Chapter 22

I groan at the bright room burying my head under one of the large pillows. My body felt sore from the events of the last two nights causing me to wonder if Tate is fully healed or not. No man should be this energetic when on bed rest. As my consciousness settles in I realize that I am pressed under Tate, his hand removing the pillow from my head and the feel of his hard length still inside me from how we passed out last night. The memories of last night flash through my head with each position my body bend to Tate’s will and I moan, my body becoming sensitive again

"Someone having issues?" Tate's husky voice fills my ears as he slowly moves inside me massaging my sore sensitive walls. I moan again arching my back to feel even more gaining a chuckle at my wanton reaction from my mate.

“I’ll take this as a yes then baby.” He whispers his lips finding my mark and nipping at the sensitive skin. He picks up speed the sounds of moaning and grunting filling the early morning air.

…

I wake to the smell of food and lavender tea my groggy eyes opening to see a tray set on my side of the table with a red tulip and a note. A gentle smile spreads along my face at the sight of Tate’s handwriting and a shirt of his placed beside the tray. Sitting up in bed I stretch my sore body, noticing the bruises and love bites from Tate. I chuckle at his possessiveness in always finding a way to leave marks on me and reach for the large shirt, tugging it on.

Tate walks in just as I reach for the tea with a squirming Julia in one arm and a bottle in his free hand. He settles in beside me on the bed as I eat feeding Julia. I reach for my phone taking a chance to snap a picture of my little family and catching Tate off guard. He informs me that Chris and Jack went to their house to continue their renovations leaving the three of us home alone.

"So I was thinking we have a movie night.” Tate says out of nowhere a smile on his face as he lays a fed and changed Julia on our bed between us.

“We can go to the mall find some movies to watch and get some snacks to have a night in. I think your cousin and his mate will be staying in their house for the night since it’s almost ready to move in.” I smile at the suggestion happy to know that Chris and Jack will be leaving our house. It makes having time alone with Tate easier with them gone.

"Okay, sounds like fun." I reply after thinking about it, finishing the last of my food. I place the tray onto the side table beside me and carefully move closer to Tate, wrapping my arms around him and nuzzling his neck. Part of me did not want to move from our comfortable bed but the idea of a movie night date with my mate has the giddiness of my young age taking over me.

Deciding to get dress I leave Julia in Tate’s care and quickly go for a shower, grabbing a light fall dress from the closet first to put on after cleaning my body from our earlier morning activity. Each step I take had me wincing slightly and I catch Tate smirking at my discomfort. Asshole.

The running water eases away the slight pain from my body making moving and walking a lot easier by the time I turn off the shower and step out to get ready to leave. I towel dry my hair and body slipping into some lacy undergarments before pulling the dress on and piling my semi-damp hair into a messy bun on top of my head. Grabbing a pair of flats from the closet I pick up my purse and Head down stairs where I see Tate readying Julia to go for our excursion.

“Are you ready to go?” Tate asks, lifting the car seat into his arms as I grab the diaper bag.

“Yes I am. No sex tonight please I need a break.” I answer, stating my need to skip on our nightly – um - exercise. My mate smirks at me, planting a quick kiss on my lips and agreeing as we leave the house and into the jeep. He secures Julia’s car seat in the back behind the driver’s seat as I place the diaper bag on the floor in the back before we climb in and pull out of the drive way.

The drive to the mall is filled with us talking about our favourite childhood movies, Tate shocked that I grew up seeing almost all Disney movies. I pointed out that with a gay cousin and his mate raising me I was raised differently from other werewolves and would be subjected to romance movie and Disney marathons and the motivational message of I can do anything if I just put my mind to it. They built my confidence and gave me freedom to learn who I was and am growing up.

Pulling into the mall parking lot the two of us make quick work of getting Julia’s car seat connected to the stroller. With her safe and secured Tate takes the lead in pushing the stroller into the mall entrance.

“So where to first?” I ask hooking my arms around Tate’s bicep, feeling him flex with my touch. I catch sight of people doing double takes at us as we walk by and have to do my best to hold in my laughter. I guess seeing a six-foot-seven-inch man built like a body builder pushing a baby pink stroller and a short girlfriend beside him is a sight to see.

“We could head to Wal-Mart and look in the electronic section and grab snacks all in one go.” He suggests and I nod. Wal-Mart is located on the other side of the mall and we took the time to window shop and enjoy the stroll. Before we reach Wal-Mart I come to a stop in front of Build-A-Bear, practically dragging Tate into the store to create three wolf stuffies for each of us. I could see his bemused look as I childishly run around searching for the right outfits to dress the wolf stuffie in clothes suited to Tate and mine style finishing with a baby wolf that once paid for I place beside Julia in her car seat.

“Was that fun?” Tate asks chuckling, the boxes housing each stuffed animal in the basket at the bottom of the stroller.

