Maya's POV

Once again I wake up with someone next to me but this time she isn't touching me. This time she is further away with her back facing me. It looks like the sun has just risen and the birds are chirping. It's a beautiful morning but it would be better if she was closer. I am still mad at her but I can be mad at her while she holds me or kisses me.

I reach over the space between us and lightly touch the exposed skin on her back with my fingertips. I lift her shirt a bit so the area is big enough for my whole hand to feel her skin. I know she is awake, she must be awake, she is just enjoying this too
much. I pause and take my hand away, thinking I should be the one getting attention, not her.

She immediately turns around and I am met with her beauty. How can someone be so beautiful after they had just woken up? How can someone that beautiful be in the same bed as me? How can someone like me be this lucky? She is the most perfect being I have ever seen in my life.

"Good morning" she whispers with a smile.

I stare at her and literally get lost in her beauty. I reach out and trace my fingers over the side of her face, down her jaw to her neck. I run my fingers through her silky soft hair, all the way down over her back. Once again my fingertips find her exposed skin. My eyes travel down the front of her body. I can slightly see her nipples through her shirt and it instantly wakes up my whole body. What the hell?

My hand travels a bit under her shirt as I rub her back. I see her close her eyes and I smile. She loves my touch just like I love hers. Maybe I have a bit of power over her as well.

I let my hand travel slowly from her back onto her side. A smile creeps over her face but her eyes stay closed. She is enjoying this so much and so am I. I am actually mad at her but I can't seem to stop myself from touching her. I don't think I would ever be able to not touch her. She draws me like a magnet and when I touch her I feel nothing but happiness.

After rubbing the soft skin on her side and letting her feel relief from her tickle spot, my hand slowly moves to the front of her shirt. I hold my breath as my fingertips run over her her lower stomach. I can feel her muscular body and my face is definitely flustered. Luckily her eyes are closed so she can't see me.

I let my palm rest on her stomach and as she breathes, I can feel her muscles contracting. I can't get over how soft her skin is. She doesn't have a lot of hair that makes it soft, it's just her skin.

My eyes are glued to my hand under her shirt. I know that only a few inches higher I will feel her breasts but we aren't there yet. I am definitely there but Alex said that we are taking things slow. I am happy about that, it gives me time to do some research or ask Lily some questions. But something inside me just takes over and I have these urges to touch every inch of her body. I want to see and admire everything under her clothes. It makes me nervous as hell but I still want to.

"Are you listening?" I whisper.

"No" she opens her eyes.

"Promise?"

"I promise" she slightly smiles.

"Do you want to know what I was thinking?" I ask still holding my hand in place.

"Only if you want me to know" she whispers.

"You were honest with me last night and I appreciate it so I will be honest with you"

"Ok" she smiles. "So what were you thinking?"

"You-"

A loud knock on the door cuts me off and I immediately pull my hand away. Why did I do that?

"Maya, Alex. Can I please come in? I am bored." We hear Lily whine outside the door.

"Ahhh really right now" Alex whispers in laughter as she rolls on her back.

"Just a second Lily" I chuckle and give Alex a comforting squeeze on her arm. "Please go put on some clothes before she comes in" I whisper in a serious tone

"Ok" she smiles back at me. "This conversation isn't over. I want to know what you were thinking"

"Maybe that can be you punishment for the day. Curiosity" I wink and pat her stomach. "Come go change. I don't want her to see you like this. She already wants you with appropriate clothing"

"Come on you guys please can I come in." Lily says again with another few knocks on the door.

"Can I have a kiss first?" Alex ask leaning over me.

"I haven't brushed yet" I say covering my mouth.

"I don't care Maya." She shakes her head.

I look at her for a few seconds and her eyes draw my in. How can I reject a kiss from this gorgeous woman?

I smile and cup her cheek as she leans down connecting our lips in a soft gentle kiss.

"Come in Lily" she announces and in a flash she is off the bed and out of sight. I just lay there in a bit of shock and disappointment. That kiss was way to short for me.

The door swings open and Lily steps in still wearing her pajama's. "Did I wake you?" She ask walking over to me and sits down on my side of the bed.

"No I was actually awake" I smile. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing I was just bored and well you didn't read my text."

"Oh sorry" I reach over to the bedside table. "It was on silent"

"Good morning Lily" Alex comes out from the closet wearing tight black pants and a sweater. Her hair is down in their natural curl and she is wearing her boots today. Surprisingly not high-heel boots, just normal ones.

