Jared woke me early on Wednesday morning.

He woke me up with kisses, hot and tender, down my neck and along my shoulder. His body was pressed tight against my back; his hard torso softened by the blanket that lay between us. It was a nice feeling, lying with Jared, it was comfortable and easy.

"Morning beautiful." he sighed between kisses.

I murmured a greeting back and lay in simple bliss. It felt so good to have him there. I didn't care about Jacob phasing anymore. I didn't care about being friends. I wanted this; being able to touch. I had no more interest in pretending that I didn't want this, not that Jared would believe me anymore if I said I did.

"I haven't given you all your presents yet." Jared whispered.

He stopped kissing me momentarily as we heard someone moving somewhere else in the house.

I struggled to roll over and look Jared in the eye, he moved so I could lie on my back and look up at him, "It's just Harry. I want to say something first."

Jared smiled down at me. I knew he knew what I was about to say. After our make out session last night, how could he not? I had well and truly broken my friends rule so there was no point in pretending anymore.

"I don't want to be friends." I said. Jared smile dropped for a second before he realised what I meant, at which point it flew back onto his face and he leant down to kiss me. I complied, momentarily, before pulling away, "But until I've found a way to break it to Leah, no one outside the Pack can know."

Jared sighed, "You know, I don't really give a shit how Leah feels about this."

"You might not but I do. Leah's nice, she's just hurting. I don't want to hurt her more."

He smiled at me, lowering his head to kiss me. His lips brushed lightly against mine as he repositioned himself so he hovered over me. The kiss slowly deepened until I had my arms around his neck and his hands held my hips.

One hand came up to sweep hair from my cheek so he could hold my cheek and keep my mouth close to his. His hot skin felt exhilarating as he let go of my hip to get the blanket out from between us. It seemed that he needed to touch as much of me as I needed to touch of him and the blanket was just hindering us.

During the night my singlet had risen up my stomach, with the blanket gone and Jared leaning down on me, his hot stomach pressed against my pale one and the feeling spurred us on. It was like a jolt of energy to the butterflies in my stomach and they fluttered like mad. I loved the feel of his skin against mine and I wished neither of us were wearing anything. Although I was far too self-conscious, still, to let that happen.

There was a knock at the door and my heart raced, for a less attractive reason. Jared rolled off me and landed silently on the floor. He crouched behind the bed, trying to keep himself hidden from whoever was at the door. Once I knew he was hidden I called out a groggy good morning and pulled the blanket back over my stomach.

Leah opened the door and poked her head in, "Hey, sleepy. I was just going to..." she trailed off as her eyes caught the bouquet, "What's that?"

"My friends in Australia ordered it for me." I replied, without really thinking about it, "I got them the other day."

Leah seemed to accept my explanation but her brow furrowed, "Why didn't you put them in water?"

I scoffed, "They're Australian Natives; they don't need water."

She laughed and took a step into the room, "Do you mind if I put them in a vase? They're too pretty to just let them wilt in your room." I nodded and Leah made her way to the desk to collect the flowers, "I came in to ask if you'd like some scrambled eggs for breakfast."

"Um... yeah, sure. I'll be out in a bit."

Leah took the flowers and left the room, closing the door behind her. I liked this family because they closed doors. At home my sister would have just barged in and then left leaving the door wide open.

Jared knelt beside the bed, his forearms rested on the mattress, "That was scary."

"I know. If she had have just walked in without knocking..."

He shook his head, "Not the Leah bit. It's scary how easily you just lied to her."

I hadn't thought about it like that, I was just trying to save Jared's neck.

Sure he could take Leah on, if she wasn't a she he probably would. But Jared had been raised with the usual ideal that men shouldn't hit women and I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't go against that.

Still, I didn't want them getting into an argument. I didn't want to hurt Leah. And if they argued, I didn't think that I could go against Jared.

"I did it for you." I smiled at him and he pulled himself up on the bed, to kiss me again.

He moved away and positioned his body so that he was lying as he had been before the last kiss, his head propped on one hand while the other stroked my cheek and played with my hair. He watched me for a few moments before sighing and pressing his forehead to mine.

"I've done something for you, too."

I muffled a laugh, "You've done a lot for me."

He kissed my nose and smiled wider, "That's not what I was talking about. I've been speaking with the others, Sam and the elders mostly but that's neither here nor there." I was curious as to what the hell he was talking about and he noticed my confusion, "You remember our history, right? How Taha Aki became the first werewolf?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Tell me what you remember."

I sighed, not thinking this was entirely necessary, "Taha Aki was a spirit warrior. One day when he was doing spirit warrior things, as a spirit, his physical body was stolen by Utlapa. Anyway, Taha Aki found a wolf with whom he shared a body, while the evil guy pretended to be him. One day fake Taha Aki killed another spirit warrior, who found out the truth about what happened and the real Taha Aki became so outraged the wolf whose body he shared turned into Taha Aki. Hence, first werewolf."

Jared smiled even wider and his eyes glittered as he looked down at me, "I'm glad you remember."

