Laurel

2:10 Sky

Her regret had faded. If we reunite her with Damon and she has the same urge to claim him, or anyone else, I will accept the will of fate and welcome them to our relationship. Love is love is love, I trusted the mate bond and all I had read about it, no matter the number or appearance. If she claimed another, it would only be because it was already destined. I happily accepted my fate. This is exactly where I had dreamed of being, with someone to love. Besides, I was her first. Just as she was mine. A smile spreading on my lips.

She slapped my chest, playfully. "Thank you for being you, I can feel how steady you are. This is not something I planned, but I'm glad to have you. I'm sorry I didn't ask first" She blushed, and I knew her apology was deeply sincere, she was very bothered that she didn't give me a chance to reject her. Consent seemed to be very important to Laurel. She was a woman, wasn't she used to taking what she wanted, at her will?

"If you had asked, I would have said yes. I have been waiting a long time to feel something for another. I feel so much for you already." I looked at her with fresh eyes, she was beyond any dream or fantasy as she stood in front of me and she had chosen me, we were bonded and again, a joy I never knew my heart to be capable of feeling bore through my mind. It was heady, and intoxicating but unlike that time I had botched my mushroom foraging, there were no bad feelings with the high.

"I feel a lot for you already too" more blushing, and my heart thudded loudly in my chest. I would be begging to sink my length into her again in no time at this rate. "Damon will understand, won't he? He's a demon, I mean I already know he had a threesome with my ex a couple hundred years ago... He will understand?" she asked me, desperate for reassurance.

"If he is truly worthy of you, he will understand. You are something to be set free, no one could cage you to themselves." I had no idea where the poetic language came from, but she smiled, and leaned into my body even more. I was glad I had stumbled into saying the right thing apparently. Glad I had kept every romance novel I had ever come across regardless of how bad, just to find the best part hidden inside.

We talked until she fell asleep in my arms. Telling me about her childhood, how she felt like she didn't belong, didn't quite fit in with those around her. She was mid sentence when her breathing slowed unexpectedly and I realized she had fallen asleep. I felt sadness to hear of her heartbreak, to lose her parents at a young age, feeling like an outsider. I could relate in many ways, I could at least be grateful that her challenges were not as violent as my own. That no one had ever harmed her enough to mark her lovely skin or body.

I held her and watched the moons and stars move across the sky until the first pale rays of the first rising sun drifted up the horizon.I carefully extracted myself from being tangled with her under the blankets we had combined into a single bed. I quickly dressed in the chill of the early morning and prepared breakfast for when she awoke. She would need fuel to keep her strength up after last night, and begin to trek into the mountain range.

Laurel woke just as I was finishing preparing sausages and small portions of porridge. She stretched her arms out from under the blankets and smiled at me as I brought her breakfast in bed, complete with cool fresh water from a stream nearby. She sat up, wrapping one of the blankets around her shoulders, keeping the chill from her back as she curled around the hot food and ate greedily.

I sat back and watched her, she was rejuvenated after last night, her hair shone in the pale light of early morning, her skin luminescent, cheeks full and highlighted by a natural rosy flush high on her cheekbones. It was amazing how much healthier and stronger she looked now compared to yesterday as we set the camp. I was still grinning over our coupling, thrilled that she would have me, amazed that she had claimed me. Looking at her this morning, I was so glad she had claimed me, even if it had been an accident on her part, now that I had seen how her magic could power her, I knew she would need to draw on this power more if we were to make it through the mountains safely.