"Oh hey. Sorry for barging in here" Lily says and shakes me from my thoughts. I go back to my phone and see Lily's text. Something about horses but I have another text from an unknown number.

"No it's fine. She was awake anyway. Can't have her sleep in till 10 everyday" Alex laughs as she makes her way to the balcony doors.

I open the text:

I would love to take pictures with you 🖤

I download the attached picture and my heart flutters in my chest. I can't hide my smile at the sight of me and Alex. She obviously took this while I was sleeping. She is holding me and I am out like a light. I am cuddled up in her neck with my arm over her chest, resting my hand over her body. She has the cutest smile on her face and it makes me so happy.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Oh nothing. I am quickly going to get dressed then we can go get breakfast" I smile and get out of bed.

Me: Thank you baby☺️ I finally have your number!

I start brushing my teeth and get a text back from her.

Alex🖤 : Finally.

I smile and continue with my morning routine. I go into the closest and find something to wear. Thinking back to Lily's message about about horses, I put on a tight jean and a mustard yellow sweater. Alex bought me some new brown leather boots and it might be my favourite shoes of all time. I put my hair up in a bun and put on some light make up. I love Alex's closet. She has everything in here.

We all sit down for breakfast. Everyone is so chirpy and happy but I am still half asleep eating my eggs and bacon. It is amazing as always and I guess Alex taught the cooks how to do it.

"So how was your night?" Alex's dad ask both of us.

"Not the best but it's ok" Alex answers with a sigh.

"Trouble in paradise?" Lily's dad comments and again my knife disappears from my hand and I wait for it to land somewhere in his body but he only flinches. "Sorry sorry"

"Alex stop" I whisper and take my knife back. "No Mr Reynolds we just had a fight but everything is fine"

I continue to eat again and Lily decides to butt in. "Was the fight about your car?"

My heart drops to my feet because I totally forgot about her car.

"My car?" Alex laughs in disbelief. "What happened to my car?" She asks and I can feel her eyes on me.

The whole table goes quiet and I slowly look up at her. "Uhmm"

"Maya?" She raises her voice a bit.

"Ok, I was just really mad at you after I read your letter. Then I saw your car in the street. So I uhmm" I pause and nervously tap my fork on the table. "I remodeled it with a golf club."

She doesn't say anything and just stares at me with big eyes. I don't think she is breathing. I forgot about the car and I know that was her pride and joy. She absolutely loved that car and I took my anger out on it.

"You uhmm" she clenches her fist and closes her eyes. "You hit my car with a fucking golf club?"

"Yes" I say in a hesitant voice.

She sinks in her chair and just covers her face. I look around the table and everyone is quietly eating their breakfast.

"Technically you gave me the car. So-"

She cuts me off with a raised hand. Her eyes are still covered and she takes slow and steady breaths. She is mad at me and she has every right to be but I was mad at her. In the moment it felt great but now I feel kinda bad.

"So Maya" Lily breaks the silence again. "My dad is going to show us the horses today. How exciting is that?" She smiles.

Alex immediately looks up at Lily with an unreadable expression.

"Really?" I can't help but sound excited. I love horses. "I didn't even know you have horses?" I glance at Alex and she slightly smiles. She has a hint of disappointment in her eyes and I don't know why.

"Yeah apparently a lot too" Lily squeals on the other side of the table. I can't help but feel excited and meet her joy.

After a while the staff comes to take our plates and everyone stands up.

"Are you coming with us?" I ask Alex.

"No you go have fun" she smiles and just walks away before I can say anything else.

"Hey you ready?" Lily grabs my arm but my eyes stay glued on the door where Alex disappeared into.

"Uhmm, you go so long. I just want to make sure Alex is ok." I smile and tap her arm as I start walking. I don't need to wait for an answer because I already made my decision.

I walk through the door and up the stairs but I don't even know if that's where she went. Atleast I now know how to get to her room. Hopefully she is in there.

I make my way into her room and luckily she is here. I would've definitely got lost if I tried to find her somewhere else in the castle.

I close the door and slowly walk over to her where she's laying on the bed with her arm covering her eyes.

"You should go to the horses Maya" she says not even looking at me.

"I don't want to go without you and certainly not when you are mad at me"I say and take a seat on the bed right next to her

"I am not mad at you Maya. Why would you think that?" She sighs and takes her hands away to look at me.

"Because of your car. I am really sorry about that. You know how much I love that car but in that moment I-"

"Maya" she puts her hand on my thigh to stop me from rambling. "I am not mad at you about the car. I was a bit shocked and for a split second my non-existant heart felt a hint of pain. But I know why you did it and you mean so much more to me than a fucking car."

