Luca and I left paradise after three days of being there.

The time we had spent together, alone and uninterrupted, was well-needed. I felt much more connected with him, not just physically but also emotionally.

I knew this because, when I looked at Luca, I felt a sense of home, of peace. The butterflies in my stomach that initially had made me nervous around him were gone, replaced by a feeling of security and warmth. My heart swelled in his presence instead of skipping a beat.

During our time in Cancún, I had been able to forget the nightmarish situation that was waiting for me back in Montana, all anxiety and worry leaving me for those glorious seventy-two hours.

I got onto the plane to head back in a great mood that slowly faded into a downcast one the closer we got to home, leaving the sunshine and feigned nescience behind.

I could tell Luca felt the same way, but he hid it well behind a neutral expression.

When we finally got off the plane, met by cloudy skies and drizzling rain, I quickly realized the irony in the gloomy weather matching my attitude.

Though I couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved when we got back to Luca's house, a sense of normalcy washing over me as we walked into the kitchen and dropped our luggage on the floor.

"I've got a meeting in half an hour," Luca told me, sighing.

I frowned and he just shook his head.

"I know," he said, pulling me into his chest. "I was hoping this problem would have disappeared while we were gone too."

"Can we just leave and never come back?" I whispered into his t-shirt.

His chest vibrated with his chuckle.

"And leave Bates in charge indefinitely?" He asked rhetorically.

I laughed.

I looked up at him, propping my chin against his chest.

"Don't look at me like that," he said, beginning to pull away from me.

"What?" I asked incredulously. "You said you had thirty minutes."

"Fifteen before I need to leave," he told me firmly. "And I have to shower and eat something before then."

"I could use a shower, too..." I said, my hands sliding up and under his t-shirt.

He scoffed as he bent down and picked me up around my waist, throwing me over his shoulder. I giggled as he carried me through the living room, his bedroom and then into the bathroom.

I undressed quickly, Luca following me into the shower.

"I have to be in and out in five minutes," he warned me.

"Of me or the shower?" I asked suggestively.

I smiled as he rolled his eyes, both of us knowing he would be late.

- - -

Luca was scrambling to gather his things as he rushed to get out the door while I casually cooked a stir-fry at the stove.

Just before he could get to the side door, it opened and I saw Blaine walking inside.

Luca looked at him in surprise, obviously not expecting the visit.

"I'm running behind," Luca said, shoving papers and his iPad into his backpack before slinging it over his shoulder.

"No worries," Blaine told him. "I just came to drop something off."

I saw movement behind Blaine and stepped forward, gasping as I saw her.

Mady pushed Blaine out of her way, running over to me as I stood there in utter shock. I was frozen in place as she nearly tackled me to the ground.

Hugging her as tight as I could, I felt tears come to my eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I cried. "When? How?"

I was stumbling over my words as Mady pulled away, still amazed that she was standing in front of me.

Please don't be dreaming, I begged myself.

"I left," she said. "I just... left. I packed a bag in the middle of the night and drove as far as I could. I called the number you gave me and Blaine came and picked me up halfway in case my car was being tracked. I got here two days ago."

My blurry eyes narrowed in on Blaine as I noticed the way he was looking at her.

"Wait... Are you...?"

I looked back to her in shock, my jaw dropping.

She just smiled, beaming.

"I'm so lost," Luca muttered, looking between us and Blaine.

"That's my girl," Blaine said, smiling.

"No shit," Luca said, impressed. "Congratulations."

Luca held out his hand to pat Blaine on the shoulder as I looked between him and Mady at a loss for words.

She nodded, smiling.

"Oh my God," I whispered, astonished.

I grabbed her, squealing as I jumped up and down.

"We should probably give them their moment," Luca said to Blaine, laughing. "We're going to be late."

The two men left us standing in the kitchen, closing the side door behind them as they walked out.

"I feel like I'm going to puke," I admitted, feeling so overwhelmed.

Mady just laughed, nodding in agreement.

"This is crazy," I wheezed out, putting my hands on my head.

I smelt something burning and looked over to see my stir-fry was smoking, quickly turning off the stovetop burner.

"Lunch?" I asked, sarcastically.

Mady shook her head, laughing at me.

I went into the pantry and grabbed a box of cereal, encouraging her to take a seat at the countertop as I pulled out the almond milk along with a pair of bowls and spoons.

"What the hell," I said slowly, still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she was actually there, sitting next to me.

"You and Blaine?" I asked again. "I can't believe it."

"Me neither," she said, taking the spoon in her hand.

