I watched from my position on Ricki and Calder’s front porch as everyone settled down, their voices hushed as Calder and Lachlan took their positions beneath the tree.
I looked down at the simple cotton dress I wore, glad that I’d allowed Ricki to talk me into it. The halter straps tied behind my neck and left my back bare to just below my shoulder blades. The dress fell to my ankles, clinging to my figure without restricting me. The white material would glow in the moonlight.
I’d drawn the line when Ricki tried to fix my hair. I fully intended to go for a run with my mate after the ceremony was over and any effort to curl or pin it would be wasted in the end.
Ricki bounded up the porch steps and stood next to me. “You ready?”
She glanced down at my empty hands and frowned. I had refused to carry a bouquet of flowers as humans often did, preferring instead to walk to my mate with open hands and an open heart.
Clearly, Calder still needed to explain a few things to Ricki about the differences in shifter mating ceremonies and human weddings. Otherwise the poor unmated she-wolves of the MacIntire pack would face this every time they found a mate. Most of them would be unable to deny their alpha female anything she wished, buckling beneath the weight of her dominant personality.
“I’m ready,” I replied.
We walked down the porch steps and out into the clearing. Every eye in the field was focused on me, but I didn’t notice. The only thing I could see was Lachlan. Once again, Ricki had failed in her attempts to get the male shifters to dress up and he stood beneath the tree in nothing but a faded pair of jeans and a tank top. Most of the male wolves were dressed in a similar fashion. Their attitude was that the fewer clothes to remove before a shift, the better.
Ricki moved to her chair as I walked down the aisle created between the seats. Someone, meaning Ricki again, had sprinkled flowers along the path. Rose petals and stemless daisies were scattered beneath my feet as I moved toward Lachlan.
His eyes never left mine as I drew closer, gleaming in the candlelight. He took my hands as we faced each other in front of Calder. As the alpha of the MacIntire pack, he would preside over the mating ceremony as a gesture of his approval of the match.
“Let us begin,” Calder stated, his voice carrying through the night air. “Before your pack, you will make your eternal promises to each other. Do you both come willingly into this mating?”
“We do,” Lach and I said together.
“What is your vow to Chloe MacArthur?” Calder asked Lach.
I stared up into Lachlan’s eyes as he spoke the words to the ancient rite. “I, Ian Lachlan, swear that my life belongs to you, Chloe MacArthur, until we are separated by death. You will live in my blood, nourish my bones, and become a part of my soul.”
His hands held mine tightly as he vowed his life to me. I smiled up at him, feeling his sincerity through the connection between us, the bond of true mates.
“What is your vow to Ian Lachlan?” Calder asked me.
“I, Chloe MacArthur, swear that my life belongs to you, Ian Lachlan, until we are separated by death. You will live in my blood, nourish my bones, and become a part of my soul.”
“Do you accept these vows from your mate?” he asked us both.
“We do.” Once again, Lach and I answered in unison.
To the wolves behind us, Calder lifted his voice. “Bear witness to two true mates!”
Howls and claps broke out among the pack, the noise growing deafening.
Once again, Ricki’s influence entered the ceremony as the cacophony died down.
“Kiss your mate, Lachlan, so we can cut that damn cake!” he whooped.
I laughed as Ricki’s low growl reached my ears, knowing that Calder’s words weren’t what she instructed him to say. Then Lachlan took me in his arms and pressed his mouth to mine. The kiss grew heated and wild, eliciting more howls and yelling from the pack.
When he released me, my knees were weak. Lachlan rested his forehead against mine as he held me close. “You are in my blood and bones, Chloe MacArthur. Without you, I would be an empty shell.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck tightly. “I love you, Ian.”
His mouth brushed my ear as he asked, “Do you really want cake?”
I shook my head.
“Then let’s go for a run.”
While the rest of the pack was distracted with cake and champagne, Lach and I slipped away. We left our clothes on the back porch of his house, shifted into wolf form, and loped into the trees surrounding the compound. When we burst out of the woods close to the lake on the property, I shifted back to human form and held my hand out to him.
