It was late, and Mer shivered as she hiked through the trees with Rush ahead of her by only a few feet. She had to give him some brownie points for walking at her arduously slow pace, but he'd insisted that she had to walk herself up the mountain instead of carrying her. Or, you know, using magic. Mer had gotten accustomed to transportation spells and wondered if they hadn't caused her to gain a few pounds.

That wasn't the issue so much here though. Mer could do physical fitness like anyone, but of course it was night. Because, when else would Rush take her on a hiking trip through the wilderness but when she could trip on a stick and break her neck. They were almost at the top though, and she was excited to take a break. The trees were starting to flatten out and the incline wasn't as steep.

Rush had been near silent for the entire hike, which wasn't abnormal, per se, but every time he looked back at her, his green eyes glittered so much that she was starting to get the creeps. It was akin to the excitement a serial killer got while luring his prey to a dark alley. If he was so elated, why couldn't he talk more? All the better to drag out the suspense of your demise. Mwhahaha! Oh, she should really stop imagining Rush as a real villain. It was so not him, but also so funny. She had to stifle her snort of amusement as they finally reached a flat stretch of land and she collapsed onto her knees.

"Salvation," she exclaimed, and Rush chuckled like the jerk he was. "Where is this anyway?" Mer stretched, bumping her ponytail of curls with her arm.

She'd dressed conservatively for the hike in one of her jogging hoodies over a button-up night blouse, and Rush had insisted she wear something other than sweatpants. So she had a knee-length skirt on over some black leggings that went to her upper thighs. It was comfier for climbing if she had full leg mobility, though stumbling around in a skirt was not recommended if there were prying eyes. No one aside from Rush needed to see her tush as she fell.

"This is Shasta Falls," Rush said, gesturing ahead.

The best way for her to describe the rock face she saw, was if you made a little chair out of clay-doh, but without legs, and put the imprint of a cheerio in the seat cushion. That wasn't a great way to put it, but it was certainly weird. It was a huge waterfall basin with a lone island jutting up in the middle. All around it on one side, steep rock faces climbed up into the sky, with a pathway of ridges halfway up that met on the rock from the lion king, just sticking out of the middle.

And there was no water.

None–leaving the basin as a steep drop into hell, and the waterfall ledge as dry, cracking, sheets of rock that loomed in the darkness. The glow of the moon illuminated the curve of the semicircle of empty falls, and draped shadow over the deepest pits ahead. A bluff curled around them to the west, and everywhere else was just more of the forest surrounding this lone structure.

"What is this?" Mer asked, walking up to Rush's side. In the dim night light, his russet hair was near black, and the line of his chin was the divide between the shadows of his neck and the moon's echo on his skin. The emeralds in his eyes lowered to her, and he lifted his hand to cradle her chin with a smile. A real smile.

End of the line mage, time for your watery grave... oh shit, someone stole all the water. Unable to wrench her mind out of her murder fantasy or Rush's grips, she chuckled like a crazy person in his hand. This is why humans weren't meant to be up at night. Without the sun, they went a little crazy.

"This place is not something I can explain, only show. Come," Rush slid his hand over her shoulder and then down to her fingers to pull her forward.

That killed the rest of her entertained thought as he cradled her fingers in his and led her into the night. A blush crept onto her face from how delicately he touched her, but as they progressed around the basin and started to climb, it all sank back into her murder theory. It took a few too many careful, please-don't-slip-and-die steps until they reached the ledge halfway up the cliffs. She was unable to tear out of Rush's firm grip as they slid along the narrow as hell shelf for what had to have been minutes before reaching the rock that jutted out above the basin.

"If you're thinking of holding me up and yelling some crazy song, I'm not onboard," Mer hissed as she hugged the wall for dear life.

Rush gave her that look between a deer in headlights and a psychiatrist trying to understand a patient's rambling in an insane asylum. "Why would I do that?" Rush finally asked as if his lack of ever seeing a Disney movie hadn't been apparent.

"Forget it. This is just an awfully strange way of showing a girl something. Especially with my legs so shaky from this hell march. Why again couldn't you have used a transportation spell?"

"I apologize for your physical state. It is customary for both of us to make the trip ourselves. A representation of the manner in which we shall live, together, as equals, supporting each other, but with our own strength." Rush came to her where she was crushed against the wall and stood between her and the night, blackening out the glow of the moon.

Mer's heart skipped a beat as she met his eyes and his uncanny smile. Did he say as equals? For a moment, she let her mind and heart wander and think that this was about something other than her demise. That was dangerous though, giving in to the hope that Rush loved her. Just thinking it might dispel the illusion, so she wouldn't assume until he said the words.

"This place is special to you?" Mer asked, refusing to utter the question that lingered.

"Yes. Every Shade, no matter how high or low in the rungs of my family, makes this hike once they have found someone they want to spend their forever with. That is why I brought you here, Meredith Aurion, on the hour of the tide, to beg you to be my mate."

Rush dipped to his knees and took her hand in his, and she remained silent as he collected his thoughts. While she could do silent verbally, her heart was thrumming with anticipation, happiness, and she wanted to drop to her knees, kiss him, and then push him on his back and get on top of him.

