HOLY COW. Defiance came out early (March 9.) I bought and read Defiance in a single day. I'm a little disappointed that I have to wait for the next book. Ugh. I'm so impatient that it's killing me! Anyway, I'll try to not drop any spoilers for you readers.

In Defiance, there's a single sentence about Rodney having a sister. For my little story here, we're all going to pretend that it said "brother" instead. Bear with me. (:

Anonymous – Thanks! (: I'm glad you like it.

INeverSawAnotherButterfly – Tis okay (: And that's freaking adorable, "boils my lobsters." You get to relax with this chapter, though. It's date night for Nick & Elsie! (:

The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.

Chapter Thirteen

Daniel called Peter on the main line phone. Caleb's father was the clan champion, and according to Nick's family, it was only right for him to know. Apparently, Peter had put in a claim against the Watsons with some sort of Ace council for their attacks on Maggie and Caleb. I sat with Nick on the couch, watching Daniel rant into the phone's mouthpiece. His anger rivaled Royce's. Nick's hand rubbed up and down my jeaned leg. I'd sat on the far end of the couch, and he'd sat right next to me, his lap the perfect place to stretch out my legs.

"I won't stand for it, Peter!" Daniel exclaimed. Nick was practically shaking, he was so angry. It took almost everything I had not to launch myself completely in his lap. Instead, I just tried to take away his anger by holding onto the elbow that was closest to me. Nick was still angry, though, and that worried me. I didn't want him to do anything in retaliation. "Marcus tried to kill my son's significant!" Nick's hand tightend on my leg. I sat up a little bit and wrapped both of my arms around one of his, my fingers splayed out on his forearm. His grip on me loosened a little.

Alexandra had moved to comfort Daniel at the same time I'd grabbed a hold of Nick. Rodney, who was sitting in one of the arm chairs, looked at his hands, which were folded together in between his knees. We were all paired off, except for him. I felt bad for him, but it wasn't like I could just make his perfect soul mate appear before him. If I could, I would. Nick's free hand settled on the top of my foot, bringing my attention back to him. I glanced into his bluish-green eyes, which seemed to be looking straight through me.

I'm fine. I told him. We're both fine. Just stay by my side and we won't have to deal with this ever again. It certainly sounded clingy, but he had to understand, right? I mean, if I ever fell asleep without him beside me again, I could lose my life. That sobered me immediately, and my arms tightened around his one arm.

I'll never leave you again. And you don't have to worry about being clingy, because I'm going to be the most overprotective person you've ever met. Worse than your brothers, even.

You know, somehow that doesn't really bother me, coming from you. I replied in my mind. It seemed like every day we were getting better at talking in our mind. Nick had told me that our ascensions should only take a few weeks, and with the two of us drawing closer to our two-week mark, I wondered if it was just around the corner. I felt relief; the time for the Watsons' retaliation was short. But it also made me feel sick, because they were surely aware of it. Their attacks would only escalate. This had to be a last resort for the Watsons. Maybe they thought they had a lot longer than they did. Maybe they had no idea that Nick and I had been significants for almost two weeks, and that their window of opportunity was closing faster than they could imagine. Nick reached out with his free hand and caught my chin, his jaw clenched as he stared into my eyes.

They won't get you. And you're right. Our ascensions shouldn't be too far off.

I sighed as his father took a deep breath. The sound of it made the two of us look away from each other and towards Daniel. He had Alexandra tucked into his side, and he was nodding, as if Peter could see him. "Right, thank you, Peter." There was a short pause and he said. "Yes, I'm sure Nick is going to stay right beside Elsie." He hung up the phone and stared at the blank screen for a moment, shaking his head. He turned to look at the two of us. "Honestly, we can't do much. Peter will put in another claim against the Watsons, which will be dealt with at the reunification." I had no idea what that was, but Nick nodded. "For now, you two just need to stay together."

