by A. C. Katt
“I think he has a gambling problem although he and Adele have done an excellent job hiding the amount of his debt. No more of this for tonight. I get married on Saturday. Thank you for listening to my ramblings.”
“I am at your service, Alpha.”
“You are a good man, Pierre. Meg is lucky to have you as am I and my mate. Let’s keep the fires lit tonight. The rain brings a chill.”
Chapter 8
It rained on the Friday evening before the wedding. Sean didn’t sleep well because Armand didn’t come to bed until quite late. Saturday morning dawned with the clean, crisp fresh air of fall. Sean awoke in Armand’s arms trying to stretch without waking his soon-to-be husband. It was sheer torture last night to go to bed and not attempt to make love to the fascinating and enigmatic man beside him. He suspected that Armand felt the same and came to bed late on purpose.
Sean had fucked before but now he would know the rapture of making love. Armand stirred pulling Sean into the hard wall of his chest. Unlike most gay men, Armand didn’t wax his chest and it was a bit furry. Sean giggled. Considering what they were, furry was not inconsistent.
Armand opened one eye. “What has you giggling this morning? It’s good to hear you happy.”
“I was running my hand through your chest hair and it came to me that you didn’t wax.” Armand raised an eyebrow. “Then I thought, considering what we are, furry I mean, it would be foolish.” Armand laughed out loud.
“Believe it or not, some of our kind do wax, but I’m not that vain.”
“I don’t have any hair to be vain about.” Sean said looking down at his chest where a few hairs straggled between his pecs. “I’ve often thought of waxing because so few chest hairs look a bit stupid, but it was expensive and I had no one I cared enough about to go to the trouble.”
“I love your five chest hairs,” Armand said turning over and putting Sean beneath him while pulling at one of them.
“Ouch, what did I do to deserve that? Now there are only four.”
“Soon there will be more, baby, and I’ll love every one of them just as I love you.” Armand pulled Sean in closer for a languid kiss. He explored the outline of Sean’s lips with his tongue probing at the middle just under the fascinating bow. Sean opened his mouth and let Armand into its recesses. His tongue probed under the lips and inside around the cheeks. The kiss quickly became intense, passion rising. Armand removed his lips from Sean’s mouth. Sean sighed.
“Tonight, my love, tonight I’ll make you mine and by tomorrow, I’ll show my mating mark in front of the pack by pack law. I already love you so much; I can’t imagine loving you more. Now we have to get up and get ready for our day. It will be a long one.”
A discrete knock on the door brought Pierre with a light breakfast which he set up at the small table between the two wing chairs. “I don’t think I can eat,” Sean said. “I’m nervous. I’m way out of my comfort zone. All of this,” Sean waved around at the opulent room, “is almost too much. I still feel like I don’t belong here.”
“You’re getting pre-wedding jitters. Your friends will be here is about two hours. You’ll feel better with someone familiar around you. Remember this, baby, you are my mate, I was predestined to love you.”
“You say that, I believe I feel that, but what if it’s not real? What if you’re mistaken? How do I know it’s real?”
Armand took a sip of his coffee. “You’ll have to trust me. Can you trust me? Have I lied to you or forced myself on you? I’ve always given you choice. You can still walk away. It would kill me, but if that’s what you want, you can.”
“I don’t want to walk away. I want it all to be true. I want to be yours and you to be mine, forever. I guess I am just scared. Nothing for me has ever come easy. Finding you, just when I needed you most…it seems too simple. I’m just scared it will all vanish.” Sean sat with a sigh.
“I won’t vanish. This is real, tonight we will be in New Mexico and I’ll going to make sweet love to you and then you’ll know exactly how I feel. Come, let’s eat. You’ll feel much better with food in your stomach.” Armand lifted his fork and put a bite of omelet into Sean’s mouth.
* * * *
Tony and Nina arrived at seven thirty. Sean came down to see them as soon as they got in the door and took them to the family parlor for privacy. “You’ll stand up for me, Tony? I mean, be my best man?”