"What happened at home?" I asked her.

"It was so weird when I left. I just felt like I needed to be here. My dad completely disappeared a few days ago and my mom left to go stay with her family without telling anyone, even me. I had to call to ask if she was there when I couldn't find her," she continued. "I couldn't stay in that house by myself. I just wanted to be with someone familiar. You're the first person I thought of."

I nodded, understanding.

"I'm so glad you came," I told her. "I've missed you so much."

Mady smiled.

"I've missed you too..."

We sat there for a few moments, my brain still processing the sudden turn of events.

Mady is here.

Mady is with Blaine.

I shook my head.

"I cannot believe Blaine is your mate," I repeated. "I mean, what are the odds of that? That your mate and mine were in the same pack?"

She laughed.

"I really couldn't believe it either," Mady admitted. "He's so perfect. And his body... God, what good deed did I do to deserve such a blessing?"

I could have sworn she was drooling into her cereal bowl.

I scrunched my nose in disgust, having never thought of Blaine in that way.

"So you've fucked?" I asked.

Mady turned to me like it was a stupid question.

"So many times," she assured me.

I laughed at her bluntness.

"Why did you and Luca wait again?" She asked. "I mean, I know you didn't do it immediately because he, quote-unquote, kidnapped you. But it seems like you waited quite a while..."

Her sass prompted me to roll my eyes.

"His stupid Elders tried to make us wait until I was inducted into the pack three nights ago," I told her, taking a big spoonful of cereal into my mouth.

Mady gasped.

"But you didn't, right?" She asked quickly.

I shook my head.

"Made it nearly a month though," I said, feeling somewhat accomplished by it.

"I can't imagine," she said, shaking her head.

Mady took a bite of her cereal before turning to me.

"Luca is really hot in person, though," she laughed. "Hotter than that damn picture you never sent me."

I rolled my eyes.

"I kept forgetting," I said defensively. "And then I didn't have a phone, so I couldn't."

"Whatever," she said, giving me attitude. "At least now I've got my own man to lust over."

I laughed.

"I still can't get over it..."

"How many times are you going to say that?" She asked.

"Probably several more," I sighed, spooning cereal into my mouth. "I'm so shocked."

"Well, just imagine how I felt the morning after you'd left with Luca to hear your dad come busting through my front door at the crack-ass of dawn, yelling about it."

"You think you were surprised?" I asked incredulously.

"How did it happen?" She asked. "It was never clear to me how he found you after we left Vegas."

"That damn sketchbook," I told her. "I had my old address written on the inside cover. He found it when he found our hotel room."

Her eyes widened.

"I bet your dad wishes he'd have let you go back to get it now," she guessed.

"Thank God he didn't."

I just shook my head at the thought.

It was crazy to think about how different things would be if my sketchbook hadn't been in that hotel room. If we had slept in that morning and hadn't gone to the Mandalay Bay. If we hadn't gone out to dinner when we'd first gotten there. If we hadn't gone with our dads at all.

Would Luca have found me in the cafe that morning if I had decided to stay and finish the sketch of the skyline? Would he have found us in the restaurant when he retraced Bates's steps the night before if we hadn't been starving and eaten quickly?

There were so many possibilities and I couldn't imagine what it would have amounted to if any one thing had happened differently.

I snickered and Mady looked at me strangely.

"Luca came to the house in the middle of the night and snuck up on me while I was on the patio drinking tea," I told her. "He scared the living shit out of me and I threw my mug at him."

I was nearly in tears, beginning to laugh hysterically as I continued.

"And then he tackled me and we literally wrestled on the ground for like five minutes before I figured out who he was."

Mady's jaw dropped as she laughed.

"I actually told him to leave," I said between laughter. "And then I got mad at him because he was walking on the carpet with mud on his boots."

"Some introduction," she laughed.

I shook my head, wiping tears from underneath my eyes.

"I wish desperately someone had been recording it. I'm sure it would be so hysterical to watch it over again," I said.

"I wish I had been there," she admitted, laughing. "I wouldn't let Blaine live it down if he did that to me."

"It took Luca a long time," I told her. "But he's done well."

I showed her my ring, her eyes widening as she gasped and took my hand in hers to inspect it.

"Jesus Christ!" She exclaimed. "It looks heavy. How do you wear this all the time?"

I just shrugged.

"I've gotten used to it, I guess," I admitted.

Mady smiled as she dropped my hand, propping her elbow up on the countertop.

"Isn't it crazy?" She asked. "How quickly things can change? We had no idea how different our lives would be in a month when we went to Vegas."

