Emerald: Rare Gems Series - Billionaire Wolf Shapeshifter Romance (11 page)

“I miss him too.” She nodded and he pulled her into his arms to hold her. “Mom, I love Em with all my heart. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

“She loves you too. Very much.” She looked up at him. “What does she think about the little girl?”

Em had come to him about the child. She’d told him the entire story about how the little girl’s brother, one of her students who had been murdered by his parents. Em had also told him how Sloan had taken care of his parents’ bodies after he’d killed them both. No one would ever find them, and he’d made the way clear for the little girl, the only survivor of the horrific night, to be adopted. She’d told him that she was going to help with that. He’d told her they should be her parents.

“I think she’s going to make a great mom.” She smiled at him. “And you an awesome grandmother. You’re going to have her spoiled before she’s settled, aren’t you?”

“And why not?” He knew for a fact that her room had already been painted in her favorite color of yellow, and that her closet was full. Jul held his mom as he thought of the little girl, Noelle Shoot.

“Opal took away her memories of that night.” He felt his mom nod. “She couldn’t take away all the memories because she wanted her to remember her brother. But she was able to change them around so that there was a great deal less trauma. There will still be problems, we think, but nothing like they might have been for her. She’s going to get the best of everything from now on.”

“Of course she will. And with a family like this one, she’ll be loved more than any other child could be. But what of her memories of her parents? Does she have any good memories of them?” He’d asked Opal the same thing, and she’d told him none. He told his mom that.

“I think that had Sloan not killed them, I would have. To have something so precious and treat it so horrifically…. They should have gotten the worst kind of treatment.” Sloan had told him that he’d killed them both, but he’d never said how. Blair had assured him that he didn’t want to know either. He had a feeling that Sloan had told him, and it had bothered the big alpha a great deal.

The knock at the door had them both turning to it. It was time. He was going to be married to the most wonderful woman in the world, and he couldn’t wait. Before he and his mom left the room, she asked him for one more second.

“I loved your father. Miss him every day of my life. But having you as my son has eased my pain a great deal and made living easier. I could not have asked for a better person than you in my life.” He kissed her on the cheek, and she pulled back, obviously not finished. “But if you hurt her in any way, make her cry for any reason whatsoever, I will bring an Armageddon down on you so quickly, you won’t have time to hide.”

She walked out of the room in front of him. Jul looked up at Allen, who was going to serve as father to the bride. He was laughing so hard that he had to hold onto the wall next to him. He was still laughing when they walked to the front of the podium set up just for this event. The people at the charity ball were serving as their guests tonight, as well as witnesses. Jul looked at the men who had stood up with him, and felt the feeling of family wash over him again.

Sapphire had set up everything for him. And when he’d told her what he wanted, she’d jumped on the wagon and taken over. The only time he’d had to answer anything about what she’d planned was the pastor. The rest she’d done on her own. So when she came out of the building in front of him, he had to smile. He should have known.

Her dress was the blue of her name. The stars above them made it sparkle and seemingly dance around her. When she was joined with Blair at the end of the line, he looked up to see Diamond come out.

Her dress was no less brilliant and shone like a bright diamond around her. Her belly, full of hers and Thad’s child, seemed to be highlighted by the candles around the guests. Jul smiled when she blew him a kiss. He might have to hug her again later, now that he knew what it meant to her husband.

The next gem to come down the line was Jade. The green of her dress was as beautiful as the grasses of Ireland. The way it moved around her, shimmering no less than the other two, reminded him of the pull and flow of the rivers he’d walked along while there a few years ago. She wore it long, unlike her two older sisters who had worn shorter dresses.

Next came Opal, and her beauty surpassed that of the gem she was named for. Her dress was opaque in color with brilliant stripes of white and pale blues. When she winked at him, he had to laugh and felt that whatever came next was going to be epic.

Ruby was a woman who danced to her own drum. The red of the dress was nearly blinding. She wore it like it had been born to her as skin. Unlike her sister’s dresses that flowed around them, Ruby’s shimmered down her body and in a fall of red beads, and in her hair was a long streak of blood red. Jul could only shake his head at her. She giggled when she stood with him, and smiled when he winked back. Jul knew that for so long as he lived, this family, his family, was never going to be boring.

There was a long pause before his bride came out. He was worried for a moment until the wedding march was played. As the crowd stood up, Jul held his breath. He’d not seen her since she’d left him after Blair had killed Nolan. But this was not the time to think about what had transpired before this.

Jul wasn’t prepared for her beauty. He knew she was, beautiful in all ways, but to see her now, with his mother’s wedding dress on, he had to blink twice to assure himself that she was really coming toward him. But as she got closer to him, he started to chuckle. Then he laughed until he could hardly stand any longer. Sapphire had made everything perfect.

