Catherine slipped into the ivory lace gown. It had a sweetheart neckline, corseted back, and was lined with a gossamer fabric that seemed to have been made from the same material as the several hundred-year-old DeMedici veil with the lace edging. Lace that was reminiscent of the gown itself. The gown was fitted as though it had been made specifically for her and hugged her body to just below her ass where it flared out slightly.

Catherine drew her hair back from her face but left it mostly hanging long in loose curls that Maria was able to coax into a reasonable style into which she attached the beautiful, silky veil.

“The alpha sent these up for you,” Maria said as she offered Catherine a pair of baroque pearl and diamond drop earrings.

Catherine could not suppress her gasp.

“They’re gorgeous. They’re real, aren’t they?” she said, taking them from Maria.

Maria giggled. “Yes, Madonna. The alpha would only send the best for you. You look so beautiful. If he could love you more than he already does, he would when he saw you.”

“Thank you, Maria. Is there anything I should know or do? No one has said anything to me.”

“He will claim you and you accept his claim by acknowledging him as your mate and alpha.”

“Sounds simple enough. What if I fuck it up?”

Maria giggled again. “Then say what is in your heart. It is obvious to all of us how you feel. We won’t care. Just accept his claim. I think he would be very cross if you did not.”

“Thank you, Maria, for helping me. You and the rest of the staff will get to enjoy this evening, won’t you?”

“Absolutely, Madonna. All of the real work is done, except for serving dinner. We will have plenty of time to relax, dance, and celebrate.” Maria came forward and hugged her. “We are all so happy you are here.”

Catherine returned the hug. “Me too,” she whispered.

Catherine checked herself in the mirror one more time and had to admit that Sera had done an outstanding job picking a gown that was perfect for the evening. She slid Marco’s ring on her index finger so she wouldn’t have to worry about losing it and headed out in the hallway. She was surprised to find Griffin waiting for her.

“Marco wasn’t sure if you wanted or needed anyone to take you to him at the altar...”

“Planning to sacrifice me to the Gods, is he?” she said, smiling at him.

“I think when he gets you on your back, Catherine, it will not be with the thought of doing you harm.”

She laughed out loud and realized how tense she had been.

“He didn’t send you up here to walk me down the aisle, he wanted you to make me laugh and relax so I could enjoy myself.”

“I fear you know our Marco all too well. He did indeed and to ensure there wasn’t anything you need or that you didn’t have a train ticket tucked away somewhere.”

Catherine blushed, rolled her eyes, and laughed again. “No, I think my running away on trains is over. You don’t think he could pull a plane over, do you?”

“No, but he could bribe someone to stop it on the tarmac or fly it back to the airport.”

She searched his face and realized even though he was smiling, he was dead ass serious. She shook her head. “Go join the rest of them. I don’t want anyone to think that my decision to join my mate is anyone’s but my own.”

“They’ll never believe you. Marco has been telling them for years you existed, he would find you and bring you home as his mate. And here you are.”

“I know. Pathetic. I’m just stupid in love with him.”

“That’s all right, Catherine. He loves you even more, as do the rest of us.” Griffin leaned into her and kissed her cheek.

She gave Griffin time to get out to the garden, took a long, cleansing breath, and walked down the stairs to join herself formally to her mate. She saw him waiting under the pergola that had been strewn with beautiful white roses and other soft pink and cream flowers. Valentina handed her a bouquet that was simple and elegant.

She saw nothing but Marco. She was struck once again at the sheer masculinity and sexuality that seemed to roll off of him. Catherine planned to enjoy the evening’s festivities. However, when her most feminine parts began throbbing as they always did in his presence, she knew a part of her would be wanting them over with so she could feel the intensity of Marco’s possession and love.

She stifled the giggle that threatened to rise from the depths of her soul. She knew he would know she was thinking of the night to come when she would be alone with him. He would know that by the time they got back to their room that her pussy would be aching with her need for him to fill her.

He held out his hands to her. She placed hers in his and he drew her to him, kissing her deeply.

“I missed you, my Catherine. You look even more beautiful than you did this afternoon.”

She whispered to him, “Bullshit, all you’re thinking is how long we have to stay down here before you can take me upstairs and get between my legs to rut.”

He chuckled and growled low in her ear. “And you, my mate, are thinking about the same.”

