Page 37 of Honey, I'm Home

The fact that she's not fighting me pulling her away tells me my intuition is spot on. “You're still sensing something, aren't you? Some sort of trouble from them?”

She bites her lip and nods, eyes searching the dusk beyond us. “I know my father said that they left town limits, but I can't help thinking or feeling that there's something else coming our way. I don't know. Maybe it's nothing.”

“If your instincts are telling you to be on guard, then I trust them. Just make sure you stay close to us; we don't need to be separated. In case something crazy happens, I would prefer if the four of us were close to each other.”

She nods, trying to figure out why I've still got her caged back here away from the party guests. “What?”

“I just want to say, you make a really hot bride.”

She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. We should probably get back to the party, we're kind of the reason people are here, you know. I'm surprised you guys didn't have any freaky honey ritual or anything planned for today. Maybe that's what my instincts are warning me against,” she teases.

I kiss her, grinning like a fool when Arbor gets over the loudspeakers and calls everybody's attention up to the front.

“Shit. I totally spoke too soon, didn't I? Is this going to be like a weird garter toss type thing where you— you know what? I don't want to know. Do Ihaveto do it?”

I tow her behind me, winding her hand around my arm. I’m ecstatic right now, because I just married my dream girl, but my bee is rearing to make her his in his own way. All I can say is that she's probably going to be considering inviting the queen back to take us before we're done with her.

Chapter 16

Arbor

“There she is. Can I get a warm welcome for the brand-new Mrs.?”

The crowd whistles and applauds wildly as Hawthorne pulls our mate with him from the edge of trees.

“Normally, when a shifter takes a mate here in Trash Haven, they perform for the whole town and share that mating magic. But we’re going to do it a bit differently tonight.”

There are some definite objections at this, but I’m not imagining the look of relief that crosses others’ faces.

“Bee shifters are a bit shyer than other types of shifters, so we’re only going to besimulatingthe mating flight of a queen bee, and we will then face our three trials afterward.”

The thing about Trash Haven being made up of so many different species, is that all sorts of traditions have come about here.

I’ve never personally participated in a town public claiming, though I have popped in on a few just to see what they’re all about. Our last one was not too long ago between a hot cocoa shifter and his mate, and that one got pretty damn raunchy.

Everyone present had no shame in getting all sorts of frisky with their partners as the newly mated pair went at it on stage, and I saw things that night that I’m still not healed from.

We all have our own levels of comfort, and we’re sticking with ours. Bees aren’t as sexual as other species, at least not publicly so. The people of Trash Haven expect newly mated shifters to have some sort of public ceremony though where we share in the magic of publicly claiming our new mate, and it’s an integral part of what keeps this town so tightly knit.

Once we publicly lay claim to our mates, we are then immediately expected to pass through a gauntlet that members of the town put together. Carrying our mate, spent from the claiming, we need to prove to the town that we are able to defend our mate from different dangers, all of which is very much symbolic and almost choreographed at this point, and not at all like the intense way they used to do it.

The town’s history is fascinating, but all these little things we continue to do keep the residents here rooted in Trash Haven.

Aster is blinking up at me suspiciously, and I can’t help but wonder if she’d forgotten how shifter matings go down here after being gone so long. Maybe she was hopingwe’dforgotten?

I extend a hand to our chosen queen and get her on the stage, and Dev guides her to kneel on the satin pillow we brought purely for this.

“Our Queen,” he proclaims as he places a crown of wildflowers on her head. “You know we already acknowledged you as such, but from here on out, let there be no mistaking your role for us.

“The three of us already vowed to love and cherish you forever, to protect and be faithful. Now we add another promise.

“So long as there be breath in our lungs, we will serve you as our hive queen. From here until our dying day, we exist to serve you, to keep you comfortable, and to ensure you always know how much you are valued.

“We give you this crown as a symbol of your role in our hive.

“Traditionally, if the mating taking place were between all bee shifters, the bee queen would fly around and spread her pheromones while the drones followed behind and tried to mount her midflight.

“We will change this to suit our specific abilities. In lieu of flying, Aster, we invite you to move through the crowd at whatever pace you wish, while we admire you and follow behind.