Asher's POV

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Waking up with Ivy in my arms is the most amazing feeling in the world. Being surrounded by her scent and warmth brings a small smile to my face. I slowly open my eyes, trying to remain still because I don't want to wake her. I look down at her beautiful face, loving how peaceful she seems nestled against my chest. I can't wait for this to be our everyday routine. My smile grows as I watch her cute little nose twitch before she nuzzles even closer.

"Stop staring at me, you creeper." Ivy suddenly grumbles at me without opening her eyes.

"I wasn't." I immediately deny. "I was just... just... um counting your freckles. Yeah."

Her eyes pop open and squint at me before asking, "Baby, you do realize that I don't have any freckles, right?"

I give her my best smile and a quick kiss on the nose before responding. "Of course I know that, my sweet beautiful loving mate. That's why I was looking for so long, I still haven't gotten past zero."

Ivy bursts out laughing. Score! She can't be weirded out if she is laughing, right? I pull her closer and crush her to my chest as her laughter dies down. "Guess what today is?" She asks as she suddenly sits straight up.

"What?"

"It's your Unbirthday!" Ivy squeals excitedly before jumping out of the bed.

I quirk an eyebrow at her. "My what now?"

"Your Unbirthday, of course, and we must celebrate! We didn't get to have your birthday party for reasons that shall not be named on such a great day. So, today we will have a fantastic time and honor the death of your teens." She tells me as if this is the most obvious thing in the world.

"And how, might I ask, do you plan to do this?" I ask.

"Well, first we will get dressed so get your cute butt out of that bed. Then I will get Brandon and Brock to leave their love nest so that they can sweep you away for a bit while I get things ready." Ivy says as she begins to dig through her closet. "After that, you will just have to wait and see."

"Well alrighty then." I roll out of the bed and head over to my bag. Ivy sends me an adorable smile as she takes her clothes into the bathroom. I take advantage of her absence and quickly change into a pair of dark blue jeans and a white t-shirt.

When Ivy exits the bathroom I go in to wash my face and brush my hair and teeth. I rejoin Ivy in her room just in time to hear a knock at the door. I walk over and open it to find two grumpy faces. I chuckle as I motion for them to give me a minute before going over to Ivy. I pull her close and give her a deep kiss, "I love you, and I will see you later I guess." I say with an attempt at a pout.

She grins up at me, "Yes, you will see me later. Don't worry, it will be totally worth it. I love you, Asher. Now go have fun or something with those two."

"Fine, Bye baby." I tell her before giving her one more kiss then turning and leaving with the guys. "So what's the plan?" I ask them as we head down the hall toward the stairs.

"Well, being as we just found out there is a plan, I figured we could just wing it. Want to do some training? Or we could go downstairs to the living room and watch some movies? We have a pretty big collection here." Brock answers.

I think for a minute as we make our way to the first floor before responding. "Let's check out the movies. Can we get something to eat first though?"

"Yeah man..." Brock checks his watch before continuing, "It's closer to lunch than breakfast, so let's go make some sandwiches. We can take them with us."

So that's what we do. We spend the next several hours taking turns picking movies and relaxing. I start to wonder when Ivy plans to come back to me when I notice the sun going down, but Brock assures me that it won't be much longer. Just as we start on our fourth movie, I hear a cough from behind me. What I see when I turn makes my jaw nearly fall into my lap. Ivy stands there, looking like she came straight out of my dreams. She is wearing a cosplay costume. A costume that I would have never expected to see her in, not in million years. She is dressed like the love interest of the main character from a game I hold dear. A game I have been banned from even mentioning around her. My gorgeous mate is dressed as Shana from Legend of Dragoon, and she looks incredible. The high pitched whine that I hear can't be coming from me, can it?

"I take it you like my outfit?" She asks with a sexy grin.

I can only nod as I stand and slowly approach her, almost convinced that this is a mirage. When I am standing in front of Ivy, I reach my hand out. I'm not proud of the fact that I poked her in the forehead, but it had to be done. When she slaps my hand away I finally believe my eyes.

"Baby. I can't even... I mean... You... You..." My mouth refuses to work so I just stop trying to speak and throw myself at her. I squeeze her so tightly that I feel like her armor is bruising me, but I don't even care. I pull back just far enough to fit my lips against her's, giving her a kiss full of all of the gratitude that I am incapable of verbalizing.