"Then why didn't you want to come with me to the horses?" I frown.

She sighs and looks at the ceiling. "Because I was jealous but it wasn't fair and I am embarrassed about it. So I iust needed some time to figure everything out."

"Why on earth would you be jealous?" I slightly laugh in confusion. She just sighs and covers her eyes again. "Alex? Please talk to me"

She looks at me again and sits up straight. "I was planning to take you to the horses this afternoon with the sunset because I know you want to take pictures and it's absolutely beautiful that time day. But then Lily or rather Andrew got the same idea....ok not exactly the same."  She pauses and looks down at her lap. "You were so excited to go" she smiles. "And I got jealous because I wanted that excitement to be because of me. Ever since you got here everything has been overwhelming and confusing about my life. I just wanted to do something that makes you excited and not shocked or mad or anything."

"Alex" I say putting my hand in hers that is placed in her lap. "I believed I said this to you when I yelled at you about the letter. I really love that car,  it's my favourite car but it doesn't have any value to my life when you are not in it. All those times when I walked down the street and saw that beautiful beast on the corner I would instantly get excited. Not because I will get to ride in it, it was because you were in there. I got excited because of you."

I move a bit closer to her and put a strand of hair behind her ear. "I really do love horses but I got excited to go see them because you would go with me. I want to do everything with you and I am sorry they stole your idea but you don't have to feel embarrassed about it . I really thought you were mad at me and I honestly didn't know what to do. I mean, I can't exactly say sorry with comfort food." I chuckle and she smiles.

"I really don't like fighting with you." I sigh.

"Yeah me too. We have literally fought about something every day since you got here"

"Yeah, but that was different. This was like a normal couple fight." I chuckle.

"Ok" she nods with a small smile.

"Ok." I say standing up and crawling over her body to sit next to her. "So first off. Give me a kiss" I demand and she smiles leaning closer to give me a kiss.

"And secondly. Stop hiding your feelings from me and next time speak up about it. Tell them, I want to take her or whatever the case my be. I appreciate you being ok with Lily hanging around us all the time but it's ok to sometimes, be a little selfish." I grin. "I would love nothing more than to spend some quality time together other than the 20 minutes before we go to sleep"

"Are you sure? I don't want you to feel suffocated."

"I will tell if I need some time with Lily or even just some alone time, reading a book or just walking or whatever. I know you have your little break aways at night where you go off to wherever."

She narrows her eyebrows. "How di-"

"I might not be fully awake but I can feel when you leave. My body can sense you are gone." I smile.

"Sorry" she says in a whisper and grabs my hand. "It's not that I need space or anything. Sometimes I just can't believe you are here and then I need some air to calm myself down"

"Or you hear what I dream about and then you get upset when it's not about you" I laugh.

"I haven't done that since... " she pauses "uhmm" she laughs and stands up from the bed. "let's go see some horses"

"No, no, no wait" I stop her and move to sit on the edge of the bed "Stop changing the subject"

She laughs and walks over to me. She bends down with her hands on my knees. My heart immediately speeds up and I can't help but smile with her face only inches away from mine.

Now this is distracting me.

"Why is your heart beating so fast?" she whispers with a sly grin on her face.

I only bite my lip in response. Her being this close to me is driving me crazy and all I want to do is kiss her. "You are distracting me" I whisper in a breathy moan.

She leans a bit closer but I refuse to give in. She cannot have this much control over me, can she?
"Do you want me to stop?"

I put my hand on her chest and grab a handful of her sweater. I hate that she can do this to me but I love it so much. Why would I stop her?

"I feel the same why" she whispers and before I can say anything about her reading my mind she closes the gap between us and kiss me. I let out a small whimper at the touch of her lips against mine. I could never get used to that. It's literally the best thing in the world. 

She pulls away after a few seconds and we both take a needed breath.

I open my eyes and see her smiling. "That is not fair" I whisper still holding onto her sweater. "And stop reading my mind"

"I know you are still mad about that but.." she kisses me again. "If this takes your mind off it" she kisses me again and I can't help but smile as she pulls away.

"Stop it" I laugh and playfully push her away.

"Ok let's go see the horses." she says with a cute smile and her hand stretched out for me to grab.

With a smile on my face we walk out her room through the castle and out onto the fields. It is a really beautiful day and even more perfect with Alex's fingers laced with mine.