The dress fit her like it had been made especially for her. The train of the dress, long and lovely, was what had him laughing. The children, all two dozen of them, were dressed in the colors of the bride’s maids that had preceded them. Two of them were even dressed in white. The streak of red in the hair of the two children dressed in red had him laughing harder. But it was Allen that had him nearly fall over. He was dressed in a white suit that looked like he’d stood back and let someone throw paints at him, all the colors of the gems that he loved so much.

When Em was handed off to him from Allen, he leaned in and whispered in his ear. “She wanted you to remember this day for the rest of your life.”

He nodded. There would be no way he’d forget it, not with Em at his side. Turning to the pastor, he noticed that he too was having a good time. And when he asked if they were ready, Em said she needed just a moment.

“Today is my wedding day and without all of you, it would not have been this lovely. Thank you.” She looked at him then. “With all my heart, I love you. All my life, I give to you. All my family is yours as well. My sisters and I have…we decided that since you are the last gem to be married into this family, we wanted to make this special for you as well. With all the other men in this family—our gems to us—we decided that nothing would be complete without you. We want to tell you how much we love and appreciate you for being a part of us.”

Jul kissed her on the mouth, and she knelt down on her knee. “Honey, it’s a little late to propose to me now. We’re here to get married.”

“Hush.” She looked around at her family, then at him, before continuing. “I take you as my mate. I love you with my heart. I surrender myself to you. And I…and I….” She looked at Blair.

“And I give to you all that I am in any form, forever.” She nodded and repeated what Blair had said. Then he leaned into him and whispered for him to kneel as well. “Say what’s in your heart to her.”

Nothing but how much he loved her came to mind. “I take you as my mate, and I will love you with all my heart. I surrender all that I have, all that I will ever have, to you forever. And I will love you in any form you take.” Jul glanced at Blair before looking at Em again. “I will be your mate in all ways, love you forever, and I will never love you more than I do at this moment.”

When they were both standing again, he looked at the pastor. He was wiping at his cheeks as he held his book in front of him. When he nodded that he was going to be fine, he started the ceremony that would bind them legally. But as far as Jul was concerned, they were already man and wife.

Chapter 11

“These are the designs that we came up with. There are nine here for you to look over, and then we can work the name of your company in it easily enough.” Sapphire handed him several sheets of photographic paper, and he glanced at them as she continued. “These are in black and white. I don’t think you should go this route because you need something that makes people pause before moving to the next group of wines. Also, we’ve set up some—”

He raised his hand, and she stopped talking. “I’m slightly…majorly overwhelmed. Please. Just…I need a second here. It’s too much too fast.”

Jul leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He had been here with them for over three hours, and it had been nonstop. Not that he wasn’t pleased with the amount of work they’d been able to get accomplished, but his mind wasn’t up for it just yet.

“Are you worried about tonight?” He opened his eyes and looked at Blair. Sapphire was no longer in the room, and her assistants were gone too. “Things will go well. I have all the confidence in the world in you both.”

“She’s terrified.” Blair nodded, and Jul sat up in his chair. “I think she’s told me more than a dozen times a day of the things that could go wrong. How I might die, and that if she kills me she’s asked for you to kill her as well.”

“I won’t do that. I told you that.” Jul nodded. He knew that Blair would do the right thing, but damn it, he was afraid as well. “What’s bothering you mostly about this? I mean, besides the possibility that you may die.”

“She might not be able to do this. Not convert me, but live. I don’t think she’ll live if something goes wrong.” Jul looked out the window. “I think she’s more depressed now than when I first met her. I’m worried for her health too. Did you know that she’s not eating all that much? Not since our wedding.”

“I’ve had Sapphire and the other gems talk to her, but she keeps telling them she’s fine. Today Opal and Jade are taking her shopping for the babies, and later tonight the rest of them are meeting her here to get ready. I think that she’ll be with someone all day.” Blair laughed and Jul looked at him. “We bombarded you on purpose.”

Jul nodded. “I figured as much. To be honest with you, I’m less worried about me and this conversion than I am her at the moment. I know that things could go wrong. Hell, leaving this office today could get me killed. But she worries me. She’s lost weight, rarely gets out of the house, and just last night she asked me about some of her things we’d been able to save from her apartment. I had to make a list of who got what. Scared the shit out of me.”

The door to his office opened, and he turned to see Annabelle and Allen there. The two of them looked ready to do battle, and Jul stood up. He had no idea what he could do to help a pack of wolves, but he was ready. Annabelle sat down and told Allen to behave. Then she looked at him.

“I usually don’t butt in….” She glared at Blair when he burst out laughing. “I will have you know that I do not butt into your affairs unless they might be harmful to you. But for now, I’m talking to this nice young man. You, my fine sir, can leave us.”