When Ivy pulls back, I reluctantly release her. " But wait... there's more!" She says like a late-night infomercial host. "You need to get dressed." I look down at my fully clothed body in confusion. " Yes, you are wearing clothes, but you need to dress for the occasion. I left your outfit on my bed. I want you to go change into it, and then meet me in the backyard. I have a surprise for you."

I give her another quick kiss before running all the way to her room. The 'outfit' that I find is none other than a Dart Feld costume. I literally almost swoon. I quickly dress before going to the mirror and admiring the craftsmanship of this suit. I feel as though I am ready for battle with woodland creatures! I'm so excited I can barely stand it. After another admiring glance in the mirror, I rush out of the room, down the stairs, and out the back door.

Ivy is standing next to a table that is in front of what looks like a temporary barrier that is blocking off the view into the woods. Her nose scrunches in distaste when she sees me but she quickly covers it with a brilliant smile.

"You have to know how much I love you after this." She says once I reach her. "And as much as I hate the game, you do kind of look amazing, I guess."

"Why thank you fair maiden, and yes I do know. You must absolutely adore me, and I can't tell you how happy I am right now. This is amazing." I tell her, feeling so giddy that I'm literally bouncing.

"Well, good. Are you ready for your last surprise?" Ivy asks.

"I'm not sure I can handle anymore, but lay it on me, baby." My smile is so big that it is starting to hurt my face.

She steps away from the table and it takes a moment for me to recognize the paintball guns. "Holy sassafras roots! Are you kidding me?!? Did you seriously set up a paintball war for me?" I practically shout at her.

"Yes. We are playing together as a team. Us vs. Them, with them being some other pack members of course. They are in teams, too. I considered trying to recreate something similar to your stupid game, but I absolutely refuse to participate in any turn-based attacks so I nixed that idea." I'm not surprised that she drew the line there, being as that is the only actual reason she hates the game. She once confessed, under the duress of the sacred game of truth or dare, that she would love to play it, if only she didn't have to wait her turn. My girl is a balls to the wall barbarian when it comes to games, and if last night is anything to go by, her real-life warrior mode is the same. "Ok, your gun has a night vision scope, so you should be able to see your targets. Don't worry, though. With me there with you, we won't have any trouble sniffing them out." She says with a wink.

"Ah! This is going to be so cool. Can we go? Like now. Can we go now?" I beg.

"Calm yourself, love. This is life and death. If you go in there with more bravado than brains, you will die. This is a game of strategy." She says suddenly serious.

I straighten up and stop bouncing like a child. Head in the game, I give her a firm nod before picking up my gun and peering through the sights. Everything is green, but I can see clearly. When I feel that I'm as prepared as I can be, I drop my voice to a deep tone and say, "Let's do this."

Ivy leads me around the barricade, and I barely catch sight of several glow in the dark arrows before Ivy slaps her gun against my chest causing me to freeze. She places a finger to her lips in a request for silence, so I try to calm myself and remain quiet. Ivy tilts her head and then, almost faster than I can follow, she aims high into a tree to our left and without hesitation, she pulls the trigger. I almost can't contain my laughter as I see one of the pack warriors fall from his perch dressed in a clown suit.

Ivy turns to me with a cocky expression, not noticing the man that has his gun trained on her. He is almost completely blended into the side of the tower I can see directly ahead of us. Unwilling to let anyone shoot my mate, even if it is pretend, I take aim over Ivy's shoulder and take the man out. When she looks back at me in surprise after seeing the man step out from the shadows with a glowing blue dot in the center of his hockey mask, I wink at her.

"Stick with me kid, I'll teach you a thing or two." I whisper. She rolls her eyes but I can see the smile she is trying to suppress. "I have to ask, what is up with the Halloween costumes?"

"When the guys found out we were going to be dressed up, they insisted that they had to dress up, too. I tried to explain the difference between cosplay and their costumes, but they wouldn't hear it." She whispers back.

I snort out a laugh before stifling my amusement. "Ok, I guess I should have asked this before we entered, but how do we win? Oh, and how many people are out here?" I ask softly.

