Malcolm seemed satisfied when he told him her last name. Dylan would never be such a snob about it, but he knew that his father cared. He cared about the bloodlines and was convinced that there was something better in the good ones. Dylan didn't know if he was quite sure of that, but he did know that he was just happy that she was accepted. Now that Jamie was okayed to be his wife, he got to have her forever.
Chapter Seventeen
Jamie found that Eddie was a delight. Now that he was doing her hair and makeup, gushing about the wedding and how beautiful it was going to be, Jamie couldn't have asked for a better helper. She still wasn't sure if her family was going to make it, though. Jamie knew if it was possible, Dylan would make it happen.
He also had no compunction to dish about his brother, and Jamie probably needed that. Their whole romance had been pretty whirlwind, and now, only a couple weeks into knowing him, she was getting married. Jamie had always wondered how the women that she set up with the men were able to do such a thing, get married so quickly. It had always been so strange to her to think about, and she had always told herself that she could never do such a thing. But was that not what she was doing?
She was unsure of her decision. It was just so unorthodox to think that she could meet someone out of the blue like that. That a person could come into her life and change everything and in only a few weeks. There was no talk of the future, only that they were to be together. What would it even look like? She looked around the room she was in and knew that she would need to be in a more modern setting than the one she was currently in.
“You keep doing that. You have to tell me what you're thinking about.”
“I guess I am just trying to figure out how I got here. I never thought that I was going to get married, yet here I am. It just seems so surreal, and I am having a hard time making sense of it all.”
Eddie smiled at her, and for some reason, he never made her feel bad about sharing anything. She had only known him a couple of hours, and already she was attached. Jamie was glad that he would soon be part of her family.
“I think it is courageous what you and my brother are doing. Most people need to know things for certain, and I think it's great that you two have taken the leap together. It’s so romantic.”
“Do you really think it could work out, even though it started in such a random way?”
Eddie agreed that it could, and she really wanted to believe it was true.
Eddie said that he was finally finished with her makeup, and she was anxious to see what she looked like in the mirror. He had been working on her for hours it felt like, and the more he worked, the more she wondered how it would all turn out.
“It looks really good, Eddie. Thank you. I know that I couldn't have done a better job myself.”
Jamie meant it too. Eddie certainly had a knack for all things fashion. She was about to compliment him some more when someone that she did not know came into the room. The way that Eddie immediately deferred to the man told her that it was someone that was important. Considering that their father was the Alpha, she had to believe that she was about to meet her father-in-law. Whoever he was, he had really sucked the joy out of Eddie and the whole room.
He was tall like the two brothers, but he had little coloring. They still looked alike, but she realized that the mother must have been a lot darker to have made them the way they were. She hadn’t asked much about Dylan’s mother, there hadn’t been time for many questions at all, but she found herself wondering now.
“So, you are the one that is marrying my son?”
Jamie agreed. She didn’t know what to say, because his question sounded a lot like an accusation.
“You are the one that sells brides?”
Jamie didn't like the way that he said it, and she certainly didn't like the tone or the expression on his face, but she agreed, nonetheless. Whether she liked it or not, that was exactly what she did. She liked to think of it as matchmaking and all of that, but even though Jamie had been successful, she couldn't help but wonder how much the father knew. Did he know about William and what he was into?
Malcolm looked her up and down for a moment; his dark eyes seemed to miss nothing. Even though she was fully clothed, it felt like she was naked in his view.
“Well, I suppose you will do. I would have figured him to marry a young virgin. He must like it a little more aged than I do.”
Then, without another word, Malcom left. She didn't know what to think about it. What to think about him. It definitely wasn't a good feeling that he left in the room, and her eyes went to Eddie. She wasn't looking for him to give some kind of explanation, even though he tried. Jamie just wanted to tell him that she was sorry to have such a man for a father. She could only imagine what Eddie had been through.
Dylan came in not too long after that, and she was thankful that he was there. She had enough of some parts of his family for the day.
“I guess my father came to see you, huh?”
“Yeah, that was fun.”
Dylan agreed. “My father has his own way about him. It is hard to get used to.”
Eddie snickered. “Trust me, you can never get used to it. How does anybody get used to that?”
Dylan pressed his lips together and Jamie didn't say anything. She felt bad for both of them, and the rest of the siblings. Malcolm was a hard man, and their mother was barely ever talked about. Jamie was starting to think that she was just trying to stay away from her husband.
The family was complex, and the more Jamie learned about it, the more she started to see that the façade that they showed to the world was really just a thin veneer. It held too many secrets for it to be as perfect as it looked.
She stayed in Dylan’s arms for several moments, reassuring herself that even though she was walking into a complete shitstorm of a family, at least it would be with Dylan. He would make it all worth it, and that's what she was going to have to hold on to.