"Thanks, dad," Nick said quietly. Daniel just nodded. He and Alexandra left the room, whispering amongst themselves. Rodney stayed in his armchair for a little while longer, watching Nick and me. I stayed attached to his arm, resting my head on his shoulder. I had no idea what he was doing, but he'd gone back to rubbing a hand over my legs.

The three of us sat there in silence for a minute. Rodney pulled out his cell phone and was texting someone, his thumb dancing across the screen. He looked up a little while later and said, "Why don't you two go riding? We've got that party tomorrow and you two need to relax a little bit before then."

"A party?" I asked, sitting up a little bit more.

Nick nodded. I could feel his voice rumbling out of his chest. "Yeah. It's just another family picnic. It's not really a party."

"But the entire Jacobson family together is more than enough people to have a party." Rodney said, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

Nick shook his head at his brother. "It's a picnic, Elsie." He said to me. He turned to look at me, his eyes searching my face, as if I was going to be upset about it. "I was going to ask if you wanted to go when I got back from riding, but then the whole thing with Marcus…."

"I don't see why we wouldn't go. You're stuck with me forever, so I might as well hang out with your family." I winked. Nick actually cracked a grin at that, and I kissed his cheek. Rodney gave us a smile, obviously trying to be happy for us, but wishing that he had someone sitting next to him. I gave Rodney a smile from where I sat, and he nodded before standing up. He picked his cowboy hat off of the arm of the chair and headed back towards his bedroom. Nick and I sat there for a moment longer before I looked up at him. "So, are we going riding?"

"I thought you'd never ridden a horse before." He said, raising his eyebrows.

"No, but I'm willing to try, if you're willing to teach me." I told him.

Nick flashed me a warm smile. "Well then, what are we waiting for?" He asked, patting my shins. "Let's get to our lessons, shall we?"

# # #

"When you go to get up, you're going to put your hands on the horn here and pull yourself up, and then you can grab a hold of the reigns. And make sure you get both of your feet into the stirrups." Nick said, patting the saddle. He'd referred to the weird-looking pommel at the front of the saddle as the "horn." I stared at it, wondering if grabbing onto it was going to pull the entire saddle sideways. "You'll be fine," Nick said, "I've tightened the girth, so you're saddle won't be moving around. Go on, give it a try."

I swallowed nervously. I'd told him that I was excited about it, and that excitement level had stayed high while he showed me the different types of riding gear. Nick had called it tack when we'd been in the storage room – which, of course, he'd called the tack room. I'd watched him put the bridle over the horse's head and watched him slide the metal bit into the horse's mouth. The horse, the one that I had become friends with when it had been in its stall, now looked huge and menacing. Its teeth where big and yellow, but that didn't stop Nick from putting his fingers close to its mouth to give it the bit.

I stepped up to the horse, watching its feet closely. One of its hooves could really hurt me, and it wasn't like Nick and I were ascended. He couldn't heal me if the horse decided to break my foot or kick me in the head. I put both of my hands on the saddle, one of them on the horn. I put one foot up in the stirrup, and Nick stood behind me, his hands on my waist while I pulled myself up the rest of the way. I lay there on the saddle for a moment before swinging over my other leg and settling into the saddle. Nick handed me the reigns, and I looked down at him.

It was so weird to be higher than he was. The horse's dark hair blew a little in the wind, its ears flicking all over the place. It took a step forward as Nick pulled it a little closer to his own horse, and with my fingers still wrapped around the reigns, I held on to the horn. Nick reached the second horse that he'd gotten ready. With an easy grace that I'd obviously lacked, Nick pulled himself up into his saddle. He turned to look at me, the horse turning to look with him. "We'll take it easy. Just pick up your reigns. We're neck reigning, so you only really need one hand, but two is fine for now. Whenever you want to turn, just move the reigns to that side and give a gentle squeeze with your leg on that same side." I took a deep breath and nodded. He gave me a smile. "It's not really hard, Elsie, you'll do fine. Just sit square in your saddle and look right between the horse's ears. Peanut here will follow Sassy, so you don't really have to worry about getting him to walk. But if you want to stop, just give a gentle pull back on the reigns. Not too hard, though."

