Someone knocks on the door. It’s one of the commune members, letting us know the ceremony is about to start.
I bite my lip. This is really happening.
“Ready?” Ellie asks.
I take one last look in the mirror. The dress, the necklace, the carefully styled hair. My eyes are bright with unshed tears, but I’m smiling. “Let’s go get married.”
The Great Lodge’smain room has been transformed.
Rows of chairs line both sides of a flower-strewn aisle, filled with faces that have become familiar over the last two months. A large part of the commune is squeezed inside and anyone who couldn’t fit for the actual ceremony are here for the reception held outside. I also recognize friends, former coworkers who traveled from far away, and there are even a few members of law enforcement and my lawyer, all here to celebrate with us.
Twinkling lights are strung overhead. The massive stone fireplace at the front of the room is blazing, casting warm golden light over everything.
And standing in front of that fireplace, waiting for me, is Keric.
My breath catches.
Keric wears dress pants and polished shoes, a thick leather belt is cinched around his waist with a large silver buckle. He’s bare chested with that soft and yet muscular green skin and black tribal tattoos on full display, firelight dancing acrossthe ridges of muscle. His black horns are shiny and his tusks somehow look whiter. He’ll get a new tattoo after today to commemorate our union, and more later for each of their offspring.
He’s the sexiest man I’ve ever seen.
Cadoc appears at my side, offering his arm. Keric’s father asked to walk me down the aisle two weeks ago, and I ugly cried for fifteen minutes straight after he left. “You’re already my daughter,” he’d said. “Let me do this.” He couldn’t have known how much those words meant. How long it’s been since anyone claimed me as family.
I was adopted as a baby. An Asian child raised by a Caucasian couple from Ohio who happened to have the last name Lee. People sometimes assumed Anna Lee meant something about my heritage, but the truth was that the Lees chose me and gave me their name and I never knew anything different. They were my parents in every way that mattered.
My parents both sadly passed away by the time I was in college and that left me alone, with no siblings or extended family. I’ve spent my adult life building little chosen families wherever I landed…coworkers who became friends, colleagues who felt like siblings. My “work family” at Black Oak was the latest attempt to fill that void. But those connections always felt fragile, even before I was on the run. I was always holding something back.
Here, at the commune, amongst this clan of orcs in Maine, I don’t have to hold back anymore. They’ve accepted me and I feel comfortable here.
For the first time since my parents died, I have a family again. A real one.
Cadoc guides my hand to his elbow, his harsh features look proud and a little emotional. “Ready?” he asks quietly.
“Ready.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Anna
The music swells. Everyone stands and turns to look.
I walk next to Cadoc down the aisle. My eyes find Keric immediately, and I can’t look away. His expression goes soft and fierce at the same time. When we reach Keric, Cadoc transfers my hand from his arm to his son’s. He steps back to take his seat beside Maggie, who is already crying.
Keric’s hand engulfs mine. “You’re so beautiful,” he rasps.
“And you’re the scariest and yet still the most handsome orc I’ve ever met.”
He huffs a laugh and some of the tension eases from his shoulders.
The music stops, and everyone sits down. Dane steps forward to officiate, looking dignified and warm in his ceremonial robes. He’s Keric’s uncle, the family elder, and there was never any question of who would perform the ceremony.
“We gather today to witness the bonding of Keric Irontree and Anna Lee,” Dane intones, his deep voice carrying across thehall. “A human female and an orc male who found each other through chaos and danger and chose each other anyway. This is what it means to become not only biological mates, but also legal partners. Not merely to love, but to choose.”
I squeeze Keric’s hand. He squeezes back.
“Do you, Keric Irontree, take this woman as your Bride? To protect, provide for, and cherish until your last breath?”
Keric’s voice is rough. “I do. She is my Bride. My forever.”