"You said it was important to you. And they are amazing stories."

Jared reached down to take my hand in his, "Do you remember telling me that you didn't feel right in your own body?" I nodded, "Well, it's a little new age-y and what not but I got thinking that... maybe we could train you."

"Train me to what?"

"Travel, in the spirit world."

It took me a few seconds to realise what he was suggesting. I stared at him in amazement, unsure of whether or not he was actually being serious. His face portrayed pure honesty that somehow made this harder to understand.

He had to be joking. I couldn't do it, I wasn't a spirit warrior. I was just a simple country girl from rural Australia. There was no magic in my blood. The spirit world, as Jared knew it, was something that I hadn't even known about until that first Council Meeting. That was Jared's world, where he was part of a pack.

Not mine.

The idea was so sweet. I wasn't easily impressed by romantic notions but this was the nicest thing that anyone had done for me, in the longest time. This wasn't just some stale old act that had been done a million times before, this was personal. It showed that he was thinking about me, not just that I was a girl.

It was suddenly clear to me that he had actually thought about me. That he cared for me. I might not understand it but it was as plain as day, he liked me. If he was willing to share something like this with me, than he must love me. I couldn't imagine someone sharing something like that with anyone that they didn't love.

I reached up and held his cheek; he closed his eyes and leant into my hand.

This was more than I could accept. If I had issues going on a date with the guy than how the hell could I say yes to this? I wanted to say yes; I wanted to see that part of the world. But that wasn't me. I wasn't a warrior and the spirit world... that was his tribe's land, something sacred to them.

I loved Jared for thinking of me but I could not accept this.

"I... thank-you, Jared." I whispered and then sighed, "But I'm not a spirit warrior."

Jared laughed, his eyes still shut as he pressed his cheek to the palm of my hand, "But you have a spirit and you're strong. If we're happy for you to try, then what's the problem?"

"I don't know, Jared."

He sighed and opened his eyes, "Just think about it, okay? Are you going to come to Emily's this afternoon?" I nodded and he smiled, "I'll see you at school then."

Jared slid off the bed and I looked after him in confusion, unsure of what he was doing. That was until the door flew open and Leah walked in. For a second I thought she'd heard us, but she only looked at me. Damn, Jared and his super hearing.

"The eggs are ready and waiting for you in the kitchen. What are you doing?"

I realised that I was leaning half across the bed towards Jared, in a way that was not usual for someone in a room by themselves.

When I agree with my brain it works wonders, and helps me. Sometimes I love it.

"I thought I left my book on the bed last night and now I can't find it." It was scary, how easy it was for me to make up a lie.

Leah shook her head at me in exaggerated exasperation, "Unbelievable. Anyway, breakfast is waiting. You might want to grab some before it goes cold."

She turned and left the room, but she didn't close the door this time. So I knew I had to be extra quiet. I rolled over to the other side of the bed and looked down at Jared.

"Quiet. The door's open." I said with my head poking out over the edge of the mattress.

Jared kissed me, his hand sliding under my hair to the back of my neck and holding me still. Kissing Jared was always nice and I couldn't imagine it ever being anything less than that. But I knew that it was better than normal because we'd gone so long without doing it, or even touching.

"Sheesh, Sofia!" Leah yelled from the direction of the kitchen, "Hurry up already."

I pulled against Jared to break the kiss, but he refused to move his hand and kept our lips locked together. After a few seconds I gave into him and just continued, loving the feel of his lips and tongue. Somehow, morning breath didn't faze either of us.

Finally he let go, mainly to catch his breath.

"How are you going to get out of here?" I whispered, but found myself overly aware of how loud my whisper sounded.

Jared smiled at me, "Don't worry about me. Go enjoy your breakfast and make sure you close the door."

It was my turn to demand a kiss, so I reached out for the back of his head and pulled him up to meet me. It was a quick kiss and Jared groaned as I pulled away. I smirked to myself as I got up and rushed to get dressed; made all the more... interesting by the fact that Jared was sitting on the floor on the other side of my bed, watching me.

I asked him to look away when I changed into clean underwear, and he did, but the rest of the time he watched me with the single stupidest look on his face that I had ever seen. It was probably similar to the look I had when Jared had stripped in front of me. In fact, I was curious as to why he didn't use that to argue against looking away when I changed my underwear but thought better of questioning him.

Before I left for school I said that I'd forgotten something in my room and ran to check whether Jared was still there or not. He wasn't. So I grabbed the nearest thing I could, my Yunupingu CD, and headed back out. I found the easiest way to get away with lying was to leave little doubt. I said I needed something from my room so I got something from my room, telling Leah that Lily wanted to borrow it.

That day Jared eased off on the cheesy pick-up lines, which was good because after last night I was sure that I would suck at trying to act like I disliked him. But it was kind of exciting to pretend that there was nothing going on, now that there was something going on.

I was excited by the prospects of going back to Oz to tell Jade about this. She'd have a field day and I wanted someone unrelated to the drama to be as enthused by it as I was. I wanted someone from Australia to see how happy Jared made me. Because they were sure to notice.