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Maybe not. But he has the rest of our lives together to convince me.
* * *
When I first arrived inAccalia a year ago, I knew that the Luna Ceremony wasn’t going to be a simple exchange of vows between me and Ryker. As the Alpha, it’s always been understood by his packmates that they would get to be a part of it, that they would be able to celebrate him and welcome his new mate.
Somehow, I kind of forgot all of that now that I’m back again.
Last night, we stayed inside of Ryker’s personal cabin. It was a clue to everyone on the mountains that we weren’t to be bothered. Once he was installed as the Alpha, every packmate was free to meet him in the den of the Alpha’s cabin, but his old cabin awarded us a sliver of privacy.
But that was last night.
Early this morning, Ryker nudges me awake. I slap at his hand, still too tired to get up.
After more than a year in Muncie, I found it difficult to fall asleep without the sounds of cars whizzing by, voices shouting up from below the apartment, the hum of the humans who made up a good part of the Fang City; while I’ve gotten better at sensing the auras and scents unique to vampires, my wolf instinctively knows when living creatures are near and vamps are definitelynotliving creatures. In the cabin, there’s me and Ryker and… that’s about all.
It’s quiet in Accalia.Tooquiet. Apart from the insects outside of our window and Ryker’s rumbling snores, I hear nothing. And despite how my intended did everything he could to wear me out, I didn’t fall asleep until the moon was trading places with the sun in the sky.
I mumble something about “five more minutes,” but Ryker isn’t having it.
“That’s fine, but Trish and Audrey are going to be heading over to the den to meet with us soon. Unless you’d rather we do all of the planning for tonight on our own?”
That’s all I need to hear to have me scrambling up and out of bed.
It’s another compromise, and this one’s all mine. Both females are super eager to make up for the trouble they caused me. Trish for how she tried to come between Ryker and me, and Audrey for the part she played in the pack council’s brilliant plan to throw me to their Alpha during the height of the full moon. Since they’re willing, I decide they could help me out by arranging all the details for tonight’s ceremony.
Despite knowing that some packs make a big deal out of their Alpha taking a mate, I… I’ve never actually been to a public Luna Ceremony before. I was super young when my parents bonded, and they kept theirs private.
In Lakeview, we always did things different.
From what I figured, it’s similar to a human wedding, just scaled down. We’ll have it set up in the open space outside of the Alpha cabin, with seats for every packmate. In front of the rows of chairs, there’ll be a simple podium carved with the image of the Luna in the center of the wood; that’ll be where me and Ryker will stand and make our promises to each other. He’ll be wearing something more formal than his usual jeans and t-shirt, while I made sure to pack the white dress my mom had made for me before I left Lakeview.
My mom is nothing if not sentimental. When she found out that the Luna marked me as Ryker’s fated mate, she knew that I’d have to have a ceremony just like this. Working with one of the seamstresses in my old pack, they gave me a tailored white dress—a simple sheath that hits my knees, a row of pearls along the neckline—as a mating gift.
And maybe I inherited a touch of that sentimentality from my mom. Because, even after I believed that Ryker had rejected me, I held onto that dress.
For the longest time, I hid it in the back of my closet at my apartment in Muncie. When we decided to go ahead with the bonding during this full moon, I packed it and now, after more than a year and a half, I’ll finally get to wear it.
I’ve got the dress. I’ve got the logistics about tonight down.
Does that mean that I want to deal with the details? Of figuring out if there’s a seating plan or where exactly we’re going to place the podium or, I don’t know, if we’re supposed to provide food or something for the pack when it’s over?
That’s where Audrey and Trish come in. As a gift of their own to the Alpha couple, they offered to do all of that for me. I have no idea how they figured out that the idea of actuallyplanningthe ceremony had me ready to just join Ryker in his basement instead of turning this into a pack affair, but I’m grateful that they’re doing it instead.
Now I just have to beat them to the Alpha cabin.
I have barely enough time to run a brush through my tangled hair, change into fresh clothes, and high-tail it over to the secluded Alpha cabin with Ryker before they show up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
He disappears into the kitchen off of the office-styled den, coming back with a huge mug of coffee; it’s not tea, but I need the caffeine so I’m not complaining. He hands it to me, nods at the other two females, then vanishes back into the private half of the Alpha cabin.
I have to bite my tongue to keep from calling after him. What happened towe, huh? He accompanied me to the cabin, but at first sight of the females, he bolted.
With a snort, I think:coward.
Does he think that putting me in a room with Trish and Audrey is going to blow up in his face? That I’m going to go feral on them?
Not gonna lie. During the half an hour “planning session” the thought does cross my mind once or twice—or fifteen times. They’re pleased to hear that I already have the dress I’m planning on wearing, and Audrey asks to see it. I quickly point out that I left it back at Ryker’s with the rest of my luggage, so she instead insists that I describe it.
In detail.