“Of course. But isn’t this sudden? Are you sure you want to do this? You can come home with Nina and me and stay with us until you get on your feet. You don’t have to marry this stranger.” Tony blustered.
“But I want to marry him. I can’t explain, but we were meant for each other,” Sean answered.
“You may think so, but I’m not convinced.” Tony paced the floor.
“Why don’t you meet him before you pass judgment?” Nina asked patting the sofa at her side indicating Tony should sit. “I think Sean is old enough and smart enough to know his own mind.”
“Why about school, your degree?”
“I didn’t want to worry you but Dad cut me off in August, he even took Nellie’s legacy. I was going to buy a ticket to Boston and stay with you until I got on my feet again, but then I met Armand. He’s not only going to get me Nellie’s legacy back—I’m going to finish my degree next semester here or at UNM where they have a course on Native American pottery techniques.” Sean grabbed Tony into a hug. “It’s going to be okay. I love him.”
“How can you love him so soon?” Tony asked Sean, his tone serious.
“Remember when you met Nina? You told me she was the one after your first date.”
“Busted.” Nina chirped as she elbowed Tony in the ribs.
Tony relaxed a bit. “Okay, I’ll reserve judgment until I meet him. It was nice of him to send the plane for us. We’re flying back first class after two nights at the Waldorf. I feel like we are being bought off.” Tony’s brow furrowed.
“That isn’t his way. You are my friends and are the only people of mine who are going to be at the wedding. Of course, he’s going to try to make you comfortable. Please believe me when I say, I’m good with this. I’m happy, a little nervous, but happy.”
“Maybe your nerves are telling you something.” Tony was like a bulldog with a bone.
“Look, I’m nervous because all I have to give him is me. Look around you. He’s legally shared everything with me. I signed all sort of papers to be put on all of his accounts. There is no pre-nup. I asked if he wanted one and he insisted it wasn’t necessary. He changed his will. Does that sound like someone who is trying to hurt me?” Sean asked in exasperation.
“No, I suppose not.” Tony admitted grudgingly.
“See,” Nina said. “I told you it would be all right. You are such a worrywart. Now stop the interrogation and enjoy the wedding.”
Armand entered the room. Sean turned to look into his face, afraid he heard some of the conversation.
“Armand, this is Tony and Nina, my friends from Boston.” Armand shook Tony hand and gave Nina a kiss on both cheeks.
“Welcome to our home. I wish we had more time to visit. I want to get to know Sean’s friends. We are leaving for New Mexico after the wedding, perhaps you would like to visit us in New York when we get back?”
Sean gave Tony a look. “That would be great. We don’t see enough of Sean since we moved to Boston. I’m a TA at Boston University. Sean is my best friend. Take care of him,” Tony said ominously.
“I will,” Armand said, serious in tone. He pulled Sean to his side. “Would you and Nina like to go upstairs to freshen up? We’ve put aside a room for our guests to use.”
“That would be lovely, thank you,” Nina said grabbing hold of Tony’s hand.
“Pierre, would you show our guest to the blue room? If you need anything just ask Pierre or his wife, Meg, and they will provide it for you. Maybe some tea or coffee since you had such an early flight. Meg would gladly make you a light breakfast.”
“Oh no, we a
te on your plane. The food was excellent. However, a cup of coffee would be welcome,” Nina said.
“Pierre, coffee in the blue room…follow him and he will take good care of you.” Armand turned to Sean. “Your friends care about you a great deal.”
“I gather you heard the conversation. Tony means well, I’m sorry how he came across.”
“Baby, I would rather you have friends who are loyal to you than ones who didn’t give a damn. Your goodness shows in the way they feel about you. Let’s go upstairs and get ready. We only have an hour until the ceremony.”
“Shit, I didn’t pack, eh excuse me.” Sean blushed. “I guess I’m going to have to watch my mouth.”
“No, all you have to do is be yourself and Pierre has us all packed and ready to go.”
“Jeez, Armand, that man needs some serious time off. I don’t think I’ve seen him idle since I first arrived.”
“Don’t worry about Pierre. When we go to New Mexico he and Meg will have plenty of time to see their extended family.” Armand put his arm around Sean and pulled him in for a hug.