The ceremony started not too long after that, and to Jamie, it still felt like it was all happening so quickly. She looked beautiful, ethereal even, and Eddie had done a beautiful job. She had never felt so enticing in all her life and the look that Dylan gave her when he saw her that way told her everything she needed to know. There was excitement inside of her, bursting out, really, but there was also another part of her, the worrier inside, that felt like it was all just too perfect. It was happening too fast, and it was too good. There were consequences for such sheer happiness in life.
Even though she had agreed to marry him not but a few hours before, behind the scenes, the clan had really brought together a beautiful ceremony. There were flowers everywhere, purple wisterias that she had mentioned in passing to Dylan as being her favorite flower. Now long strands of it were draped everywhere, and she had to wonder where they came from.
There were also a lot of people. She had been to the village several times and she knew that there were quite a few people living there, but to see them all laid out in one place made their numbers seem even more vast. She was a little overwhelmed by all of the eyes staring back at her, but Jamie held her head high. She was there to marry Dylan; nothing else was going to stand in the way of that.
The words were repeated, and their hands were tied together with a strand of white ribbon. The moment and experience were perfect. Everything was just as it should have been.
Until it wasn’t.
As they were welcomed into the clan as husband and wife, there was a loud explosion in the crowd. One of the tables just blew up, and everyone sitting there blew up with it. Gore and cake splattered onto everyone and everything in close vicinity. Screams were heard, while others needed time to process what they’d just seen.
It took Jamie a moment to even register what it was that she was seeing. More violence and gore. She had her face against her husband's chest, trying to calm her nerves.
Jamie felt helpless. There was no way to help most of them. She knew without knowing that this was all her fault.
Chapter Eighteen
For a minute, Dylan couldn't hear anything. There was a ringing in his ears that seemed to get louder. He tried to shake it off, but it wasn't going anywhere. The explosion was too hot and loud, and the screaming that commenced afterward was now so far away. He held on to his wife.
He pulled her away from the smell that permeated his nostrils. Dylan held her closer, thinking about what would have happened if they had been sitting at the table at the time. What would have happened if something bad happened to her? He held her tighter still.
Dylan asked her if she was all right, and even though she was trembling all over with fear, Jamie nodded her head and said that she was fine. He looked back at the chaos around him, noting the injured everywhere he looked. He couldn't help them all, not even half of them. It was too many, but Dylan knew that everyone was watching him. If he jumped in, others would as well, and they would help everyone.
It took him a minute to really see what was going on right in front of him. He could smell the burning, and it was mixed with so many other acrid smells that he tried not to think about what all was in the air.
“I need to go help. Jamie, you stay here.”
She shook her head vehemently. “I'm not going anywhere. I can help. Let me help. These are my people too now.”
It had never even occurred to him to ask her for help. He was always the protector, the hero. He wanted to make sure that she was okay, not the other way around. She was delicate, and he wanted to keep her safe. It was hard to do if she was always next to him in the thick of things.
“What do you think this is about?”
He looked at her silently for a moment, and he didn't need to say it. They both knew. This had to do with William. As much as she had begged him not to get involved, he had. There was no way that he couldn’t; his hand was forced. He would have never been able to let William walk away unscathed after what he did. Now though, Dylan could see that his actions were rash and other people were paying for it.
A booming voice came from behind him and it took him a moment to realize that it was his father yelling out orders. Of course, it would be him. He wanted to know what was going on, and there was no way that he could keep all of it away from him any longer. He had to tell him about William and the Syndicate. He was going to leave Jamie out of it, though. If anybody was going to be blamed, it was going to be him.
“What the hell is going on, son? Do you know who did this?”
“I have an idea.”
“Do we have enemies that I don't know about?”
He nodded his head. “We do. I'm sorry that I did not take the threat more seriously. I should have said something to you, but I didn’t think it would amount to anything. We get threatened all the time.”
“What threat is it? I have not seen this kind of destruction in a while. Who did this, and how are you going to make them pay?”
“You are still the Alpha.”
“Not for long. Convince me that you're going to take care of this properly and that you’re going to get vengeance. Do that, and I will name you right now.”
The problem was that Dylan wasn’t sure how he was going to do it. There were a lot of questions still in the air. He wasn't one hundred percent sure who had done it. Of course, he thought of the Syndicate almost immediately. He had killed one of their own, and they were retaliating. That was the only thing that made sense.
His moment of wanting to be completely honest with his father was fading very quickly. The anger on his face was clear, and it was only going to get worse if he told him what was really going on.
Finally, he knew that he had to because there was no other way to explain it. Dylan didn’t want to go down that route, but he had to. His father needed to get the full story before he would understand the new complications that came with it. Maybe it would buy Dylan a bit of time to come up with a plan first. He didn’t want to go in half-cocked and make things worse. His father needed to understand that the enemy was bigger than they’d ever had before.
