by Jenny Tia
I watched as his cheeks rushed with blood and he clamped his lips shut tight. He huffed and tugged sharply at the hem of my shirt. “Well, I’m glad I went to the trouble of organizing it, then.”
I laughed and slapped his hands as they hovered over my belly, then grabbing at them tightly and demanding he look me in the face. “I’m kidding. The ceremony is a big deal. And I couldn’t have organized this without you.”
“Uh, you wouldn’t have organized it without me.”
That was true. I’d intended to basically elope with Casius after he’d given me the mating bite. We could have kept quiet about it and skipped the ceremony altogether. But I couldn’t help it—I wanted Stef to be there.
When I’d told him the news about the bite, he’d insisted I needed to have an actual ceremony. He’d told me that it wasn’t just about me, that it was about our whole community. As I smiled at him, I remembered his words.
“We all need this right now. We need a reminder that life goes on, even when we’re under threat. Plus, you’ll get to rub your amazing love in the face of every idiot who has ever made fun of you.”
His argument was watertight. I had to agree to a small ceremony, with the proviso that I didn’t have to do any of the work. And we had to do it quickly. Casius needed to get back to Everglow, and now I was officially his mate, I had to get ready to move.
“How many people are out there?” I motioned with my head to the Den. We’d decided it would be an act of kindness to hold the ceremony here, in an effort to create new memories and wipe away the tension of the last few days. I could smell the spices of mushroom kibbeh and the braised eggplant wafting through the air, and my stomach turned with a wave of nausea. They were usually my favorite foods, but something had changed in me. Already…
Stefan looked through the curtain to the Den and clucked his tongue. “Just a few. Just like you asked. A small, intimate affair.”
What a liar. The place wasn’t packed, but as I stepped out of the dressing room I did a double-take. It was far from the “few” people Stefan had allegedly invited. More like fifty, including my parents who were sitting in the circle of chairs that were set up around the ceremony dais. My chest tightened when I saw them. I turned to Stef and frowned, feeling a little panicked.
He grimaced. “I invited them out of politeness. They didn’t say they would come. I assumed they wouldn’t…”
“It’s okay. It’s fine. At least my brothers aren’t here. I can deal.”
My parents and I hadn’t spoken about anything since the bunker. And I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to connect with Alana or if I just wanted to let it all go. Casius had filled me in on the details that Alpha Truitt had given him. The fact that my birth mother had given me up so she could be with that gross alpha mate of hers didn’t make me feel great, but still… Maybe speaking to her would give me closure. I didn’t know what to do.
Stef led me up to the dais where Alpha Truitt joined me, wearing a deep saffron-colored suit. His leaf-shaped earring sparkled as brightly as his smile. He seemed even more excited about this than Stef.
“Seats, please. Friends and family, seats please,” Alpha Truitt instructed, and the fifty-odd people took a seat in the circle around us.
Stef sat right beside me and gave me a big thumbs-up. I was wondering if I shouldn’t be feeling more elated about the whole thing when Truitt put a hand on my shoulder and motioned to the front doors of the Den as they flew open.
With the midday sun pouring in behind him, Casius’s chiseled frame was perfectly silhouetted by the light. The silver of his uniform shone like armor. My mate, the Supreme Alpha Select of Colorado… Who could have predicted this? The moon goddess must have a sense of humor when she put us together.
My heart flipped, and out of nowhere, I giggled. Mortified, I clamped a hand over my mouth. As Casius came closer, my giggles turned into a soft moan. From where I stood, his cheekbones looked even more full and wide, and his eyes were somehow even brighter.
We smiled at each other as he moved closer. My stomach began fluttering with exhilaration. Chairs scratched against the stone floor as people made space for Casius to pass through the circle.
I heard a gentle sob from beside me, and I glanced down to find Stef wiping tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. A surge of emotion shot through me and I felt a whimper growing at the base of my throat. God… This really was a big deal.