Blair kissed Annabelle on the cheek and left them. Jul wasn’t sure he wanted to be left alone with her, but when Allen handed him a tumbler of bourbon, he looked at his watch. It was just past eleven.

“You’ll need it.” He sipped the drink and set it down. If he needed it he wanted to be ready, not drunk before they began. “We want to help you shake up that gem of yours. She’s not going to make it tonight if you don’t heed what we’re saying to you.”

“You need to piss her off.” He looked at Annabelle, then at Allen when she spoke. “I mean, really piss her off. Not to the point where she attacks you, but that she’s upset.”

“I can’t do that. She’s a wolf for one thing, and I’m not. Secondly, she’s barely functioning right now. I doubt if I could get her just a little upset.” Annabelle nodded. “I don’t understand. How do you think that will help her?”

“If she’s angry, she’ll be able to make this work.” Annabelle stood up to pace. “When Emerald was a little girl, there was a child down the street from us that would torment her daily. I mean to the point where she was in tears from it. All the girls offered her advice. Told her to punch the girl in the nose and be done with it. I’m betting you can tell which one said that.”

“Jade.” Annabelle nodded and grinned. “And what happened to the girl when she punched her? Did she stop?”

“Emerald didn’t hit her. She ignored all their advice. And no matter how many times I had to hold her, she did nothing to her. Then one day Emerald came home with a bloodied lip and her dress torn. And since that day she and the little girl have been the best of friends.” Annabelle sat down and Jul looked at Allen for an explanation. He only shrugged.

“She hit her anyway?” Annabelle shook her head. “You do that well, by the way. Lead someone up to the story ending then let them hang. What happened?”

“Thank you. There was another bully on the street. This one much bigger than the first girl, and by far larger than Emerald. That day the bully, a young man that has since been incarcerated several times, had the little girl down on the ground and was beating her with his fists. Emerald knocked him on his bottom. I mean, literally on his bottom. And every time he got up, she’d put him back there. I’m told it was a sight to behold.”

Jul didn’t understand. “You mean it was okay for this girl bully to beat up on her, but she didn’t want her bully to be bullied? Why not? And if you tell me that you had something to do with this, I’m never going to trust you again.”

“She needed something to bring her out of her shell.” Jul watched her closely, waiting for Annabelle to tell him she was kidding. But she spoke again before he could tell her she was full of shit. “The bully wasn’t my doing, Jul. But I thank you for thinking me so wonderfully calculating. No, the female bully wasn’t really hurting her physically. Teasing her, yes. Making fun of her, assuredly, but she never hit her. Emerald got mad when someone bigger was hurting a person who wasn’t their peer. Wasn’t in their weight class.”

Jul thought about what she was saying. Emerald stepped up to the plate when the little girl was being hurt. It didn’t matter to her that the child had been mean to her, it was the fact that she was being hurt now. And badly. But he had no idea what this had to do with him and tonight.

“She thinks that she’s going to kill you when she does this.” Jul nodded at Allen. “Tell her you believe that she will.”

“I can’t do that.” Allen nodded. “I can’t. She’s already terrified that she’ll kill me. And telling her that she will would….”

Jul thought about it again. Christ. She’d do it to prove him wrong. Or at least, that’s what he thought Allen was saying to him. But what if it just tore down her confidence altogether? Then where would he be?

“You sly old devil you.” Allen bowed before him. Of course, the man would take that as a compliment. “And if this doesn’t work? What if she really does kill me?”

“She won’t. And if it looks like you might not make it, Sloan and Blair will be right there with you.” Jul nodded, liking this plan more and more as he thought about it. “She’s extremely stubborn, in the event you didn’t know that.”

“I know that.” He grinned. “And you might be right. She might just make this work. And if she does, then I’ll be indebted to you both for the rest of my life.”

“We’re counting on that too.” As Allen stood up, Jul had a feeling that he would hate whatever these two had up their sleeves. Instead of asking, he simply hugged Annabelle goodbye and shook Allen’s hand. This might work out after all.

“You ready now?” He looked up at Sapphire when she spoke. She must have come into the office when he’d been deep in thought. “I have to get this going or Colby is going to come down on my head again. That man is driven.”

“He is.” Jul picked up the pictures. “Wow, these are really good. Did you take these? Or Colby?”

“Colby. I sent him and his lovely wife to France last week and had them take pictures. The children stayed with Blair and I. We had so much fun. That little Darcy is going to be a handful. But oh, so adorable.”

The pictures had his full attention. They were fantastic. The first one was a close-up of a bunch of grapes. The colors were so vivid that he felt as if he could touch them. The second picture was of several different colors of grapes. The blues and greens went together so well that again, he thought it was real. But he loved the dew that hung on them, the way the sun seemed to glisten off them. He put this one to the side.

