We finally made our way downstairs, both dressed, and only ten minutes late for the wedding.
There must have been at least a hundred people milling around in our front yard. The decorations looked even more heavenly in the light of day, and when I turned and saw my sister a few paces back from the door.
She was decked out in a gorgeous, form hugging, white silk dress, her long dark hair up in a simple bun atop her head, a small veil entwined in her hair as ornamentation.
“Glad you could make it,” she said as I hugged her. I was on the verge of tears she was so beautiful. “We were about to start without you.”
“Oh, shut up. You’re ruining our hallmark moment.” I blew a raspberry on her neck and she batted me away.
“You look so beautiful.” My voice started cracking.
I wanted mom and Gram to be here. But I didn’t think I’d be able to hold it together if I said it out loud.
Stormy pointed at me and gave me the stink-eye. “Don’t you dare! If I start the waterworks now I’ll ruin my makeup.”
Bly slipped in the front door and looked at us. “Two women on the verge of a nervous breakdown?”
We both slapped him on either shoulder.
He held the shoulder Stormy hit with mock pain. “So violent. Does the groom know he’s going to get such abuse?”
“Bly…” Stormy sounded as if she was about to turn into her puma and go for Bly’s jugular.
He skipped backward out of her reach. “If you’re ready, your groom and Bull are ready.”
I blinked. “Bull?”
Bly winked at me. “He got ordained just so he could marry these two. Since Stormy usually does the hitching in the tribe.”
Oh. “Well, that’s handy.”
Everyone just looked at me.
Okay, I’d have to watch what I said around these guys from now on.
I wasn’t ready to get married.
I looked over at Wade. He’d borrowed a suit from Maddox and he looked roguishly gorgeous, sans a tie, with the top two buttons of his dress shirt undone.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t think about it…
I fiddle started to pluck out a rhythm, and then it started into a bluegrass version of Here Comes the Bride.
“Showtime,” Bly said as he headed out the door.
Wade came forward and offered me his arm. It was a hell of a nice arm to link my arm with.
I suddenly thought about all those things we’d done in my bed since last night. And I started to think about what we still hadn’t done yet, and might just be doing tonight.
We passed out the front door and down the steps of the porch. There were people, town folk, friends and many of the tribe, all standing, waiting for my sister.
I felt so proud.
I looked to see where the fine fiddle playing was coming from and saw that Benny was the musician. I gave him a small though genuine smile. I had my head wrapped around what had happened to me last year. And every day, I was getting better and better at dealing with it.
Chelsea had survived the change, and Benny had coaxed her into shifting back to human form. But she hadn’t shifted since.
But it had only been two weeks, so there was no hurry.
She’d decided to stay in her room, the guest bedroom, for the wedding.
I didn’t blame her.
I just hoped Benny could get her out of the house more. She hadn’t left it since she’d been bitten. And she hadn’t talked about it at all.
Wade and I walked down the aisle probably a little too quickly, but I think both of us just wanted the crowd’s attention off us and on the Bride.
Maddox stood before us at the altar, dashing in a deep, dark blue suit, a white dress shirt, and a blue tie.
His eyes were starting to glow golden as he stared at the front door of the house, waiting for his bride.
The music swelled and Benny played a little slower as Stormy walked out onto the porch.
I blinked. She was literally glowing, and she was bookended by both Nonna and Gram.
The two ghost grandmothers walked beside her all the way down the rose and wildflower-strewn aisle. Gram held her free hand.
Gram hadn’t appeared once since she took the skinwalker. Tears filled my eyes as I watched the three women come down the aisle.
I looked over at Wade, and he just gave his head a little shake.
I wasn’t the only one surprised.
The music ended and Bull’s deep voice resonated through the crisp air as he started reading a poem, one I’d never heard before, about time and love and being tender to each other.
“And never, not for one moment, forget what you each mean to the other.” He looked up at Stormy and Maddox, his fierce eyes burning green for a moment. “You are mate. You are home.”
I gulped.
You are mate.
You are home.
I snuck a look at Wade. He was staring at me, his eyes soaking me up as if I was…
Everything…
I gave him my most secret smile; the smile that said that I knew.
And that I felt it too.
“Do you, Maddox Ethan Stone, take Stormy Olivia Ironcloud as your wedded wife? To have and to hold, from this day forward, for as long as you both shall live?”
Maddox hadn’t taken his eyes off Stormy the entire time. “I do.” He took her hand in his and slipped a gold wedding band onto her hand.
A silent sob fell from my lips, and happy tears slipped from my eyes.
They looked so happy.
I couldn’t want anything more for them.
“And do you, Stormy Olivia Ironcloud, take Maddox Ethan Stone as your husband? To have and to hold, from this day forward, for as long as you both shall live?”
“I’m just glad he didn’t say that whole to obey thing,” Gram said, her voice cutting through the air.
I shot the old woman a look sharp enough to cut off a limb.
Nonna tittered beside her. “That line was always crap!”
Stormy smiled. Most of the wedding guests hadn’t heard that. But she had.
“I do…” she said, “I really do.”
She slipped a gold band onto Maddox’s hand, and just like some sort of magic, I felt a sort of chime, and the wind moved around us all as if it was weighing in somehow.
There was silence for a moment, and Maddox and Stormy turned to look at Bull.
“Well… kiss her, man.”
And as Maddox pulled my sister in and kissed her as if his life depended on it, the crowd broke into thunderous applause, whoops and cat calls, wolf whistles and a few rather bear-like roars.