"Got it," I said. The correct terms were starting to confuse me, but I could see what he meant by the images he was supplying in his head. Thank God I could read his mind, or else I'd probably be horribly confused. Nick looked up and me and sent me a picture of the two of us riding across an empty field, laughing. "Is that one of your visions that you got when we imprinted?" I asked. It seemed so surreal, so bright and colorful, that it reminded me of the visions I'd had.

"Not exactly," He said, but the way he said it implied that it was more or less closer to what he'd seen in his mind. And even though the horse sort of scared the crap out of me, I wanted to be able to ride like an expert across a field with him. The image left something to be desired. It made me really want to learn to ride. He flashed me a grin, and then he nudged his horse, Sassy, into a walk. My horse started moving right after his. It was sort of scary in a weird way. A horse moved in a truly unique way, one that I'd never felt before. It was sort of like my body was lurching forward and swaying from side to side at the same time, but it was easy and light and not like anything else I could imagine. My hands tightened on the horn in front of me momentarily. Nick chuckled up ahead of me, and I could feel a flush traveling up my neck and coloring my cheeks.

We didn't talk to each other, not even in our minds. Instead, we kept up a steady stream of just emotions. Nick was constantly watching me as if he was worried I was going to freak out and fall off the horse. He was partly worried because of my inexperience, partly worried because it had been clear that I wasn't the most comfortable in a saddle. I was trying to send him messages that I was just fine. The longer I rode, the more I was starting to like it.

We still had a few hours until it got dark, so Nick led us up a little hill. As we climbed higher, the lowering sun seemed to get a little closer. Nick pulled his horse to a stop when he got to the top, and Peanut continued walking a little more before stopping next to Sassy. My horse leaned forward to nibble at the grass at the top of the hill, making me lunge forward in surprise. I clutched onto the horn, losing my grip on the reigns. Nick laughed and motioned to the ground below us. There was a creek bed, water bubbling as it ran over the rocks and down out of sight.

"Wow," I breathed, "That's beautiful."

"It's a good thing you like nature so much," he said, giving me a warm smile.

"Yeah?" I asked, patting my horse's neck. Peanut gave a little jerk but continued to eat, stepping forward a little bit. My butt was starting to hurt from sitting on the saddle for so long, but I liked the feeling of having an animal so close to me. It was sort of like traveling back in the past, before people had cars and trains and boats, back to the time where they'd had to ride horses everywhere. I was surprised that I'd never been around a horse before. My love for animals had sort of just been a visual thing until now.

"Yeah, considering the fact that I've told my parents I was going to live on a ranch since I was four." He glanced over at me. "What do you think about that?" My cheeks flushed. It was exciting to talk about the rest of my life with him, but it was also scary, too. Before I'd met Nick, I'd just been going with the flow of life. There didn't really seem to be any purpose or goal. But now, I knew that it was my job to stand by his side and stay a part of his family, to be an Ace.

"I think it'll be fun," I told him. Nick practically glowed with the words. I realized that he was worried that I wouldn't have wanted to stay with him. I didn't know where he got that notion from, but it was apparent that I'd settled some sort of worry in his mind. I flashed him a smile, and he motioned towards the creek.

"Do you want to take a break from riding?" He asked me. "We can go for a walk."

"Sure," I replied, my heart fluttering at the idea. How many times had I just wanted to go for a walk through the park, or down the street in the evening? It was one of those perfect boyfriend things that I never thought I was going to get. Nick swung a leg off of his horse and brought the reins over the horse's head, tying them to a thick branch in a nearby tree. He looked over at me, and I sat there for a moment on Peanut, whose ears flicked when Sassy was moved from her place next to him to the tree, but stayed where he was. "Um, Nick? How do I get off?"