The next four were of the fields. They were good, but not all that inspiring to him. When he got to the last two, he had to lay them down. Jul stared at them, not believing what he was seeing. He looked up at Sapphire when she sat across from him.

“Where did you get this one?” He pointed to the one of his father and mother on their wedding day. It had been colored, he knew, because the original was in his home in DC, which was currently being packed up.

“Your mom told me about it and I called the movers yesterday. I didn’t know where it was, but they did. Nice, isn’t it?” He nodded. The picture had been taken as they exited the court house. His mom had been so shy that she’d looked at his dad rather than the camera. His dad looked as if he might burst from happiness.

Then he looked at the one of him and Emerald. It was in color as well, but someone had muted it to match the one of his parents. She was looking at him in the same manner his mom had his dad. And he, of course, had the same besotted look on his face as his dad.

“You said there were nine. I only have eight.” He looked at the one with the dewy grapes, then back at the ones of Jul an Em and his parents. “I’m not sure what you have in mind here with these two, but I love this one.”

She took the three pictures and then laid the ninth one in front of him. Jul knew that this was the label. Sapphire knew it too. Her grin told him that he was going to love the slogan too.

Sapphire had taken the two couples and put them on opposite sides of the label. In the middle were the grapes he’d liked. There were bottles of wine nearby, not in color, but a suggestion of what they might have within them. And under it was his last name. Simply Whitney.

“What’s the name?” He looked up at her when she didn’t say anything, but handed him a small piece of foil, like the kind that he used to seal around the cork. There were wolves chasing one another all along the edges. When she handed him the next artwork, he had to smile. Damn, but she was good.

“
Vins de la Lune
, or in English, Wines of the Wolf. We could put a translation on the foil, but I don’t think that will be necessary.” He stared at the finished product. “The color will make people pause to look at the label, and that’s what we want. Most buy by the type of wine they like, then the label. Once we have them hooked that way, the rest will be easy.”

“And I have you something you’re going to love.” He looked up at Thad when he came into the office. “I’ve been thinking for a few weeks now on how to do your crackers. And then I was playing with Carter, and it hit me. It had to nest.”

The round cracker container landed in front of him, and he loved it. Sapphire picked it up and slipped the opening over the top of the bottle he had on his desk. It was perfect. The sections, one of crackers and the next with cheese, circled the neck as if it had been made for it. Which, he was pretty sure, it had been.

“It’s made for convenience. You can slip the container over the neck and walk with the glasses in your other hand. I’ve played around with it for the past few days, and the crackers don’t get smashed up like the ones would in a basket.” Thad picked up the bottle with the cheese and showed him how well it stayed. “See? No issues of it falling off.”

“You’re going to give a code online when a person buys the bottle of wine that will give the person a percentage off the container. Once they start getting them together, we’ll close that part off and lower the price of the wine to compensate. Not much, but a few bucks.” Blair moved around the room until he too was seated at the large conference table. “You’re overwhelmed again, aren’t you?”

“No. On the contrary, I’m impressed.” Blair grinned. “Your wife is very good at what she does.”

The low growl had him laughing. Blair laughed as well as he told him what else they had planned to shoot the wine he was making out of the ball park. Jul listened intently, knowing that whatever they had in mind, he was game. This was going to be perfect, he just knew it.

~~~

Emerald was putting the last of her books on her shelf when Dawn came into the room. She’d been helping her set up her office all week, and now that they were nearly finished, she just wanted to sit back and enjoy it. Looking around, she had to smile. It was better than she’d thought.

“I have nine messages for you about teachers. I’m having background checks run on them now. Did you know that Sloan had a firm that does it better than the government?” She nodded and smiled. “It’s scary what that man can do. Anyway, here are the ones that he’s looking at now, and these are fails. What do you want me to do with them?”

“File them. We have to keep them for so long before we can toss them out. Did he give you the paperwork on why we are rejecting them?” Dawn nodded and told her they were in the files. “And the ones that you’re running now, any of them stand out?”

“Two. One I would hire even if I just had her here as someone who could run the office. Damn, but she is organized. I read over her employer recommendations, and he said she kept him sane for the better part of ten years. But I can’t find why she’s leaving.” Emerald nodded and watched while Dawn sorted through the files. “This one is amazing. She’s leaving her pack behind because it holds too many memories. Her mate was killed a few months ago when a hunter mistook him for a wolf that was poaching on his land. She has no children, but has been a teacher for five years. Kindergarten. I’ve actually spoken to her and she is sort of laid back, nice, and seems to care a great deal about what sort of person you are.”