"There are ten, now. I gave each team a 60-second staggered headstart. The team we got was the last team to go before we entered. We will win if we are the last team alive, but we will get bonus points if we capture the flag on the opposite end. Half of the teams entered on that end. The team that we took out were from our side, so they must have been trying to take us out before we could get anywhere near the flag. That means we need to be super diligent. One more team is trying to capture our flag, but they are all going to try to kill us. Come on now, we need to hurry. I know the winners don't actually get a prize, but we will get bragging rights." She whispers hurriedly. Before guiding me towards the shadows.

https://youtu.be/tGSUjuSBt1A

As we silently stalk through the area I start to feel more like 007 than anything. I start to mentally serenade myself with the Mission Impossible theme song. This is so much fun. When Ivy stills, I follow suit and lift my gun up so that I can look through the scope. Ivy mirrors me, and we both snicker when we simultaneously locate and shoot the man trying to hide in a crawlspace nestled inside some shrubbery. Her shot was more accurate, but we still both got a headshot. She holds up a hand and we fist bump before moving on. We've so got this.

"Three more just went down closer to our tower, so only six to go, but two of them are on their own. We need to find this guy's partner because he is probably close and he is the last one after our flag so keep your eye out." Ivy breathes into my ear.

With a nod, I scan the area. Not seeing anyone at first, we continue our forward progress. Sweeping over my surroundings, I make sure to check high and low. I barely catch sight of a foot peeking out from behind a tree. I nudge Ivy and tip my head in that direction. She smiles before holding her hand up for me to wait. With no further warning, she starts traipsing through the underbrush to the right of us. It takes a moment for me to realize that she is trying to lure the guy out but when I do, I train my gun back by the tree that he is hiding behind. Ivy is making so much noise that I feel sure that the trap is obvious. The guy doesn't take the bait until she stumbles over a fallen branch with a muttered curse. I see his foot twitch before his body comes into view. A few inches of it anyway, and that is plenty. I squeeze the trigger three times in quick succession and then fist pump the air when I notice three glowing blue splatters appear on his shirt.

Just as I'm about to step in the direction that I heard Ivy go, a paintball whizzes past my shoulder. Without clear thought, I drop to the ground and begin to army crawl towards the cover of a large tree a couple of yards away. When I reach it I slowly raise myself to my feet with my back against the tree. I bring my gun back up and search the area for Ivey, no longer sure where she is. When I hear the distinct pop of two shots going off, I carefully peer around the tree. I'm not even surprised to see Ivy standing behind the man that had been shooting at me, even less so when he turned enough for me to see the bright purple paint splattered across his back.

Ivy silently makes her way to me. Her lips brush my ear as she whispers, "Ok, two more went down from the other guys, so only two more. They are on the opposite team though, so let's go ahead and claim our well-earned flag, and then we can track them down. Be aware... the two remaining are Brandon and Brock. Don't underestimate them. We can't lose to those numbskulls or I will never be able to live it down. We are in this to win it. I have no idea where they are, so stealth is key."

We make our way towards the boundary trees and then, keeping low to the ground, we run as quickly as we can, well as quickly as I can anyway while remaining nearly silent. I slam into Ivy's back when she stops abruptly just as the tower comes in to view. I follow her line of sight and see Brandon and Brock, dressed as zombies, standing in our tower with OUR flag. Ivey and I run for cover as paintballs begin raining down toward us. Oh, man, these guys are going down! I really wish Ivy and I had the ability to mind link like they do because the lack is leaving us at a disadvantage.

I look to Ivy, and golden brown eyes meet mine. A wicked grin is on Emersyn's face. She holds a hand up to me and I watch as her claws come out before she straps the gun to her back and begins to climb up the tree that we stand behind. I'm so glad Emersyn is getting to play, too. This sort of game is right up her alley. When I can no longer see her, I strain my ears. I hear a pop just before Brandon starts spewing expletives so raunchy that my ears burn. When I hear Brock begin to attempt to soothe him, I try to pinpoint him by the sound of his voice. When I get a general direction, I peak around the tree gun first and fire repeatedly.

"Son of a nutcracker, stop shooting! I'm dead already!" Brock bellows.

I jump when a body drops down in front of me until Ivy meets my eyes. "HAHA! We won! Let's go get our flag!" She squeals. Her competitive streak never fails to make me smile.

"Yeah, baby. Let's go." I say as I pull her to me.

When we reach the tower, Ivy snatches the flag out of Brandon's hand before cackling gleefully. "Suck eggs, losers!" She howls out between fits of laughter.

This day has been wonderful, perfect really. And it is all because of this beautiful creature. I am the luckiest man in the world.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please Vote and Comment.