He laughed and directed me off of the horse. I held onto the horn as I crawled down, nearly getting my foot stuck in the stirrup. Nick put one hand on my hip, his fingers hooked through my belt loop. I stumbled backwards from the horse, reaching backwards to grab a hold of the front of his shirt. Nick steadied me with his hands on my elbows, and then led Peanut next to Sassy. He tied the reigns into the branches, and then slipped my hand in his. Together, we walked down the hill.

"What's reunification?" I asked, trying to maneuver my way around rocks. Nick's hand tightened on mine every single time one of us had to make a step down over a particularly sharp area of rocks. The creek was surrounded on both sides by rocks, which grew smaller the closer it got to the water. The farther up the hill, the larger the rocks got before they gave away to tall grass. I was lucky that I'd worn jeans and real shoes.

"It's a big week-long get together for Aces. It's like a family reunion." He replied. "We all go to London closer to the end of summer."

I tightened my hand on his the moment I stepped down from a tall rock, which shook under my weight. "So, you're telling me that I'm going to meet my family?"

"Your family away from mine," Nick answered without missing a beat. His eyes bore into mine. "When Aces imprint, the woman leaves her family and moves in with her significant's. My mom was of the London clan, but when she imprinted with my father, she was immediately a Jacobson. She moved here and was married to my father within a few days, just before their ascension." He told me. "By all rules and traditions of Aces, you don't belong with them anymore. You're a Jacobson, and they have no claim over you." He said.

I nodded and took another step down. We reached the edge of the water, and I stopped. He stood next to me, and I leaned into him. I wish we would've thought to bring jackets because it started to get colder when it got darker. The sun wasn't setting yet, but the temperature was already dropping. I snuggled into his side, and he put an arm around me, drawing me closer. "What am I going to say to them?"

"What do you want to say to them?" He asked quietly. I could hear the rumble of his voice from his chest.

"I want to know why they gave me up. And I'm worried that when I do meet them, I won't like them. Or I'll just explode and start yelling at them for leaving me. I love Royce and Nolan, and I loved my adoptive parents, but I have the feeling that this will be a lot easier to deal with if they hadn't give me up. And think about it. Aces are all about family. What's so different about me?"

"I don't know," he said, pressing his lips to my hair. "I have no idea why they gave you up. It certainly would've been different. You would've grown up in Prague, and I would've only seen you for a week out of every year. So I guess I'm not complaining about having you already so close to me."

"Would we have imprinted?" I asked him.

"Aces are all about destiny. It's fate for two people to imprint. We would've imprinted eventually. But the thing with reunification is that not many people actually imprint in front of others. Usually it's a one-on-one thing, or at least, there's not that many people around. My mom imprinted with my dad when he went to Europe for some sort of architectural design school. So I would have to say that we probably wouldn't have seen each other very often, unless I was in Prague or you were in Tennessee."

I sighed and closed my eyes. "Well, I'm glad that they gave me up, then. I can't imagine my life without you."

He smiled and hugged me a little tighter. "They don't know what they missed out on." He said quietly. Sure, I was glad that my birth family had given me up so I had the chance to become close to Nick, but I was still upset that they had put me up for adoption. I'd always wondered what had been wrong with me, to the point where they hadn't wanted me. But if everything was fate, was destined to be the way it was, did that mean that I was always meant to live life without knowing I was an Ace until I met Nick? Still, his words warmed my heart, and it made me love him all the more.

I looked up at him, intending to get a good glimpse at his eyes. They were my favorite feature of his, so open, honest, and beautiful. I shifted to take a step back, to take him all in. But my foot missed a rock and I twisted my ankle. My first instinct was to grab on to Nick, but he wasn't expecting it. We both toppled forward, falling into the surprisingly deep creek.

