by Sammie Joyce
“What does he mean?” Wes murmured behind me.
“He thinks we’re too old to be running things,” I translated.
“No! No, that’s not what I said!” Marcel protested. “We’re not looking to replace you. We’re just thinking that maybe this concept of bringing in human Protectors would have come about a lot sooner if you’d listened to one of us already. And I think we can all agree that the attacks have diminished substantially since the humans came on board.”
There was certainly no arguing with that. There hadn’t been an Anticlaw assault in weeks, coinciding with the time that the human Protectors had officially come into play.
“He makes a good point,” Jackal volunteered and I begrudgingly admitted he was right. I eyed the other members of Council and saw that they were miffed by the idea but no one blatantly rejected it.
We’re making progress here.
“Well, since we’re shaking things up,” Lorna said and I tried not to roll my eyes. She was just trying to one-up the Protectors and regain the upper hand but what could I do?
“What is it, Lorna?” Bula sighed, sensing what I had.
“Well, I’m just thinking that there is an awful lot of testosterone surging through the Protectors.”
In unison, I saw the all-male Protector team tense.
“So what?” Tybalt grumbled. Jackal shot him a look but Ty was annoyed. “We trained our asses off for these positions. It was the best of the best.”
“And how interesting that the best always seems to be male,” Lorna shot back.
“Females aren’t disqualified from entering the Protector competitions,” Anton insisted. “They just don’t.”
“Maybe because they know they’ll never win in a male-dominated program,” Bula suggested. The concept was interesting, one I’d never considered before. It was true—the Protector competition was open to everyone but females almost never tried out.
“Is this somehow our fault?” Cronin demanded, seeming aghast at being considered a misogynist.
“Of course not,” I interceded, sensing that we were about to start another battle among us. Until we smoothed out all the wrinkles in our blended family, we were apt to have arguments. I had long since learned to play mediator and change the subject, a trait I’d learned from Wes.
In fact, I’d learned a lot from Wes, things for which I would eternally be grateful.
“We should start appealing to female demographics going forward,” I said slowly, my mind moving forward with a plan. “It would be good to have females in the program. They can get into places that males can’t and gods know, Anticlaw has their fair share of females working with them.”
I shuddered slightly, remembering the group who had come to my house. The memory of that had never worn off and while I had yet to leave my beachfront cottage, the notion to move had been lingering in my mind ever since.
What are you waiting for exactly?
I shoved the thought out of my head, a hot blush touching my cheeks as I refocused on the group.
“Anything else?” I continued, half-expecting Lorna to rouse yet another objection. In Nia’s absence, she had no issue claiming the role of resident kvetch. To my surprise, Wes rose and ambled to the center of the circle.
“What are you doing?” I muttered at him. No human had yet to address the group and I wasn’t sure how I felt about Wes being the first.
“Is it okay if I speak?” he asked, glancing around. I got the sense that he would have continued even if someone had protested but no one did.
“Make it snappy, human,” Lorna told him firmly. “We all have other places to be.”
Wes shot her a small smirk but his eyes fixed on me.
“This isn’t exactly Council or Protector business,” he explained. “But it does involve all of you so I thought I’d bring it here.”
“He doesn’t quite know the way this works yet, does he?” Jackal murmured. I slapped at him to quiet down, my attention firmly on Wes.
“Go ahead,” I encouraged him with a smile. I didn’t want the other humans to be deterred from speaking in the future. Even if his first announcement wasn’t kosher to the meeting, it was a gateway to including everyone.
“I just wanted to say thank you to the Council and the Protectors for allowing me—us—into your world. I know it wasn’t an easy decision for you and it isn’t one I or any of the other humans here take lightly.”
My smile widened and my heart swelled with pride. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Lorna’s face softening slightly.
“But mostly, I want to thank Amity for making this all possible,” Wes went on. “If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here and neither would the new Protector group.”
The humans in our midst nodded in agreement, each of them shooting me a grin.
“In fact, Amity has opened doors for me that I never imagined possible,” Wes said, drawing closer to me, light shining in his eyes as he dropped to his knees. He took my hands in his and I shook my head uncomprehendingly.
“She opened my eyes to what real love is, to what it’s like not to settle for anyone but your mate, and for that, I will be eternally grateful.”
“What is this?” Lorna growled. Without looking at her, Wes removed a small, velvet box from his breast pocket and I gasped in shock.
“This is a marriage proposal,” he answered, his eyes locking with mine. “Amity Jackson, will you be my wife?”
I heard the intake of breath and mutters around me but I could barely see as tears blurred my vision.
“Yes!” I cried, throwing my arms around his neck and raining kisses on his face as the others clapped and cheered.
I fell back and stared at him, shaking my head as a tear slipped down each of my cheeks.
“You crazy nut,” I whispered. “Do you understand what you’ve done?”
Wes nodded and kissed me before answering.
“I sure do,” he replied. “I’m going to make history with the first ever shifter/human wedding.”
Epilogue
Wes
One Year Later
I caught Cat’s stare in the full-length mirror but when she saw me, she quickly looked away.