I nodded, agreeing.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," she admitted. "I've got two years of school left, my dad wants me to take over as Alpha when he retires... but all I want to do is stay here, with Blaine."

She just shook her head, not wishing to think about it.

"You better not drop out of law school," I said firmly. "I mean it. Blaine can suck it up."

Mady laughed.

"I'll be sure to tell him you think so," she said.

"You can," I said. "I'll be happy to tell him myself if I need to."

She smiled.

"I'm jealous of your determination," she said. "I'm so quick to want to give up on things for something better."

"I think you mean stubbornness," I corrected her, laughing.

We finished our cereal, still catching up as we migrated to the living room to talk on the couch.

"How did you lose it?" She asked bluntly.

"Missionary. You?"

Mady thought about it for a second.

"What position would it be in the back of an SUV?" She asked curiously.

"You couldn't wait until you'd at least gotten to a bed?" I asked.

She laughed.

"It happened a few times before we made it to the bed," she admitted.

My eyebrows furrowed at her revaluation.

"Did you start birth control?" I asked, not remembering her ever being on it before. "Or was he just ultra-prepared?"

I watched as the blood drained from her face.

"Mady," I gasped.

She put a hand over her mouth, letting it sink in.

"Please tell me you weren't that stupid," I begged. "You're not that stupid!"

"This is the first time it's even occurred to me," she admitted.

I stared at her incredulously.

"Oh my God..." she whispered, seemingly to herself.

"What the hell?" I asked her, shaking her shoulders. "You can't get pregnant in law school!"

She stopped me, holding her hands up.

"It's not a guaranteed thing that I'll get pregnant if I've had sex a few times without protection," she told me.

"How many times is a few?" I asked pointedly.

Mady grimaced, the faked confidence in her statement falling flat.

"When is your next period?" I asked.

"Should be in the next week," she answered.

"I hope you suffer through the next few weeks before you find out," I told her earnestly. "That was stupid as shit."

I closed my eyes, shaking my head in disappointment.

I opened my eyes again when I heard her begin to laugh.

"What the hell is so funny?" I asked.

Mady began to laugh harder.

"It's not funny," she said as she continued to laugh. "But this is just my luck. This would happen to me."

I huffed in frustration, making her laugh harder.

Mady and I remained on the couch for a few more hours, continuing to catch up.

When Luca and Blaine walked back into the house, I was at the stovetop trying not to burn a meal for the second time that day.

"Whatcha making?" Luca asked, leaning over my shoulder to stare at the rice I was mixing into the turmeric and butter mixture.

"Dinner," I answered plainly.

I couldn't bring myself to look at Blaine as I put a lid on the pan to let it steam and moved over to the chicken that was sautéing in the other pan.

Luca ignored my moodiness and moved around me to approach Mady, who was sitting at the countertop.

"I'm Luca," he said, flashing a smile and extending a hand. "Sorry I had to rush out the door earlier without introducing myself."

She smiled as she shook his hand.

"I'm Mady," she said. "I definitely knew who you were, though. No worries."

"This is great," Luca said, turning to include Blaine and I in the conversation. "We can do double dates now, amore."

He tapped the back of my leg with his foot to try and pull my attention from flipping the chicken over with the tongs.

"It's great," I repeated, still staring down at the simmering meat.

Luca gave up on trying to include me and went about talking to Mady and Blaine exclusively while I sulked at the stove top.

Every time Blaine spoke I envisioned taking a steak knife out of the cutlery block and stabbing him with it.

Why the hell would they be so careless not to use protection? Does he not even care that she has a future planned out that would be totally disrupted by a pregnancy? I bet he's one of those guys who just wants a wife walking around his house, barefoot and pregnant all the time–

"Amore?"

I snapped out of my thoughts to turn to Luca.

"Do you need any help?" He asked me, approaching where I stood.

I shook my head.

"It's almost done," I sighed.

His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at me for a few moments, trying to read what was running through my mind.

"What does that mean?" Mady asked. "I've heard you call her that twice now."

"Amore?" Luca asked, clarifying.

She nodded.

"It's just a term of endearment," he said. "It means 'love' in Italian."

Mady poked her bottom lip out, turning to me.

"That's so sweet," she said earnestly. "What do you call him?"

I couldn't help the smile that rose to my lips, Luca shooting me a sharp look from the corner of his eye.

"It's a secret," I told her, laughing. "He hates it."

Luca just shook his head.

I served our food, sitting as far from Blaine as I could when we sat down at the dinner table.

I held it together pretty well, until they were about to leave.

