“I know the feeling.”
“Do you think you’ll be happy here?” she asked.
“I’m happy wherever you are,” he said.
He reached out, grabbing her hand, then letting her place both their hands on her belly.
“I wish I knew what Archer had planned,” she said.
“We are about to find out,” he said, pulling down the road that she knew so well and handing the keys to a valet in front of the White House before going around to the passenger side and helping Maci out of the car.
He held out his arm, and she took it, stepping onto the walkway in her long, shimmering blue dress.
There was already a long line of people waiting to get in, and Maci recognized so many faces of both guests and SS agents. She waved at the people she knew, making small talk while they waited to go through security.
When they were through, they were whisked away from the crowd and taken directly to the East room, which was filled with tables and a small area where a string quartet was already set up and playing softly as the partygoers found their seats.
Maci spotted Archer right away, going to him with a huge smile on her face that grew bigger when he looked at the gentle swell of her belly and arched his eyebrow with a wry smile.
“It’s good to see you,” he said, hugging her tightly. “I guess I’m going to be an uncle, finally.”
Elaine was next to Archer, facing away from them and talking to one of the other attendees. She turned when she heard Archer’s words, her face shocked and frozen for a brief moment in time. Then she looked at Maci, brought her hands to her mouth, and gave an almost silent squeal of delight.
“Congratulations,” she said, beaming and hugging Maci tightly. “I’m so happy for you both.”
“Thank you,” Maci said, feeling emotional at the warm welcome.
The Johnsons were her only family, and their acceptance of her life with Logan and their baby meant more to her than she had realized.
“We should sit down,” Elaine said, taking Maci’s hand. “Come sit at the table with us.”
“On the stage?” she asked, a bit surprised.
“Yes,” Elaine said, smiling. “Sara and Sam will be joining us there as well.”
“I’m so confused.”
“Don’t worry,” Elaine said. “It’s where you both belong.”
Maci followed her up the short staircase and waited to sit until Logan had pulled out her chair. As promised, Sara and Sam soon joined them, as well as Chad and Eliana. Maci shot Chad a look, and he shrugged, smiling and winking at her.
“I guess Chad and Eliana…” Maci whispered into Logan’s ear.
“Yep,” he said. “I thought you’d noticed, but I think you were preoccupied.”
“I guess so,” she said, chuckling at missing something so obvious.
There was a tinkling of glass as Archer stood and tapped a spoon politely on his water glass to get the crowd’s attention.
“I’m sure that many of you are excited to find out what you’ve been called here for,” Archer began, addressing the guests of honor at the table with him, as well as the wolves seated at the tables in the front of the dining hall. “Last year, I was kidnapped at a party and replaced by a clone that was put in place to help a madman take over the country and then the world. It’s because of the people sitting here beside me, and the people at the front of the stage, that I’m here today, and that our great country is still intact. There are not enough words in any language to thank them for their bravery and their devotion to this country and its citizens.”
Archer cleared his throat and continued, looking at his wife for a moment and reaching out to squeeze her hand before continuing.
“Over the past several months, I’ve put laws on the books that will change the way that shifters move among us, giving them the rights and the freedoms as citizens that they’ve always deserved. But that is not enough. I stand before you today to recognize the individuals who saved us all, and I want to award each and every one of them with the Medal of Courage.”
Maci gasped, looking at Archer, who smiled at her.
“Additionally, I’ve asked Sam Noble and his wife to join us in DC, to join my cabinet as the Chief Security Advisor, and his nomination has been accepted in a unanimous vote.” Archer laughed. “I don’t think I have to tell anyone that when both parties agree, there’s someone really special in our midst, and I’m honored that he accepted the offer.”
There was applause, and the crowd stood on its feet one by one until the entire room was standing, welcoming Sam and Sara to DC as only DC could.
Maci stood beside Logan, leaning into him and taking it all in. The ceremony went quickly, and Maci found herself standing there before Archer as he put the medal over her hand and kissed her gently on the cheek.
“Who knew when we met so long ago that we would be standing in this spot almost thirty years later?”