Suddenly soaked, and now really cold, I blew water out of my nose and gasped when I hit the surface. Nick sat up and shook out his hair. When I sat up, the water came up to my shoulders. On him, it came up to his chest. I laughed and pushed back my hair. "Sorry," I said.

He laughed, too, and reached out of my hand. Together, we stood up. I leaned down and scooped up water in my cupped hands and threw it at him. He retaliated, and it ended up being a full-out splash fight. In ten minutes, it was over and we were soaked to the bone and laughing so hard that it hurt. I wadded through the water to him, hands up in surrender. He smirked at me as I threw my arms around him and lifted my chin to look at him. He smiled down at me and pressed his lips to mine. It was brief, just a warm peck, but it was still enough to make me smile.

He shook out his hair and gave me another one of his winning smiles. "Come on, we've got to head home before it gets dark." He squeezed me close to him and said, "I like saying home, and knowing that you're going to be there with me." He said.

"Aw, that was so sappy that I loved it." I told him, kissing his cheek. He rubbed his nose against mine for half of a second, and then released all of me but my hand.

We struggled to step out of the creek, our wet clothes weighing us down and dripping water. "My mom is going to kill me if you get sick." He said, the idea that I would be sick at all seeming to weigh heavily on his mind. He brushed the back of his hand over my cheek. "I'll be mad at myself if you get sick." He added.

"For your information, I have an amazing immune system. I can't remember the last time I got sick. Besides, you can't get sick from cold weather or getting wet." I told him, stepping out of the creek. I turned to haul him out with me. "You get sick from bacteria and viruses."

"Which I'm sure there are plenty of both here," he said, brushing a strand of wet hair from my face.

"I'll be fine. I think what your mom will be mad about is if we drip water all over her carpet." I told him, squeezing out water from the front of my shirt. My shoes and socks were soaked all the way through, so my shoes were probably going to squeak whenever I wore them now. I squeezed out my hair, creating a puddle at my feet.

Nick squeezed out his shirt and shook his hair, flinging water droplets everywhere. We headed up the hill, tall pieces of grass sticking to our jeans and shoes. He untied the reins from our horses and helped me get back onto Peanut. I settled into the saddle, my butt already hurting from the ride ahead. Nick glanced up at the sky as he climbed on his horse. "We might have to trot a little to get down there, are you okay with that?" He asked.

"A trot?" I questioned.

"It's just a little faster than a walk. You'll bump a little bit, but just try to bounce with the horse and you'll be fine. Let's not get into the specifics, okay?"

"There are specifics to trotting?" I asked.

Nick shrugged. "It's sort of like driving a car. It's not as simple as it seems until you get used to doing it." He told me. "If it's too hard to figure out then we'll slow down to a walk." He told me. In his mind, he was giving me easy directions. It was sort of like learning it through someone else.

"How did you get so good at this?" I asked him.

"My Uncle Max, Kyle's dad, is what we call a Novice. He learns things quickly, and then he can teach everyone else in seconds."

"So you cheated?"

"Not exactly," he replied, giving me a sheepish grin. Our horses started to walk, and he turned back to look at where he was going. "I learned the regular way, but I always had trouble trotting. He gave me some mental tips."

I nodded, figuring that he could tell I was agreeing with him. I read through the memories of trotting that he sent to me and tried to copy them, but it was still hard for me to pick up. We didn't get far until Nick slowed his horse to a walk, and Peanut followed suit. I was really starting to think that horse riding might be best if I learned it from his Uncle Max. That way I wouldn't feel like such an idiot.

"You're not an idiot," Nick said, navigating Sassy down another hill. "It's something new that you've never encountered before. And this is an area that I wouldn't want to trot in, anyway." He added with a short laugh. "The house is only a little farther down."