"In due time," Rush chuckled, inhaling the scent of her arousal.

"S-sorry." She rubbed her arms nervously.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Meredith. Please hear my words. I am here, as the heir to the Shade line to promise you my life and protection until the end of my days if you would have me. With my body and soul, I will fight your enemies, accept your people as my own, and strive every day to reach the heights of your happiness. Will you, Meredith Aurion, accept me as yours?"

What the hell was she supposed to say to that? Yes would be too little. This was going to take a moment to dredge up speech class and figure out how to put words together in something other than a snide comment. Like she had waited on him, he remained on the ground, his eyes cast up with reverence and patience for her acceptance. She sure as hell wasn't going to decline him, but aside from sputtering like an idiot, she couldn't form words.

She closed her eyes, which was a dizzying prospect at these heights, and recalled the exact words that he'd just spoken. It took a few long moments to collect herself, and she hoped that Rush wasn't worrying about it. It was just hard to look directly into those wanting jewel eyes. With her heart calm, emotions tickled her mind, warmth flowed through her, and they guided her words.

"Please listen to everything I have to say, even though my words are going to come out a lot less elegantly," Mer warned, opening her eyes to Rush's smirk. What a dick, getting enjoyment out of her struggle.

An image flashed before her eyes, a memory she could never forget. Rush on the ground with a hole in his abdomen, begging her to run to save herself. At the time, she'd refused to leave him there, to die alone.

"If you plan on fighting anyone, we'll do it as one, Remus Shade." She felt his full name more appropriate for this situation. "We fight together, light spun with darkness, and if we die, we do it in each other's arms. Your happiness is my life, your sorrow my poison, and I will taste both at your side until the end of my days," she echoed words once spoken to her by Shiva, because hell, she couldn't come up with that crap on her own.

"My people too will be yours, though I can't vouch for most. At the least, my family will be yours, protect you with the same fervor they would me. Ours is one soul. Any pain you suffer is pain I will also feel, and they'll understand that."

"I give myself to you as mate, heart, body, and soul, to share in this life with you, no matter what challenges we face because of our differences, and no matter who opposes us for our love. You are the protection of darkness that folds around me in your waking hours, and I shall too be yours, a shield to protect you under the harsh rays of the light."

Timidly she met Rush's eyes, not realizing she'd been avoiding them until just then. She jerked back from the tears streaming down his face, but his hand held her in place.

"Did I suck?" Mer asked, and Rush laughed, yanking her down into the dirt. Some serious vertigo tossed her stomach into her throat as she fell onto a ledge no wider than six feet in either direction, but Rush held her safe to him. "Why didn't we bring a blanket?" she groaned to distract herself from the death drop.

"You were wonderful, Meredith, and that would do no good here," Rush said as he unzipped her hoody and stripped it away, removing his simple silk shirt and pushing it under a ledge that the falls should have normally poured from.

Standing over her, naked down to his groin, he advanced on her, and she had nowhere to go with death behind her. His hand reached for her foot and she squeaked as he slipped off her shoes and then slid a finger up the edge of her leggings. Tugging on it with an amused growl, he stripped them down off her legs, but her heart was pounding too hard to enjoy much of it.

"Is there a reason you're just stripping me in the wilderness?" Mer had to ask, because as much as he was enjoying it, she was counting her breaths and maybe some sheep to calm herself about the fact that she was up so high that rolling to one side or the other would end her.

This was not one of her bucket list fuck locations.

"I would think the reason obvious?" Rush teased.

He crawled over her and hitched his finger on the band of her skirt, teasingly gripping it before he slid a single finger down her blouse and popped the buttons of her silk night shirt. Opening it, he inhaled as he spread both of his cool hands on her skin, scaring a gasp out of her as he slid them behind her back and peeled it away. It joined the pile of clothes behind him as he hugged her to his chest and drifted his hand lower into her skirt.

By the time he snaked his claws down her rear, just gently sinking them into her soft skin, his hands had warmed to her skin. His tight grip pulled her off of her knees and onto him, and her legs trembling in anticipation as she felt him press in between her legs through his pants. Instead of continuing, he removed her skirt, pressing the fabric into her thighs as he gripped them through it, and trailed it all the way down and off her ankles.

Her bra and panties were nothing more than a snap and tearing of cloth as he removed them, and she mourned another pair of perfectly good underwear destroyed because it was easier to tear them than to take the one second to slide them off. At least her bra was in one piece as it topped the mountain of what used to be her warmth. With a shiver from the night air, she had to crane her neck as Rush stood. On her knees, she met his eyes and he just barely darted his tongue out to wet his lips as he undid his pants and dropped them.

It wasn't like they hadn't already done everything sexual in the book, but it still wasn't in her to stare at his erection a few inches in front of her lips and not burn cherry. Turning from him, she couldn't hide the embarrassment. His chuckle grew closer, and she peeked back to find him kneeling on the ground with lustful interest in what was now being covered up on her chest.

When had her hands covered her breasts? And why was she now so shy? Was it because Rush was about to be hers? Not just as property, or someone he sort of cared for, but a mate, something treasured.

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Word Count: 2370