk about?" He asks me and I pull him towards a clearing that I see between the trees.
"I want to talk about you." I tell him as we break through the trees and end up in a field full of grass. "Tell me about yourself. I want to know every detail I missed out on."
He scoffs and tilts his head up to think and I pull the cheeky wolf into my arms, loving the feel of him finally being where he belongs. I peek into his mind and stare at his figure. His hair is long and wavy, his hips rounded and perfect and of course his long fingers are adorned with acrylics, and I thank the goddess above for the mental connection.
"Well," He starts as I begin to sway our bodies, his arms coming up to circle my neck softly, pulling me out of my comfortable staring. "I grew up in a two parent household training to be the perfect wolf for James, but I refused once I got old enough to realize what I was being molded into didn't fit me at all."
He takes a breath and I can see his eyes take him somewhere far from him as my hands settle on his hips and we dance along with the breeze softly.
"I love the color purple, I'm trying to convince James to take pole dancing classes and I want to go to prom. Not James, but me." He says the last part quietly as if it's a deep dark secret that we hadn't dared say aloud yet and maybe it is.
"Maybe we could make it happen." I tell him, fully believing.
But Sloan only shakes his head and refocuses his eyes on me, changing the topic on to me, but I save the conversation for a later date, wanting my baby to have his moment.
"What about you? You've been gone for five years, that's a lot of time to become self aware." He says and I chuckle leaning my head against his as I pull his body closer, needing to feel his heart beat and know that he's real and not another figment of my imagination.
"I remember I loved strawberries when we were little. Wherever mom used to get them, I'd take them and eat them all, red juices all over my face as I tried to convince my parents that I'm not the one who ate them." I tell him and Sloan laughs, a beautiful thing as he throws his head back in joy.
He's fucking perfect.
"If you're going to lie, you have to do it well." Sloan teases and I shrug with a wide grin on my face, probably looking like a love crazed loon but I don't care.
"Once I told my sister a ghost ate all the strawberries and she ignored me for the whole day. When I asked her why she said, because if I'm a ghost then she can't talk to me because that's creepy. It took me forever to realize she knew I ate all the strawberries."
"You must have been a wild kid." He says with a smile and I chuckle and shake my head.
"Oh you have no idea. Imagine raising a child that's a troublemaker and a sensitive bean all at once. My parents didn't know whether to reprimand me or sooth Carramel." I tell him, thinking back to the day Carramel would panic over getting in trouble for something he didn't do.
"Aww my poor bean." He says and I scoff, slowly turning our bodies as the sun gleams in us softly.
"Poor, bean?! He got off easy, all he had to do is say that I did it and everyone automatically believed him." I tell him and we go back and forth like that until the sun is winding down in the sky and we're laying down in the grass, staring up at the sky as the moon begins to play peek-a-boo with the sun.
"We'll have to go back soon." Sloan tells me, his body half hidden by the tall grass to the right of me, the only thing connecting us is our intertwined hands that lay softly between us.
"I don't want to." I tell him gently, watching the brightest blue star in the sky, knowing that's where wolves go once they pass. Where wolves are created and paired with their humans, their soul split in half to fall into their perfect match.
"Do you think we'll see each other soon?" He asks, his hand squeezing mine tightly at the thought of waiting weeks to talk to each other again. My chest tightens at the mere idea but I try to have faith that it won't happen like that anymore. That this happiness isn't fleeting and I won't be locked away like I was before.
"We'll see each other as much as we want." I say trying to convince him as well as myself, turning my head towards my Mate irritated by the plants in the way. I roll over until I'm supported by my hands and leaning over my wide eye Mate, tears welling as his hand comes up to trace his Mark on my neck making me growl softly.
"You promise?" He asks and I lower my self, keeping my weight from his body as I give him a soft kiss before resting my forehead on his.
"Say you need me, and I'll do everything to be there. I pinky promise." I tell him, balancing on one way to wrap my pinky with his and he gives me a wobbly smile in response. "Come on baby, it's time to head back."
He sighs sadly but takes my hand as I hoist the two of us up, keeping my hand wrapped in his as I lead us from the clearing and back towards the trail, the sun almost completely gone. I follow the trail, the blue light of the Moon Goddess guiding us back to the cabin in no time.
Once we're inside, we head straight to the room in the back, not bothering to turn on any lights as we crawl into the bed and lay down to face each other.
Our fingers come up to intertwine in between us and I smile in the dark, knowing his eyes could pick up on it.
"I'll see you soon." I whisper to him, not wanting to break the magic or the peace.
I hear him sniffle and it breaks my heart, knowing I'm the cause of my baby's pain. "See you soon." He answers and we lay there staring at each other in the dark until we drift off to sleep and to the back of our consciousness where we belong.
~~~~~