Chapter 11
Kaya squinted at the sunshine as they exited their vehicle and shielded her eyes. Ahead of them was a huge sprawling building called a mall, which her mates assured her had everything she could possibly want inside.
Shaylee stood next to her. “Pretty amazing, yeah? The first time my mates brought me here I never wanted to leave. There was just too much to see.”
Shaylee had been born in the Fae Realm.
“Your old home is very different from this realm?” Kaya asked.
Shaylee nodded. “We didn’t have much in the way of technology at all. I lived alone for several months and learned by exploring, but the mall is an entirely different experience than going to a grocery store.”
Shy slipped his fingers into Kaya’s. “Ready?”
Teck shut the door of their vehicle and joined them, taking her other hand. She looked at her mates and said, “I think so. It’s so big, though.”
Teck smiled gently at her. “It’s just a lot of stores in one place. Nothing to worry about.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not worried.”
“Oh?” he asked with a teasing tone.
“I’ve got my mates with me. I can handle anything.”
Shy chuckled. “Our fearless sweetheart.”
They walked toward the huge building. Teck and Shy had wanted to bring her to the mall to shop for clothing and something special that they wouldn’t tell her about. Shaylee had offered to come with her husbands, and Kaya was glad to have some company. The other mates in the den had come from the Mortal Realm, except for Kaya and Shaylee. Of all her new family members, Shaylee understood what Kaya was going through as she learned about technology and about living underground with the bears.
Kaya had been in her new home for a week. In the span of that time, she’d learned so much about her new world, but she still felt a little overwhelmed. The Centaurs lived simply off the land. She did know about technology, but watching someone talk on a cell phone was not the same as actually being able to use one herself. Not to mention texting, with all those little pictures that meant something someone was too lazy to type.
Her mates had bought her a phone and her little sisters-in-law had given her a sparkly pink case to keep it safe. She wasn’t sure she thought it was super useful now, since she had only to stick her head out of the tent to speak to someone in her family or den. If her Centaur family had cell phones, though, she would find them very helpful for keeping in touch. Since they didn’t, she’d kind of foregone texting and phone calls for playing games with the device.
She inhaled as they walked into the mall, sorting through the myriad of smells that filled the air. She could pick out roasting meat and melted sugar, and other scents she wasn’t familiar with. Her stomach rumbled, and Teck said, “We’ll eat after we shop, if you don’t mind waiting a little bit.”
“What are we shopping for again? You were kind of vague.”
He winked. “I thought you liked surprises.”
“Naked ones.”
“Oh,” he said with a laugh. “Well, we’re not getting naked, but I promise you’ll like it.”
They walked past storefronts for sports equipment, eye glasses, and candles. They turned right at the end of the hall, and she saw that they were on the first floor of a two-story building. Above them, people milled about, and a quiet hum of conversation filled the air. They stopped in front of a jewelry store.
“We’ll leave you guys to it,” Lynk said. “Shaylee wants a coffee, so we’ll be sitting over there when you’re done.”
“See you,” Shy said.
Teck turned and Kaya met his gaze. “Do you remember when we talked about being married by human standards so that you would share mine and Shy’s last name?”
“Sure.”
“When we asked you to marry us on the night of our joining,” Shy said, “we weren’t really prepared to propose properly.”
Her brow rose. “What’s the proper way?”
“With a ring,” Shy said. “It’s traditional for males to give their female an engagement ring when she accepts their proposal. When they marry, the males add another ring to the engagement ring, a wedding band.”
She flicked her gaze to the interior of the store. “So we’re here because?”
“We want you to pick out whatever ring you like,” Teck said.
“I would like whatever you picked out for me,” she pointed out.
“It’s nice to be able to pick it out yourself,” Shy said. “You can decide if you’d like a ring from both of us, or just one.”
“Oh.” She looked down at her ring fingers at the bands they’d given her before their joining ceremony. “But I have rings from you already.”
“Those are different. Come on, sweetheart,” Shy said. “Let’s go look at the rings, and then you can decide. If you’re content with our rings, that’s fine, but we’d like to get you something that’s new, a gift from both of us, because you’re the best gift we’ve ever been given.”
She grinned. “You’re so sweet.”
Teck and Shy flanked her as they walked into the store, with Shy directing their steps toward a long glass case at the back of the store. The case was full of diamond rings, from the simplest, single stone ring to rings that had so many diamonds on them that she didn’t think she could possibly count them all.
“Can I help you?” a man said, coming to stand behind the counter. “My name is Jeffrey.”
“Our…fiancée is picking out her engagement ring,” Shy said.
“Well, congratulations,” Jeffrey said. “What do you like?”