There was no priest or officiant. As alpha, Marco basically presided over his own ceremony.

“Catherine Livingston, I, Marco DeMedici, claim you as my fated mate now and forever.”

“And I, Catherine, formally accept your claim and declare you to be my mate and alpha for all time.”

Marco pulled her into his arms and kissed her with a quiet passion that caused their friends and pack to howl and holler at the moon that was rapidly rising over the lake set behind the pergola.

The kiss had barely ended before a dazzling display of fireworks began. Catherine laughed with delight as did many others. The show lasted for about a half an hour and was as impressive as any she had ever seen.

They spent the evening with their friends and pack eating, dancing, and celebrating the night away.

Catherine made the rounds of their guests, all under Marco’s watchful eye. She watched him as well and would smile when their eyes met.

“Still afraid she’s going to bolt?” asked Griffin.

“No,” Marco admitted. “Afraid she isn’t real.”

Giovanni laughed and said, “Your Madonna is real, Marco and appears to have been here all her life. If I didn’t know she had just transitioned to a wolf I would swear she has always been one with us.”

Marco nodded. “She does seem to have always been here. I am finding it difficult to remember when I didn’t wake with her in my arms.”

“Valentina said that our pack feels the same... as though she has always been here.”

At long last Marco scooped his mate up off the dance floor and carried her back to their room to the sound of her laughter and the well wishes of those who had celebrated with them.

* * *

Catherine laughed and nuzzled Marco as he carried her up the stairs.

“You do know that I’m quite capable of climbing a staircase, right?”

He looked at her questioningly.

“You are forever carrying me up them either cradled in your arms or slung over your shoulder.”

Marco laughed. “The latter only when you are being a naughty mate and need to be shown the error of your ways.”

He entered their bedroom and set her down, closing and locking the door behind her as he pressed her into it.

“You know,” she drawled, “the last time you had me up against our bedroom door you stripped me naked, impaled me on your cock, and fucked me before you bit me.”

He looked down at the mark he had left on her that was rapidly healing. He bent his head and kissed it with great care and feeling.

“As I recall, I only nipped you until you pulled my head back down and indicated your wish to be marked and claimed by me.”

“I know,” she said softly. “I think I wanted that more in that moment than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

“As did I.”

He backed away, drawing her with him and toward their bed, which someone had turned down.

“Do you like your ring, my Catherine?”

“Are you kidding me? It’s gorgeous. I thought the earrings were stunning, but they pale in comparison to this. It’s old, isn’t it?” she asked, looking again at the large pale pink diamond surrounded by baroque pearls and white diamonds.

“Very. It was brought to the property when the pack first came to live here.”

Catherine shook her head. “I love having something that is that old and has been with our family for so long. For it to stand testament to the eternal love I have for you.” She giggled. “Gawd, that was a bit much.”

Marco chuckled and kissed her hand. “Perhaps, but the beauty of that ring pales in comparison to she who wears it.”

Catherine reached up and stroked his cheek before running her finger down the strong column of his neck as she began to unbutton his white linen shirt.

“You do know, Catherine DeMedici,” he started with a voice that was deep and heavy with lust, “that I am the dominant partner and it is I who decides when we will make love.”

“You may be the dominant partner and I may have to submit to your authority, but if you think I’m not going to fuck you whenever I want, you’ve got another thought coming.”

She pulled his shirt free from his trousers before unbuckling his belt, sliding it from its loops, and flinging it across the room. She opened his fly and slid his pants down past his strong, muscular buttocks and hard thighs. With her dress made and fitted to her body as it was, she knelt down to help him step free and was eye-to-eye with the hard evidence of his need for her.

She smiled and drew off his briefs and was confronted with his engorged cock, which seemed to be twitching with its own need. She flicked her tongue over the head and heard him groan in response. She looked up into his face and saw him smiling as his hand gently grasped her head and directed her to do what he wanted.

Catherine licked down the top of the column of his staff and then back along the sensitive underside. She opened her mouth to express some disappointment that there was no knot, but found her mouth filled with the enormity of his member. Slowly Marco began to fuck her mouth. She had quickly learned with her mate that she didn’t so much suck him off as he fucked her mouth instead of her pussy. Often times he withdrew at the last minute only to mount her quickly so that he came inside that part of her that seemed made for that purpose alone.