Casius joined me on the dais and held my gaze. The moment he took my hands, I felt tension melt from every inch of my body. All that was left was the pure love I had for him, and the excitement I had about our future. Another flutter in my tummy told me the future was even more exciting than we expected…
I got lost in Casius, and the ceremony itself was a gentle blur.
“I accept you as my mate,” Casius said.
I squeezed his hands and echoed his words. “I accept you as my mate.” My voice came out strong and certain, and I liked how the vows sounded.
Alpha Truitt placed his hands on us and went on a rambling tangent about the connection between Goldleaf and Everglow and strengthening the bonds between our packs. The old me would have snapped at him, rolled my eyes, grumbled about his political brownnosing… But with Casius holding my gaze and with a smirk on his face, I didn’t have to. He got it. And now, it just made me laugh.
Finally, Truitt announced, “Casius Burrows and Julian Reign, I declare you mated!”
The crowd howled, and Casius kissed me. My wolf pranced in excited circles, my heart pounded, and I rejoiced. I pressed all of myself into the kiss, into all of Casius. Into all of our love.
Back at my apartment, lit by candle and lantern light, my body was filled with Casius, and so was my heart. We made love on my bed for the first time since the ceremony. I hadn’t expected the public declaration of our love to have any effect on me at all. I’d been thinking of it as an annoying formality, but that night, as we moved together as one, our love felt different. It seemed more solid. Even with the threat of the humans still hovering over us, I felt safe, safer than I’d ever felt before.
Casius lay beneath me as I moved back and forth on his hard dick. Our eyes locked and our breathing synchronized. I only glanced away from him for split seconds to take in how beautiful the rest of his face looked in that light, his skin glowing with a soft sheen of sweat as we chased our pleasure together.
His grip on my hips was gentle and steadying, rather than rough and rushed, and the words he whispered were appreciative, smooth and filled with adoration. In his arms, I felt free to accept all his love. Compliments, kisses, attention… I lapped it all up. And I wanted to show him how I felt too. Holding him close, my body flushed with pleasure, I tried to prolong our enjoyment, but soon, too soon, we were moaning our release.
As we slowly started to come down, Casius pressed his hand over my heart, and I pressed mine over his. Our eyes met and we melted into each other’s gaze. When I could rest my cheek against his chest, I listened to his heartbeat, and my body grew relaxed and heavy as he held me. A smile burst up from my chest and spread across my face, and at that moment, I was happy. Completely, utterly, ridiculously happy.
I fell asleep like that, with him still inside me and his arms wrapped around me, blissed out on our love. Everything faded to black, until Casius woke me up the next morning with a kiss and a cup of reishi tea.
“How did you know?” I asked as I scooted up in bed then took the hot cup from him. I breathed in the steam and moaned. It was as rich as coffee to me, and the scent of it was already waking me up and nourishing my nervous system.
“I’ve been doing some reading of my own,” he said, picking up The Warrior’s Howl from right beside my pillow and placing it on my bedside table.
“You have?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Mm-hm. A materia medica of mushrooms… That’s what it’s called, right?”
I beamed happily and took a tentative sip of the tea. “That’s right, I’m impressed, sw
eetheart. And flattered you’d read up on fungi. What have you learned about medicinal mushrooms so far?”
Casius smoothed the covers over my legs then leaned against his hand. “I learned that reishi mushrooms can give you stamina and endurance. So you better drink up—you’ll need a lot of that today.”
I took a gulp and wiggled my eyebrows at Casius. “Why? What do you have in mind, big guy?” I pressed a hand over his bulging bicep, but he lightly slapped it off and gave me a stern look.
“I’ve got a troop of guys coming to help us move.”
“To help me move? Already?”
“Julian. The threat is too serious for us to be apart. I need you close by, especially now we’re mated—”
“I know. I know. It’s okay.” I sighed and looked at the swirling tea in my cup. “I’m ready. I just wasn’t expecting it so soon. When are they arriving—”
I jumped as a firm rapping on the door answered my question. Casius gave me an apologetic grin and a shrug as he stood to answer the door. I groaned and hauled myself out of bed, and then I threw on some clothes. The reishi was working its magic, and I was only feeling a little annoyed by the time his team was filing into my home.
