Kay helped Claudia with the last hook on her dress and smoothed the material down. Was it her imagination, or did the werewolf seem nervous?

No, the slight trembling of her fingers, her breathing, and her heartbeat betrayed her. And she kept fidgeting with her dress. Before today, Kay would have bet real money that Claudia didn't twitch.

Her casual inclusion in this wedding as the chief bridesmaid was a shock and caused a scandal in all the major papers. More than that, Kay expected Shaney, Claudia's best friend and her wedding planner, to be furious at being rudely upstaged.

Instead, she turned out to be the sassy, warm, and friendly type and a calm hub in the midst of a storm. Sass seemed to be a werewolf thing, just like a little bitchiness appeared to be a vampire thing. The wolf adopted her with as much ease as Claudia, and it was the last thing she expected.

Even though the wolves' delight in the outrage was almost unholy, not one wedding reservation was canceled, and interest increased the number of guests from five hundred to nearly eight hundred.

Darius' choice to give the world what they expected by having the wedding in a cathedral seemed an odd choice to Kay, but then again, with human origins, it wasn't so strange. Seedlings were half-human, and even newborns had human DNA. 

But she suspected it had something more to do with fitting into the circles they moved within. They disguised themselves so well that no one suspected them, and this might be just another mask. It wasn't something she was comfortable asking, either. 

***

Shane took it all in her stride, grinning with satisfaction. Organizing the society wedding of the year was a feather in her cap, but it was also the most expensive wedding of the decade.

Seven different catering companies had to handle the food services. The cost of the cake was higher than a brand-new sports car, and the price of the bride's dress was three times that.

Kay's matching bridesmaid's dress had to be created at short notice and cost a small fortune, but Marcus and Darius happily agreed to anything Claudia and Adrian wanted. Shockingly, the men had ideas of their own to add to the spectacle.

These immortals had impeccable taste, and this was a wedding fit for royalty because they were royalty.

***

Adrian and the other three women entered the room dressed in near identical dresses, yet each dress reflected something of its owner.

Adrian walked up to her daughter with pride in her expression and smiled fondly. Their eyes met as they had a private conversation, and whatever she said worked like magic, settling Claudia into calm and serenity.

Their hands clasped together briefly, tears glinting in their eyes, and Adrian stepped aside, allowing the others to speak to the child they helped raise.

Claudia nodded at her mother as she shared a moment with each of her "stepmothers."

"Time to do the doing," Adrian said.

"I guess we're doing this," Claudia said with a smile, and they smirked back at her.

***

Shane picked up the wedding train and carefully handed it to Kay, showing her how to hold it so it would not wrinkle and ruin the effect of that stunning dress.

"You ready for this?" Darcy asked unexpectedly, and Kay frowned.

"No, yes, maybe," she said steadily, and they chuckled.

Darcy understood her in a way no other could.

"Sorry about this," Claudia said, and their eyes met and held.

This was not an easy situation for either of them.

"None of this is your fault. Now, don't we have to be somewhere?" she said, channeling Adrian and graciously defusing the situation, ridiculously pleased with the approval she sensed from the others.

"Ladies, gird your loins, straighten your backs, plaster on your smiles, and please, for the love of all things holy, do not face plant. Mars is not habitable yet," Shane said with a straight face, and they were all still struggling to stifle their grins when the church doors swung open, and their laughter died in their throats.

***

A sea of faces stared at them from the cathedral, and it looked like a fairytale setting or a movie set. The two tiny bridesmaids and their little groom's men walked down the aisle with none of the fear the adults experienced. They smiled at the guests with dignity only an immortal would recognize as not quite human, throwing rose petals on the ground.

Shane cleared her throat, and with a jolt, Claudia came back to herself and started walking, her steps bringing them all into motion.

Kay walked behind her, making sure her train did nothing funny, and it all felt unreal. The second the stunned people could tear their eyes away from the vision of Claudia, their gazes would burn upon her—the scarlet woman brazenly walking into church.