Kaya stared through the glass at all the sparkling brilliance. “I don’t know.”
“Then let’s take a look at a little bit of everything and go from there,” Jeffrey said as he placed a black velvet folder on top of the glass. He used an odd-shaped key to unlock the case and began to remove rings and arranged them on the folder.
“I can bore you with details like color quality and karats, but I find that if a woman isn’t sure what she likes, that she doesn’t really care about that and is just looking for something that speaks to her.”
Teck rested his hand on Kaya’s shoulder, and she looked up at him. Her sexy mate smiled in encouragement. “What’s speaking to you, lilenta?”
She first moved the ring off her left ring finger and stacked it with the ring on her opposite hand, and then she picked up a ring covered with tiny diamonds. She slid it on her finger and looked at it, moving it back and forth to watch the overhead lights reflect on the surface. Setting the ring on the folder, she tried on a few others, not seeing anything that felt like her. Until she saw a gold ring with three diamonds on the top. The moment she slipped it on her finger, she knew it was the right one for her.
“It’s us,” she said. “One stone for each.”
Shy kissed her cheek. “It’s lovely, sweetheart.”
“You like it?” she asked him.
“Of course. But I would love whatever you love.”
“It’s perfect,” Teck said. “If you want it, it’s yours.”
“I do.” She took off all three rings, and then stacked the diamond in between the other two rings and grinned. “Now that’s perfect.”
Jeffrey offered to clean the two rings while he got the paperwork together for the engagement ring. She turned to face her mates. “When will we get married?”
“We’ll go to the courthouse and get married with a Justice of the Peace whenever you’re ready. Our family will come with us,” Shy said. “We don’t have to rush. You’re already ours, and we’re already yours.”
“It would be nice to have your last name, though.”
“Then the sooner the better,” Teck said.
Shy paid for the ring with a credit card while she put her three rings on. The two rings her mates had given her bracketed the new diamond ring perfectly, as if they’d all been made to go together.
They left the jewelry shop and met Lynk, Tavian, and Shaylee. Shaylee took her into a lingerie store while their mates waited outside, and she picked out several bra and panty sets and a pretty lace nightie to surprise Teck and Shy with. When they were seated in the food court, and Kaya had a plate of something called sweet and sour chicken in front of her, Teck’s phone buzzed, and he excused himself.
Kaya speared a piece of breaded chicken coated with a pink glaze and popped it into her mouth. “Oh! Wow, that’s really good.”
Shy smiled. “I thought you’d like it. Do you want to try my beef and broccoli?”
She took a bite of tender beef and crisp broccoli and hummed. “These are wonderful dishes. Can we try to make them at home?”
“Sure. My mom has a wok we can borrow.”
“What’s a wok?” she asked.
“A special pan used to cook these dishes. We’ll learn how to make them together.”
“You guys are so sweet,” Shaylee said.
Teck returned to the table a few minutes later with a big smile on his face. “I’ve got some interesting news.”
“Oh?” Kaya said.
“Our grandfather sent a message to the heads of our alliances, announcing our mating. He was asked about a wedding and reception, and he wanted to know if we were interested in having a big reception, or if we wanted to keep it to the den only.”
Kaya blinked in surprise. “What’s a reception?”
“It’s the party after the wedding,” Shy said.
“But we haven’t even really talked about getting married. Why would we want to plan a party already?” Kaya asked.
Teck said, “Grandfather said that it’s a good thing that the leaders of the were-houses want to get together and celebrate.”
“Warehouses?” Kaya felt thoroughly confused. “Like where you store stuff?”
Teck chuckled and kissed her. “You’re so adorable. I forget how sheltered you were from other supernatural creatures. The term were-houses just refers to the different shifter groups. Grandfather sent out the notice because we’re his grandchildren and the other groups like to celebrate this kind of thing. He would have invited the leaders to a party to celebrate our mating anyway, but a wedding reception is a good idea.”
Tavian said, “The leaders get together twice a year to discuss issues, but this would be a celebration and not business.”
“I guess we should figure out when to get married,” Kaya said.
“It’s still on our time schedule,” Teck said. “Grandfather said it could happen whenever we’d like.”
“Okay.” She chewed on her lip for a moment and then said, “Can we wear something special?”
“Of course,” Shy said. “What did you have in mind?”
“Something that matches. Like the matching vests your mom and dads wear to ceremonies.”
“I have just the bead pattern in mind and some special hide we could use,” Shy said. “Would you like to help?”
“Of course!” She hugged and kissed her mates. “Can we have dessert now?”
“We thought you might like to try the giant cinnamon buns,” Teck said, gesturing to a small shop with a glass case full of circular-shaped sweets.
“I can’t wait.”