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She ducked into the crowd, allowing herself to get lost in a sea of shifters and witches, all mixing and mingling, and talking excitedly.The crowd in gorgeous dresses, suits, and finery, gathered in the grass, overflowed into every square foot of available space. Yet, she pushed towards the back, searching for any familiar face. Even when she saw a few people she knew, she still kept moving to where no one was paying any attention. Back to where she was less likely to run into him. She hadn’t felt much, just the consistent ache from her wolf, and she thought maybe he hadn’t come tonight.
When the first ceremony started, the leaders dedicating the new city to the unity of their people, she paused to watch Ava, Kathleen, and Axel all join hands on stage. Makaii would betaking over soon, but until then, his father, Axel, still served as Tuisa’s Alpha. He was the only one Ava had been worried about accepting this idea. He had not allowed pack members to leave their territory in many years, and to give up a piece of their land to join with Aisling was a tremendous step for him.
However much he might have been reluctant, it was clear his pack fully supported this. There were at least five thousand members here from Tuisa, along with the thousands from Aisling and Rathlin. Not so long ago, this would have been like a candy shop for her. The men of Tuisa were absolute hotties in so many ways. Descendants of a hidden and surviving Native American nation of shifters combined with the many former runaway slaves, and they had formed a formidable pack. Working together over the past one hundred and seventy years, they had concealed themselves from the rest of the world in order to survive. Their biggest feat was building a world renowned and successful cattle and horse business, as well as an enormous self-sufficient pack. Huge, legendary, and secretive even in the human world, both the shifter pack and the ranch side of their business were notorious for being private and protective of their people, shying away from outsiders of any kind. This had made them untouchable in so many ways. Larger than most other wolf shifters, known for their fierce fighting and vicious natures, the world feared them, and humans respected them.
Not her. She hadn’t seen an ugly Tuisa wolf yet. They were hot, deliciously so, and she had spent years on social media trying to convince any of them to leave their pack and meet her.And a party like this? A fucking wet dream. So many to choose from.But now, each one reminded her she had a Tuisa mate, a nameless, faceless man she would belong to forever.
Forever.
It was such a permanent word, and nothing she ever did was permanent, so it wasn’t surprising this scared the shit out of her. But she had long ago passed the point of no-return. No longer could she grab the nearest hard body and push him into a corner and fuck like there was no tomorrow.Maybe it was a good thing she had gravitated to the back. Less temptation.
Despite moving to the back as she planned, there was no intense pull, not like expected anyway. Her wolf wasn’t howling yet, just a natural inclination pulling her outward. But that didn’t make sense. He should be up near the Alpha families. That’s what she had planned for.
Finding a relatively open space towards the road, far enough away that there were only a few people near her, but also still close enough to hear the ceremony, she had just settled in when Travis linked her.
“Bai? Where are you?”
He sounded a little panicked, so she waited to answer him, enjoying the distraction from her thoughts.
“Answer me or I’ll sound this alarm so quick. I’m not supposed to leave your side.”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m towards the back.”
“Thought you’d be up there with Ava. Can’t let you get kidnapped again. I’m barely recovering from the ass-kicking last week.”
She rolled her eyes before answering him, keeping her attention on the stage and the rapidly setting sun.“Needed a little space. Too many people here. When the ceremonies are over, I want to make my grand entrance on the dance floor. I need everyone to see my outfit. You know I like the attention.”
“You’re gonna have to make your entrance on my arm, then. Where are you? Also, one of the Tuisa guys wants to meet you. Been asking for months to meet the infamous Bailey. Says hehasn’t stopped thinking about you since he saw you on Zhair’s Insta last year.”
She already knew. Ava told her he’d been asking to meet up, and they had discussed what that meant at length. Either Isaiah was her mate, and he already felt the pull, or he was just being himself, wanting what he couldn’t have. At this point, both possibilities were equal. But she still didn’t feel ready, and she sure as hell didn’t want Travis to be the one who introduced them.
It would be on her terms.
By then, each of the three leaders had spoken, their words blurring together. When they all held hands in the air, with a flicker of magic, each of the symbols behind them blazed with fire. Stepping over to the flames burning into the concrete, each leader touched their respective symbol, and the fire sucked down into a smolder, evolving into the colorful stones of their people.
The curly ‘A’ for Aisling filled with the perpetually moving fire of the agate stone. The encircled TI of the Tuisa brand crystallized into the glossy black moonstone, and the Doire knot of the Rathlin Coven brightened into the green of the Connemara stone.
It was Kathleen who stepped forward as the eldest leader, raising her hands in the air. With a swish of her hands, the two large bonfire pits on each side of the stage blazed with a fire at least fifty feet high.
“Welcome to NahleCheile!”
Bailey paused at the final acts of the city dedication ceremony, the symbolic unifying of the packs over. Now Ava would officially be welcomed as the Alpha of Aisling, completing the swearing in process.She couldn’t help staring at the beauty of it all, enthralled by the magic in the air, until she remembered Travis was trying to find her still.
“Trav. Shouldn’t you be up there with Ava? She’s about to do her swearing in. Pretty sure you’re a part of that.”
“Shit. You’re right. Don’t go anywhere.”
Rolling her eyes, she watched as Travis barely made it to the stage before Ava started her speech, then the Aisling Council and Travis’s father stepped forward to give her the official oaths.
Bailey nodded at the people who pushed past her, stepping out of their way as they rushed by excitedly. Th Alpha ceremony ended quickly, more symbolic than any of them since Ava had taken over as Alpha three and a half months ago, defeating the former Alpha Thomas in a gruesome battle.
It was the last event people were excited about. Everyone loved mating ceremonies, and this one, more than any, needed a happy ending. Ava and Makaii had been through hell this past year, and she was ready to see her bestie happy.
And so was everyone else. She was practically left alone out in the grass as everyone crowded forward, some climbing onto the roof of the porch outside of the ballroom to get the best view.
There was a quick change of decor as they brought traditional mating ceremony pieces out. A Rathlin archway, full of fall flowers and vines grown at the quick touch of another witch, was placed center stage along with a small bench and two ceremonial knives.
Scooching forward to the edge of the crowd, she kept her eye trained on the stage. The sun had begun setting, and with the blaze of the fires on each side of them, shadows bounced off their faces when they approached the archway.
