Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

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Artem

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"Artem, it\'s beautiful!" I could hear the awe in her voice as she looked at the clearing. "I love it. It\'s wonderful and amazing." She turned to look at me with a grin. Before I knew what she was doing, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. "You always do the most wonderful things for me."

"I\'m glad you like it, honey. I love you and want you to have the best of everything."

"I love you too." I kissed her gently then, just a soft peck on her lips, but it was enough to show her just how much I love and care about her. I always tried to make sure that the intensity of my love for her was conveyed through the kisses that I gave her. I wanted to make sure that she never had to worry about whether I loved her or not. 

I sat the basket down by the edge of the clearing then and set about laying the blanket out. Star didn\'t want to stand around useless so she came over and helped me to spread it out. We got it ready quickly, and I laid the pillows out for her to have a seat. After that I set about building a fire next to the stream. It wasn\'t going to be a large fire, just something for us to see by, and so my Star didn\'t get chilly.

After that was ready, I rinsed my hands in the stream and went to sit with her with the  picnic basket in hand.

"Are you ready to eat?" I smiled at her.

"Yes, actually I am really hungry. I think it\'s the baby mostly, but I have been a lot hungrier than I used to be." She blushed as she looked at me then."

"There is nothing wrong with that, to be honest: it is expected. The baby needs a lot of nourishment as well, and since wolf pregnancies are shorter than human pregnancies they tend to need even more than the average growing baby."

  "Y..yeah, I guess that makes sense." She still seemed embarrassed.

"Don\'t worry, I have a lot of your favorites so you can eat whatever you want, and you know I won\'t judge at all. I eat a lot more than you even with you being pregnant." I laughed at myself.

"I know, I just feel so unladylike, especially since we went to the Fae compound and saw how they eat. I definitely eat more than them." 

"Don\'t compare yourself to other people. Everyone is different, and you are perfect the way that you are."

"Thank you, Artem." She grinned despite the nerves she had been feeling.

We ate while talking about the past couple of weeks and the changes coming our way. We talked about the life and future we saw with each other. I was happy that Star was including everyone in the way she talked about the future.

Just talking about the future was amazing in and of itself. It was a way that we never really talked to each other, and I liked that we had a lot of similar plans for the future. And the entire time that we were talking, I couldn\'t keep my eyes off of Star. She was literally like the north star to me, and I was following her like a sailor lost at sea.

"Oh, look, the sun\'s finally down, and the stars are coming out." Star happened to look up at just the right time to see the last of that little bit of shine from twilight disappear. "I am so happy to be able to see this with you." She leaned in and laid her head on my shoulder as she looked up at the sky. "Right now, I feel like it\'s truly just me and you. There is no one else around, and it seems so peaceful."

"Whenever I am alone with you it feels like that for me, Star. You are the world for me and, when we are alone, I feel like we are perfectly secure in our own little world." I said the first corny line that popped into my head, but it was the way that I felt.

"I always feel secure with you, Artem. You\'re the only man that has ever truly made me feel safe." 

Those words, that look in her eyes, that sweet little curve to her lips that wasn\'t a forced smile; just natural happiness, and it was all amazing. I knew that this was the perfect moment, the time that I had been waiting for, I didn\'t want to wait another second to ask this question that has been burning inside of me for months now.

"Star?" I got her attention since she had just looked back toward the sky and the stars above us.

"Yes, Artem?" She looked at me with a sweet smile and curious eyes.

I took her hand in mine and rose to my knees in front of her. I could tell that the intensity in my eyes was probably too much since she looked a little worried for a moment, but she quickly saw that there was nothing to worry about.

"Star, I love you. I love you more than I ever knew I was capable of loving someone. I have loved you since the day that I first met you. I couldn\'t believe the intensity of the connection that first hit me. I felt like I never wanted to be apart from you for even a second. And as time has moved on, that feeling has intensified. I love your smile, and the way that it lights up a room. I love your kind hearted nature, and the way that you empathize with everyone. I love that you are so loving and caring towards everyone, I love the way that you think and the conversations that I get to have with you. I love you for who you are, and who I know you will be. I also love how beautiful and sexy you are. I love that you are giving me a son, and we will have a family together. I love everything that there is about you, the good and whatever it is you think is bad. I love it all and I never want to be without it. I want to spend every moment of my life with you, and I want us to be a family with all of the boys and the baby. I promise that my love for you will never fade, it will only grow. Every day that I get to spend with you my love will only intensify."

I know that I was rambling now, but I was finally at the point where I was going to say the most important part.

"Astraia Westbrook, will you marry me? Will you become my wife and allow me to be there to protect you and our children for the rest of my life?"

There were tears in her eyes, but I wasn\'t worried, because there was also a grin on her face.

"Oh, Artem." The tears started to leak down her cheeks now as she said my name. When she looked down, so that she could wipe her eyes, she finally saw the ring that I had pulled from my pocket. It was the ring that Aaron had given me to use for my proposal.

"This ring was meant to be your mother\'s. Aaron gave it to me to propose to you. He wanted it to have a chance to go to someone who would wear it, someone who was loved, and especially someone that means a lot to him as well. So now I ask again, with this ring that means so much to your family; Star, will you marry me?"

"Yes." She was sobbing now, wiping the tears away with her free hand from both of her cheeks. "Yes, Artem, I will marry you. I would have said yes without all those words, but I am so happy to know how you truly feel.

When I put the ring on her finger she sobbed a little more as she looked at him.

"It\'s so beautiful." She cried.

"It\'s nice enough, but nothing in this world can compare to your beauty. Everything in the world pales in comparison to my Star\'s radiance and splendor. You are the most beautiful woman in the world, Star. And I am the luckiest man there is simply because I have the good fortune to have met you."

"OK, stop now, you\'re going to make me cry like a baby." She continued to wipe her cheeks as she laughed at me.

"Aren\'t you already?" I laughed. "That\'s fine though, I will always be there to help you wipe your tears, whether they are happy tears, sad tears, or even tears caused by worry and fear. I will be there for you no matter what." To prove my point, I used both of my thumbs to wipe the tears away from under her eyes.