Gunnar cleared his throat, but when he spoke his voice still sounded gruff.

“You irrevocably shattered my heart with a hammer.” The room grew silent as if everyone had just sucked in a breath at the same time. Not the best opening, but Gunnar had always been better at showing rather than telling. “Because you saw the man I could be, rather than the man I was. Like a Master Blacksmith, you saw the potential in a lump of iron.” I cringed. So far, he had told her that she broke his heart and that she was a blacksmith. “You beat the flaws out of me.” Now, he’d added husband-beater. Alucard fidgeted uncomfortably beside me. Gunnar needed to wrap this up. “You gathered what remained, assessed it, and then added in those metals that had been missing. The fires of your love re-forged my heart and soul into something new, something stronger, something better. This new heart is too big for the shell of a man encasing it, but I will spend the rest of my life striving to be the man worthy of such a gift. To be the man worthy of standing beside you, the maker of my heart.” He smiled at her. “If you’ll let me.”

Ashley nodded in a snotty-laugh-cry-hiccup motion as he placed the ring on her finger.

She stared down at her finger for a moment in wonder, as if forgetting she still had a part to play. But when she lifted her eyes, they smoldered with passion. It looked like Wulfra had a few things to say about this vow business.

My eyes quickly flickered over the crowd and locked onto Callie. I tried to pass on my concern without my face changing, because I was in the spotlight and couldn’t very well alarm everyone in the room.

Her returning smile faltered. She feigned a casual look at the hallway where Talon had disappeared as if suddenly realizing what it might have signified. When she turned back to me, the violet flecks in her eyes seemed to flare. But she didn’t move, not wanting to interrupt the ceremony.

But I was confident she was alert. As if having a sixth sense, Roland suddenly stilled, discreetly glancing over at her. Like a ripple, the two wolves at his side grew suddenly relaxed, prepared to shift in a moment if an attack came. But to everyone else – even though they were all mostly monsters – the wedding was going off without a hitch.

I now had four more sets of eyes scanning the room in a discreet fashion.

“I have not shattered your heart, Gunnar Randulf. Like a thief, I reached inside to steal it, but my hand was caught in a vise like a bear trap snapping shut. I was forced to hold onto a lightning bolt when I had only hoped for a man’s heart.” The crowd was silent, almost leaning forward. “I fought it, struggling against that trap, even considering losing the hand rather than risk that bolt of raw power incinerating me from the inside out.” She stared back at Gunnar, and his eye crackled with desire, her words sparking the monster within. “You burned away my illusions, my-self doubts, my fears. You are my rock in a raging sea. I had only ever fought with my brain, using my education like a blade against my enemies. When I found myself…” her eyes briefly flickered to me and then the crowd, “in a world where my clever papercuts didn’t hurt my enemies,” the crowd chuckled at that, “you nursed me back to health. No! You showed me how to make new blades. You didn’t protect me… you empowered me. And I will never forget that. The lightning of your heart, and the thunder of your voice, brought me face-to-face with my fears, helped me best them, and left a new woman standing in my skin. I would do anything for you.” She paused, then turned to meet the eyes of the crowd, almost as if sharing it with each individual for a fraction of a second – but long enough for the subtle promise to carry weight. Then she turned back to Gunnar. “Anything.”

She placed the ring on his finger and I actually heard him growl as he squeezed her hand.

A slow clap echoed in the immediate silence. I jerked my head to see a figure slowly standing from the seats near the back. He wore an arrogant smirk as he clapped his hands, and it was blatantly apparent that it wasn’t congratulatory.

Not at all.

That clap was mocking. And as I studied him, I was entirely sure he was a werewolf.

Othello, clear as a bell, spoke over his clapping, her tone like a shard of glass. “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now… kill your prey!” she hissed.

Something about her change of script just made it more romantic to me. But my soul is a dark, haunted, broken thing.

Gunnar and Ashley growled. Then they exploded into their Fae wolf forms, shreds of tuxedo and wedding gown raining down like confetti.

Wulfric and Wulfra – the werewolf royalty of St. Louis.

Suddenly unable to handle the size of Ashley’s new werewolf-thighs, her garter snapped out into the crowd like a rubber band, and…

Struck Yahn right in his open mouth before falling into his lap. Everyone – even the asshole crashing the wedding – turned to look. Yahn slowly lifted the symbolic garter in his hands, blinking at it. Then the Reds stared at it for a moment.

Oh, boy.

As one, the three lifted their eyes to Alucard. He had taken an instinctive step forward, glaring at the three teens. They wilted in their chairs.

Any other time I would have burst out laughing, but the asshole in the room obviously took precedence. I turned to the bride and groom, arching a brow. They were now massive bipedal werewolves. Gunnar was all white, easily seven feet tall, and was flexing his diamond claws. His diamond eyepatch glittered beside his arctic blue eye. Ashley was shorter, but not by much. Her black fur was actually braided down her jaws and the ruff of her neck. It took me a second to put my finger on what was nagging at me, but once I did I couldn’t un-see it. It looked like they had switched bridal clothes – Gunnar wearing white and Ashley in black.

Whips of power erupted from my palms as I called upon my magic. They coiled on the floor at my feet, popping and hissing with white light as my eyes scanned the rest of the room for additional threats – in case this was just a diversion. The rest of the guests had erupted into their own monster forms – if they had one – or had scooted back from the prick, like one would avoid the idiot holding a metal antenna outside during a thunderstorm.

He resumed his slow clap, smirking at Gunnar and Ashley.

“I think I’m going to like my new city. Very much…” he said with a grin.

Ashley and Gunnar snarled in response.

“Do we interfere?” Alucard murmured beside me – not sounding scared, but as if maybe we shouldn’t get in the way of Gunnar on his wedding day. Or Ashley, for that matter.

“Do I look like I’m the authority on weddings?” I asked deadpan. “For all I know, this is totally normal.”