Author's note- Read the note at the bottom. Almost 5,000 words, I hope you're proud of me!

Thanks a million to my beta Warui

Disclaimer.

An obnoxious ruckus sounded next to my ear. My eyes rolled around in their sockets, still reluctant to exit the dream world. The backs of my lids were dark and welcoming. The loud buzz rang again. I groaned loudly and cringed as my back popped in a few places, releasing tension that had been building there.

As the vibrating piece of machinery yelled at me once more I slammed my palm down onto the bed and slid the small, silver body towards me. The luminescent screen was a beam of light in the comfortable darkness, a bright, annoying shine.

Good morning, my beautiful sixteen-year-old.

The text read. I couldn't help the relaxed, and yet giddy, smile that swept up my face.

Your sixteen-year-old, huh?

I typed in reply, sighing happily and snapping the phone shut as I stretched my limbs underneath the soft comforters. It buzzed again.

Yep. All mine.

I rolled my eyes, humor still fresh in my face.

Don't you have anything better to do than to tease me?

My fingers punched the glowing blue buttons in habitual synchronization as I sat up in bed and rubbed my achy eyes.

Not really, just standing outside your door, waiting for you to get your lazy butt out here.

My stomach ignited with small jitters as I flew towards the bedroom door, teetering in front of the mirror in order to comb my bushel of hair down and rub the sleep out of my eyes. I turned the knob and beheld the most delicious body of man that anyone would ever encounter. He was leaning against the wall of the hallway, his russet skin highlighted by the white shirt he was wearing. His hair hung down, shielding the consoling, loamy color of his eyes from my view.

"Well, if it isn't the birthday girl herself." He smirked and sauntered towards me. His hot arms wrapped me up into him as he twirled me in a slow circle.

"Morning," I murmured into the breadth of his shoulder.

"You look older," he jeered, poking me in the side of the ribcage. I yelped and covered the ticklish spot with my hands as he chuckled.

"That's what they tell me." I spun on my heel and meandered towards the kitchen, a delicious smell filling my nostrils. The table was piled high with banana blueberry pancakes, bacon, eggs, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and mango. I turned towards the man behind me and batted my eyelashes at him as I puckered my lips. "Quil," I whined.

He snickered. "What?"

"Did you do all of this?" I ran my hand down his arm and wrapped my hand around his, attaching his arms around my waist.

"No, actually it was the breakfast fairy. You didn't hear her come in?" He looked towards the door and cracked a goofy smile. "She was pretty loud."

"You call yourself the breakfast fairy?" I wondered skeptically, "it's a little weird, Quil. But if you like it then I guess I can live with it." He had already begun making me a plate when he glanced over, ruffled the hair on top of my head, and pushed me into a seat. I stabbed the top pancake and shoveled a large piece into my mouth. Quil sat across from me, just watching. "Feel free to help yourself," I told him.

Just then the front door burst open. "Don't mind if we do!" Embry called as he swept through the door. Seth, who had entered behind him, was quick to pounce on the table of food as well.

Jacob seemed to be the only one of the three with any manners at all. He walked slowly into the house, careful to shut the front door and came to me with a sweet smile. "Happy birthday, Claire." He leaned down and pressed his lips to the top of my head.

"Thanks, Jake."

Embry's mouth was overflowing with pig meat and sugary syrup. "Oh, yeah! Happy birthday!"

I grimaced at the sight of the partially masticated food. "Thanks."

Jacob and Quil were slow to pick their plates of food and ate in a polite way. Seth and Embry, on the other hand, bulldozed through half a dozen servings and groaned as their stomachs struggled to fit all of the food. "I am so full," Seth complained, his forehead banging against the table as he slouched forward.

"That's a statement," Jacob said, finishing his last bit of breakfast. "I've never seen you full."

"That was so good," Embry moaned, stretching his arms back behind the chair.

I rolled my eyes and glanced back to Quil. His yielding brown eyes were locked on me, like they'd been staring at me the whole time. He winked playfully and then looked back down to his plate in order to skewer the last bite of eggs. "Thanks for breakfast," I told him.

"Anytime, C," he said with a sparkling smile. I forgot how to breathe for a few seconds. I pushed away from the table and ran my hand through the hair that I'd flipped over my shoulder. Or at least I tried to run my hand through it. About four inches in, my fingers were stuck in the knots and tangles of the ultimate bed head. Awesome, I must look so great right now. Not. I quietly excused myself to the bathroom for some maintenance.

