Bastien’s pov
At first I wasn’t sure springing a vow renewal on Selene was a good idea. She doesn’t tend to do well with surprises, but my mother convinced me that this surprise would be well received. It just goes to show: you should always listen to your mother – when you’ve got one like mine anyway.
Selene is beaming, her blue and violet eyes shining and hair still disheveled from sleep. Sliding her hands around my neck she asks, “Can I kiss you now?”
Sweeping my thumb over an escaped tear, I purr, “You have to answer me first.”
Selene giggles joyfully, “Of course – of course I’ll marry you again.”
I don’t wait for her to kiss me, instead swooping in and pulling her from the car. Hitching her up against me, I finally dip my head to join our lips, slanting my mouth over hers and drinking her in. I only intended it to be a quick prelude, a sample of what is to come later. Instead I find myself getting lost in my mate, extracting kiss after kiss from her swollen lips and groaning when her delectable tongue slips into my mouth.
“Come on, you two.” An amused voice sounds behind us, “that’s for after the wedding.”
Turning, I find my mother dressed in an elegant silver gown, watching us with unabashed delight and holding Lila by the hand. My pup is wearing a pristine – though I’m sure it won’t stay that way for long – white dress with a silky pink sash tied around her waist. She’s twisting left and right so the filming skirts float around her like a bell and grinning up at us.
“Oh Lila!” Selene exclaims, pushing at my chest to signal I should put her down. Of course I don’t. I wait until she turns a little glare on me and give her one last thorough smooch before setting her on her feet, sending her off with a swat to her behind.
Her head whips around when my hand connects, her long dark hair flipping and shining in the moonlight. I think she probably meant to glare again, but she can only smile, eyes twinkling with carnal amusement.
When she reaches our daughter she oohs and ahs, “Come here munchkin, let me see this beautiful dress.” She twirls the pup around before scooping her up and kissing her tiny hands, making little nibbling noises as she says, “You look so pretty I could just eat you up!”
Lila laughs and chirps, showing her mother all the flourishes and details on the frock before bouncing up and down with unrestrained glee. “You get married now?”
“She has to get dressed first.” Mom says, brushing a strand of hair from Selene’s eyes, “It won’t be your original gown, but I think I’ve found something equally lovely.”
“Thank you Odette,” Selene murmurs, pressing a kiss to Mom’s cheek, “and you look stunning, by the way.”
“Sure, sure.” Mom waves her off as they retreat towards the changing tents we set up earlier, “You know, I remember the days when people used to make a fuss like that over me.” She teases, nodding towards Lila.
“So do I,” Selene jokes, “but I think our glory days have passed, my Lila bean just shows everyone else up – don’t you angel?”
Lila nods firmly, and their laughter lingers long after they disappear from sight.
___________________
Selene
“Mommy, you look like a princess.” Lila murmurs in awe.
“Thank you, my love.” I reply with a grin. I have to admit, I do look like something out of one of her story books. My reflection glitters in the long mirror someone managed to cart into the tent. The first time I got married my dress was wispy and ethereal: a gauzy, fragile thing exactly like I was.
This time Odette found a creation that seems to have been spun from threads of pure moonlight. I’ve never seen anything like it. The pearlescent fabric hugs my modest curves, the neckline plunging to my waist and thin straps leaving my back and sides almost completely bare. The skirt billows out into a cascade of shimmering chiffon, with a modest train that flows behind me as I walk.
It’s still delicate, but where my first gown looked like it would dissolve in water and made me feel like a child playing dress up, this one is anything but. The fragile looking straps support the full weight of the garment, belying their appearance with untold strength, and the risque cut announces loud and clear that I’m a woman grown. I feel powerful and beautiful in a way I rarely have before, and I can’t thank Odette enough.
“Enough.” She says after my third outpouring of thanks, “let’s not waste all this beauty on us. Your mate is waiting.”
My heart is pounding as we leave the tent, but it stops completely when I see the altar.
What I took as a deserted mountainside is anything but. Below the tent, an enchanted woodland sprawls, wreathed in fairy lights and wildflowers. Lanterns cast glowing amber light over the petal-strewn pathway at my feet, which winds down to a shaded meadow lined with towering trees. And at the center of it all is a simple stone altar, where my mate now stands looking up at me with the exact awe-struck expression our daughter wore moments ago.
Odette and Lila are already down below, and I begin my descent with electricity pulsing through my veins. Bastien’s expression has gone from worshipful to ravenous and possessive, then back again at least three times. I can’t take my eyes off him, and I can feel his passion for me as keenly as I feel my own desire.
I can’t recall ever being happier than I am in this moment. Even Lila’s birth was tainted by my mate’s absence, but here we all are – together at last. This is how it was always meant to be, I realize. If it hadn’t been for Arabella and Garrick, if there were no Blaise Denizens and no scheming saboteurs, this might have been how our life was from the beginning.
Bastien and I would have met in some perfectly innocuous way. I wouldn’t have needed three years of coddling and struggle just to be rejected. I wouldn’t have been forced to live as a shadow myself for so long, or be separated from my soulmate when we needed each other most.
We would have gathered at an altar just like this, pledged ourselves to each other and welcomed Lila’s arrival with nothing but joy. We would never have to run, never have to look over our shoulders for bloodthirsty Volana hunters. For a moment the unfairness of it all rises up from a bitter well inside of me. Why couldn’t that be our life, our story? Why did we have to go through all this pain just to get here?
I think Bastien can sense the direction of my thoughts – it seems like he’s able to do that more and more since he marked me – because he walks to greet me at the bottom of the makeshift steps, pure love radiating from his handsome face.
“You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” He tells me reverently, taking my hand as I descend into the meadow. His arms snake around me in a protective cage when I land on the mossy floor, and then his lips are at my ear, “Don’t think about what might have been, sweetheart.” He encourages, “Think only about what lies ahead. We have a lifetime of happiness ahead of us, and we’ll appreciate it all the more because of how hard it was to get here.”
Leaning into his warmth, I nod in agreement. He’s right. There’s no use dwelling on the things we cannot change, and this moment is all the sweeter because of how hard we fought to get here. So I let Bastien lead me down the aisle where the small gathering of shifters await, and feel nothing but joy as we start our lives together once more.
We say our vows under the full moon and stars, reaffirming our commitment to love and cherish each other for the rest of our days, and kissing to the raucous cheers of our family and friends. I’m crying by the time it’s over, and even Bastien looks like he might shed a tear.
But then the time for pretty words and human traditions is over, and we look to the forest to seal our bond in a way we’ve only done once before.
Bastien guides me out of the clearing and down the hill, before pressing me up against an ancient tree and kissing me senseless. My mate strips my gown off of me with relentless patience, kissing, licking and nibbling every inch of flesh he bares and driving me absolutely out of my mind with need.
With a wolfish grin, Bastien pulls away from me, and I realize I’m not going to get what I crave for a long time to come. “Time to shift little wolf.” He announces huskily.
Oh I’ll shift all right, I think mutinously, I’ll give him the chase of his life for denying me this way.
Without offering him any warning, I transform and take off into the night, running as fast as my four legs can carry me. Bliss bubbles up inside of me when I here my mate howling in the distance, warning me that the hunt has begun.
Bastien is chasing me now, and Goddess, I can’t wait to be caught.