As we walk she tells me all about the fields and what they use them for. She told me old stories about her and Marcelo. How they raced each other through the woods, how he always tried to catch her off guard but he never succeeded.

I kept imagining her life before she met me. She doesn't want me to know that part of her but I wish I did. Everything about her is so carefree and I wish that could've been me. We are so different but hopefully things will change for me from now on.

I think it already has. I mean, I am in Spain, I have a girlfriend who is a vampire. I am not spending my Christmas break studying for my final exams. Instead I am in a vampire kingdom with my best friend looking at the most beautiful horses I have ever seen.

"They are so beautiful" I say in a whisper mostly to myself as we look out over the railing into the field. There are about 30 horses eating crisp green grass. The afternoon sun is hot but there is a nice breeze blowing through the air.

I look over at Alex and blush a bit when I catch her already staring at me. I quickly look away from her gaze and focus on the horses with a stupid grin on my face. She is so beautiful, I don't understand why the universe chose me as her mate? Everything about her is perfect. She makes me feel special just by the way she looks at me.

We spent quite a while with the horses out in the field. I don't think I have felt so much joy in my life. Just being so close to them and touching them made me so happy.

After we fed the horses some carrots Alex took me and Lily to the river. We met Marcelo there and Lily was so happy he was there. I am not sure if they can be together and I don't think they are but Lily told me she has been to his room every night. They know he has a destined mate and Lily is obviously not his. I feel bad for them because they really look cute together. She hasn't felt this way about anyone before.

"Do you think Lily is someone's mate?" I whisper to Alex who is sitting next to me with our backs against a tree. Once again I feel calm and comfortable with my hand in hers, resting in her lap.

"I don't know. We will have to wait and see. It's only been a couple of weeks since her birthday and well I only found you about two months after yours. So there is still hope."

"I think she will be disappointed if she isn't someone's mate" I chuckle slightly. "She really likes him though."

"Yeah I know. He likes her too. He is also waiting to see if she has a mate. If not I think he will make it official."

"What about his mate?" I frown.

"He hasn't found him or her. It took 145 years to find mine. He can at least be happy while he waits. And also his mate might already be dead."

I frown a bit at her answer. So he will be with Lily, get married have babies and when she passes on he will go on to the next one. I guess that makes sense. I think.

"Have you been with someone for their lifetime?" I ask looking over at her.

"I had a friend yes but never a relationship. It's to complicated to explain. I mean look how you reacted." she laughs and looks back to the lake. "I never really cared about relationships before. It has always just been about me." she pauses and smiles. "Until you came along."

I smile and can't help but blush a bit. "So I don't need to worry about an ex-girlfriend coming back to steal you away from me?" I joke to lighten the mood.

She laughs throwing her head back against the tree. "No Maya. There is nobody who is going to steal me away."

As she smiles I can't help but look at how white her teeth is. It's like she just walked out of a dentist. Maybe it's because she doesn't eat human food. She doesn't damage it with all the stuff we eat.

"Alex" I sit a bit up turning my body to her. She looks at me to continue. "Can I.... See your teeth?" I ask a bit hesitant.

She frowns a bit at my question. "Are you sure? I don't want you to freak out."

"I won't" I smile.

"Okay" she smiles and then I see her eyes changing a bit darker. Her pupils dilate about all the way and she has this beautiful golden glowing ring around it. I get lost in her eyes for a few seconds and I can't help but bring my hand up to touch her face. Her eyes are locked on mine and in some way I can see how it can be scary but I don't have a scared nerve in my body. I feel nothing but amazement for her. It is truly unnatural and it blows my mind.

She slowly parts her lips and opens her mouth a bit and my eyes land on her two fangs. They aren't that much longer than the rest of her teeth but there is a clear difference. My hand involuntary moves down to the side of her mouth as I keep my eyes locked on her teeth.

"Don't touch them ok, they are really sharp." she says right before my fingers started to move closer.

"They are amazing." I whisper with a smile.

She smiles wide and with her fangs out she looks even more beautiful. What the hell? Can she just stop being this gorgeous? Even with deadly bloodsucking fangs that could kill me, she looks breathtaking.

"So when we kiss your eyes does the same thing but it looks a bit different. Does that mean your fangs come out too?"

"No, the glow when we kiss is just from our connection. I control my teeth." she smiles and her eyes change back to her normal blue and her teeth go back into place.

I only respond with a satisfied nod and a smile. It's good news that she has control of her teeth, I wouldn't want to cut my lip in the middle of a make out session.

That wouldn't be very satisfying.