by Paige Taylor
“If anyone would like to say a few words, please speak up. His memory deserves happy thoughts before we send him back to nature,” I say, looking around the large group in front of me.
The next half an hour is spent with half of the group sharing little tibits and funny stories of Seth from his childhood years to his adult life. It is beautiful to see that there are more people laughing and enjoying his memory, the overshadowing grief receding as his memory lives on.
I take a step back and let go of Dylan’s hand as he moves to light the pyre, everyone goes silent as he walks over, and sets the wooden structure alight. The sound of the fire crackling and roaring is the only thing to focus on as we send Seth back to mother nature.
All I could think about was how quickly life could be extinguished, how quickly our lives can be irrevocably changed by one wrong move. I need those I loved to know that I need them with every fibre of my being. As everyone was leaving to mourn in private, I walk up to the only Mate I hadn’t told I loved him, yet.
I grasped Wade’s face in my hands, like he has done to me some many times before, and stared into his beautiful eyes.
“I love you, Wade Chamberlain. With everything inside me, I love you.” His response is to slam his lips to mine, as quickly as possible, his tongue slipping out to brush against my lips and slide in to me.
“Baby, I love you more than you could possibly know.” His arms band around my back and lift me up, his lips once again pressing into mine and conveying all the love in his heart down our bond.
Chapter Seventeen
Today is the day, the day of the Mating ceremony, the day that I marry the four, most-amazing men I’ve ever met. They are literally choosing to tie their life to me. Till death do us part, and all that jazz, except with Wolves there is no divorce, no love after, there is just their destined Mate, or Mates, in my case.
This morning is the first morning I’ve woken up without one of my Mates beside me in weeks. All I had found on their side of the bed was a bouquet of my favourite flower–carnations– on the pillow where Wade had slept the night before and a letter saying, ‘I love you’. What greeted me when I walked downstairs was a makeshift spa day and Sophie and Annabelle wearing matching dressing gowns and yelling ‘surprise’. Apparently, my wonderful, beautiful mates had organised a spa morning for me in preparation for our Mating at dusk. The girls and I spend the morning being lavished with champagne, massages, and mani-pedi’s, as well as full hair and makeup.
Staring at myself in the mirror, I still cannot believe how perfect this dress is for me. It’s a beautiful, ivory colour, in an A-line shape with crystal beading sparingly scattered from the top of the sweetheart neck line down to the bottom of the dress. I honestly didn’t think I would ever look this beautiful, and yet, I know that I could be wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and these men would still call me beautiful.
“Oh my god. You look stunning,” I hear Sophie whisper behind me, making me turn my head towards the woman who has become one of my best friends so quickly. She looks gorgeous in the midnight-blue halter bridesmaid’s dress she is wearing. I know in a mating we don’t really have bridesmaids and groomsmen, but I really wanted Sophie and Anabelle to be a part of this, and I know the guys appreciate having Steven and Trent included as well.
“Thank you for all your help today, I literally could not have done any of this without you and Annabelle,” I say honestly, hoping that she can feel the genuine gratitude I am focusing on her.
“Holy fuck. Look . . . at . . . you!” I hear Annabelle yell as she rounds the corner of the Wade’s bedroom. She is wearing the biggest of smiles, and her hands are out in front of her as she walks closer to give me a big hug, but careful not to crush my hair or smudge my make-up.
“Don’t you talk, look how amazing you and Sophie look! Hottest girls in the pack!” I laugh as I pull back from her hug and look both of them up and down.
“Well, Bride, it is your turn to take that long walk down the aisle. Those sexy men of yours are getting antsy.” Annabelle laughs, her eyes shifting across to the windows where we have a bird’s eye view of the ceremony. The ceremony is at the back of Wade’s Pack house, just at the boundary of the tree line. Hundreds of fairy lights have been placed elegantly between the trees with lit torches lining the aisle. Hundreds of white chairs have been set up facing what looks like a giant, vined gazebo that also has fairy lights placed within it. Everything about it is elegant, beautiful, and everything that I could have wanted in a Mating ceremony. The girls have done such an amazing job with how little feedback I gave.
“I’m ready! Let’s go get me Mated!” I say as I hook my arms between the two of them, and we set off out of the room. As we reached the stairs, Sophie lets go of my arm and walks behind me. I turn my head to follow what she is doing, curious as to why she didn’t want to walk with me, trying to ignore the little pang of hurt.
“Just picking up your dress, Ava. I don’t want it to get dirty walking across the floor of the house or outside,” she says, smiling up at me as she gathers the back of my dress up.
“Oh, good idea!” I say, moving my hands to pick up the front of my dress, while Annabelle reaches over and grabs my bouquet for me. My body relaxes once again, damn these mating jitters are intense. Why am I being so overly sensitive? This is ridiculous, deep breaths, Ava.
