Chapter 40
CHAPTER 40
Issa
M y eyes flitted from Amir to Athena, then back to my omega again.
Everyone was excited about the wedding. Overly excited. Yet I…
I was a bundle of nerves.
We’d set a date for a year from now in hopes of the whole Antonio thing finally being over. Either way, Bain had offered as many guards as we wanted to watch over us to make sure we didn’t end up like an episode of Game of Thrones .
“What about something like this?” Athena asked, turning the laptop toward me.
“Mom! Seriously?” Amir admonished his mom with the biggest smile on his face.
The gown on the screen was poofy and white and covered in lace.
“I don’t think I can pull something like that off,” I said instead of telling her I’d rather not look like a giant cupcake on my wedding day.
“We’re trying for lowkey, Mom. That is more like a Greek travesty.”
“What’s wrong with a Greek wedding?” Athena said, pushing Amir’s shoulder.
“Issa isn’t Greek.”
“But you are.”
“Ah, but only half.”
“Oh! I know! What if we mix Greek and Syrian for the ceremony?! Think of the food I could make.”
A dull throb began behind my eyes as she rambled on. I’d been overjoyed that I would have some form of a mother to help with all of this, but she was…a lot!
Amir’s hand landed on my thigh and squeezed gently. I turned my eyes to my omega’s face and forced a smile.
His gaze bounced between my eyes a second before he nodded as though he’d read my mind and come to the same conclusion.
“Reel it in, Mom. Too much. My girl isn’t used to…all this.” His arms went wide.
“All of what? I mean, I know you didn’t want a ceremony…oh, man. Am I being way overly excited? I’m sorry. It’s just…my first child’s ceremony. Wedding. Whatever. And you’re so perfect for him and I want the whole day to be perfect for your whole pack.”
“I’m not used to having a mom,” I admitted softly, trying to keep my expression neutral instead of letting the mixture of heartache and gratitude fill my face.
There was a beat of silence. Then another. The longer it stretched on with Athena staring at me, the more uncomfortable I grew.
This was why I hated telling new people about my past. I hated the look of pity that always appeared on their faces no matter how hard they tried to cover it.
Tears welled in Athena’s eyes, and she lunged to her feet, rounding the table and kneeling at my feet.
Confusion pulled my brows down as I stared into her watery eyes.
“You do now, Kóri. I am your mother. You are my daughter. You are as much my daughter as Annalise, Amini, or Alysia. ”
Damn it. Now my eyes were blurred with unshed tears. “Th– " My voice caught as a sob threatened to steal my breath. “Thank you.”
“Now…” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my cheek before pushing to her feet. “I know I’m a lot to take in all at once. So you’ve got to use your voice, Kóri. You won’t hurt my feelings or offend me.”
“She’s used to four kids reminding her to chill out on a daily basis,” Amir said from my right.
“I want to make your wedding day absolutely perfect, but perfect for you two , not my vision. You tell me what you want, what part you want me to play, and I promise I will do my best to keep from squealing at every decision or inserting my opinion too much. But again, you say the word and I’ll back off. No hard feelings.”
A rogue tear trailed over my lashes, but Amir caught it with his thumb, leaning forward to press a soft but lingering kiss to my lips. “Good now?”
After a deep inhale, I gave him a wobbly smile. “Yeah. I’m good now.”
We all relaxed, and it felt as though the room took a collective cleansing breath. “Now,” Athena started. “Tell me what you’re thinking. Are you two wanting something small, casual, and intimate? Extravagant with hundreds of guests?”
I barked out a laugh. “I don’t think I even know a dozen people anymore. At least not that I would want to be there for the best day of my life.”
A rush of love and affection flooded my chest as it trickled down the bond from Amir.
I smiled when he nuzzled his cheek against mine, his strawberry and chocolate scent covering me and floating around me in a sweet cloud.
“Okay,” I said, getting serious, or at least trying to with Amir rubbing his cheek along mine, along my shoulder, and running his hand up and down my spine. “Small. Simple and elegant. And intimate. Does that help?”
Athena clapped her hands then rubbed them together. “Absolutely. Have you thought about what kind of dress you would want? ”
“Not really. I know I don’t want anything frilly or a big, ridiculous train.”
My poor sister had been stuffed into so much lace and taffeta and had been forced to wear a veil that covered her face on the day of her – thankfully – failed bonding ceremony.
That dress had been ruined by the blood of the guards who’d been escorting her, but her kidnapping had ended up being a blessing in disguise as she was now madly in love with her pack, had a beautiful baby boy, and was so damn happy.
“We’ve got some time to go shopping and make sure you get exactly what you want. As far as a venue…I haven’t been to your house yet, but we’d be more than happy to host something here,” she offered.