The mirror glared back at me, spitting an image of distressed bed head and ruddy, unwashed skin out. I grimaced at the sight and quickly ducked into my room to pull out something to wear. A softly coral dress was laid out on my bed, a white stone necklace above it. The small card read, C, you deserve to look flawless on your birthday. I love you!

There wasn't a signature. But I still didn't have to guess who had left it. A cartooned thunder cloud with a tiny lightning bolt adorned the corner. Stormy.

I snatched up the lightweight material and slipped back into the restroom. I could still hear the boys in the kitchen.

"Don't throw those!"

"Pick that up!"

"Look out!"

I winced as a crashing sound reverberated down the corridor. I slammed the door and pretended I hadn't heard it. I could hear my mom rush into the room and begin directing them all to cleaning stations.

"Jacob, get that off the floor. Seth, get out the broom. Embry, get on the dishes. Quil, start putting the left-overs in Tupperware for the fridge."

I snickered under my breath and was happy that I wasn't part of the clean-up crew. Not today, at least.

Today. The day. The one thing that I had been waiting for.

Not only me, though. That's what made this day so special. It was the fact that it was as important to Quil as it was to me. It was the dropping of the iron curtain, the coming down of the Berlin Wall. Birthdays were typically selfish days. At least, for me they always were. But this one was different; this one was to be shared. It meant so much more than any of my others ever had.

It couldn't be here. I couldn't actually be sixteen.

I'd been waiting for this day for so long that even though it was upon us, I couldn't comprehend the fact that it was happening. The adrenaline in my blood soared as the knowledge of the new regulations (or absence of such) crossed my mind.

March nineteenth had always been marked on my calendar obviously; you don't typically forget your own birthday. But today was different. I glanced down to the silver ring that Quil had given me on Valentine's Day. The numbers shone even in the artificial light of the house.

My ring was engraved with the day when everything had begun, but it didn't contain the date for when everything finally happened. That day was today. My birthday. My sixteenth Birthday.

My knees felt slinky and unstable as Quil's face smiled at me through my mind's eye. His tousled hair that always lay across his eyes just right, the spark in his eye when I caught him staring at me, the firm slopes of his lips, the muscles that stretched underneath the skin of his chest, the way his shoulder smelled when I laid against him, the way he tasted…

I steadied myself on the counter, appreciating the sensory overload for what it was.

The brush shook in my hand as I gently tugged through the tangles in my hair; the coral dress was pretty against the color of my skin, the white stone necklace highlighting the olive undertone. It wasn't raining outside, at least not yet. The clouds were thick and close, noticeably grey without seeming menacing.

There was a knock at the door and a quiet squeak of the hinges. "Morning, pretty girl." My mom was leaning against the wall.

"Hi, mom," I said softly, resting against her.

"Your hair has gotten so long, Claire." She brushed her fingers from the crown of my head down to the middle of my back.

"Yeah, I like it this length." Her warm shoulders were forgiving to my stance, allowing me to rest against her as I swept on some mascara. I caught her gaze in the mirror. A sense of belonging expanded through my midsection as she smiled at me. A smile that only a mother could produce for her daughter.

"I want you to know how proud of you I am," she told me. The smooth apples of her cheeks raised in a grin, causing the corners of her eyes to wrinkle.

I laughed softly. "Proud of me for what?" I wondered. Had she gotten my latest report card? No, the realist in my brain teased, she wouldn't be so proud of that.

"For whom you are as a person." Her voice was warm, familiar to me. One of only two voices on this earth that could make me relax. I turned and stared at the woman that had given me everything. "You may be a pain in the ass sometimes, but you are a wonderful character. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I completely agree." A deeper, rougher voice came from behind her. Quil stood in the hallway. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous.

My mom glanced behind her and smiled at him before looking back to me. "Have a happy, happy birthday, baby." She kissed my cheek.

"Thanks, mom." I hugged her tightly, wrapping my arms into the maternal comfort that I'd always needed. "Love you." Quil offered her a warm smile as she squeezed past him in the hallway, his huge form didn't leave much room.

"Where are the boys?" I tucked my hair behind my ears and threw my toothbrush into the top drawer.

"They just left," he said quietly.

"Oh." My tailbone rested against the counter as I turned to face him. His eyes were swirling with the look that I'd only recently realized. It was the look that made my blood pump hotly and my hands shake, the one where if he was within grabbing distance I could barely resist throwing myself at him. He closed the distance between us in two long strides and towered over me, running his hands down my arms and leaning down onto the counter.

"Ready for the best birthday ever?" His breath tickled my ear.

I practically turned into putty in his arms. "Of course."

