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They had managed to hire a wedding planner who was working overtime, who aided them in the actual ceremony, hiring a minister, and organizing both a bachelor and bachelorette party all within a week. All they had to do was try out a few cake samples from local bakeries and choose what they wanted to serve.
Lyra hid her wedding dress in their bedroom, out of sight. Timber felt tingly inside, thinking about his beautiful bride and how she would look walking down the aisle in less than a week’s time.
They tasted various slices of cake with Marigold in tow. She had her choices too, stuffing her face with sugary treats varying from vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, and even a cheesecake assortment.
“Great, now she’s never going to sleep,” Lyra joked.
Marigold was growing up fast. Timber noticed certain movements and gestures that reminded him of her biological mother, a woman he had cared for but barely knew. He was over the moon with how she had adjusted to Lyra’s presence, like there had not been time between a woman’s influence at all.
Timber and Lyra laughed, and Marigold giggled as they narrowed down the selection. They had to stop her from eating the leftovers, cackling over the various stains on her cute little face.
“I think she wants them all,” Timber said.
On the night before the wedding, both Timber and Lyra spent time with their friends in what was deemed astag-and-doebut separated. Timber wasn’t nuts about the idea. He wanted to spend every waking moment with his mate and no one else.
Lyra teased him, though, saying that it was his last night of freedom.
“Freedom?” he scoffed. “I am freer with you than I have ever been. I don’t want, and will never want, anything else.”
Lyra’s face lit up as they embraced at the door. She nibbled on his ear, pressing her breasts against his chest as she spoke.
“I love you more than I can ever say. I am going to miss you tonight.”
His manhood quivered as he buried his face into her neck, tracing his tongue over the imprint he had made with his fangs not so long ago. He kissed it, feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude.
“I always miss you, baby.”
They finally parted, hands slipping away as they went their separate ways to their gatherings. Timber’s friends had planned a tree-trunk throwing contest, which he enjoyed fervently.
But it wasn’t the same as having Lyra by his side. Even when they were sitting in silence, he felt complete. But he did what was asked of him that night, dreaming of their life with his daughter and the mate who had cured him of every heartache he’d ever experienced.
FORTY-SIX
LYRA
Lyra had a fun time with her old friends, blended with the new friends who were the wives of the shifters who had aided in the creation of the New Bear Council. They bar-hopped around the small town, playing truth or dare and learning more about the women of the state she would grow old in. Her stomach hurt from the amount of laughing and glee they had all gone through till the moon dissipated in the sky.
She had made sure not to go too crazy with booze as she didn’t want to be hungover on her wedding day. She woke with a feeling of completeness. She felt anxious at first, which was a knee-jerk response she’d had since she was a child. But then, she let it go, something she had become better at since mating with Timber.
It was a bright, crisp day, with the chill in the wind giving way to the oncoming spring. She had stayed at Isabel’s home that night, and when she rose from the bed, she encountered a deliciously laid-out breakfast where all of the women were waiting for her.
Lyra had never felt so loved and appreciated in her entire life. Her mind initially rejected it, of course, as it was the only way she had known how to live. But with Timber’s silent encouragement, she embraced it, opening her heart and soul to people who would do her no harm.
They ate and talked. She was set to get ready at Timber’s and her place, separated from his section of the house where his buddies were set for the same. The entire day moved fast but slow at the same time, like a sequence of memories snapping ahead and backward, all so beautiful and impossible to contain.
She put on her wedding dress around four in the afternoon, as the ceremony was set to take place at dusk. She had chosen a stunning bone-white piece that hugged her ample bosom and waist, flaring out at the bottom to showcase the long train that would sway down the aisle. It was laced with tiny stitching of roses in champagne white decorated over the bust line and scattered throughout the rest of the dress. She wore a corset beneath it, cinching her hips and pushing up what was one of her favorite features of her body, creating a breathtaking mermaid appearance that she knew would stun her waiting husband-to-be.
Lyra felt like the goddess Timber had assured her she was. She had felt sexy before in her life in certain pieces of clothing, but she had never believed a man when he had said it back to her. She had always been afraid, hesitant, and mistrustful of their intentions.
But gazing at the mirror as Isabel and the other women applied dark forest green eyeshadow to accent her makeup, she knew that she was free forever from those chains.
She stood with a bouquet of pink and yellow roses at the end of the aisle, looking over the pristine emerald of the backyard. It had been expertly converted into a romantic, elegant oasis, with a white carpet runner splitting the carved wooden chairs. The runner ended at a dark cherrywood archway decorated in bursting red shades of even more roses.
The same violin player who had been present when Timber proposed began playing a solo tune. The sky was a tapestry of majesty, the sky blue having faded into a lavender and lilac opulence.
But all Lyra could see was Timber. He’d had a suit tailor-made in the color of the forest that surrounded them. His hair was cut and styled neatly, matching the close trim of his beard. His eyes were glossy when she began walking toward him.
He was something she never knew she had wanted. Something known but never said aloud. Something she would have never dared to wish for. Yet, there he was, palpable, dashing, real, sturdy, and stable.