The crew of ten protectors made quick work of my apartment. I gave them a cold shoulder all morning as they started throwing my things into boxes and moving them downstairs to a moving van parked on the street, practically ripping my whole world apart. I made myself useful by carefully packing my mushroom bench up, but when I went to lift the box, Casius put a firm hand on my shoulder and immediately took it from me.
“Don’t lift a thing,” he insisted.
“That’s very sweet of you, but I’d feel better if I got to supervise where that box is going. It’s fragile.”
“You can supervise. Just don’t lift.”
I scowled and grunted in frustration. “So you expect me to just stand aside and do nothing while my whole life is uprooted?”
“No. I said you can supervise. C’mon, follow me.”
I clenched my jaw annoyance as I followed him out of the apartment, wriggling past the broad-shouldered betas who were crowding the hallway as they carried boxes and small pieces of furniture into the street. As soon as we stepped out of the big blue doors and into the late spring sun, I collided with someone’s shoulder and almost toppled over.
“Are you leaving right now?” Stefan asked as he grabbed me to stop me from falling. I gripped his arm and righted myself as a beta squeezed past me with a lamp in one hand and my favorite tapestry in the other.
“Just as fast as these troops get me out of here,” I grumbled.
“Well, good, I came to have a coffee with you before my shift.” He handed me an iced coffee and I took it tentatively. I was about to say I might need a decaf when Stef turned to Casius. “Shouldn’t these troops be, uh, protecting us?” Stefan looked him over like he was questioning Cas’s wisdom as Alpha Select.
“These guys just got off a long deployment camped out near the border. They switched off with some fresh troops and frankly, they need a fun mission to lighten their spirits. And we needed the hands. So…” Casius shrugged, still holding the box of my precious mushroom paraphernalia.
“Hm. Alright. Fair.” Stefan nodded then sipped his iced coffee before lacing an arm through mine. “Well you don’t need to watch your life being dismantled, so let’s walk.”
“You don’t need to supervise this box?” Casius asked, his tone teasing.
I squinted at him threateningly and he laughed as he hurried down the street toward the van. I squeezed Stefan’s arm and turned in the opposite direction, marching us down the street away from the apartment and the moving van.
“I need to get the hell away from this chaos. I’m losing my mind.”
“What’s the big deal? You knew you were moving, right? I’ve processed it, but you haven’t?”
“I’m just feeling very emotional,” I said, shrugging and swirling the coffee, unsure if I should sip it.
“Well, you should be. This move is huge.”
“You’ll come and visit, right?” At the thought of losing touch with Stef, my voice trembled.
“I’ve already booked the next three weekends off from work. I’ll be there so often, you should put aside a room in your house for me.”
As soon as Cas and I arrived at his house—now our house—I did exactly what Stef suggested. I picked out a spare room that would serve as his second home and went about making it a little more Goldleafian.
“Are you sure you’re okay with me putting up all these tapestries in here?” I asked Casius nervously as I nailed up another colorful wall-length fabric. My mate leaned on the doorframe and watched me with a smile.
“Are you kidding? I want you to do this to the rest of the house. I love your culture.”
I grunted in disbelief. “Sure? I remember the night we met, and how you scrunched up your face when you first tasted arak…”
“Hey! For the record, that wasn’t my first time tasting arak—”
“Oh, you’d already had it with a mixer earlier that night?” I asked, teasing him, but the look on his face told me that was exactly what had happened, and I burst out laughing. He poked his tongue out at me and I chuckled.
“And I’d like to develop my palate. Can you get Stefan to bring some when he visits?”
“No problem. I’d be hard-pressed to stop him.”
However, three weeks after I’d moved, and after three visits, Stef had become so distant and spaced out he was like a completely different person. I woke up on the last morning of his stay with a stone in my heart, and tears pricking my eyes. I’d been feeling nauseous as hell the whole week even though I hadn’t touched a drop of arak, and I put it down to being so worked up about Stefan.