He towed me out of the house, a face breaking smile on his lips. I barely snatched my jacket and shoes as he dragged me out of the door. He gave me a gentle shove towards the truck as he ran to the driver's side.

"Excited, Quil?" I laughed.

"Aren't you?" He tapped the tip of my nose.

I scrunched it up and pouted my lips at him.

"Cute, Claire," he jeered. I rolled my eyes and let him capture my tiny (compared to his, at least) hand. If only he knew how much more of me he was holding at the same time.

"Where are we going?" I finally asked after twenty minutes of flying down unfamiliar roads.

"Somewhere." He flashed a coy smile and my heart jolted in my chest.

"I never could have guessed," I bantered. He only chuckled lowly and squeezed my hand. "Can I ask you something?" Quil nodded, not breaking his stare from the windshield. "What does it feel like?"

He looked over to me and modeled a puzzled expression. "What does what feel like?"

"To be a werewolf." I'd always wondered what it would be like to have the ability to be something else. It seemed like a seamless way to escape anything.

He tensed his jaw, thinking over the answer. "If it weren't for you, I'm not sure I could bear it." He let out a strangled breath, like it had hurt him to say it.

My midsection tingled with dismay. "But…it seems like a good thing."

He sighed again and slouched into the driver seat. "It seems that way because you've never known what it feels like to know that you could hurt somebody, k-kill them even if you weren't careful." He stammered through the statement.

My other hand snuck over to cover the one that held mine. "You wouldn't ever do that, Quil."

He looked out his window and ran his free hand through his hair, "that doesn't really help, C. It's that I could."

I squeezed his hand, desperately trying to pull his attention back to me. "You don't think I'd love a monster, do you, Quil?" I attempted to sound light-hearted but the quiver in my voice betrayed me.

His face slowly rounded to display its dazzling smile to me. He pressed his lips against the back of the hand he held. "You're too good for me, Claire."

A delighted, and relieved, smirk filled my lips. "Well, who didn't know that?"

"I'm going to run into a wall." My hands were outstretched, searching for something solid to lead me. Quil's hands were clapped over my eyes, his rock hard abdomen serving as my guide as I cringed away from the things I imagined I was about to hit.

"Calm down! I'm not going to let you run into anything." He laughed at me. I heard him turn a knob and push a door open. "There, we're here."

I ambivalently shrunk back against him, keeping my eyes shut for an extended second. Once they had been opened it took me a second to realize what we were inside.

The first thing I noticed was that the floor was covered with peach taffy. But amongst the sea of refined sugary goodness sat a sound board and a hanging microphone, the walls were lined with insulators and a large desktop resided beside the controls.

"Happy birthday," he whispered from behind me.

"It can't be…" my voice waned.

Quil's chin rested against my head, his arms wrapping around my shoulders. "I figured you'd need one eventually."

My mouth fell open. A studio? A recording studio? He'd given me a place to log my music. "Oh my God." I walked slowly towards the sound board, tracing my fingers delicately over the sliding bars and queue buttons. A black stool sat underneath the hanging microphone, a hole hook one for a guitar on the wall.

Sugar-filled wrappers crunched under my feet as I walked further into the room.

"Quil." My voice was soft.

"Yes, beautiful?" His voice was next to my ear.

"This is too much." My fingers brushed over the screen for the microphone.

"You're too late," he whispered in my ear. I could feel his smile against my cheek.

"I—I…I don't even know what to say."

"How about, thanks, Quil. You're the best boyfriend ever and I love you?" He teased.

I spun in his arms and stretched on my toes so that I could wrap my arms around his neck. "Thanks, Quil. You're the best boyfriend ever and I love you."

He laughed quietly and bent down to press his lips to mine. "I love you more."

I sighed as his mouth detached from mine and followed obediently as he towed me from the room. When we emerged into an all-too-familiar hallway I couldn't help but freeze in my tracks. "Quil?"

"Yeah?" He turned towards me, looking down to my planted feet.

"We're in your house."

"Wow." He laughed at me. "Shocking revelation." He raised his eyebrows in good humor.

"Why did you drive me around for two hours, park in a forest, and blindfold me with your palms if we were just going to your house?"

"It wouldn't have been a good surprise if you knew where we were going," he explained. The grin on his face was making my train of thought skip away. I desperately clung to its fleeting tail, wanting to understand his mischief.

"How could I not have noticed it? I was here two days ago."

He smirked and nodded towards the door we'd just exited from. "You never go in that room."

I took a second and glanced around the hallway, mapping myself into the recognizable territory. "But…that's Embry's room."