As they started up the stairs, Sean asked, “Pierre has family…”
“Yes, two daughters. I would ask Terese and Blanche to bear our young, if that meets with your approval.”
Sean looked at Armand in amazement as they climbed up the stairs to their room.
* * * *
Sean came went down to the reception room at eight thirty. It was a part of the house he hadn’t seen before. Flowers decorated columns around the entranceway. There was a large buffet set up in a room off to the side where five tables for ten were set. The flowers were all white lilies and roses along with some rare white orchids. The white silk wrapped perfectly around the columns. Sean wore a white rose in his lapel. Tony and Nina escorted him up the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon in D, where Armand awaited him, Martin and Rene beside him.
Judge Booker began the ceremony. “It is your duty, Armand, to be to Sean a considerate, tender, faithful, and loving husband. To support, guide and cherish him in prosperity and trouble. To thoughtfully and carefully enlarge the place he holds in your life. To constantly show to him the tokens of your affection, to shelter him from danger, and to love him as your mate in unalterable affection for eternity. Do you as I say?”
“I do.”
“It is your duty, Sean, to be to Armand a considerate, tender, faithful, and loving husband. To support and cherish him in prosperity and trouble. To give him counsel and help him to bear his burdens with grace, to comfort him in need and rejoice with him in plenty. And to love him as your mate for all eternity. Do you as I say?”
“I do.”
“According to the law of the State of New York and with the powers invested in me by the gods of our people, I now pronounce you mates as nature and the gods intended for this lifetime and into the next. May you always find each other and love as you do today.”
Armand pulled Sean into a carnal kiss. The guests burst into applause.
“Congratulations, Alpha,” Rene said as he took his Alpha’s face and kissed both cheeks. Martin did the same. Tony took Sean’s hand and pulled him into a hug.
“Remember, if you need anything, if this doesn’t work for you, I’m but a phone call away. I’ll always have your back.”
Nina just kissed Sean and said, “I wish you all of the happiness that Tony and I have experienced.”
Armand turned to Sean. “I believe we have a receiving line, my love, if you could bring Tony and Nina beside you we can begin.”
* * * *
All of the members of the council including Alpha La Farge went through the receiving line. Alpha La Farge as the second most senior council member would temporarily take Armand’s place as head of the council until such time as he and Sean returned to New York.
The guests proceeded to the buffet where a beautiful brunch awaited them. Waiters circled the room with champagne and raspberries. On the buffet were an assortment of canapés and hot hors d’oeuvres with cheese, fruit, and mini desserts. The wedding cake was a Victorian Princess Louise with milk chocolate as well as the traditional white chocolate curls.
After the guests had eaten, Rene called for their attention.
“I would like to toast the grooms in the manner of our people. May the moon always rise above your head and the sun lay warm against your skin. May you be to each other true mates and carry each other in your hearts for all the times to come as you have in all times past and will in all times future, Alpha and Alpha Mate.” He lifted his glass to Armand and Sean.
Tony and Nina glanced at Sean as if looking for a translation of the ceremony. When he and Armand began to greet the guests, Tony pulled him aside. “That was a rather strange ceremony and what’s with the Alpha stuff.”
“Armand is a direct descendent of the royal line of France. The family regards him as the head of their house. On formal occasions, they call him Alpha.” Sean shrugged his shoulders. “It’s their tradition. Armand explained it all to me.”
“Sounds like a nasty cult to me,” Tony replied.
“If you can’t be happy for me, maybe I shouldn’t have asked you to come.” Sean got more and more angry with his friend’s behavior.
“It’s just not like you Sean, doing all of this in two weeks’ time. You were always the one who deliberated, even over the smallest of things. Yet you met and married this man in just two weeks. I’m sorry, I’m worried about you. You witnessed a murder. Did you ever think that your husband might have been involved and married you to shut you up?”