We make our way through the house which has premade food on every available surface, ready for the big party after the ceremony. We come to a stop just before the start of the aisle, Annabelle hands me back my bouquet, while both she and Sophie fluff out my dress behind me. When they finish, each give me a kiss on the cheek and walk down to the front of the gathered crowd. I look towards the gazebo, and there in front of me are all four of my mates, dressed in a black suits and ties, all standing proud and tall watching me with hawk-eyes and smiles.
I have to force my feet to walk at a normal pace, when all I really want to do is run full steam ahead and throw myself at them. With every step that I take, their smiles grow and the bonds glow brighter until I feel like I’m radiating light and love from the inside out. I reach out my hand and am suddenly pulled into the middle of their tight circle, my head craning to see all their faces.
The layout of our Mating ceremony is a little different in comparison to someone with one or two Mates, they would stand next to or between each other. Considering the number of people we had in our mating, we had decided the guys would form a circle, and I would be in the middle. The only real difference between our Mating ceremony and a human wedding is that there was no officiary, and our rings were spelled to allow our bonds to be completed. Once the bonds are complete, the rings become a mere decoration and we gain the ability to speak into each other’s minds; we will become an extension of each other.
I love the silence of nature, a silence that isn’t really silence, it’s an absence of background noise. That’s all I can hear right now, the perfection of nature combined with the breathing of the four very tall men making our circle tighter and tighter until I can feel their chests brushing up against me. I look towards the first, beautiful man I met on this crazy journey, Marco’s lovely brown hair has been gelled back perfectly, and his russet-coloured eyes gaze into my very soul. I look over him quickly, taking in how his gorgeous, olive skin is only made more golden by the crisp, white shirt he is wearing. His hand comes forward to twine our fingers together, while he waits for my eyes to come back to his before he starts speaking.
“Ava Pearce, you waltzed into our lives when we least expected it. You turned everything we thought we wanted on its head and showed us exactly what we needed in this life. You made me realise that life cannot just be getting through the day, that I need to enjoy every day I have on this planet. I’ve realised that whilst I always try to reason, sometimes I need to accept that reason is not always the right choice, and that I need to listen to what feels right, what is in my heart. I love you because you’ve made me a better person, you helped me find somethin
g in myself that I had no idea I was missing. I will protect you with every fibre of my being. I will care for you with every cell in my body, and I will love you with every atom in this world,” Marco whispers to me, his head coming forward to rest against mine, as tears start to form in my eyes.
I so desperately want to open my mouth and respond with every word of love I can think of, but I know the other men have to go before I can say my vows. Marco’s fingers let go of mine after gently pulling me to his left, towards Dylan. Dylan my beautiful, tall, chocolate-hair-and-eyed Mate looks absolutely stunning in his black tuxedo, the colours only highlighting his Italian heritage. His stubble’s cut down to almost nothing, and his single dimple appears with his smile. Dylan picks up both my hands and places them on his chest, shuffling forward just a little so we are a little more than a breath away from each other.
“Ava, I have wanted a family of my own for a very long time, and until you came along, I was convinced I was never going to get that. I always had the dream that the woman who would have my child would be my Mate. You stumbled through my door, and I honestly had never smelt or seen a more beautiful thing. In an instant, I knew who you were, and I was never going to give that up once it was in my system. From my first breath of meeting you, I was hooked. What I didn’t know would happen, is that you would bring such an amazing passion and sense of spontaneity into my life. I hadn’t realised that I had become so stale. That I had let my work overshadow the desires of my own life. You are the brightest light in my life, and I could never regret a second with you. I want this life with you, and the next life, and the life after that. I want everything with you,” Dylan finishes as his hands come up to brush away the tears that are now flowing freely from my eyes.
Once his hands clean up my face, they close around my wrists before bringing my knuckles up to his lips for a quick kiss and then let my arms fall to my sides. I feel finger tips draw my face away from Dylan’s and towards Wade. My blond Conan looks nearly as good in his tux as he does in that leather jacket of his, his naturally blond highlighted hair and crystal-blue eyes are a stark difference to the black of his blazer. His large hands grasp my face like he’s done a hundred times, locking me firmly in his gaze.
“Baby, I can honestly say I never really put much thought into having a Mate; whether I would have one, whether I would have a family of my own. I have been living in a life of constantly scrutinising people and their intentions. I’m not the most social of people because of that and have grown to like my isolation. Then, you turned your pretty eyes my way, and I was frozen. For those few seconds after meeting you, I could think of nothing else other than I would give up anything you asked just to see a smile on your gorgeous face. What I came to realise was that you are the only person I have ever met that I take at face value. I just listen to what you’re saying; I accept your truth. You allow me the opportunity to be at peace for once in my 28 years. You challenge me in every way possible; you challenge me to broaden my perspectives, to let my guard down, and you give me a hell of a challenge in our workouts. You are more than I could have ever hoped for in my life, and if I had to go through it all again, to find you here, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Wade’s voice breaks with the emotion pouring out of my short-fused Mate.