"Was Embry's room," he stressed.

I felt my eyes go wide. "You kicked Embry out?!"

"I didn't expect such a vehement response to that." His dark eyes were lit with the kind of pleasure that only the male species achieved from coyness. "But no, I didn't kick him out. He moved in with Seth and Paul."

"But why did he move out?" He was purposely avoiding my question to my terrible annoyance.

He leaned casually against the hallway wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, number one; I needed that room to build your studio. Number two; I'm finally making enough money to make the mortgage on my own. And number three; I'll only need one bedroom from now on even when I do get a new roommate."

"Only one?" Why did he have to be so difficult?

"Well I figure the next person I live with will want to share my room…my bed." He smirked. "Right, Claire?"

I felt my face erupt with the heat from rushing blood as I reddened. "W-wha? Um…"

He laughed and jokingly punched me in the arm. "Not for a while." He winked at me. "But when the time does come…"

He allowed the concept to sink in, smiling as the blush in my cheeks got darker and darker. He grabbed my hand and walked towards the living room. An amazing smell filled my nostrils, a garlic spiced, hot aroma floated through the air.

His kitchen was uncharacteristically tidy. There was a black table cloth over the seating arrangement, a large vase of roses in the center of the setting. Two steaming plates of noodles and chicken, along with a complicated sauce and vegetable arrangement that I could never identify, sat in front of the only two chairs.

"Quil, I've never seen you cook a meal in my entire life and then today you make two gourmet platters?" My eyes remained glued to the appetizing food as I laughed.

"Oh no, breakfast is my only ability." He smiled at me. "I had help with dinner."

The candles flickered as we talked through the meal. The sun slowly retreated, leaving thin breaths of color in the sky. Our voices flowed melodiously towards each other, meeting and spinning into the air. The plates were eventually cleared, his much faster than mine. But we kept talking, just rivers of words.

I knew what was coming. Or what was supposed to come. He knew it was coming. And we both recognized that the other knew. But, although I had assumed there would be, there was no rush. It came to the point where we both realized that there was an expanse of time ahead of us that we were happy to have. We laughed and he stroked the back of my hand, clasping it in his own. He would smile at me as I talked to him, drawing me into those huge, brown eyes. When I looked out the window at the cragged outline of the mountains his fingers found their way into my hair, gently tucking and shifting pieces into place.

He stood after about three hours in those chairs and lifted me out of my own. "Claire," he hummed in my ear. My heartbeat was fast under my rib. This was it. Putting aside the expected, anxious butterflies of the moment, there was a terrible sense of dread in my stomach. Would it be awkward? Would it seem forced? I could practically envision the knocking elbows and bumping heads now. Inwardly my stomach rolled. I groaned silently.

I yanked myself back into reality as I felt Quil's lips linger against the surface of my hair, his hot breath making my scalp tingle. His lips were soft when he lowered them onto mine. It wasn't a frenzied connection. It was tender, like the touch of a whisper. His hands were quivering against the skin of my back, tensing as he raised me up onto his hips and carried me. And this time I was expecting the bed as my back collided with it.

His hands were slow as they roved up the sides of my legs, lifting my dress up and over my head. I reached for the buttons of his shirt and meticulously undid each of them until he was on his knees in front of me, his glorious chest exposed.

My hair was tugged as his fingers wound in the lengths above my shoulders, urging me towards him. Our lips met again, with more fever and passion than before. A flame in the deepest pit of me licked against the inside of my skin, raising tingles all over. His hot chest was pressed against my skin; I could feel the sweat as it began to dew on my back, making my breathing a little more ragged than it already was.

My fingers skimmed over the definite muscles that swelled and shifted underneath his dark skin. The sheets were kicked off the bed, leaving us with as much room as we could hope for.

"Claire." He said my name again. My body shuddered at the sound of lust in his voice. A wry smile uncurled over my lips, I'd put that there. I'd caused that. With a renewed sense of venture my fingers crawled down his body, beginning to unlatch the buttons on his jeans. He sucked in a sharp breath when he realized what I was doing. My fingers froze, unsure of whether or not to continue.

He let a deep breath release against my lips as he lowered his own hands down onto mine and insisted that they continue undoing the zipper. Our bodies twisted and pressed against each other, enjoying the uninhibited experience of full contact.

Somewhere along the way my bra ended up on the floor. His hands and mouth explored the sensitive skin with care, encouraging a few whimpers from my lips. His arms folded behind my back, completely encasing me with his heat. I smiled against his shoulder. "I've been waiting for this for so long," I whispered to him.