Nick led the way back to the stables, where he had to help me figure out how to get off. I could get on just fine, now, but for some reason my brain couldn't wrap around the fact that I could get off without catapulting myself to the ground. In the stables, Nick taught me how to brush the horses off after we removed their saddles and the rest of their tack. He wanted me to go inside and change right away, but I was stubborn and wanted to hang around. Nearly an hour after we got to the stables, we were heading to the house. My butt and back and legs were sore from riding, but it had really been one of the best dates of my life.

Nick was rushing to get me into the house so I could shower and change. It got colder at night, and with my clothes still damp I was trying not to shiver. I didn't want him to be right when it came to whether or not I would feel a little sick. He pushed open the door for me to step in first. Alexandra and Daniel were sitting in the living room, watching TV.

Alexandra looked us over just as Rodney stepped out of the kitchen. He burst out laughing, nearly spraying whatever he was eating all over the living room. "Why are you two wet?" She asked. Rodney wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I took her down to the creek. We sort of fell in." He replied, his hand massaging the muscles on the back of my neck.

"Well why didn't you come in here right away and take showers to warm up?"

"The horses needed to be taken care of, and Elsie here is extremely stubborn. She wanted to stay and help." He said. "And I'm helpless to her." He whispered the last part in my ear before quickly kissing my cheek. Rodney pretended to gag when Alexandra and Daniel couldn't see him, and I gave him a big smile.

"Go on and shower, then," Alexandra said, waving us on. Nick and I headed back to his room – I guess it was our room, now. I pulled out a pair of sleep shorts. I didn't have that many of my brother's old shirts. One of them was so holey that I couldn't believe I'd even brought it, and two of them were already dirty. I was trying to find one when Nick tossed one of his shirts over my shoulder. "Just wear one of mine," he said.

"Thanks," I said. He kissed my temple and I headed to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, I emerged, wearing my shorts and Nick's shirt – it was one from a rodeo – with my hair tied up. Begrudgingly, Nick had been right. Sitting that long in cold, wet clothes had given me a chill that was still present after my hot shower. When I got back to the bedroom, Nick smirked and tossed me one of his pull-over hoodies. I stuck my tongue out at him as he slipped by to take his own shower.

While he was gone, I pulled back the sheets on the bed and crawled into what I had already deemed my side. I reached out to pick up a book that I'd been reading when I noticed my phone sitting haphazardly on the bedside table. It was a good thing that I'd forgotten it when we went on our ride, or else it would've been damaged from the creek. I picked it up and noticed that I had a text message from Royce. He flat out said that he wasn't sure he liked me living with Nick, and wanted to meet his family to make sure that he wasn't some insane serial killer.

I groaned at it and tried to think of a way to reply to him when Nick stepped back into the room. He was wearing sleep pants and a loose shirt. He looked at me staring at my phone. "What's wrong?"

"Royce wants to meet your family. He still thinks you're some clever serial killer." I told him.

He gave a short laugh. "I'm sure my parents will be okay with it. But let's just play it safe and have him meet my parents and Rodney. Maybe Maggie and Caleb, since they liked Maggie so much the first time." He added.

I sighed. "Yeah, maybe. But Royce won't make this easy for us." I told him.

"It doesn't matter. Not as long as I end up with you." He told me. He leaned over and kissed my forehead before climbing next to me, hugging my tightly to him. I snuggled into his chest, wrapped up in his arms and his jacket. "Goodnight, Elsie." He whispered.

"Night," I whispered back, closing my eyes. It didn't matter if I dreamed anymore, because this was exactly where I wanted to be.

I do believe this is my longest chapter yet. I don't know if I've ever posted one longer. Anyway, this is a little bit of fluff, but that's because I thought it would be fun for Elsie to learn how to ride a horse, and she still needs to learn some stuff. Plus, what's a love story without some cute dates? (:

Anyway, enjoy the love in this chapter, because this next chapter is going to have to include some important things, such as Royce being annoying and the Watsons trying to butt into the Jacobsons' lives more than they should.

Leave me a review! I'll try to update the next chapter at the end of this week/weekend. Peace. (: