Coveted (25 page)

Finally, the matron of honor reached the altar. The musician, a pianist from the local church, had managed to keep playing even though he’d tilted his head twice to catch a glimpse. I bet the teenaged boy hadn’t caught that much boobage since he’d tried to sneak a peek into the girl’s locker room.

Still, with as much dignity as he could muster, the pianist switched the tune to the bride’s song. Karey entered alone, without an escort. She waddled down the aisle with a large bouquet of white roses and daisies. Alex grinned at his bride. As she entered, everyone rose, and I thought the wedding would proceed as planned.

But that was before Karey paused in the middle of the aisle and whipped out a dead marmot.

She squatted, as well as an eight-months-pregnant woman could, and then proceeded to build an altar in the aisle. Aunt Vera made a move to intervene, but my mother grabbed her arm. Mom suppressed a chuckle as Karey shouted, “I stand before you today, oh great Hera, with my sacrifice! May I prove worthy!”

I bit my lower lip and tried not to follow my mother’s example. No wonder the nymphs hadn’t shared their plans with us. Aunt Vera wouldn’t have allowed a dead anything in the church. It’s not as if she didn’t tolerate other religions, it’s just that a dead marmot doesn’t exactly create the best impression on the other werewolves in the room. Or the pastor.

My cousin Leonard, who happened to be the photographer, darted out into the aisle with his fancy camera and took several shots. I assumed he was doing it to piss
his mother off and not for the couple’s wedding photo album.

The rest of the ceremony, including the vows, went as planned. Thank goodness. The poor priest knew we were werewolves, but the sacrifical display had still surprised him. I tried to imagine Aunt Vera explaining it to him and couldn’t see how it could possibly go well.

After they smooched, the pastor introduced to the room Mr. and Mrs. Alex Stravinsky and they stood before a pleased congregation. (Well, the werewolves were mostly pleased because they knew they could finally eat.)

The reception took place next door at the local men’s club. My mother had already used my younger cousins/minions to decorate the space with gaudy ribbons and white table covers. The band was in place making preparations.

The wedding party’s table was at the far end of the room and I couldn’t wait to have a seat. The matron of honor continued to parade around in her semitransparent outfit.

Werewolves don’t mind nudity—after all, it was often a necessity of pack life, because of our transformations. But it just didn’t seem necessary to expose the entire fairyland population to her hooters and hips. As she took her seat her nether regions disappeared from view and I wanted to applaud her for finally sitting down.

As expected, when the buffet-style meal began the werewolves were first in line. Steaming plates of food passed under my nose as I watched the parade of family members sit down to eat. Thankfully, Aunt Vera appeared with plates for the wedding party.

“Here you go, ladies. You’ll love the ham, Arielle. My sister’s a wonderful cook.”

From the horrified look on Arielle’s face, you would’ve sworn we’d run over her cat in the night and served it to
her. “I don’t eat swine. As a matter of fact, I don’t eat meat, period.”

How rude! Especially saying it to someone who’d brought you the damn food in the first place. Ever the lady (well, today anyway), Aunt Vera replied, “I’ll fetch you some fruit and sauerkraut. Perhaps some potato salad?”

The nymph sighed and rubbed her temple. “I’m sorry if that came out wrong, Vera.”

Too late for that one, sister
.

She continued with, “I’ve been awake for days preparing my sister for the wedding. In between the wedding and my own children …”

Vera simply nodded. “I have children as well. I understand.” She glanced at me and snorted before she returned to the buffet table.

The vegetarian issue turned out to be a widespread one with the fairy crowd. Most of the fairies in line chose nonmeat options. Not Bill, though. The goblin piled his plate high with
olivie
and roasted chicken breasts. I’d never eaten with my boss, so I didn’t know he had such a healthy appetite.

Alex entered a few minutes later as I ate.

“Where’s Karey? Is she all right?” I asked.

“She said something about arriving later. I don’t mind. I could eat a woodchuck, whether he could chuck wood or not.” I was almost relieved to hear that, right after the whole ceremony, the old Alex was already back. I didn’t expect their relationship to be Ozzie and Harriet. More like Felix and Oscar.

By the time I’d eaten a second helping, Karey had made her grand entrance to everyone’s applause. (Before the matron of honor left to sit with her children, all five of them, she explained to me that the bride entering alone was part of the ritual.) While Karey sat down beside her husband, I watched everyone eat. All the guests
had smiles and the bride and groom appeared pleased. Since everyone at my table had what they needed, I decided to get up and spend some time by myself back in the kitchen.

By the time I entered with some empty bowls, most of my mother’s helpers had left to enjoy the festivities. A perfect time to decompress. The place wasn’t in that bad of shape, so I pulled on some rubber gloves and decided to start rinsing out the bowls in the sink.

“How you holding up?” Aggie stood in the doorway with a plate in her hand. She took a bite from her food, which of course I wasn’t surprised to find with her.

I chuckled. “You know, you could’ve left your plate on the table.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, c’mon. Instead of saying, ‘Why, thanks for the concern,’ I get read the riot act for carrying a plate of food with me?”

“Well, you could’ve waited until you finished to come find me.”

“Werewolves don’t leave leftovers. So back to my previous question. How are you doing?” Her last question was a little garbled due to an additional bite of sauerkraut.

“I’m handling things. The dress makes me uncomfortable, the odor from the urn during the ceremony made me want to pass out, I can’t stop thinking about the banishment, and Thorn didn’t come to the wedding. But other than that I’m super.”

There, I’d said it. Thorn hadn’t come. Aggie’s date, Will, had, so I’d kept hoping that Thorn would too. But so far, there’d been no sight of him. The words he’d whispered in the forest constantly played in my mind.

You may not see me but I’m always around
.

Just not today. Not when I actually needed someone who was more than a friend to me.

“You don’t smell anxious. I’d say you’re hanging in there,” Aggie said.

I stared at the dirty utensils and bowls in the sink. The urge to clean them thoroughly beat against my skull. To push the temptation away, I took off my gloves and turned to Aggie. “You never told me what happened to you after we stopped hanging out five years ago.”

Until now, I hadn’t wanted to ask her anything. From what I could recall, one of my aunts had asked her once and Aggie had never really answered.

“There isn’t much to say. I went back home to my dad’s place.”

“Yes, but something else happened to you, Aggie.”

“Why do you want to talk about it now? We’re at a wedding.” She placed her food on the white counter and leaned back against it.

“Seems like a perfectly good time to me. After all, you’re not going to run away, not while there’s so much food around. And, well, your father called again and left another message.”

She glanced at me for a moment and pursed her lips in thought. “Did you talk to him?”

“Yeah, I told him I hadn’t seen you.”

“Thanks.”

“Now that you owe me one, what happened to you?”

She stared at the gray tiles on the floor and I waited for her to speak. “Not long after you left, my father arranged a marriage for me. And not a good one either. A rather shitty one.”

I touched her hand. “Oh, Aggie.”

“His name was Victor. Some rich asshole out of Pittsburgh with connections all over the place. My father hadn’t discussed it with me either. During dinner one evening, Victor showed up with flowers and an engagement ring.”

I couldn’t speak since I thought I knew what direction this tale would go. Unfortunately, I could sympathize.

“Out of respect for my father, I didn’t say anything when Victor placed the ring on my finger and kissed me. He smelled like a cold eel dunked in Brut cologne.” She snorted. “He was quite the character, with his black suit and slick black hair. I even thought him handsome—until he opened his damn mouth.”

She paused, so I pressed her. “But what happened after you two got married?”

“Victor told me that, ever since my father had sent him my picture, he’d loved me. Said he had a thing for redheads. Before I moved in with him, he showered me with expensive gifts the likes of which even my father never gave my mother. But all of it was bait—bait to chain me up in his penthouse as his breeder.”

In shock, I clutched my dress. Her mother had lived such a life. Aggie had never let me forget that fact during camp. While everyone else opened up about their problems, Aggie was too embarrassed to talk about the dirty little secret among the more affluent packs—the practice of forced breeding for the high-ranking females. In an ideal situation, many strong sons would create a powerful legacy, but for Aggie’s mother years of miscarriages had left her a bitter woman.

“So you ran away from him.”

“I ran away from what he represents. Control. A wife who was no more than a mate, who would stay trapped in an ivory tower and breed his bratty pups.”

I nodded. I didn’t want to push anymore to learn of her life at Victor’s penthouse, but I was curious about something in particular. “And the fighting? The arrests?”

She laughed softly. “So you heard me when I told Will, huh? Those were rebellion. Rebellion against the control my father exerted. Against the control Victor
tried to have over me. You’d be surprised how far you’ll go when people tell you what you can and can’t do.”

I reached for her and pulled her into my arms. At first she was stiff, but eventually she hugged me back. For a second, I wasn’t sure what to say. After everything that had happened to me, I’d come to depend on her. How I hoped I wasn’t holding her here—indirectly controlling where she’d go.

“You can stay as long as
you
want,” I whispered. “Not that you’re safe here, but I do like the company.” I hugged her tighter.

“Are you sure you don’t need this hug more than I do?” Her voice was quieter. A bit sadder.

I never answered her. For a moment, it felt easier to just worry about my best friend and not myself.

The party ended a few hours later with werewolves dancing with full bellies. And a bit of liquor made their dancing much more lively. According to my aunt Olga, it improved with every beer.

I tried to join in the festivities, to laugh at the jokes, but my heart tugged painfully. I’d been cast out of the territory. Unless the pack members came to visit me, I’d never see them again. For that reason, I never got up to dance.

At the end of the day, the immediate family stayed behind to clean up the mess. As we gathered up the soiled plates and vacuumed the floor, I realized how the event had come together.

“Peter, could you fetch me another garbage bag?”

He headed into the kitchen and returned to hand it to me. Then he went back to work with no snide comments. I hadn’t even thought about it until I mumbled, “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

After all I’d been through, Aggie was right. Things had taken a turn for the worse, but things had also
changed
.
And it was up to me to continue down this path and make my life better—with or without my family.

The last of us trickled out of the club. The sun hung low in the sky and cast an orange glow over the building. I strolled out and spied a man in black leaning against a car. He waved.

I couldn’t help the grin that snuck onto my face. I pointed to myself and mouthed, “Who, me?”

He rolled his eyes as if to say,
“Duh. How many werewolves would have a wizard show up at a wedding they’ve attended?”

As I strolled up to his rental vehicle, I couldn’t help but feel a bit pleased to have someone waiting for me. My face warmed. Was that the reason I walked faster, touched my upswept hair to see if anything was out of place?

I noticed something different about him too. For the briefest moment, before I approached him, I detected his quickened heartbeat. A few pitter-patters before he slammed down a wall of magic.

When I came close enough to see his eyes, I tried not to feel insulted by his behavior. As long as I could see through his ruse, he could play the dark knight all he wanted. With a stern voice, he asked, “How long do you expect to skip out on therapy?”

“When I’m no longer getting assaulted by rival werewolf packs, I’ll be ready to laugh it up with my therapy group.”

He ignored my comment. “I’m not letting you back down from your exercise with me. When things slow down for you, I’ll be back.”

I rolled my eyes, yearning to get out of my bridesmaid dress. “It’s not safe to be with me right now. I’m in a bit of a bad place.” My gaze darted to the empty street around us, searching for danger.

“You let me worry about our safety.”

Was that before or after I had to carry him back to my house from our last trip?

“I mean it, Nat. Even if I need to come armed, I’ll escort you to your therapy.” The wizard had a look in his eyes that dared me to question his power.

I sighed. Other than packing for my departure, what plans did I have? Maybe therapy would help me move on with my life. “Let’s get this over with. Pick me up at my place tomorrow.”

T
he
next dreary day, a white wizard, dressed in black, knocked on my door. I wasn’t surprised that Nick didn’t suggest using a jump point. With a smile, I noted the car in the driveway. “No jump points, huh?”