#cal l

Cal sat down on the bench, humming to signal he had been listening. Nina sat beside him and looked up at his profile; Cal turned to face her with a smile. "I think that's true for every supernatural race. What's shocked you the most?"

Nina pursed her lips as she thought, playing with Cal's fingers in her hand. "Their social values are much different than ours. Did you know they're extremely sex positive?"

Cal cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Well... In human society, sex is taboo and violence is normalized. It's like... flip-flopped for the Fae. Violence is shunned and sex is supported. Sex is just a form of PDA here." Nina shrugged, looking up from where she was looking at her and Cal's fingers intertwined to his face. His eyes had darkened and his demeanor had changed.

"So... Hypothetically," Cal began slowly, licking his lips, "If I were to make love to you in this alcove tonight... There wouldn't be any issues?"

The statement caught Nina off guard. "I... No. No, there wouldn't be."

Cal's face split with a smirk and he brought one of his hands up to caress her cheek. "My Lady Nina... Heir to the Lamrian colony... Might I be lucky enough to make love to you under the moon this evening?"

Nina giggled at his overdramatic formalities. "No need for fancy titles," she shook her head, "You never need to ask me to kiss me under moonlight."

At her statement, Cal leaned in and kissed her sweetly, one hand still wrapped tightly around hers. Nina shifted up more onto the bench, tucking her legs under her so she was taller against Cal's large frame. Cal couldn't help but smile against her mouth, pulling away to look at her. The moonlight made her look ethereal and the lightning bugs and newly-bloomed glowing night blossoms doused her in a rainbow of colors. She didn't know it, but she oozed regality, confidence. Nina looked like she belonged here.

Nina smiled warmly as she saw the love he held in his eyes for her--as bright as the moon above them. Cal kissed her sweetly once more, his hands moving from her cheek and hand to running down her arms and around her lips, holding the small of her back and pulling her closer to him. The action made Nina lean into him more, and she took one of his hands and guided it under the hem of the tunic the Lamrian palace had gifted her so they could wash her travelling clothes. She shivered as his hand ran over her bare skin and he squeezed her hip gently.

"As beautiful as you look in lilac," Cal muttered, referring to the light purple color of her gauzy tunic, "You look much more beautiful entirely bare."

With this, Cal pulled the hem up. Nina lifted her arms above her head so Cal could pull the tunic off all the way, dropping it beside the bench in the grass. Cal couldn't help but grin when he saw her bare chest and he began to ran his hands over her breasts. Nina whimpered as he fixated on her nipples; one hand began to twist and pull at it while his mouth covered the other, making a soft moan fall from Nina's lips.

"Oh, Cal," Nina muttered, running her hands up into his hair, tugging on it gently. Cal hummed into her chest and the vibration against her nipple made her twitch. When Cal pulled away, she couldn't help but whine at the loss of contact. Cal let out a gentle laugh.

"Patience, love. I'm not going anywhere." Cal leaned forward to kiss her cheek before tugging off his own shirt. He then stood up and before Nina could ask him what he was doing, he picked her up and laid her gently down in the grass, teeming with small flower blossoms. Nina's hair splayed out in a fan around her, and Cal paused to just admire her. She was as pretty as a piece hanging in the Louvre. No--More so. Infinitely more so.

"Cal, what are you doing?" Nina asked softly, watching him watch her. Cal smiled down at her.

"Admiring the painting laying before me. I'm not allowed to touch the museum art, after all."

Nina scoffed and reached out for him. "I'm officially in charge of this museum and I say you can do whatever you'd like with the pieces."

Cal clucked his tongue at her--still smiling--as he undid the small bow on the olive green linen pants he was borrowing. He pushed them down and stepped out of them, now completely bare. Nina gazed at him in awe.

"And you say I'm the priceless painting."

Cal chuckled and knelt down in the grass over her and began to kiss down her chest--starting at her collarbone and ending at the waist band of her white linen slacks. Feeling him so close to her heat, Nina began to squirm. Cal continued to take his time, using his teeth to pull the bow loose. He nuzzled the waistband with his nose before tugging her pants down, Nina pushing her hips up to make it easier for him. The Fae didn't bother with undergarments, especially when wearing their linens, and seeing Nina completely bare for him made his stomach fill with butterflies. Cal pulled the linens away from her ankles, giving them a gentle kiss before making his way up her legs, stomach, chest, back up to her mouth.

The way he kissed made Nina feel like the rest of the world fell away. There was only him--all consuming, sweet, and powerful. He always smelled like cinnamon and the forest--like fresh air, pine needles, and leaf litter; it was intoxicating. His mouth on hers made Nina forget about every other worry they had faced thus far. It was only the two of them in their secluded Garden of Eden.

"Cal," Nina whispered, "Don't make me wait any longer." She had wrapped her legs around his hips by now, aching for him.

"Anything for you, my love." He reached down to help guide his length inside her, running the head along her folds. The motion made Nina whimper and buck her hips up toward him, impatient. With a soft laugh a her impatience, Cal found her entrance and slowly pushed inside her. The two of them moaned, expressing their relief at finally being together.

"Oh, Cal," Nina whimpered. "You feel so good."

"I could say the same for you," He muttered into her ear, pressing a kiss at the end of her jawbone. "So tight and wet for me."