Casius left in the morning for a strategy meeting with Alpha Hughes, and I immediately got up, grabbed my bright orange linen dressing gown from the closet, and then knocked on the door of the guest room.
“Come in,” Stefan grumbled groggily.
I opened the door and stood in the doorway with hands on my hips. “What the hell is going on?”
“What?” Stef sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”
“Time to tell me what is going on with you. Do you hate me? Why are you even here if you don’t want to be in Everglow?”
“Oh my god, Julian. What is going on with you?”
“Me?” A surge of emotion burst up from my chest and I gave an unexpected sob before covering my mouth and then laughing into it.
Stefan squinted at me. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t care. Are you okay?” I came to sit beside him on the bed and put a hand on his knee.
“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be? I’m just fine. Normal. Nothing is wrong.”
“Uh… No. You’re not. You’ve been acting completely cold, and I feel like you’re just not yourself at all.”
Stef sighed and put his head in his hands.
“Is something going on at work?” I asked.
“No. It’s not that.”
“Is it killing you that I live here? Because I’ll move back if you need me to—”
Stef laughed and shook his head as he took my hands. “No, you wouldn’t, and don’t you dare! I love it here. I love you here. You’re more confident and just so much more, Julian. I love it.”
“Then what the hell is going on?”
He let out another long sigh and looked up at the ceiling. “I’ve been feeling off ever since the bunker.”
I nodded and squeezed his hands. “You seemed to be really pushing yourself down there. Did you get burned out?”
“Maybe…” He licked his lips and looked at me. “I was fine until we started to leave. Isn’t that strange? I was in the crowd, filing out of the Den when I felt something I’d never felt before. Like a weird tugging in my guts that was pulling me back into the bunker.”
I raised my eyebrows. “A pulling…” That sounded str
angely familiar, but I bit my tongue to hear the rest of his story.
“Mm. Like a rope around my middle, yanking me backward. I followed it because I thought it was my wolf instincts. I stayed at the back of the crowd for as long as I could… I thought something terrible was going to happen.”
“Like another attack?” I frowned and scooted closer to my friend, holding his hands tightly.
“Yeah. I mean—I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t even thinking at all. But then the yanking feeling moved up to my heart and… I was like, looking for someone. But I didn’t know who I was looking for! I didn’t find them, I guess. I don’t even know if they exist, or why the hell I’d be looking in the first place. It really shook me up and I’ve been feeling so ugh ever since.”
A huge grin crept across my face, and Stefan scowled at me when he saw it.
“What?”
“I think you might have been looking for your fated mate.”
Stefan shook his head. “Oh, please.”
“I’m serious, Stef. That sounds exactly like what happened to me with Casius. The feeling of being tugged forward like that… It’s like nothing else. Did you smell something peculiar?”
“Well, yeah, it was like lemonade and peaches, but also hardwood guitars and leather volleyballs, but I just put it down to a mix of all the shifters being there, combining to create that weird scent.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Okay, weird but it could have been your fated mate.”
“No. Doesn’t matter if it was. You know my deal on relationships.”
“Stef!”
“After Justin left me when he found his fated mate… Nope. Not interested in getting my heart ripped out again.”
“But if you’ve found your fated mate, then you won’t get hurt because, you know… You’re fated.”
Stef gave me a warm but sorrowful smile. “I was so glad when you found Casius, but I’m not ready to take that chance.”
“But—”
“Julian, I love you, but please, don’t try to force that kind of situation on me.”
He looked so sad, I knew somewhere deep inside he didn’t mean it, that his wolf would be restless and keen to get another scent of its mate. So I simply nodded, but I hoped Stef got a chance to find out who his mate was and find the same love and happiness I had. We sat in silence for a while until I felt a new wave of nausea, followed by a kick of anxiety. Stef might not be ready to know about his future, but I was.
