Werewolf Wedding (11 page)

“Hell if I know. This wasn’t ever the life I imagined, if that isn’t abundantly clear already.”

“What is?” I asked, having another lick. “I’m sorry, but this is really good.”

A snicker. “You’re apologizing for complimenting my soup? That’s a little weird.”

“No, apologizing for interrupting whatever it is you want to tell me, or ask me, or whichever it is. I’m terrible at taking social cues.”

Jake loosened the collar of his shirt, revealing a thin cord around his neck that I’d never noticed before. The cords in his neck were taut, which is when I realized he was gritting his teeth. “You okay?” I asked. “Seem nervous about something.”

He sucked his bottom lip into his mouth. “Nah, nothing anybody else wouldn’t be nervous about. In fact, I’m pretty impressed with how I’m handling it. After all, I’m just going to ask you to marry me and be the vita of a werewolf pack.” He shrugged. “No big.”

“Oh,” I said.

Before I knew what I had said ‘oh’ to, my hands started shaking, which I tried to remedy by swallowing the rest of the glass of wine. And then a pumpkin full of soup, and then a roasted duck.

“B-b-but why?” I asked. “Wait did you say
vita
? And you
are
a werewolf. That’s not possible, those don’t exist outside of movies and romance novels.”

“And creepy Carpathian myths involving thousand year old vampires? Ever heard that old axiom that behind every fiction is a kernel of truth?”

“And you want me to
marry
you?”

My heart started beating reasonably faster. “I hardly... you barely... I mean we’ve been together
once
! That’s not logical!”

“But you haven’t said no,” he growled. “I’ll take care of you. Your studio? The bills? The constant need to go to birthday parties and carve dolphins? Gone.”

“I don’t... wait, how did you know about that? About any of it? And it was weddings that I did the dolphin statues at – and by the way I was really good at them. Wait!” I said, “wait, no, you’re trying to trick me. Somehow... you wooing me with fantastic wine and incredible food, and you spending all this energy and effort to make me feel special is some kind of trick. It has to be.”

Jake narrowed his eyes. “That’s right, damn!” He shook his head. “My careful plan to let you know how I’ve fallen completely in love with you in the last week and a half, I can’t stop thinking about you, and I knew from the second we met that you... that I wasn’t going to let you get away. It’s true, you caught me.”

“But it makes no sense!” I continued protesting for basically no reason at all, except that I wanted to protest. “Why?”

“I just said why.” His eyes were getting dark again, but not in the scary, unhinged way. No, they were stormy and sexy and ridiculously hot and I was doing everything I possibly could to keep from jumping across the corner of the table and into his arms. “I need you. There’s nothing I can do. Every moment, every second, my heart reminds me that without you, I’m empty. Without you, all of this, the mansion, the business, it’s all for nothing.”

In a huff, Barney emerged from the kitchen with an entire pig on a tray. “Wolves are impulsive creatures,” he said. “But they are loyal unto death, and once they meet their life mates? I’d rather not get in his way.” He said all this in a short whisper in my ear, as though I needed any convincing about Jake’s impulsivity.

Then again, I was aching to just say ‘yes.’ I couldn’t though – everything going through my head about the stupid childishness of marrying some guy I barely knew? That’s what I was going to listen to. That’s the good stuff right there.
Reason feels good
, I thought.
Being steadfast and logical and calculating. Spock would never have it any other way
.

I closed my mouth as soon as I realized that it was hanging wide open and that I was lucky I hadn’t drooled. “But I mean,” I started. Jake took my hands – both of them this time – and stood up, pulling me with him. “It’s so... This is just...”

He knelt in front of me.

“Oh holy fuck you’re serious,” I said in one syllable’s worth of exhale. “You’re really doing this and I’m really here.”

Reaching into his open collar, Jake pulled at the cord around his neck, snapping it effortlessly. In a quick flick of his wrist, the cord was gone and a ring was in his hand. “This is for you. Werewolves are more into biting to mark their mates instead of wearing little trinkets.”

“You’re really doing this and you’re serious and I’m not gonna start sweating and gross you out and...” I took a deep breath. “I’m already sweating but you aren’t leaving so it must not be that bad.”