The praise made Nina's head spin and a particularly hard thrust made her throw her head back, her senses overloaded with Cal's scent mixed with the blossoms around her, the feeling of him inside her, the kaleidoscopic blur of colors in her vision from the garden around them. Cal always talked about how beautiful Nina was, but to her, Cal was specially created by God himself. Eyes the color of freshly tilled soil, skin permanently kissed by the sun. An extremely gentle personality and being whilst possessing the power to cause serious damage as the Wolf--but the willpower to control the Wolf, too. He was a beautiful anomaly.

Before Nina knew it, she was scratching at Cal's back and gasping at how close she was. Cal pressed multiple kisses along her neck, egging her on. "Come on, baby girl. Cum for me. All over me."

With a high-pitched moan and eyes closed tight, Nina came, Cal pressing soft kisses along her neck and shoulders as her body shook with waves of pleasure. When she finished, eyes still closed and breaths slowly starting to even out, Cal pulled out from her heat and began to tug himself over her stomach.

With a growl, Cal came too, spilling across Nina's stomach, creating a pattern over darker skin akin to the stars in the night sky. Bringing his eyes up from Nina's messy stomach, he saw Nina watching him with heavy eyes.

"You're something else, Lowell, you know that?" Nina whispered as Cal laid in the grass beside her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in close. "How you can grant me serenity in such a crazy time. I don't know what'd I do without you."

Following their naked confessions, Nina had been bristling with nerves over the fact that she should go talk to Cal. While she didn’t explicitly say who she was in love with, there was only one person in the group of five she was talking with romantically--now she just needed to hike her pants up and talk to him face-to-face about it. That’s how she ended up aimlessly pacing in front of his door, trying to pep herself up to knock. Nina took a hasty deep breath and stopped, raising her arm to knock when the door swung open.

Nina jumped in surprise as the door opened, revealing Cal on the other side of the threshold. He was wearing a casual grin as he leaned against the door frame.

“Just who I wanted to see. I could smell you from inside.”

“Well, I’d hope you weren’t expecting a midnight visit from Nik.” Nina raised her eyebrows, trying to use light humor to cover up her nerves.

“Of course not. He’s my eleven o’clock visit. Midnight is reserved especially for you.” Cal’s eyes were alight with mischief, even under the dull glow of the sconces lighting the hallway.

Nina smiled at him, some of her nerves dissipating. “Can I come in?”

“My door is always open for you.” Cal stepped back, opening the door wider, and gestured for Nina to walk inside. Nina walked in and sat on the edge of Cal’s still neatly-made bed. “What brings you here tonight?”

Nina ran her hands along the smooth comforter, studying the quilted pattern. “Earlier.”

“Earlier?” Cal raised his eyebrows, and Nina puffed her cheeks out as she tried to force her way through her nerves.

“Yeah, when we were confessing things.”

Cal nodded and sat next to Nina on the bed. He sat back further, sinking into the mattress, silently inviting her to settle in more. “Okay, and what in particular would you like to discuss?”

Nina looked back at him. His eyes were open, welcoming, gentle. A big, curtainless window to his soul. She felt like there was a breeze drawing her closer to his inner-being. It smelled like him and whispered every word he ever uttered to her. “What I said.”

“What you said.” Cal reached forward and tucked a loose strand of Nina’s hair behind her ear, running his hand down her cheek. “What about what you said?”

Nina was never usually as nervous as she was now. Her gaze dropped back to her lap and the quilted comforter on the bed. “You know how I said I was in love with someone?”

Cal hummed in response, twirling some of her hair around his finger. He was looking at her gently, chest warm. He had a feeling he knew where Nina was going with this, and it made his chest fill up with welcomed butterflies.

“I think I’m in love with you,” Nina whispered, looking up from her lap and at Cal instead. His face was nothing but gentle, kind and receptive. “I know it’s such a short period of time, but… We’ve been through a lot in these past few weeks. I feel like I know you like the back of my hand and if… If all the stuff that I’ve seen in New Orleans this past month is true, then in my heart I believe in soulmates, too.”

Cal’s face broke into a genuine smile--where it showed more in his eyes than in his mouth. He moved his hand to below her chin, holding it carefully so they wouldn’t break eye contact. “I think soulmates are real, Nina. And I don’t doubt for a second that you’re mine.”

The way Nina’s eyes lit up as she smiled made Cal forget about every issue they had been dealing with the past few weeks. Her whole posture changed when he agreed with her sentiment; her spine was straight but she was leaning into him, her presence all-consuming in the best way possible. Her nerves had disappeared and she was the Nina Cal knew and loved--the one who called out the man cheating during his cage match, the one who had been consoling him in the evenings following the death of his alpha, the one who begged to help in the midst of a battle of zombies despite not having any self-defense learned. The one who despite not knowing anything supernatural existed a few weeks prior, showed no fear when face-to-face with the Wolf--like her subconscious knew there was nothing to be afraid of, even when facing a 200lb 8-foot tall beast.

A familiar silence fell between the two, wrapped around them like an old, loved quilt. Cal leaned in to gently press his mouth to Nina’s, sharing a sweet but passionate kiss that conveyed all their emotions toward each other in a way words would never be able to express.

Nina found herself unable to keep from smiling, and she giggled as she had to pull back from Cal just slightly. Their noses still brushed.

“Why the giggling?” Cal asked, running a hand from her jawline down to caress the back of her neck. He loved touching her, caressing her, knowing he always had a hand on her. A hand that could keep her safe.

“I’m just happy, Cal,” Nina pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “It’s nice to know that despite all that’s going on right now, I have you with me. I’m not so scared anymore.”