Island Getaway

Ivy's POV

I gasp as the island comes into view from the window of the jet and I hear Nate chuckle lightly.

"Does your family own this?" I ask and he nods. "Yeah, it's our personal vacationing spot, and where we hold the retreat after the mating balls each year. There's a full town here with locals that have lived here most of their lives, but also staff that my parents hired to maintain the mansion grounds."

"There's another mansion here?"

He nods as he makes his way over to me, leaning over me in my seat and pointing out the window, his body dangerously close to mine. "It's at the most northern part of the island, up and away from the main town, Eswall."

I gaze out the window where he's pointing, and I can see a large mansion off in the distance. "Is that where everyone is staying?"

"Yeah. The mansion itself has over 30 residential rooms, plus multiple other areas, including game rooms, and a full theatre room."

"No wonder you use it for the retreats, it sounds massive."

"There's also a local nightclub and restaurants in Eswall that provide other types of entertainment and things to do, but yeah it's a decent little spot for people to unwind."

It's then that the private stewardess comes out from the front of the jet and informs Nate and I that we will be landing soon and that we should sit and put our seatbelts on. We do, and soon enough the jerk of the jet's landing gear hitting the landing strip at the local airport makes reality hit me like a ton of bricks.

I'm on an island with the Alpha King.

Nathaniel's POV

The excitement I felt when Ivy agreed to come on the retreat was hard to contain, to say the least. I feel like her and I have made so much progress. She's opened up to me, and I to her, aside from the giant secret of her being my mate which I haven't revealed yet, for personal reasons.

Tobias warned me that I should tell her sooner than later, but honestly something is holding me back. I'm not sure if it's the potential of her rejecting me or my title; as well as hers and our responsibilities as a royal mated pair, or if it's just plain fear of having a mate. I always thought I would be alone, but that's clearly not the case and to be honest it's taken some getting used to.

I keep looking for her, wanting to be near her. Brushing up against her gently, being in her proximity. Kiba seems to be much calmer and at peace since we found her, and it's given me a new sense of clarity. I know I'm selfish for not telling her and basking in all of this on my own, but I just can't bring myself to tell her yet. This whole situation that seems to be arising concerning her and her safety is also a major factor in not revealing who she is to me. She's already under some sort of threat and revealing to the whole werewolf world that she's my mate may put her in even more danger.

I'm not without enemies of my own, and I won't put that on her.

I walk closely to Ivy as we head into the main airport with our bags and head out the front to the car that is taking us to the mansion. It's only a few moments before we're pulling in and getting out of the car again and heading inside.

My mother designed the entire mansion herself, so it's quite similar in colourings to our family castle back home. Whites, golds and black. Marble flooring and expensive art and décor scattered throughout. Each of the residential wings are themed by colour, all dark colours that are a contrast to the white in the main areas. I know that most of us for the retreat are split into groups staying in each of the residential areas. There's only about 30 of us that decided to attend this year. Some I know from my own pack, but most I'm not 100% familiar with.

Mine and Ivy's group are staying in the Crimson Wing, which is all burgundy and red colour themed, which becomes obviously apparent once we walk into the main area of the wing. All dark wood, black walls with wine-coloured accents, couches and an all-black kitchen including a black granite counter-top.

As Ivy and I walk in, I notice 6 other wolves sitting around the main living area, mingling, and chatting until eyes are laid on me and it goes quiet. I get bows and nods of acknowledgement and respect from every wolf in the room, and I return to gestures as I set mine and Ivy's bags down near one of the couches.

A male wolf approaches me and extends his hand out. "Alpha King, my name is Mark, I'm from the Twilight Moon pack. Just wanted to say thank you for holding the retreat this year. I'm sure I can speak for everyone that we're all excited to be here."

I nod and shake his hand. "I'm glad to hear that. This should be a good couple weeks of fun for everyone." Ivy sits on one of the couches as we all introduce ourselves and after a while of mingling and conversations, Sara, one of the she-wolves brings over a small bowl and a pad of paper and a pen.

"So, are we all up for making these next two weeks interesting?" She asks and there's some murmuring and excited whispers as she goes on. "I've noticed that there's an equal amount of male and females here in our wing. So, I suggest females put their names in the bowl and males pick a name, and that's who we bunk with for the entirety of the retreat."

I glance around the room, and I see Ivy stiffen in response.

Don't worry my little songbird.

Sara proceeds to write her name on a piece of paper, folds it up and places it in the bowl. It goes around to every female and lastly, it's given to Ivy. She accepts the pad of paper gracefully and write her name down quickly, then places the paper in the bowl along with the other names.

"Alpha King, would you like to do the honours first?" Sara asks and I nod.

"Sure."

I walk over to Sara and the bowl in her hands. She shakes it slightly, mixing up the names. I can smell Ivy's scent on her paper, so I reach in and grab it, holding it tightly. The rest of the males grab their names, Mark being the last.

"Okay, let's see who got who!" Sara exclaims and I open my paper first and of course I see Ivy's name written neatly on the paper and I smile and look at her, turning the paper over.

"I got Ivy." She looks at me with her eyes wide but then smiles at me, a warm feeling washing over me at the sight of her smile.

"Do you accept?" I ask and she nods. "I accept."