She glanced up, her gaze riveted on Marcus, who stared at his new bride as if he had never seen her before, and he was not the only one.

A tinge of jealousy stung her heart, and she squashed it ruthlessly. She was not jealous and hated what the emotion did to people.

The guests were in awe as Claudia climbed the three shallow steps to take her place beside her groom, looking like the ultimate fairy princess. Blond, beautiful, and vibrant in a way that words failed to describe. Seeing them side by side, Kay found it hard to understand how mortals could not see their inhuman beauty.

She took her place beside Shane. The bride and groom had the people in awe, but the entire wedding party made all the other shiny, beautiful people pale and watered down in comparison.

Claudia smiled at Marcus, and his devastating smile dimpled his lips, placing all the people in that massive church under a spell that prevented them from tearing their eyes away.

"We are gathered here today to witness the joining of these two young lives," the priest began, breaking the enchantment.

The organ petered to silence, and the congregation sat.

***

The ceremony both seemed to last forever and be over in an instant. Kay realized a simple truth somewhere along the way—she would never have this.

The dream she never knew she had died a silent death inside her. As if he sensed something odd, Marcus briefly glanced at her with warmth in his eyes, and inexplicably, the mark on her neck warmed, almost glowing as the chill in her soul settled and dissolved.

***

Everything was once again in motion as the wedding party moved outside, escorting the bride and groom to their helicopter as the rest followed them in their cars to the wedding venue a few miles away.

Though the ceremony was glamorous, so was the reception. This was the way Kay imagined a night at the Oscars would feel as she rubbed shoulders with people she never thought to see in real life.

If it hadn't been for Darcy and Shane, she would have felt out of place, yet when things returned to normal, the remainder of her new family was there for her, and it was such an odd sensation.

The two women didn't give a damn about the odd way people looked at them or the whispered conversations.

Marcus spectacularly opened the dance floor with Claudia, Darius took over from him when their song ended, and Marcus took Adrian's hand without missing a beat.

When the mayor interrupted, Marcus graciously walked over to Kay and took her hand. People stared at them, but he caught her eye, and the approval in his gaze made the world somehow less hostile.

"Chin up, my bonded. They have no idea what we share; let them gossip."

Not having danced much in her life, keeping up with him should have been hard, but it was not, and being in his arms was both strange and comforting. They hadn't slept together since that first night; they had been too busy, tired, and wound up.

Even knowing where he would spend the next couple of weeks, she could not bring herself to be angry or feel cheated. None of this was his or Claudia's fault, but Thane's doing, and she reserved her anger for him.

Darius cut in, and for a big man, he moved with an ease she had noticed before, and she felt oddly safe in his arms, the pack bond making her feel as if he were actually her father. How did she experience it almost the way werewolves did? Because she had some vampire blood? No. It had something to do with Thane or maybe Baccus.

"Are you okay?" Darius asked, and with a sigh, she nodded. He smiled down at her, his expression serious and searching.

The werewolf king was different around his family than with strangers. They would never know that beneath that dangerous and sometimes cantankerous exterior lay a heart that beat for his loved ones and his pack.

Darius appeared in his late thirties, maybe even early forties, and that meant he had to be more than a thousand years old, but she hadn't the courage to ask him his age. How old was Thane? The thought entered her mind. Did she really want to know?

Adrian looked in her late twenties. They had played this game for a long time. Living their lives, watching humans get born, grow old, and die. How much had they seen and done?

***

Darius watched her ponder something and didn't much like how she had learned to shield her thoughts from them so quickly. She was still a stranger in so many ways.

"You won't like what I was wondering, so don't ask, and I'm alright. Other matters bother me than the bride and groom," she teased, and he relaxed.

Kay would be fine, and as they danced and laughed, their second gambit fell into place.

Ah, sweet. Newest Version ©2014-2023 All rights reserved. If you find this on any other platform but Wattpad under @CSDreamer, please report it. No part of this book may be copied or reposted without the author's permission.