“I sure didn’t,” she said. “This is nothing like I pictured my future, but I’ll take it.”
“Fate is a funny thing,” Archer said before moving on to the next recipient.
Logan was smiling at Maci, his matching medal gleaming brightly.
“Fate is a funny thing,” he said to her, just loud enough so that only she could hear.
“Yes,” Maci agreed. “She most certainly is.”
Epilogue
One year later
Sara pinned the last of Maci’s curls in her hair, adding another spray of baby’s breath to the hairdo, then turning her so she could see her reflection in the mirror.
“Oh Sara, it’s perfect,” Maci said, admiring her hair in the mirror.
“I can’t believe this day is finally here,” Sara said.
“I can’t believe that I’m getting married on the White House lawn.”
“I can. The world is watching, and it would be better if they didn’t watch it from our tiny village.”
“Don’t remind me,” she said. “I’m so nervous.”
“Focus on Logan, and the rest will drop away. Trust me, I’ve been there.”
“You’ve had reporters from all over the world watching you get married and broadcasting it live?”
Sara laughed.
“You know what I mean.”
“I do,” she said. “I’m just anxious. This is like a fairy tale, except they never tell you that so much fanfare is daunting. I almost want to just elope and run away together.”
“There’s still time for that,” Chad said from behind her. “But you’d have to leave now because they’re ready for you.”
Maci met his eyes in the mirror—eyes that were the exact shade of honey as hers. She smiled at her brother, glad to see that the past year had found him completely recovered, even though he’d almost died the year before.
She stood, taking his arm and stopping to kiss Sara’s cheek at the door.
“Walk with us,” Maci said, putting her other arm out to Sara. “You’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a real mother, and I want you to walk with me.”
A single tear slid down Sara’s cheek, and she nodded, unable to speak during such an emotional moment. The three of them turned, following Elaine to the door.
Elaine turned to look at Maci over her shoulder, smiling at Maci.
“You look beautiful,” Elaine said, taking in the baby blue dress that flowed around Maci and stopped just above the floor.
“So do you,” she said.
“I got lucky. The bride’s MIL has better taste in bridesmaids’ dresses than I do.”
They both laughed, and Maci shook her head.
“Don’t remind me about that pumpkin monstrosity that I had to wear to your wedding. It was glorious.”
“It was hideous,” Elaine said. “You look much better in blue.”
The door opened then, cutting off their conversation as the guests turned and the strings began to play the Bridal March.
Maci caught sight of Logan, who gasped as if she’d taken his breath away.
She winked at him, and he winked back as she started down the aisle, following Archer and Elaine as they led the way.
She took her place on the stage, and Logan looked at his mom, standing beside Chad, who was taking the place of Maci’s father.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“Family is family,” Maci said, kissing Chad and Sara on the cheek before they moved to stand behind her with Elaine.
Sam and Archer stood behind Logan, both looking more emotional than she had ever seen them.
The quartet continued to play, and Maci turned with the rest of the crowd to watch as Archer’s children followed behind. Maci’s nephew Zane carried the pillow with the eternity rings tied to it with delicate ribbons. Just eight years old, he watched the pillow intently, afraid that he would drop the rings and ruin everything, no matter how many times Maci had assured him otherwise. Behind Zane, his oldest sister Zoey carried their squirming, cooing eight-month-old cousin. When Renae saw her mother on the dais, she reached out, clapping her hands in delight and dropping the flowers she was holding.
Zane took his place between the two of them, and Zoey handed Renae to Maci for a kiss before setting the tiny flower girl on the single step and sitting beside her in her matching pink dress.
The ceremony began with the hushed crowd watching as the officiant expertly blended the human and shifter traditions.
When he’d finished the standard readings, and the two of them had exchanged rings, Zane all but fled the stage to sit with his grandma, who was crying quietly into a tissue every time she looked at Maci. The crowd laughed when Zane jumped off the stage and ran to the front chairs, done with the spotlight.
