“For sure.” His eyes are sparkling again. Is he picturing our wolf-style wedding as he speaks? “I’ve always dreamed about having a big wedding. So that my family and the whole pack can see how much my mate and I care about each other.”Okay, well that’s freaking sweet.His face turns pensive. “Of course, I always thought my mother would be there ...”
Now it’s my turn to comfort him. I pull him a little closer, one hand curving around his cheek, and speak gently. “She will be,” I say, only realizing once the words have spilled out of me what I’ve done. Did I just agree to a big marking ceremony?
Jasper sucks in a deep breath through his nose and pulls his shoulders back. “I promise you we don’t have to do anything until you’re ready.” I force myself to smile. “We should probably say hi to a few more people before the blessing starts. You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m good,” I say, and he kisses my forehead in response.
We wander back into the party. A server passes with a tray of canapés smelling equally as potent and delicious as the last, but it’s a different waiter. I stop when I’m reminded I meant to tell Jasper about my last encounter with the staff.
“Hey, I meant to say—”
“Ugh,” Jasper says, once again cutting me off. His face is turned downward into a grimace.
“What is it?”
“Remember that new development I mentioned ...”
I follow Jasper’s gaze and spot Alpha Jericho standing across the room by a couple of out-of-place-looking hay bales and a maypole that’s been erected next to one of the bars. Girls and boys are dancing in circles around the pole, twisting pastel ribbons in a swirling pattern. Next to him, Melissa is standing, watching on, smiling and clapping, and then I spot the development Jasper is talking about. Jericho’s arm is firmlywrapped around Melissa’s waist, his sizable hand resting on her hip.
“Oh,” I say, catching on. “OH!”
“Yeah,” Jasper grumbles.
“How long has that been going on?”
“A while, I think,” he says squinting, clearly unimpressed. “But they just told Jodie and me a week ago, when I got back from Harvard.”
“It’s serious then.”
Even though Jasper is staring daggers, I take another look at Jericho and Melissa and can’t help feeling happy for them. Jericho deserves to find love again—maybe having someone close like that will help him lighten up a little—and Melissa has been devoted to him and his kids for years. It makes sense they would develop feelings for each other. While my mate may hate me saying so, they make a cute couple.
“Hey, I need to tell you something,” I say, pulling Jasper’s attention away from his potential future stepmom. “It’s about one of the waiters.”
Jasper tilts his head questioningly but before I can continue, Katie calls my name and appears at my side.
“Max!” She’s back in her signature pink, with glittery highlighter sparkling on just about every inch of her skin, looking very Glinda-core. “You’ll never guess who I just ran into in the bathroom!”
Katie launches into a monologue about some movie star she’s obsessed with, a Hollywood actress who is secretly an Elite Pack wolf, and who needed rescuing when she ran out of toilet paper just now. Not that I mean to tune her out, but I was literally with Katie this afternoon helping her find last-minute shoes to go with her dress, and though I’d usually be super up for gossiping about a hot celeb sighting, my attention is pulled across the room, in search of the mysterious waiter.
I scan the crowd but can’t spot him. For some reason there is a seemingly endless number of waitstaff slipping through the hordes of wolves, some hoisting champagne flutes and cocktails on trays above their heads and others with canapés. One by one, I home in on each of their faces, hoping to spot the guy who served me earlier, but he’s nowhere to be found.
Thinking I need more than just my eyes, I reach out with my mind, trying to identify each wolf in the room. But the crowd is packed, and not just with Elite wolves—there are foreign dignitaries, visiting alphas, and a whole mix of wolves from other packs making the noise and the web of threads connecting us all a total, incomprehensible mess.
Besides, I didn’t get a good read on the waiter from earlier anyway, so it’s hard to say exactly what I’m looking for. To find him I’d need to reach out to each individual wolf here, and with the number of people in attendance messing with my wolf senses this would be almost impossible.
I’m still thinking about reaching out when Jasper places a hand on my shoulder.
“The prayer is about to start,” he says, interrupting Katie mid-story. She turns to look at the raised platform in the middle of the balcony with excited, wide eyes.
“Oh,” she says, “I don’t want to miss this, let’s get a good spot.”
The crowd are already flowing in the direction of the balcony, so Jasper, Katie, and I join the stream.
“What’s up, Max?” Todd says, waving as he somehow manages to move against the current to join us.
“Sup dude,” Simon says, a beat behind Todd.
“Hey guys.”
