Wolf under an oak tree.

“Iris,” Jace said softly, and I kept my glance on the wooden floor, but after almost a minute, Jace lightly placed his hand under my chin and lifted it till I met his eyes. “Iris, I love you, how can you think such a thing?” he asked me, and I can see the vulnerability in his eyes.

“Moon goddess has paired us together for a reason, and that also means that I will accept you with all your baggage.” he smiles at me, and he slowly starts rubbing smooth circles on my cheek. “You are my other half, Iris. And how can you think that I will just reject you just like that?” Jace whispers, and I felt the butterflies that were lying dormant in my stomach come back to life and a tingling feeling spread across my body.

“Jace, I...are you sure? Because I don't want you to regret your decisions later.” I said quietly, and my eyes watered again, and a few drops of tears leaked out from my eyes, but before they could drop from my face, Jace caught the teardrop on his finger.

“I promise, Iris. I will not let anyone harm you, nor will I ever leave your side till death do us apart.” and that brought new confidence within me. So I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him towards me into a hug.

“Oomph! Now that was unexpected.” Jace whispered in my ears, but then, he wrapped his arms around my waist and hoisted me to sit on his lap. We were sitting like this in a serene silence till Jace slowly started kissing my ear and moving down towards my neck.

“Jace, what are you doing?” I murmured, but I arched my neck further away, giving him full access, and when he kissed the area that connects my neck and shoulder, a rush of heat pulsed through my body, and my heart started to accelerate at an inhumane pace.

“I am showing you how much I love you.” his hot breath touched my cool skin and the sparks that were going crazy between us raised my adrenaline level, and before I could comprehend what I am doing, I placed my lips on his. It took a few seconds to respond, but after that, he took complete control of our kiss. His lips were soft and plum against mine, and I didn't want to stop kissing him, but since I was running out of oxygen, I broke the kiss, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the mischievous look in his eyes.

“I thought you said that you want to take this slow?” he asked with a smirk on his face, his chest was rising and falling rapidly, while I was doing the same thing, and I smiled at him before resting my forehead on his.

“I do want you to take this slow, but I can kiss you whenever I want,” I said, and his smirk turned into a genuine smile. “And, I am still learning about this werewolf stuff, so I want to take this slow,” I said and placed my lips on his again.

“Ew! Aunty Ilis! Why is uncle Jam eating your lips?” Beatrice’s disgusted voice broke our kiss, and I quickly got up from Jace’s lap and took a seat on the bed, I felt my chest rising and falling again, and the heat rushed up to my cheeks in seeing Beatrice in my room.

“He...Hey Beatrice! What are you doing here?” I asked her while I discretely tried to fix my hair and clothes.

“I came to call you and uncle Jam for breakfast downstairs. But my poor eyes!” Beatrice said in an octave higher than her voice, and she kept her hand on her forehead for extra emphasis.

“You didn't see anything, Beatrice. You got that?” I asked her with a stern voice, but she ignored us, and before I could catch her, she ran out of my bedroom.

“I am going to tell mommy and daddy!” she yelled through the hallway, and I looked at Jace with wide eyes, but he was having his casual smirk on his face, so I smacked him on the arm, before dashing out from my bedroom with Jace in toe.

“Beatrice! Cupcake, wait!” I yelled and I saw her near the staircase, but she showed me her tongue before running downstairs, and I followed her, taking two steps at a time.

“Mommy, daddy! Aunty Ilis was eating uncle Jam’s lips!” Beatrice screamed for the entire neighborhood to hear, and the heat rushed to my cheeks when I saw that not only my brother, Walter, and sister-in-law but my parents were there too. From the murderous look that my dad was having, I know that he didn't like the piece of information that he just heard.

“Beatrice! Sweetheart, I think you should go outside and play with the new toys that grandpa and grandma got for you.” Ada said in a loving voice, and she quickly got up from her chair and guided Beatrice outside.

“So, Iris, you never told me that you have got a boyfriend?” my dad spoke, breaking the silence in the room, and I gave him an awkward smile.

“Yeah, about that, I was going to talk to you about that,” I said.

“I think we will talk about that later, but first we will all have breakfast,” he said and nodded his head towards Jace too. And both of us slowly moved toward the breakfast table and took a seat.

“Iris?” Jace whispered in the middle of breakfast, and I slowly inched toward him.

“What?”

“Why did your dad look at me as if he is going to murder me any moment now?”

“Oh that, it's because the last boyfriend that I had turned out to be a cheat, and since my dad saw how heartbroken I was, he is just being cautious.”

“So, you had a boyfriend after Alan?”

“No, Alan was the last boyfriend that I had, but only mom knows that he abused me,” I said, and Jace looked at me with narrow eyes.

“If I told him what Alan did to me, then he would have personally gone and killed Alan again,” I said, and Jace nodded his head and turned around to eat again.

“Okay, Iris you know the ground rules, right?” Ada asked me while entering the kitchen again.

“I know Ada, but I forgot, alright.”

“Hey, what happened? I mean, it's not like Beatrice has not seen her parents kissing before, right?” Jace asked, and Ada and Cole looked at him in bewilderment.

“We never kiss whenever Beatrice is around because that would be a very bad idea for your reputation,” Cole said, and Jace looked confused when he heard that statement.

“Once when she saw us kissing, she didn't stop asking a question about it for almost a week. And all those questions were completely embracing questions, but that is at least fine, but what she did after that was something I will never forget.” Ada said.

“When we were at her school for a parent-teacher meeting, the teacher called us personally and told us that Beatrice has told all her teachers about her daddy eating her mommy’s lips, and she has also told all the kids about it, and the teacher has advised us to not do anything in front of a kid,” Cole said and shook his head.

“That was completely embarrassing because she has gone and asked questions about that from her teachers also,” Ada said.

“And hence we have a strict rule that no one should be kissing in front of Beatrice,” Cole said.

“Well, you have one Inquisitive child there, and I hope my child doesn't end up like that. It must have been embarrassing?” Jace asked, and Cole nodded his head and Ada laughed.