Page 79 of Hextreme Measures

It wasn’t the typical music one might hear at a wedding. This was a French Quarter wedding, which meant it was jazz or nothing at all. As the music played, he took a moment to survey the crowd. His parents sat in the front row of the aisle on his left, a contingent of shifters making up their side of the chairs. He knew most of the faces, but it was odd to him that they didn’t seem like his family. Not any longer. Sure, his parents would always be his parents, his sisters would always be his sisters, but when he thought of family now, he thought about the people on the other side of the aisle.

In the front row on the right, Marie sat with Henri on one side and an open spot for Oscar on the other. Behind them sat Bernie and the sirens Ofelia had befriended over the years. Bernie was dressed up in a suit he’d never seen before — nothing expensive, because he wouldn’t let Ofelia or Sully buy him a nice suit — and his hair had been somehow tamed. He looked about as healthy as he could get, given the fact that he still voluntarily spent half of his time on the streets.

Behind them sat most of the paranormals Sully had come into contact with over the years. He’d never considered them friends before meeting Ofelia. He was all about doing his job. Now, when he saw these same people in the Quarter when doing his rounds, he greeted them like family.

Being raised in a shifter family meant he’d been brought up with a very specific pack mentality. He’d revolted against that mentality — he never wanted to be part of a pack, at least not really — and assumed that it meant that all family was bad. It had taken falling in love with Ofelia for him realize the truth.

Sometimes — okay, almost always — the family you chose was better than the family you were born into.

He would always love his parents and sisters — and he was 65 percent positive it wasn’t because he had to love them because he’d been born into it — but there was something different about the way he loved the family he’d made with Ofelia that defied words. He might have been an adult when they met, but everything they’d done together, loving her, was what had made him a man.

When the music shifted to the traditional bridal march, he suddenly felt weak at the knees. He’d felt her the moment she’d arrived at the park. He couldn’t see her — both Madeline and Marie were insistent on that — but he’d known she was close. The warmth he felt in that moment was nothing compared to what he was feeling now.

She was here.

She was ready.

They’d both fought so hard for this. Now they were going to get their happily ever after.

And, sure, they would face hardships going forward. Oscar would absolutely have another spiral, and Amelia and Felix were going to be basket cases when their baby arrived. There would be monsters to fight and hearts to mend. Through it all, however, they would be together.

Sully didn’t care about much in this world, but he did care about that. He’d known life with Ofelia. He could never know life without her.

Angelique was the first one to step into view. Sully grinned and glanced at Ben, who sucked in a gasping breath when he saw his beautiful siren. Sully had no idea how that relationship would go, but he’d learned something when Angelique was sick. Ben loved her. They still had some things to figure out, but Sully had no doubt they would.

What had happened with Biff, who was thankfully locked away and would likely never see the light of day again, had solidified things in Ben’s mind. He’d been struggling with making this time that he didn’t understand his home. The thought of losing Angelique had jarred that fear out of him. Now the only thing he was fearful about was not having her in his life. That would be enough to see them through.

Angelique winked at the guests as she passed and blew a kiss at Ben before peeling off to wait for Ofelia’s big entrance.

Sully sucked in a deep breath as he craned his neck to see his bride. Where was she? Why hadn’t he seen her yet?

Then the veil cleared — a magical barrier that had been erected without him realizing it — and Ofelia was there, her arm linked with Oscar’s as they started down the aisle. Sully could have sworn — and passed a lie detector test in the moment — that his heart stopped when he saw her. He had never seen anything as beautiful as her.

Nothing — no bride or goddess — was more beautiful than his Ofelia. When he did start breathing again, he realized he was crying. Not just little tears either. No, big, fat tears rolled down his cheeks as she glided down the aisle on her father’s arm.

When she grew closer, he realized she was crying, too. That only made his hands shake harder, and his heart yearn more. Goddess, he needed to be married to this woman.

The minister was a hoodoo conjurer whom Ofelia knew and trusted. He was dressed up for the occasion in a top hat with bone accessories and a black suit that had seen better days and yet seemed to fit into the wedding aesthetic perfectly.

Gabon — that was his name — asked who was presenting the bride, and Oscar said it was him through tears of his own. When Sully reached to take Ofelia’s hand, Oscar refused to let her go.

“I promise to take care of her,” Sully said, practically imploring Oscar to hand her over. “You know I’ll be with her forever.”

“That’s why I don’t want you to take her,” Oscar admitted. “She’ll no longer be my Ofelia when I let go. She’ll be your Ofelia.”

Sully was both amused and earnest when he snagged Oscar's gaze. “She’ll always be your Ofelia. She’s a daddy’s girl at heart. She always has been.”

From somewhere in the crowd, Marie made a harrumphing sound, and Sully had to hold in his laughter.

“She’ll be both of ours,” Sully insisted. “You have to let her go, though. It’s time for me to make her mine.”

Oscar looked at Ofelia, who had the softest smile Sully had ever seen on her face. “I guess I have to let you go, huh?”

She nodded. “I won’t be going very far.” She leaned in and kissed her father’s cheek before reaching out to take Sully’s hand.

The second they touched, Sully felt an electrical jolt run through him. She could always do that, even after all of this time. She made everything inside of him come alive.

“You look beautiful,” he said to Ofelia. They were no longer in front of a crowd as far as he was concerned. It was just the two of them. “Nobody has ever looked more beautiful than you.”