Even so, she enjoyed using her mouth and tongue to pleasure him as he so often pleasured her. Catherine had come to know that her needs would always be well attended. Marco seemed to know her so intimately and how to coax her body to respond even if she was angry or exhausted.

He fisted her hair and brought her up from her knees. Marco unfastened the elaborate barrette in her hair, freeing both it and the veil. The veil fluttered to the floor as Marco moved his hands down her back and untied the corset strings, loosening her gown and sliding it off her body.

As her breasts were revealed, he sighed contentedly and reached up with one hand to grasp a nipple as his mouth captured the other. Catherine swayed against him. He had a way of fondling her that made her literally go weak at the knees. She could hear the muffled chuckle as his mouth, full of her areola and nipple, was busy suckling.

He tugged her dress down past her derriere and then gently pushed her onto the bed. He removed her dress completely only to find her stockings held up by beautiful garters and that she had on no panties whatsoever.

“Naughty mate,” he said, grinning up at her. “That you have been uncovered in this manner indicates a wantonness that will need to be seen to frequently.”

“I was hoping you’d think that,” she said, teasing him.

He removed her shoes and stockings before kissing his way back up the inside of her thighs as he closed in on that place that most held his attention. He smiled as he caught scent of her increased arousal, the swollen lips of her labia, and her engorged clit. As he had with her nipple, Marco latched on to her distended nub and suckled, causing her to throw her head back and writhe under his assault.

“Marco,” she growled softly as she came.

He kissed his way up her mound to her belly and up once again to engage her nipples. He had no more than taken one in his mouth that he plunged two of his fingers into her heated channel, making her arch up into his hand and come a second time.

“Marco, please,” she cried.

“Such a greedy mate. Most women are happy if their lover can make them climax once. But mine not only wants numerous orgasms but wants most of them done by my cock stroking her pussy or better yet being knotted and rocked.”

“Right now she wants her mate to shut up and fuck her,” she growled low, making him laugh.

He stood ensuring he was between her legs and caught her buttocks in his hands, lifting her so that she was at the perfect height for him to surge forward, ramming his cock deep within her and making her climax yet again.

Marco strengthened his hold so that she couldn’t move and began to thrust with a hard, rhythmic stroke. He enjoyed watching and feeling her come apart in his hands. He held her in such a way that she could do nothing but act as a willing vessel for his lust. He continued to ram his cock into her over and over. Her orgasmic spasms only inflamed his need.

Catherine began to respond as she did when knotted to him. One climax followed another as if they were waves lapping upon the shore, one barely retreating before the next surged forward.

She reached up and covered his hands with hers before trying to grasp his powerful forearms to pull him down on top of her. He rutted within her for more than an hour. She wailed her need and he did nothing but stroke her further into ecstasy. She began to notice something different in the way his cock felt as it seemed to hit her cervix. Her rational mind failed her, but her body remembered—he was forming a knot as he fucked her.

She surrendered to his mastery and could tell he recognized it. He growled in a seductive way and she could feel and hear his call throughout her entire body. As once more she crested the top end of an orgasm, she felt the fully formed knot force past the entrance to her pussy and lodge in its place.

She felt her body relax and her legs wind around him as he slid them both fully onto the bed, grabbing a pillow for her head as he lay down upon her, grasped her buttocks once more as he began the timeless need of his kind to rock his mate until he spilled his seed deep within her before tying her to him for several hours.

Catherine clung to him as she always did as he rocked her through a series of climaxes and as he began to fill her with his cum. She felt the hard contractions of her pussy that coaxed every last drop of his seed from him. When at last he finally stilled, she sighed with great contentment and satisfaction.

“I love you,” she said as she kissed, licked, and nipped him.

He chuckled. “That is a good thing, my Catherine. I love you even more and you are now mine for all time.”

“Haven’t I always been?” she asked softly.

“Yes, but you were being difficult when first I caught scent of you.”

“Not my fault,” she said defensively.

“How do you figure that?”

“You hadn’t knotted me...”

Marco laughed. “Then it is entirely my fault.”

“Entirely,” she agreed wrapping her arms around his neck.

Marco took hold of her buttocks and rolled to his back, keeping her sealed to him but placing her where he knew he could coax her into napping. She would have need of her rest when she could get it for he meant to make their first night as a legally recognized mated pair memorable.