His eyes locked with mine, looking black in the darkness. And he smiled. "It's felt like forever," he agreed. His hand casually danced down the right side of my body and within seconds I was completely and irrevocably naked.

My back slid against the sheets as he laid me down, his hands upholding the weight of his body. My tongue swirled over the heated skin of his neck, causing him to writhe against me. His fingers found their way to the inner most part of me and teased the ultra-sensitive area until the heart in me was thundering in its cavity.

Sooner rather than later he too was completely rid of clothing and I was speechless at his…physique. He was never rough, never too fast. His silhouette melted against mine like we were made to fit into one another's shapes; regardless of his powerful strength he was impossibly affectionate and careful.

But…

But when that moment came…I couldn't. He was hovering above me, his lips against mine. "Are you ready?" he asked softly.

I gulped and nodded slowly. His breath was labored as he neared me, the sighs flowing over my chest. I could feel his pelvic bones against my legs and I felt the fire in my stomach flare. I wanted him so badly. His abdomen was inflating and deflating quickly as I felt him against me. I wanted this so badly.

My mind flashed through quick snapshots of my best memories of Quil, like a live scrapbook. I saw him flying towards me as I fell back through the air, fresh from flight propelled by his arms. My nose tickled as I remembered the wish flowers we'd blown through the yards every summer. His expression on the day my dad died burnt against my skull, taking me under its flame. I felt the thick velvet of his fur knot under my fingers from when I had first seen his wolf form.

I felt the tightening in my chest that I had when I had first really seen Quil in a bathing suit. He'd taken me to the beach every summer since I could remember. But that one summer, he looked so much different.

My stomach twisted in terror when memories of the camping trip crossed my head. Having him leave…and knowing he may return hurt or not at all. I'd had so many firsts with Quil. So many unmarked territories, untainted with the imperfections of others. No second-hand experiences. No borrowed sensations.

All fresh and fleshed out anew.

But was I ready for this first? For this act that meant so little to so many people? It meant everything to me. It was the physical expression of the disgustingly real love that I felt churn in the bottom of my stomach whenever I looked at him. It was the connection between our bodies that made everything we felt not only spiritual…but tangible.

It was an irrevocable experience. A once in a lifetime thing. You only lose your virginity once and, in my case, it had been prophesized to be perfect. But was I old enough? Could I really do this? I wanted to be so ready for this moment that I practically surrendered myself to him.

But I felt so guarded. I felt hesitant, shy. I wanted him more than anything. I wanted all of him, completely, forever.

But I couldn't. Not yet. "Wait." The word was almost inaudible as it slid through my lips.

He immediately flipped to the side of me, his eyes searching mine. My body was shaking. I could feel all of the muscles in me tense up as I covered myself with the sheet that I drug off the floor. I had just shattered the thing that I had been dreaming about for the past couple months.

"I'm sorry," I told him, one swollen tear leaked from my eye. His face softened and he immediately wrapped his arms around me.

"No, Claire." His hand ran through my hair. "Never be sorry. We don't have to do this now," he whispered. "We have the rest of our lives to be together."

But I messed this up, I wanted to say. This was supposed to be perfect.

"I'm so sorry," I said again, succumbing to the tears as I curled into his side. I'd ruined everything.

"How can you say that?" He brushed the hair over my eyes away so that I had to look at him.

"I wanted this." I hiccupped through a breath. "We fought over this! I practically forced you into it—"

He kissed me, not allowing me to continue. "Claire." He smiled a warm, inviting grin. "You're sixteen. I don't want anything but you and I have the rest of my life to be there. We don't have to do this now."

I closed my eyes and sighed, releasing a heavy breath. "Okay."

"But there is something I would like to do now." His arms detangled from me as he reached over the side and tugged a shoe box from under the bed.

"Quil?" My voice was wary.

He had a devious glint in his eye. "Claire?" I took a deep breath. He produced a small, velvet box and I felt my throat close up. "Marry me?"

Author's note- Thank you so so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. The story will go on. More chapters to anticipate :) Although I may bleed it into another story. We shall see.

I believe I do owe you an explanation for why the chapter took so long, apart from being the hardest to write. I debated whether or not to share with you the real reason that it took a month. But I figured maybe if I did share it, I'd be able to provide some sort of support to anyone else who may have or will experience what I went through. At the beginning of July I lost a close friend to suicide. I will miss him forever. It took me a long time to do anything really after I found out. Thus explaining the hiatus of the story. I am so deeply sorry. But I hope you enjoyed what I have submitted.

Leave any thoughts. Thanks, guys.