7 years later

Maya

We were in a rush, and a bad one at that -– all thanks to Tyrone and Ivy. They had promised to wake up early and decorate everything but ended up sleeping like logs! Argh! I wished I could just pack those two in a suitcase and throw them somewhere far away. But then again, I loved them, so I couldn't do anything other than get mad which in short wouldn’t affect them at all—they were too used to my anger.

“Is the cake ready?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Liam yelled back from the kitchen, “Just a few more touches.”

Thank God! At least one thing was right. Kael would be arriving here with him any moment.

“There's so much to decorate, god! How will we do it in such a short time?” I cried out, moving to the side and decorating the cookies—his favorite cookies. I knew for sure that he'd be furious, even if it was a surprise birthday party, if the cookies were not there. I couldn't afford to see that cute face frowning all day long.

“He really thinks we haven’t arranged anything, doesn’t he?” Tyrone asked as he hung the banner against the wall, accidentally misspelling the name.

“First of all, Tyrone, you and Ivy misarranged everything so don’t even speak about arranging, and second of all, where’s the fucking 'A' in his name?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Oh, shit!” He scooted down to pick up the letter, and then the rest of them that were hanging fell down one by one on him. “Argh! Fuck this shit!”

I felt dizzy just at the sight. None of them, literally none of them, were of any help. And I didn’t know how I was supposed to get things done on time.

“Get up and fix it, Tyrone!” I yelled, and he quickly got back to work, leaving his little mission of examining the banner for no reason.

“Well, guys, I've brought the stuff from the mall!” Ivy rushed inside the house with two bags full of decoration stuff. “The candles, the party poppers, and other shit!”

“Go inside the kitchen and hand the candle to Liam.”

“Okay!”

As I finished decorating the cookies and arranged the chocolate boxes, my eyes suddenly fell on Stella, who stood on a stool, taping balloons to the wall, and they widened.

“What the hell are you doing, Stella?” I groaned, at this point, I just wanted to cry and drown in my tears—I really did. I didn’t see any other way to deal with these idiots.

“What?” She glanced at me, looking clueless. “I am doing my part of decorations.”

“You call that decoration, Stella? This looks terrible!” I rushed to her side and pulled the balloons down. “You can’t just hang them like this. At least make them look neat.”

“Hey, I think this is nothing but neat!”

“You're even arguing? God, I can’t believe your audacity! Get down; let me do it!” I pulled her down from the stool and took the balloons and tape from her hand. “Go and do something else; I will handle it.”

“Fine, dummy,” she scoffed, turning around and walking away.

“Hey, you are a dummy! A big one!”

She didn’t pay heed to my words; instead, she got herself busy.

Sighing, I turned around and began taping the string to the wall. This was also Tyrone’s fault; I had told him to bring gas balloons, but no, he didn’t do that either. So we got messed up in another way.

I attempted to tape it to the wall when I suddenly heard his voice, “Hey, what are you doing up there?”

I turned around to look at him, and just then, my foot slipped. The balloons fell from my hand, and so did my tape, and I found myself falling, heading headfirst toward the floor. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the impact, but instead of hitting the floor, I fell against something solid, not as solid as the floor to hurt me. And then his scent hit my nose...

So, we both had ended up on the floor—me while trying to fix Stella’s mess and him while attempting to save my mess?

Well, it seemed like that was the case. No, it felt like it was the case.

“You alright?” Nathaniel’s voice reached my ears, his warm minty breath against my cheek, my hands resting flat on his chest, and my eyes closed.

I slowly dared to open my eyes and looked at him. For a moment, my breathing caught in my throat, and a shiver ran down my spine at the sight of his face and the feeling of his arms around me because they made me feel safe, safer than I’d ever felt, “I am...but are you alright, Nate?” I managed to ask.

“Totally,” he emitted a small chuckle, “You are light as a feather, Maya. If you are worried about your weight hurting me, no, it definitely cannot.” As always, he’d read my mind and answered my doubts before I’d even asked.

I blushed red before whispering, “I should get up.” I tried to get up, but suddenly I felt a push against my back, and I came crashing into Nathaniel’s arms right away.

“Why get up so early? Stay. We also love to see a movie,” Stella's voice rang, and this was the moment I realized that all of them were around us, like cops around a thief.

God! These people were just...argh! I couldn’t even describe it.

“Guys! What the hell are you doing?” I blushed even more and tried to get up once again but time Ivy pushed me down.

I could see the look on Nate’s face; it seemed like he was trying to hold back his smile, but neither did he look shy nor uncomfortable.

“Why don’t you say anything to them?” I asked, looking at him in disbelief.

“Oh yeah, I should,” he emitted a low chuckle, slowly getting up and helping me get up as well. My place now appeared to be his lap, and as Tyrone lowly whispered, I hurriedly got up.

“Hey, you all, don’t spew nonsense and get back to work!” Nate let out, seemingly struggling to hold back his smile.

“We are just saying what we have seen, Alpha,” Ivy chuckled, “Anyways, we understand that it takes privacy to...well, you know—fuck. We can leave the room if you two want us to.”

“Yeah, we, for sure, can do that!” Stella chimed in.

“Guys, for god’s sake, stop!” I just wanted to hide somewhere else at this point. “And please get back to decorating. We don’t have much time left! Kael would be here with Jackson at any time!”

“Oh, shit! You are right. I still need to fix the banner!” Tyler was the first to rush away and get back to decorating, and Stella and Ivy rushed back as well, thankfully forgetting about their previous intentions. At this point, Liam emerged out of the kitchen with the cake in his hand.

“It’s done!” He held the cake out to us, looking proud of his work, and it did look good, thankfully!

“Oh, thank you so much, buddy!” I took the cake from him and placed it on the table. Nate walked closer and stood beside me as I arranged the table nicely before sitting down to wrap the gifts.

“Do you need any help?” he asked. I was too embarrassed to even look at him at this point, but I did anyway. Before these incidents, they had been regular, and these teasings from the members as well.

“Sure, help me wrap them.” I handed him one of the toy boxes along with the paper and bow.

He settled beside me on the carpet and silently helped me wrap all these bunch of gifts. Our hands accidentally brushed a couple of times, making flames rise to my cheeks. Every time I caught a whiff of his scent, all my nerves stirred awake—he was too good to be true. But he was true, and that was the best part of my new life.

Within the next ten minutes, everything was done, and just then, the front door opened, and Kael walked in with Jackson.

“Happy Birthday, Jackson!” Everyone shouted.