“Yes. I’ve always wanted to go there and do that as a child. Just never had the chance too and now we each have a Build-A-Bear.” I giggle out the answer, my eyes sparkling with joy. We finally make our way to Wal-Mart, the blue entrance greeting us. I nod respectfully to the greeter at the front while grabbing a flyer from the wrack to see what’s on sale. Reluctantly I release Tate’s arm to go and take a shopping cart from the corner. The two of us walk around the grocery section heading in the direction of the snack aisle standing in front of the products on display.

"What should we get?" He asks with slight confusion and I laugh, nuzzling his neck gently.

"How about we get some popcorn, chips, chocolate and ice-cream?" I list out ideas for our snack making it easier to narrow down that we will get to snack on for the night.

"Okay baby girl, pick out what you think would be good for tonight then." Tate laughs out I nod kissing his jaw before turning towards the chips and grabbing two bags of ruffles plain chips and some sour cream and onion dip. I grab three cans of Pringles - two original flavours and one pizza flavour – as an afterthought before we walk further down the aisle to look at chocolate bars.

"What’s your favourite chocolate?" I ask, grabbing a bunch of Smarties and Kit Kats.

"I like the dairy milk ones." He answers his face focusing on Julia as he takes pictures of her with her stuffed wolf. I nod, grabbing the milk chocolate and cookies and cream before turning to him with a coy smile.

"Maybe we can see what flavours chocolate enhances." I whisper coyly. His eyes slowly darken with my word while his arm snakes around my waist, pulling me closer to his solid body.

"It sounds like we will need more chocolate then." Is his comeback, his voice low and husky when it enters my ear. I giggle and step away from him, grabbing more milk chocolate and cookies and cream bars, my mind racing on what we could do with the sweet substance. With a childish grin on my face we head over to my favourite aisle, the ice-cream aisle. I select a tub of Chapman’s French Vanilla and Mint Chocolate Chip laughing when Tate places a Neapolitan ice-cream into the cart commenting that mixing the three flavours together is ‘The bomb dot com babe’.

“Do we have all the snacks we need?” I ask Tate while aimlessly grabbing a bottle of Wal-Mart white wine off the shelf.

“Yes we do. All we need now are the movies.” Tate answers before steering the stroller towards the electronic aisle. We come to a stop in front of the large ‘New Release’ display. Tate questions which movies I have seen since they came out in theatres and I answer that I haven’t seen any new movies since May. It was hard going to a theatre when running for mine and my babies’ lives and freedom. This prompted Tate to start picking each and every last movie off the display and putting them into the cart with the snacks a smile on his face.

“Guess we will be having movie night for a while.” He chuckles out coming to kiss me chastely. I couldn’t help the bubble of happiness swelling inside me with how pampering Tate is to me. I am happy to be mated to him with how he’s protected me and accepted Julia as his. We make our way to the self-checkout where Tate informs that he is going to get the car and bring it to the front entrance of Wal-Mart to make it easier for us handing me his credit card and telling me the pin before running off in the direction we came from. With a silly grin on my face I take my time scanning the items my eyes scanning over two of the movies. Onwards and Maleficent Mistress of Evil. These would be the two we watch tonight.

A Wal-Mart employee offers to push the cart outside for me as I finish paying and I thank her while the two of us exit the automatic doors. Tate comes to a stop just as we reach the edge of the sidewalk and opens the trunk of the jeep, thanking the teen for her help while he puts the bag away. It is mid-afternoon by now and my stomach started protesting with the need for food causing my mate to chuckle at me. Deciding to grab lunch Tate parks the jeep in the parking lot and the two of us decide to walk over to the Tim Horton’s to grab a quick lunch. There I feed Julia a couple of elderly lady commenting on how beautiful she is and – adding to Tate’s already sky high ego – saying how she resembles Tate. This must have helped solidify Tate forever being her father as his eyes beam with pride. Only a few of us would know the truth. Finally finishing our food we make our way home Julia snuggled in her car seat with her wolf. Placing Julia into her swing the moment we enter our house I help Tate unload the car and put the ice-cream in the freezer right away to freeze once before we consume it.

"So which one do we watch first?" He asks picking up his coffee as I sip on my white hot chocolate.

"Let’s watch Onwards first. Since Julia will be with us while when we start our movie day its only right to do the child friendly movies first." I say smiling walking into the living room where Tate is organizing the movies on the shelf below our T.V.

"Okay baby, Onwards it is." He chuckles out, taking my left hand and kissing it gently.

"We'll watch it on one condition." He smirks and I tilt my head, slowly he gets up, getting on one knee an adoring smile on his face as he looks up at me. My heart stops for a moment as he stares into my eyes, nothing but love displayed directly at me.

"Laina, will you marry me?"