“One last time, because you are still my best friend. I know where I am, who I am, and what I am doing. I love Armand and he loves me. I saw the face of the murderer and it was not Armand. We are going to New Mexico for my protection. Did you see the guards he hired? This is all to protect me because he loves me. You loved Nina the first night you saw her. Why should it be different for me?”
“You’re right, I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you hurt.”
“Just be happy for me, my friend.”
Armand came up beside Sean and asked him to say good-bye to some of their guests.
“We have to get ready to go. Nina, Tony, it was lovely to meet you. I hope you enjoy your stay at the Waldorf. Everything there is ready, you only have to ask for the key to your suite. All meals and amenities have been paid. Your tickets for the plane ride home will be at the desk as well as a limousine to take you to the airport.”
“Thank you, Armand for all your kindness. We wouldn’t have wanted to miss Sean’s wedding.” Sean watched Nina elbow Tony.
“Yes, thank you, Armand for everything. Take care of Sean. I may not have the power or money that you have, but I have his back.”
“Tony…”
“It had to be said, Nina.”
“Yes,” Armand agreed. “I would have thought less of you had you not said it.”
* * * *
Armand and Sean went up to the master bedroom to change for the trip. “Wear a jacket. New Mexico can be chilly in October. I can’t wait for you to see the ranch. We have over a thousand acres between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Natural wolves are being introduced into the southern part of the state. We try to keep ourselves hidden where we are. Our ranch abuts the Sandia Mountain Range and the pack can run free in the pine forest although we run primarily at night to avoid detection by riders on the tramway.”
Both men put on soft golf shirts with khaki slacks and sneakers. “Are you ready?”
Sean threw himself into Armand’s arms. “It’s real, isn’t it?”
Armand pulled him into a tight grip. Moving his hand up to cup Sean face, Armand placed his mouth on Sean’s lips. His tongue traced the seam of Sean’s mouth. Sean opened to receive him. Tongues dueled as each man explored the recesses of the other’s mouth. Armand could feel Sean’s hardening cock against his leg.
“As much as I’d like to continue this right now, baby, we have a plane to catch.” Armand pushed Sean away ge
ntly and kissed him on the top of his head. “Let’s get to the airport. We’re leaving out the back door.”
* * * *
Rene Dubois was at the wheel with a Martin sitting shotgun in the Lincoln Navigator. “Rene take us straight to Newark.” Armand ordered as he followed Sean into the back seat of the car.
“I thought we were going to the heliport at the Garou building in a limousine,” Sean said, puzzled.
“I hate to even say this aloud but we have a traitor in our midst. No one knew when we were to go out to the jewelers but pack. Someone in the loup-garou must have alerted Dimitri. The attack was too well coordinated to be executed by one man. I decided to change our plans telling no one but Pierre, Rene, and Martin.”
“A pack member responsible for an attack on our Alpha, that’s beyond comprehension,” Rene said.
“Unthinkable, but possible, I’d rather not take chances with my mate. The plane has been moved to Newark. We will land at the airport in Santa Fe rather than Albuquerque. Two enforcers are traveling to the Garou building dressed the same as we are. We will see what happens.”
* * * *
They drove through the Holland Tunnel to the New Jersey Turnpike. Soon they took the exit for Newark airport and pulled into a private hanger. Sean looked up at the plane in awe.
“This is a Gulfstream 550. We have it configured to seat ten and it has berthable seats,” Armand explained while escorting Sean up the stairs to the cabin.
“What’s a berthable seat?” Sean quizzed Armand as Armand took his elbow.
“That means that the cabin seat turns into a bed for long flights.” Armand laughed when he saw the amazement on Sean’s face.
“Exactly how much money do you have?”
“How much do we have, baby. We have personally about a billion dollars invested throughout the United States. The Garou Corporation, LLC is a holding company worth about a hundred billion dollars. We invest in making the companies we own thrive. We buy companies that have solid business plans and invest capital for R&D. I’m proud to say we offer corporation-wide benefits that are the finest in the nation. We don’t strip companies of their assets and sell them off. We invest in our purchases and send in experts to help them overcome any obstacles to profitability without hurting workers. All of our operations are in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are one of the largest privately held corporations in North America.”