“We all sweat,” he said as he kissed my hand. “We
are
all animals, after all. I think I said that once before, when I...”

“Oh God yes,” I said. Actually it was more like hearing myself say it. I had a serious case of out-of-body experience just about then. I was vaguely aware of a buzzing noise off in the distance, getting closer. But let’s be serious – I was being proposed to by what was either actually a werewolf, or a lunatic. Or I guess the option I
didn’t
consider at the time was that I was the lunatic. Wait, is lunatic offensive now? Oh God, werewolf... moon... lunatic. I shook my head as my thoughts raced.

“What’s that sound?” I asked.

“Doesn’t matter. The world is you and me right now. I’m the alpha, I want you to be the vita. The pack needs you, Delilah,” his voice was so smooth that I’m fairly sure my panties fell down a couple of inches that had nothing at all to do with me shifting my hips back and forth.

“What,” I swallowed, my throat clicking. “What is a vita?”

“Means life. It’s Latin. Anyway, the alpha is the leader, the vita is his mate. She’s the life of the pack. The heart, the soul.”

“I’d like that,” I said, despite every intention to say no. “That sounds nice. That buzzing is getting really loud, and there’s a light now. What’s going on, Jake?”

He shook his head, dismissively. “Doesn’t matter. Was that a yes?”

No! No, no, no, no, no, or at least think about it!

“Yes,” I said, my voice hollow and weak. “I’m insane.”

“You’re wonderful. You’re perfect.
I
am the crazy one.”

“Master Somerset!” Barney shouted, bursting into the dining room. “Your brother! He’s—”

It wasn’t words that cut Barney off, it was the bay window exploding, and a motorcycle whizzing past my head before skidding down the table and falling over on a side, ripping a gash in the beautiful cherry wood.

“Am I late?” Dane said, standing up and brushing the glass off his leather lapel. “Oh, hello Delilah. Funny seeing you here, it’s almost like I planned this.”

––––––––

“T
his is
not
okay!” I was shouting as the two brothers were apparently sizing each other up for another fight. “I did not just agree to marry you to watch a pro wrestling match!”

Barney grabbed me and pulled me back into the kitchen. “This could get heated,” he said under his breath. “Best not to be in the midst of the commotion. You said yes?”

“
Commotion
?” I wasn’t even trying not to scream anymore. “I told him I’d marry him or be a vita or whatever, and then that
asshole
rode a motorcycle through the window and broke that bottle of wine! What the hell is going on?”

“Master Somerset
did
say that werewolf lives are often complicated.”

“Am I supposed to laugh at that?”

“Humor for the sake of diffusing stress. It frequently gets me in trouble with
my
mate,” Barney shrugged.

“So you’re one too? I asked if you were!”

He nodded, watching Jake and Dane still circling one another.

“I never said I wasn’t.”

Exasperated, I balled up my fists and drove them into the small of my back. “Are you two just going to dance around all night?”

Both of them turned to me, and immediately the heat in my cheeks went up about eighty degrees. “Well! I just agreed to marry him! And now you show up for God knows what reason. I want this shit over with! Have it out, beat each other up again, do whatever you’re going to do, but right now you’re both just ruining my getting engaged. This is
not
how I imagined it!”

“She’s certainly something, all right,” Dane said in his cocky asshole voice. “I’ll give you that. Those hips, too.” He made a kissing noise. “I’m going to love taking her for my own. I don’t know what you’re going to do when she finds out about the challenge. You did tell her, didn’t you?”

Before that could process, Dane threw a punch that caught Jake square in the mouth, though Jake took it like nothing happened. “Get out,” he snarled.

And then, something started...
happening
.

“Oh dear,” Barney sighed. “I’d say you should look away, as the transformation process can be a bit jarring, but I suppose if you’re to be the vita... At least these two have been doing it for a good while, so it should be too—”

I squeaked something similar to a curse as my fiancé hunched over, his hands twisted and stretched, and the front of his head elongated into something halfway between a nose and a snout. He gnashed his teeth, threw back his now slate-gray head and unleashed a roar that shook the pumpkin nearest him on the table. He flung his head from left to right, roaring in what was either extreme pain, or maybe felt
really
good. Teeth became daggers, fingernails extended into black claws, and his already muscular body thickened with long, tight muscles.