Hands held together, palms touching, Sara and Sam stepped forward, as did Archer’s parents. Each of the four parents took a strand of soft leather from the Priest, saying a quick blessing over the bindings. Sam stepped forward first, wrapping his around their hands and stepping back. The other three followed suit, weaving the binds together so that they held fast. Maci and Logan could pull their hands apart enough to show light between their palms, but the strips bound them symbolically, just as the rings linked their hearts for all eternity.
Maci and Logan turned to the crowd, holding their joined hands up as the crowd of shifters and humans got to their feet, clapping loudly for the new couple as they went down the aisle, now married in the eyes of both cultures and promised for life and beyond.
Sara scooped her granddaughter up and followed, the entire family filing down the aisle and getting into the limos that would take them to the new Lincoln Hotel for the reception.
Maci got into the limo with Logan, helping him unbind the wraps, then throwing her arms around him and kissing him.
“Do you think that they’d notice if we snuck off and came to the reception later?” Maci asked. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Sure,” he said, looking confused. “I’m sure my mom and Mrs. Johnson will enjoy Renae for a few hours.”
“I’ve already talked to your mom,” Maci admitted.
“So, this isn’t a spontaneous surprise?”
“No,” she said. “It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time.”
“I’m intrigued.”
“I hope it makes you happy because it makes me happy.”
“Then I’m sure that it will.”
They kissed again, and the driver pulled away from the curb, already in on the surprise and driving through town and to the highway that led them back to Falls Church, outside the city.
When the limo stopped in front of Maci’s home, Logan looked confused.
“Why are we home?” he said of the place where they’d spent the last year of their lives.
“This isn’t home,” she said. “At least, not like it used to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at the yard.”
Logan got out with Maci close behind him, waiting for him to see the white, wooden sign on the lawn. When he did, he looked at her, more confused than ever.
“You’re selling the house?”
“We are selling our house,” she said. “Unless you don’t want to. But I know that you’re probably exhausted from making weekend trips to the village, and I want to live there.”
“You don’t want to live in the city anymore?”
She shook her head.
“I haven’t for so long, and with your father in DC, the pack needs their Alpha. That Alpha is you. It’s always been you.”
“Maci, this is huge. I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes. It’s too far out of DC to be practical for visiting our parents, and it’s too far from the village for anything else. Now that access isn’t restricted, we can move all the creature comforts we want from this house into the cabin, and we can sell the rest. There are plenty of hotels in DC if our parents don’t have room for a visit and-”
Logan pulled her into his arms, kissing her roughly and swinging her off her feet.
“Is that a yes?” she asked when he stopped twirling, laughing in the late afternoon sun.
“It is a resounding yes,” he said. “Oh Maci, what did I ever do to deserve you?”
“It must have been something grand,” she said, teasing him.
“I’m so lucky,” he said, kissing her again. “I have you and Renae, and I can’t imagine my life getting any better. I mean, she’s a handful, but I love her so much, and I love you.”
“I love you,” she said.
“Life is perfect right now. We have everything we need, and our family is complete.”
“Are you sure things couldn’t get any better?” she asked, smiling at him wickedly.
“I mean, it could,” he said. “But I can’t imagine anything better than this moment right now.”
Maci laughed, cupping his face in her hands and leaning in for a kiss.
“What else do you have up your sleeve?” he asked. “I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“You’re right,” she said.
“Are you going to leave me in suspense for the rest of the day?”
“I could.”
“You’re wicked,” he said, kissing her and nipping her lip playfully.
“And you’re going to be a father. Again.”
He looked at her, then at her flat belly, and back to her face again.
“What? When?”
“In about seven months,” she said, laughing at his shocked expression.
“Then it happened when we went to the village that weekend?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Wow,” he said, running his fingers through his hair in shock, then stepping forward and sweeping her off her feet again. “Wow,” he said again.
“I’m glad you’re happy,” she said.
“I’m so happy.”
“We have to stop visiting those warm springs, or we are going to have our own basketball team soon.”
He shrugged, laughing.
“Or I could just build a bigger cabin.”
{**}
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The Wolf In The White House Page 19