"Do you need condoms before you go?" I asked Mady, pulling her off to the side.

She rolled her eyes.

"Would you stop that?" She asked me. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine," I retorted. "That's just stupid, Mady."

"What's going on?" Luca asked, interrupting the argument before it began.

I let out a long breath, glaring at Blaine.

"Blaine won't wrap it up," I said. "These two idiots have been making babies all weekend."

Luca turned to Blaine.

"Dude," he scolded. "Rookie move."

Blaine huffed.

"I have condoms," he said defensively. "They're just out of date. I need to go get more."

"And you haven't thought to do that before now?" I asked accusingly, approaching him.

Luca held out a hand to restrain me from moving closer as Mady passed us and walked away with Blaine.

"Don't worry," Mady told me. "It's not a big deal."

I just shook my head, turning my attention back to Blaine.

"I swear to God, if she ends up pregnant, I am going to chop off your ball sack and make you eat it."

Now it was Luca's turn to roll his eyes as he held me back and waved off the two lovebirds as they walked out the front door.

"That was a bit over the top," Luca told me.

"She's in law school," I said defensively. "She has goals and aspirations that don't involve a family yet. Does Blaine not care?"

"I'm sure he does," Luca assured me.

He took my face in his hands and made me look into his eyes.

"The only babies you should concern yourself with are your own," he said.

I scoffed.

"I don't want babies yet," I told him, swatting his hands away.

"Can we practice a bit?"

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from smiling.

"C'mon," Luca prodded, tickling me around my waist.

"Only if I can be on top this time," I bartered.

"Deal."

He hoisted me into his arms and carried me into his bedroom.

"Where's that see-through bra you bought?" He asked me. "The black one."

"I don't think it will fit you," I commented cheekily.

"Ha ha," he said dryly, putting me onto the ground.

"Don't get on that bed until you have it on," he said, pulling his t-shirt over his head.

"It's a bra," I told him. "It's going to come off anyway. Why does it matter?"

"Who said it was going to come off?" He asked. "If I'm going to be on my back, I'm going to get a show out of it."

A show.

An idea struck me as he spoke, causing me to smile.

"Fine," I said, walking into the closet.

I changed into the bra and matching panties, walking out to see Luca standing right where I left him.

I bit down on my lip, watching the bulge in his sweatpants swell as he laid eyes on me.

I got onto the bed, holding out my foot to stop him as he tried to follow me.

"Change of plans," I said. "You stand over there."

I pointed to the foot of the bed, Luca's eyebrows furrowing while he did as instructed and watched me lean back against the pillows.

"Remember how you said a few weeks ago you wanted to watch?" I asked him.

I saw the realization hit him, his eyes growing dark.

"Your hands stay on the bed," I told Luca, watching as he placed them there.

Heart racing, I pulled my panties down from my hips to slide down my legs, past my ankles.

Luca and I maintained eye contact up until my knees spread apart, my fingers slipping into my mouth to moisten them before falling between my legs.

I saw Luca's jaw clench and I smiled.

This was going to torture him and I was going to enjoy every second.

- - -

Long after we had gone to sleep, I was woken up by a loud noise.

It woke Luca as well and he immediately rolled over me in a protective embrace, my body pressing into the mattress beneath him.

I realized after a few seconds of the repetitive sound that it was someone, or something, banging viciously on the front door.

My heart was in my throat as Luca got off of me, turning back to me immediately after his feet hit the floor.

"Stay here," he said firmly.

With the adrenaline rushing through me, I couldn't find the courage to be angry with him after he used his Alpha tone.

I watched nervously as he approached his bedroom door and opened it, venturing bravely into the living room.

My ears strained to listen as I heard the banging stop and the front door unlock and open.

I could barely hear the sound of muffled voices, one sounding panicked.

I wanted to get off the bed desperately and see what was going on, but I was frozen in place by Luca's damn command.

"Luca," I called out, my voice breaking.

"Come in here," he called back.

My body immediately obliged and I got off the bed and threw on his t-shirt that laid on the floor.

When I walked into the living room, I saw Bates standing next to Luca, wearing an alarmed expression.

"What's wrong?" I asked immediately, my concern deepening.

"Your dad is here."

- - -

Y'all look up for me real quick. See that? That's the shit that hit the fan...

Leave your comments with theories of what you think will happen next! I don't think many of you will guess correctly, but it's fun for me to watch you try, hehe.

See you tomorrow morning at 8:30am EST (New York time) for the next chapter. I have a feeling you won't want to miss it ;)

See you later, alligators!

MaybeManhattan .x