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As I stand before my bride, preparing to take her as my wife, though, I know that should any come to threaten her or our coming kit, I will not hesitate to slay them. My family alone will see this kind face. All others will find me as merciless as ever. Perhaps more so, now that I know how much I have to lose.
I hold my beloved’s hands tightly as she speaks her vows to me.
“I, Hannah Elizabeth Levine, take you, Abaddon, to be my husband before God and these witnesses.” She smiles at me so sweetly as she says the words, and her eyes are full of emotion. “I promise to be a faithful and true wife.”
Her hands shake as she holds forth a ring and I lift my hand. “This ring is a symbol of my love, devotion, and promise to be yours forever. With this ring, I thee wed.”
My chest goes tight as her small fingers slip the thick gold ring past my claws and knuckles to land snuggly at the base of my fourth finger. She has bound herself to me truly.
“In sickness and health, in poverty and fortune, I am yours. Forever.”
I swallow hard against an unexpected knot of emotion in my throat so that I am able to speak my own vows. “I promise to protect you and our kit, and to keep you safe and healthy.” I press my palm with the glinting gold ring on it to her stomach, and her eyes glisten with unshed tears.
I hold her gaze as I continue. “I promise to bring you joy and not anguish, so far as I am able.”
The tears fall down her cheeks, and I brush them away with my thumbs.
“With this ring, I thee wed.” I take her tiny, delicate ring from my pocket and slide it onto her delicate finger, and then make my last vow. “I swear I will love you for eternity.”
She grins at me so brightly it’s like sunrise after the longest, darkest night.
Then Remus kicks Thing, who stands straighter and quickly swipes a tear from his eye with one of his hands before swallowing with a little cough. “I now declare you monster and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”
I swing my wife into my arms and begin my claiming.
Epilogue
HANNAH
6 Months Later
“I feel like a whale.” I toy with my food as we all sit around the dining room table.
“You are beautiful and round with kit,” Abaddon reassures, moving to stand behind me and massage my sore shoulders.
I look down at my hugely distended stomach. I already look nine months pregnant. And just then, a horrible thought strikes, and I turn around to look up at Abaddon. “How long do angel-spawn babies or whatever last anyway? It’s still just nine months, right?”
And still, looking down at myself, I can’t imagine growing bigger for three more months. I won’t be able to walk.
Which is when I look back just in time to catch Abaddon’s eyes flick toward Thing. Who looks to Romulus. Who shrugs.
My eyes shoot open wide. “What does that mean?” I shriek. “Oh my god, we need to go get an ultrasound. We need to find out what’s happening in there.” My hands fly to my stomach.
“I thought you didn’t want to—”
“Well now I do!” I yell. “I don’t care if we terrify some clinicians somewhere, I have to see what’s growing inside me!” I yell.
Grabbing the chair for support with one hand and the table with the other hand, I gingerly heft myself to my feet. “What are we going to do when the baby comes? We need an action plan. How have we not made an action plan?”
Abaddon takes my hand. “Breathe. Just breathe. It will all be all right. Romulus will go get a doctor.”
I pause my pacing and look at him. “Really? But how?”
“I’ll kidnap one.” It’s Remus’s voice, and when I turn and look, it’s to see the maniacal-faced twin grinning at me.
“Dear god, don’t kidnap somebody—” But my sentence is cut off when a pain lancing through my stomach has me grabbing for Abaddon and screaming.
I’m almost knocked off my feet by the sudden, wrenching pain of it, but Abaddon catches me.
And then suddenly a pool of water releases and gushes at my feet.
I shake my head in terrified denial. “I can’t have this baby now. It’s too early!” I think it is, anyway. I look at Abaddon and scream in his face, “Get me to a hospital. Now!”
“What will they do at a hospital,” Remus asks from behind me, “if you deliver a monster baby?”
My eyes go wide and my nails dig into Abaddon’s arms as I imagine nurses screaming in fright and running as the head of my sweet little baby crowns… horns and all.
Plus, if we go to a hospital, I won’t be able to have Abaddon at my side. I can’t do this without him. I can’t—