The buttons of his beautiful, tailored shirt popped, one after another, and his tight slacks ripped up the side seam.
Good thing I can sew, I guess
.

And for some reason, he got extremely bad posture out of the whole deal. He hunched forward, muscles in his back apparent with each breath that expanded his lungs.

“You... want it your way?” he snapped. His voice was difficult to understand, as though he hadn’t spoken in quite a while and was getting back in practice. “Fine,
brother
. Leave her out of this.”

“But Jacob,” Dane had an obnoxious, lecturing mother tone in his voice. “She’s what all this is about. How can I leave my mate-to-be out of this? I’m going to murder you, claim her, and then take my rightful place as the head of this family and alpha of the pack.”

As I watched, Dane went through a similar process to Jake, although his seemed much easier – maybe he was more used to the whole thing? He seemed extremely comfortable in his half-lupine skin. His fur was inky black, just like his eyes. “Their eyes match their... uh... fur?”

There was a lump in my throat, which I had to swallow four or five times to push down. “I can’t believe I’m taking this all so well.”

“You’re in shock,” Barney said. “You’ll have a panic when the adrenaline passes. Also, no, eyes don’t match fur. Just a coincidence in their case. After all, I’d look rather silly with blue fur, wouldn’t I?”

“You’d look like my sister,” I said out the side of my mouth. “During one of her phases.”

He snorted a laugh. “I think you’ll do just fine. Don’t listen to Dane. He’s been a loudmouth since he was born.”

The two of them came together in a thud of flesh and bone. Somehow, the first casualty of all their thrashing and clawing wasn’t either of them, but one of the innocent soup pumpkins, which exploded in a shower of orange parts and delicious, creamy soup. The majority of the gourd’s contents splashed on Jake, who understandably had other things to worry about.

Dane caught him with a left hook that would have decapitated a normal person. Jake’s head wrenched sickeningly, but he seemed unhurt. He answered with a head butt that split Dane’s bottom lip and when he was momentarily stunned with pain, Jake kneed his brother in the diaphragm and then slammed the same knee straight into Dane’s face.

“I don’t feel well,” I said, sitting down hard on the cool marble tile of the kitchen. The room swam around me.

Barney grabbed a towel off one of the many ovens, wrung cool water out of it, and wrapped it loosely around my neck. Almost immediately the wave of nausea passed, but then when Dane answered Jake’s violence with an elbow to the side of Jake’s head that crunched like his skull cracked, the sensation of bile creeping up my esophagus reappeared. “I’m gonna puke,” I croaked.

Barney stroked my face with the towel and led me back, further into the kitchen, and well out of sight of my mate-to-be and his brother beating each other to death. It was the sounds though – the
crunch
the
thud
and the
crash
of fists into jaws and knees into stomachs – that really hit me.

I couldn’t stop thinking about that instant of violence, the crackle in the air I’d felt in the moment before the two of them slammed together. My mind turned to the trail of blood, the soup on Jake’s side, and then to the cascade of orange bits that exploded out from underneath him when Dane slammed him into that enormous dining table.

“Here,” Barney said softly, tilting a cup to my lips. “This will help.”

“This isn’t water,” I said. “Vodka?”

“Water isn’t going to do much good when you just saw your boyfriend turn into a wolf. I think you needed some stronger drink.”

“Good,” I swallowed the rest and then the lump in my throat that seemed unwilling to go away, faded as the liquor burned down into my guts. “Yeah, good call. Are they – is he – going to be okay?”

Barney took a deep breath that he released in a sigh. “This is the less glamorous side of being lupine. Our animal urges overwhelm us and we frequently solve problems that are rather silly ones by being very violent. Jake is unlike most wolves in that respect.”

“You mean most of them are worse with the punchy business?”

“Vastly. The reason his father chose him as alpha over his brother was that he wanted to become more palatable to normal society, and he figured rightly that the only way to do that was to have an alpha who thought more reasonably.”