I lift my hands to cover Wade’s possessive grip on my face, my fingers barely making it to his second knuckles. I lean into the left side, turning my head to nuzzle into his palm, trying to convey just through touch how much he means to me. All too soon, Wade’s hands let go, and I feel another set of fingers lightly caress from the side of my face, down my neck and follow a path down to my fingers. Zane’s large hands lay out in front of him, his palms up, as if inviting me to place my hands in his. My palms connect with his, and I drag my eyes from the tattoo I can see peeking out from above the collar and across his chest. My eyes continue to move up and up until I finally meet his eyes, seeing his normally scruffy, dirty-blond hair neatly combed, and his piercing, emerald eyes staring at me with possession, his piercings glistening under the setting sun.
“Angel, I have known about you a lot longer than you have known about me. I have been alone for a very long time, and once I found you, I needed to know that I was capable of being a man that you deserved and that I was ready to take that step back to civilization. After spending the last few weeks with you, I have realised that I was so stupid to not have spoken to you the second I realised who you were to me. Since meeting you, I have found more acceptance and love in your small pinkie, than I have experienced anywhere else in this world. You are the most kind and compassionate person I’ve ever known, and I’m beyond lucky to call you my Mate. You have given me a family. I can only pray that eventually our family will grow, and that they are exactly like you. You are my Angel; the light of my life, and I would move heaven and earth to love and protect you,” Zane’s gruff voice echoes out across the silence. I look around at all my Mates one more time before opening my heart to the bonds and letting all my feelings envelop them before I speak.
“If I had known that you were all so close to me these last few months I would have run towards my future without hesitation. As it is, I found you all on my own, which I will be eternally grateful for. I have been a lonely person almost my entire life, I never felt like I had much experience with family until I met you four. For the first time in a very long time, I know what family means, I feel it with every breath I take between us, and our Packs. You have all given me unconditional acceptance and love, and sometimes I feel so full of emotions that I think I might explode because it’s so hard to keep that kind of love internalised. Marco, with the life that I had been living, I had no idea that I had lost part of my humanity. That I was living a half-life because I was ignoring my human side. You gave that back to me. You taught me how to reason, how to care for things that don’t directly affect me, and how to not lose myself in the tidal wave of emotions that I’m so used to riding. Dylan, I think we are two peas in a pod, wanting the same things for our future, but never ready to give up on that idea of a forever love. You are one of my forever loves. I love that you are such a planner, you have brought so much calm to my chaos. You help me grow, as an intellectual and as an adult. You guide me to the water but never make me drink. You challenge me to be a better version of myself, and you protect me like nothing else in this world. I feel like the most precious gem in the world under your gaze. Wade, my Conan. You force me to be the strongest version of myself and yet, never judge me for showing vulnerability. You give me the strength in all aspects of life; physical strength when we are sparring, strength in my convictions to always stand up for myself, strength in my vulnerability. You are always there to catch me when I fall. I could not be more in love with you if I tried. Zane, I never thought I would find someone who would understand and accept me as much as you do. You take away every fear I have about my past, present, and future, because I know you will always be by my side. You enhance every aspect of my life just through your constant support and ability to see through my words and find the core of my worry. You get me. All four of you complete me, I cannot wait for our family to grow because I know that any children I have will have four amazing men as their dads. I was always too scared to want a future with children and settling down, but with you, I have no greater wish than to fulfil that dream and continue to love every single one of you with every star in the sky,” I manage to get out through all my tears.
Dylan grabs my left hand and slides a ring onto my fourth finger, I look down at the beautiful ring, four individual threads of white gold braided intricately with sprinklings of small diamonds interspersed across the ring. I reach into my secret pocket of my dress and pull out the four rings I had made for my Mates, each one made in white gold but with different designs. I grab hold of Dylan’s left hand before he can release mine, and slide the bevelled-edge-matte band onto his finger before leaning forward and brushing my lips over the ring. I turn to Marco and repeat the process with his matte-classic band, fol
lowed by Wade and the brushed-inlay band, and finally Zane and the matte-hammered band. Each of these men are unique to me, and I needed them to have a ring that symbolised that.
The second the last ring is placed on Zane’s finger, it feels like the world explodes. The wind is knocked from my lungs, all of our bonds flying open, breaking open and solidifying between us, I can feel every emotion they have zinging through my body.
“Can you hear me, guys?” I ask tentatively through the mental link that should now be present between all of us.
“Yes, Angel.”
“Sure can, Baby.”
“Happy Mating, Sweetheart.”
“I love you, Beautiful”
I hear my mates all respond through our mental link, and as soon as I feel those whispers of words, I throw my body into Zane and give him a kiss so deep that I lose myself in it. His arms wrap around me to pull me closer, without my feet touching the ground I’m passed around each of my Mates, giving them each a kiss that conveys what words cannot. For a brief moment, I see hundreds of little purple lights lighting up my soul.
“Ava, are you sure about this? You don’t have to go through with it, you know?” Marco soothes, his ever-present concerns touching the deepest part of my soul.