PROMISE YOU THE WORLD

“Do you need a breather, princess?” I heard him speak. He laughed and the wind carried the sound towards me.

Even though I was extremely irritated, I delighted in that laughter. It was nothing special really, in fact  Roman’s laugh had always been kind of loud and obnoxious. But it was contagious.

I stopped walking and crouched down to place my hands on my knees and catch my breath.

“Oh shut up!” I huffed. I was sweaty, my bones were aching and I’m pretty sure the humidity was making my hair frizz up. I would have a full on fro by the time I got back home.

Heck! I would have a full on fro by the time we got to the top of this stupid mountain.

I told Kat straightening my hair for my date with Roman wasn’t necessary.

I never straightened my hair willingly.

And I especially wouldn’t have let Kat torture me with her flat iron if I knew Roman’s idea of a ‘date’ was hiking up the highest mountain in Woodfell.

“You’re not human, are you?” I finally asked him.

He stood a few meters away from me looking like he had just done nothing but a few warm ups.

“Oh me? No I’m not. Thanks for noticing. I’d like to think of myself as a god.” He flexed  his left bicep and I just rolled my eyes.

It didn’t make sense, we were both halflings and yet, he was built like a fully fledged werewolf.

Roman smiled and repositioned the backpack he carried before walking up to me, he crouched down and gestured for me to get onto his back.

“Come on, lazy bones.”

I’d like to say I acted all strong and told him I would endure and finish the hike like the woman I am.

 But nah, I shamelessly jumped on his back and gave his thigh a small kick.

“Giddy up, horsey.”

“From a god to a horse. I’ll try not to be too offended by that statement.” He muttered before he broke off into a light jog.

“This apprenticeship training is really paying off, huh?” I told him, gawking at how much stronger he had truly gotten since he had gotten accepted into the AAP.

“We’re being taught that our human bodies are only as strong as our wolf bodies.” He told me as he continued up the hill. “Which is why I didn’t want us to come up here in our wolf forms.”

“Even if it would have been much easier.” I grumbled.

“It would also increase the chances of me seeing you naked. And I promised Victor and Sarah that I would treat your body like a temple. I won’t dishonour you in any way...”

My cheeks heat up and I didn’t know if he could tell how embarrassed I was or not. “Well thank you for caring about my purity.” I mumbled. “Too bad you didn’t care enough to not bring me up here. I’m going to be so sore tomorrow.” I whined as I leaned my head on his shoulder.

“You’ll be fine, princess. And really, all I’m trying to do is make you fitter.”

“You sound like Kat.” I groaned. “Why can’t y’all just let me be lazy and fat?”

“Because we both love you too much.”

“Yeah, yeah... likely story, buddy.”

He chuckled again.

”Okay, you’ve got me. I just want a hot girlfriend.”

 I gave him a harder kick but he just laughed and kept jogging.

He kept jogging in silence for a few more minutes before he finally came to a stop.

He set me down and turned to beam at me.

“Now tell me, princess, tell me this wasn’t worth the hike.” He moved from in front of me and gestured ahead.

The mountain dove down into a slope that extended to pretty much nothingness.

Not bad nothingness though, just Silvercrest territory that hadn’t been touched yet. No buildings, no nothing, just thick nature in is rawest form.

We were so high up, we could see up to the end of the Silvercrest territory, which was marked by a narrow canyon.

“Okay, you were right. This is beautiful.” I sighed as I took in the breathtaking view. An eagle flew right past us and settled on a rock not too far away.

“It’s really beautiful.”

Roman came up behind me, “yeah, we came here just last week for our AAP hike.”

I turned to look at him and rose a brow. “I thought you weren’t allowed to talk about your AAP business.”

He wrapped his arms around me and looked down into my eyes. “I’m not. But this was something I couldn’t not share with you.”

He spun me around in the other direction. “This is the greatest vantage point for the pack. You can see over our whole territory from here. If someone was to try and attack, the alpha would know immediately if he had someone up here.”

“Yet there’s no one up here.” I told him.

“Yep. What a flaw.” Roman muttered. “I tried to tell the alpha about it but he brushed me off, as usual. I don’t think he likes me too much.” He laughed as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

I tensed up. “Why do you think that?”

Roman shrugged. “He treats me pretty much the way everyone treats me around here except with him... I don’t know, babe, I just know the guy hates my guts.”

Of course he hates your guts. You’re with his mate. That’s what I wanted to say but of course I didn’t.

I spun around to face him again and pocked his cheek. “Paranoid much?”

He bit at my hand playfully so that I would take it away.

“You don’t see the way he looks at me.”

I had a good idea of what that look might look like.

”I don’t know why the guy acts like such a know it all, pompous jerk. He’s only a year older than me.” Roman muttered.

“Whatever, we didn’t come here to talk about Alpha Tristan. I came to show you this.”

I looked around. I never failed to be stunned by how large the Silvercrest territory was.

“Why though?” I suddenly asked.

Roman looked stunned. “What?”

I probably sounded like the most ungrateful girlfriend ever.

“Why show me this land that will never truly belong to us? We’re the outcasts, remember? Our plan is to leave Woodfell.”

Roman’s grey orbs got this faraway look. “We can have anything we want, Crystal. I can give us anything we want. Even Silvercrest.” He whispered the last part.

I looked up at him and he was lost taking in the territory, as if he was actually planning on taking over it.

I laughed and pulled away from our hug, hitting him playfully.

“Okay. But before you start your plans on world domination, can we eat first? I’m starved. You better have packed the good turkey sandwiches.”

I walked over to the backpack he had abandoned on the ground.

I was too busy spreading out the picnic blanket to notice that he was staring at me.

“Crystal.” He spoke my name, I saw the intent look he had on his face.

“Yes, Ro?”

“I mean it. I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”

I smiled. “That’s nice, baby. But right now, all I want is to eat. Get over here.”

Looking back at that day, the biggest mistake I made was not taking Roman seriously...