The sun peeks through the trees and shines on the bare skin of my legs, and I lean back on my hands, soaking it up.

Zael sits next to me on the porch, laying with his arms behind his head, eyes closed. A soft smile plays his lips as if he feels me looking at him, and I smile too and look away.

We might be able to be good friends after all.

My black hair brushes the deck beneath me, and a bird sings in the distance as a listen to the chatting inside the kitchen through the glass door. The only thing anyone seems to be able to talk about is Mark and his men.

I listen as the two pack girls talk in the house.

"He's so hot though," One girl says.

"Yeah, but that poor thing, Annabelle. He's such a terrib-" She's cut off and lower her head as someone enters the room, and I catch his scent through the door.

"What was that you were saying?" His voice makes me sit up, a faint growl rumbling in my chest.

"N-nothing sir, my apologies, I am sorry if I offended you..."

He walks away while she's talking and walks up to the screen door.

I shiver and swallow, and Zael touches my hand gently with his fingers, reassuringly.

" Zael." I half gasp, feeling Mark's eyes on me.

I can barely breath under the crippling weight of his gaze, and I feel him look at his hand on mine, though Zael doesn't keep it there long. "Get me out of here."

I don't have to ask him twice.

He stands and pulls me up by my hand, and half yanks me off of the deck, and runs with me across the yard.

We both ignore Mark at the window as he watches us, and Zael takes me around to the front of the house to the garage.

I notice that there are no new cars, so Mark and his buddies must not be worried about driving anywhere.

"Where are we going?" I ask as he leads me to his Camaro.

"We're going," He says, letting go of my hand to get in to our separate doors of the car. "To get ice cream. You may want to tell your father, so he doesn't think I kidnaped you."

I smile at him as he tears out of the drive way, and the thought crosses my mind once more. "You know something?" I ask, looking out the window.

"Hm?"

"I think we might be able to be friends after all. "

He laughs, a real laugh, and looks over at me side long. "You think so?"

"I do." I say, grinning.

He chuckles and looks back at the road. "So do I."

After we get our ice cream, we sit on the hood of his car and enjoy it in the parking lot.

"Why can't we eat in the car on the way back?" I ask, eating some off of the top of my cone.

"Because," He says, licking around the edges of his cone before it drips. "Soft ice cream, messy girls, and pot wholes don't go together very well with leather seats."

I shake my head "You know, I'm really not that messy."

He reaches out and wipes his thumb across my chin below my lower lip, then across my cheek. He pulls it back so I can see the chocolate Ice cream on his fingers. "I can see that," He says laughing and wipes it on his jeans.

I blush and laugh too. "Well, not usually."

He frowns suddenly and looks down the road, and I do the same, hearing a familiar car engine.

My Chavelle whips into the lot next to us, and Mark gets out of it, dark sunglasses covering his eyes.

My jaw drops and I forget about my ice cream. "Why the HELL are you driving my car!?" I get off of the hood of the Camaro and march toward him.

Zael wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me back next to him, then presses his cone into my hand and pushes me behind him.

"Can I help you?" He says it with a bit of challenge, but not quite disrespectfully.

Mark folds his arms, muscles rippling through his shirt. "I'd like to know what your doing with my -..." He seems like he doesn't know how to say it as he looks at me through his glasses.

"She isn't your anything." Zael says, and I peek around him at Mark. "She doesn't belong to you or anyone else." This could be bad.

"Zael." I whisper, and I feel him listening though he keeps his eyes on Mark. "Don't. If you provoke him, my dad might make you leave our territory. We have a kind of peace agreement with him right now, " I remind him.

" Your right." he says with a sigh, and unclenches his fists. Then to Mark, "Dude, why did you take her car?" he changes the subject.

I walk away to throw the cones away and when I return, the conversation is as close to civilized as it would get between them.

"Stay away from her." I catch Mark say lowly. "She is still my mate, and I see how you act around her. So don't push your luck Knight."

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Sorry for the short chapter guys!

~ love,

A.