Jared

Rachael's POV

I gasped, amazed at the clarity of the blue waterfall. It kept spurting gleefully over the rocks down into the river beneath with a beautiful splash and all I could do was stare in awe of the magnificent sight before me.

It was one of the few things that reminded me that life wasn't all that bad, no matter how it seemed. It taught me to appreciate everything around me and see some sort of good in them unless there isn't.

I loved to come here often and after being here several times, it became my favourite spot. Well, I'd say it was more than that for Jared and I. It was our secret spot, away from everyone else. A place where we could always go to have certain discussions that we could never have had anywhere else.

As usual, Jared was here with me. We had decided to head over here for a little chat. He sat by my left-hand side and stared at the pool too. He loved the view just like I did, or maybe a bit less.

"Don't you just love this view?" I asked, turning to see what his reaction was going to be. He usually found it hard to hide his disgust or disapproval of anything. "I could stay here all day just staring at it, you know."

He chuckled and then shrugged his shoulders. "It's beautiful. That, I can affirm. It gives you this peace of mind that cannot be explained."

I smiled, glad that we were on the same page. I spent a little more time just admiring the view. I wasn't going to be here forever.

"I see that my brothers paid you a visit, Rachael." He almost passively remarked. "The battle for the position of Alpha is an interesting one, isn't it?"

"You're right. Justin didn't really have a good offer for me, but Jake.. let's say he had quite an interesting offer. One that I might have been tempted to consider..."

"But you didn't?" He cut in, staring at me intently.

"Who knows?" I said, happy to keep him in suspense. It was more fun that way.

"Ohh common Racheal, do not keep me in suspense." He groaned.

"Of course I didn't accept his proposal, but I did give him a proposal of mine." I giggled mischievously.

"And... I need the full story!"

"I will tell you but not now."

He frowns in disappointment and i sticked my tongue out at him playfully.

He laughed, taking his face away for a while and then he turned back to me. "This is just wickedness. There's no other way to look at it. But I love the suspense anyway."

"You'd better, cause you have no choice." I laughed heartily.

I stood up from the ground, and began to walk towards the river below the waterfall. On getting to the river, I stood for a bit, just enjoying the view once again. Then, I began to take off my clothes a bit hurriedly until I was unclad.

I jumped into the water and began to swim around joyfully. Jared took his clothes off too and walked across to join me. "You wanna join in on the fun?" I asked, splashing some water in his direction.

"You asked for it." He jumped into the water and we both swam around for a while, just for the fun of it.

"Argghhh, that's too much." I yelled wiping the water off my face, as I swarm away from Jake.

"Don't tell me you are giving up already." He yelled swimming after me, while throwing more water at me.

"I give up, and you win! You win!" I yelled raising my hands up in surrender.

We both laughed in delight, as we just swarm around the water in peace.

Jake knew all sort of swimming tricks and he started displaying them, "Show off." I scoffed.

"Jealousy, isn't good for your soul baby." He sticked out his tongue at me, while swimming on his back.. just floating.

This was a swimming trick of his, that I have never been able to do. I would beg him to teach me, but he never would. As I stared at him in awe, he made mocking faces at me and I couldn't take that from him.

So I splashed some water on him and he returned the favour. We kept at it, with each of us trying to evade the other's attack as we both laughed so hard.

After some minutes, we got tired and it was time to leave. He stepped out of the water first and then I followed suit and we went straight to the towels that we had kept at the river bank earlier and picked them up, using them to dry our bodies.

"I'm a much better swimmer than you. I hope you can see that now." He boasted, I frowned.

Well he was right. There was no doubt about it, but I wasn't about to admit that he was better than I was, so I said nothing. He knew better than to expect that.

We put our clothes back on and began to walk away. We both had other important things to do and our time was already far spent.

Also, we wouldn't want anyone realizing we were missing.. together. That would not be a good sight.

As we walked, I noticed that Jared never took his eyes off me. He kept staring and from the way his mouth was shaped, I could tell.. that he wanted to say something to me but probably wasn't so sure about it.

"What is it?" I asked, turning around to face him and placing both hands of mine on my waist.

"Rachael, I just want to let you know that if this whole mate contest thing gets out of hand or becomes way too much for you to handle, you could always choose me." He suggested. "I don't mind at all."

That was so sweet of him to say and I appreciated the gesture. So, I drew close to him with a smile on my face and pecked him on his right cheek.

"Thanks Jared, but I would have to decline. We both know that getting married to me is just equal to life imprisonment for you." I said, pausing a bit before going on. "Between the both of us, I know that it's him you want to get married to... Xavier."