“So, I walked in on a man attacking my wife, and it wasn't the first time. The second time, I threw him out of a window, and he survived. The third time, I killed him. As I was killing him, he yelled a lot of things, and he mentioned was that he was part of the Syndicate.”
Dylan paused for a moment, waiting for his father to yell at him or something of that nature, but he didn't. Malcolm just looked at him, slowly shaking his head and waiting for more information. The problem was that there wasn't more information. He didn't know if this was the work of the Syndicate or if it was the work of somebody else. All he knew for certain was that everything was a mess and no matter how he tried to look at it, he had killed the wrong person, and now they were seeking vengeance.
“So, the Syndicate, huh? I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”
Dylan nodded his head. “Yeah. That is what he said.”
“How real do you think that the threat is?”
They were standing in the middle of what looked like a war zone. It seemed to him that the threat was pretty damn real. Dylan motioned his hands around the room.
“So, what are we going to do to fix it?”
“Do you know much about the Syndicate?”
“Probably just about as much as you do. They stay in the shadows usually, and most people that get involved with them regret it almost immediately. That has always been enough for me to know it’s best to stay away from them.”
Dylan could definitely see how that was the case. He certainly had not wanted to have anything to do with them, and now that he was being pulled into their world, he was not liking it a bit.
“So, do you think that they are really everything that they are said to be?”
Malcolm just kind of shook his head. “No one is. I don't think that we really have a choice though about finding out. Whoever it was that attacked us has to pay, and I can't think of anybody else that would do something so stupid. We have to believe that everything that was said about them was true. It very well could be.”
Dylan actually hoped that that wasn't the case. From what he’d heard, they were some of the last people that he wanted to go to war against. They were obviously willing to fight, and since his wedding had turned into a crime scene, it appeared like the war had already begun.
“Well, if that is the case, then we will track them down and take care of them. I will not let the pain and suffering of our people slide. I can promise you that.”
He waited for his father to say that it wasn't good enough, but surprisingly, it was. It was good enough that he was willing to hand over the title that very night.
“Do you really think it's the right time, with everything going on? Maybe we need to keep the consistency of you as the leader. People look to you in times of hardship.”
Malcolm admitted that it wasn't the optimal time, but he felt like it was important. Dylan could tell that there was more to it, and it made him suspicious. For his father to turn down the chance for revenge was unlike him, and it made Dylan wonder why he was backing out of it. There had to be a reason that he just didn’t see.
“Are you going to tell me why you're rushing everything so much?”
Malcolm was silent for a moment. “Because we don't always have as long as we want.”
Again, Dylan wanted to ask more questions, but there was something in his father's eyes that told him not to push. There was a sadness, maybe something else. He was going to ask Eddie about it later, because even if the two did not get along very well, Eddie knew everything that was going on in the clan. He really had an ear for gossip, even about their father.
Chapter Nineteen
Jamie had imagined her honeymoon for a few hours only. It wasn't like she had planned on getting married or falling in love with the client. It had not been on her radar a few weeks before. And now she was in the midst of a honeymoon that was not at some beach locale. It wasn't even a cabin in the woods where they could be alone. Inst
ead, they were having their honeymoon in a hotel room because they were trying to make sure that Syndicate left them alone.
Dylan had hated the idea, but his father pushed for it. There just needed to be more time given to finding the Syndicate. They couldn't be out in the open when it happened.
That would have been bad enough, but Jamie could have dealt with it because at least she and Dylan would have been together. That was what she thought he had suggested when he said that they were going to get a room. She imagined they would rent some movies, order pizza, and spend a proper amount of time in bed. That was not the reality, though.
The reality was that there was a lot working behind the scenes that she knew nothing about. Whether she knew about it or not, Dylan had to take care of it all. If he was physically in the room, he was on the phone with one person or another, trying to find out more about the Syndicate. But that wasn't very often.
Most of the time, he was outside in the car, talking to somebody or meeting with one person or another. It just made her feel utterly alone, and well before it was over, she was done with the honeymoon.
Finally frustrated with the whole situation and being cooped up in a hotel room for three days, Jamie decided that she was not going to take no for an answer. She had to get out and if she had to do it alone, it was fine by her. Jamie had never been one of those women that needed a man around to enjoy herself.
She was about ten steps out of the room when two men that had been at her wedding popped out of the bushes. It took her a minute to recognize them, but she knew that they were part of her new clan. They weren’t the enemy, at least not officially. They were blocking her way, though, and would soon become a pair that she didn’t want to see in front of her.
She grabbed her chest because they scared her to death and then she fussed at them for doing just that.
“I'm sorry, Jamie, but we need to ask you to go back inside the room now.”
Alpha Shifter Bride Service: (A Paranormal Romance Series) Page 30