“What?” I sighed. I knew what. It was the same thing she’d been on about since learning the truth about my wife-to-be. I had Dan to thank for that, telling my sister about Amity being a shifter. It had taken some grasping on her part, her disbelief thick and unrelenting.
“Nothing,” Cat lied but I turned to face her, a grim expression on my face.
“Cat,” I snapped. “Today is my wedding day. I’ve prepared you for this the best way I know how and I won’t have you—”
“Whoa!” she laughed, holding up her hands in mercy. “I wasn’t going to say anything about that!”
I eyed her skeptically.
“You weren’t?”
She shook her dark head of perfectly coiffed hair, her beam widening as she neared me to adjust my bowtie.
“No,” she replied. “I was going to say that I’ve never seen you look happier or more at peace. Whatever Amity is, she’s the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“That she is,” I agreed, feeling myself relax.
“I admit, it took some getting used to but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there has always been talk about the shifters around here,” she went on. “Of course, I never put any stock into them so I was a little cynical.”
“I think we all were,” I conceded.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I like Amity and I like Amity for you. I’m so happy for you, little brother. Look at you, all grown up.”
She was teasing me but I didn’t mind. I was content to know that she had fully accepted Amity into our family. More and more, we were winning in our fight for unity. Even Dan had begun to waver on his steadfast belief that the shifters were bad and out to kill us all. Brigit had a lot to do with that, her sweet, lighthearted way swaying my bullheaded cousin to her w
ay of thinking.
And Amity herself was impossible to resist. Panther or not, she was strong, independent, and lovable to all who met her.
I was a lucky man.
“You should get out there,” Cat encouraged me, patting my cheeks lovingly. “It’s almost time.”
I nodded, inhaling deeply. There was no reason for me to feel this nervous but suddenly, I was jittery like I’d inhaled an entire pot of dark roast.
Amity had sold her cottage and moved into my house in Veneta just after we’d gotten engaged, an event that had given me a great deal of relief. In the back of my mind was always that horrific phone call and the gunshots, the threat that Anticlaw might return and finish what they’d started. Despite Amity’s constant assurances and my personal belief that she could well take care of herself, I felt much better knowing she was safe in my arms every night. Not to mention the fact that my days were so much brighter with her at my side every morning.
A rap on the dressing room door caused me to break away from my own reflection in the glass and call out for Dan to enter.
“You ready?” Dan asked, a note of awe in his voice. “I’ve never seen so many people in one place!”
There it was. That was it, the cause of my nervousness.
“It’s kind of a big deal,” I reminded him, running my palms over my tux jacket and throwing my shoulders back.
“I’d say so,” Dan murmured, following me out the door. Through the hall I walked until I was at the ballroom and the two of us moved up the red carpet to take our place in front of the shifter minister.
I had no real idea how shifter weddings differed from human ones. From what I could see, it all looked the same but for the fact that we weren’t in a church—not that it was uncommon to have a ceremony outside of one anymore. Amity had wanted the service done in shifter tradition and I was hardly one to argue. All I wanted was to marry Amity. I wouldn’t have cared who had married us. If a shifter wolf had sat there in a cummerbund, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. I probably would have been too distracted to notice.
As Dan had said, the ballroom was filled as far as the eye could see with people from all walks of life. To my utter disbelief, some of the shifters had opted to stay in their animal forms, lounging among the humans like a leopard on the pristine wood floor was nothing out of the ordinary. To their credit, the human guests didn’t seem to mind.
I saw all the members of Council and their respective mates, the Protectors with theirs, and some of my clients, both shifters and human.
This is exactly what Amity wanted, I realized, my heart swelling with pride. A world where everyone could be themselves.
The music cued and I turned as the double doors to the ballroom opened again. My breath caught when I saw Amity, dressed in a stunning ivory gown. Her eyes gleamed against the pearls in her bodice, her smile as white as the lace of her skirt. She glided toward me, her beam growing more with each step.
My hand reached for hers, the feel of her skin against mine all I needed to shake away the nervousness I’d been feeling. I was exactly where I needed to be—in front of all our friends and family, ready to commit ourselves to one another for life.
She tipped her head back to stare up at me with that look I had grown to love so much.
“Are you okay?” she whispered and I nodded.
“I am now,” I replied, exhaling.
“Shall we begin?” the minister asked, waiting for us to tear our eyes away from one another, but I couldn’t stop staring at her face. Amity giggled and blushed as the minister cleared his throat.
“Are you ready, Mr. Huffman?” he asked again.
“Yes,” I replied earnestly. “I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.”
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Abiding love honors the past and provides a legacy that will live on forever.
Aspen, a bear shifter, is happy running through the woods with her best friend, Locklear. The wolf shifter loves her with all he has and ever will be. One day as they run through the forest together, they meet a stranger. Soon this stranger becomes important to them both.
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About Sammie Joyce
Paranormal romance is Sammie’s favorite sub-genre of romance. She loves shifters of all sorts. Protectors. Those who need protection.
Falling in love and finding love together. Realizing that your mate is standing right in front of you. The magic in those moments. These are some of my favorite parts of romance!
Writing is one of Sammie’s great loves. Paranormal Romance is her passion.
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