The field near the creek where Amir had proposed flashed through my mind, but I wasn’t sure how willing the few guests we might have would be to either find a horse to ride to the area or traipse through the woods for over an hour to get there. It might have been my wedding I was planning, but I didn’t want to put anyone out.
“We have a pretty big yard. You’ll have to bring the girls over to swim when it gets warmer,” Amir offered, saving me from having to decide then and there.
The next few hours went about the same, with Athena offering suggestions and me either vetoing them or agreeing. Amir was silent, even when I asked for his input. According to him, he would wear a dinosaur costume if it made me happy.
I would have felt awful for the guards who were stuck with us all day, but Athena kept their bellies full, and they spent their time in front of the TV when they weren’t communicating with our alphas or checking the perimeter as though some threat might wander onto the property.
“We should get going,” Amir said, standing and stretching.
“Your sisters, dad, and baba will be disappointed they missed you,” Athena said, hugging first Amir then me as we stood at the door, our guards already at the SUV and waiting patiently .
“We’ll be back soon. From what I saw online, there’s a lot to wedding or bonding ceremony planning.”
I tilted my head back and raised my brows. “You were researching wedding planning?”
“I’m an omega. Just because I’m a man doesn’t mean I don’t still want all the pretty, frilly shit, too.”
The smile that lit up my face was both from his words and the image of him working on his muscle car in one of his mom’s sundresses that first time we came here for a day date.
As we approached the SUV, both guards were on high alert as one searched the area and the other opened the back door for us.
“I really don’t think anyone is hiding in the bushes or in the horse pasture waiting for us,” I teased.
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Ghazi and Myer were more than capable of protecting their family. If the burly, dark-skinned guard they’d sent as backup to watch over me and Amir was anything to go by, those two had some connections.
“Do we have to go straight home?” I asked, leaning forward a little to address our current babysitters.
The only time I saw someone new was the evening switch over. The four men assigned to shadow me and Amir were working seven days a week, but at least they switched shifts so they could get some rest.
I thought it was a little silly for them to be there when our three alphas were home. I highly doubted Enzo, Cyrus, and especially Ax would let anyone get close enough to the two of us when they were home.
“Your alphas don’t want you at the club,” Abdel, one of our day guards, answered with his thickly accented deep voice. Even if he hadn’t been assigned to us, I would have assumed simply by his demeanor and voice he was some kind of badass.
But he was also sweet. I’d caught him interacting with Amir’s sisters once and had seen how gentle he was with the animals on Athena’s little hobby farm .
My eyes rolled of their own freaking accord. “Fine. But can we do something else? Anything else?”
We hadn’t been on lock down that long, but now that I was finally getting over my fear of being in public and around alphas, I had grown tired of being cooped up in the house and had developed a mild case of cabin fever.
Sure, we had just spent hours with Amir’s mom, but I wasn’t quite ready to go home and plop down in front of the television until the two of us either fell asleep or our alphas finally returned home.
“What do you have in mind, fiancée ?” Amir asked, nuzzling my neck and nipping one of the marks left by our alphas.
A full body shudder rippled through me, and I almost changed my mind. Going home suddenly didn’t sound so bad. It would mean we would be alone… and naked.
“I was…thinking…Okay, you have to stop. I can’t think straight when you’re doing that,” I said through a breathy giggle.
He left one more kiss on my neck and pulled away.
“I’ve never gotten my nails done,” I was finally able to blurt out. “I want to get a manicure. But none of those super long nails.”
Amir’s brows drew down. “How the hell have you never gotten your nails done? I thought your family was all about appearances.”
“They were. But dramatic nails were considered trashy. So, I just…kept them short and didn’t bother with polish.”
“Okay, we’re totally getting you something wild and colorful. And we’re getting pedicures, too.”
“You’ll have to tell me where to go,” the guard driving, Oscar, said, glancing at me through the rearview mirror.
Amir rattled off the name of a salon and the street where it was located. I wasn’t the least bit surprised being as my beautiful omega was unrepentantly and effortlessly glamourous from his impeccable and unique clothing style to his always perfect long, curly hair.
The nail place was only about ten or fifteen minutes from Amir’s parents’ and, luckily for us, there wasn’t a line. In fact, there were only a few omegas and betas in the place. And not a single alpha .
Or there wasn’t until Abdel entered behind us and took up sentry at the door while Oscar stayed on the sidewalk. They both stood with their backs ramrod straight and their hands folded in front of them. I knew there were guns hidden under their clothes, but at least they weren’t donning the big rifles strapped over their chests like they did at home.
As much as I hated why I had so much time to hang out with Athena or spend time doing something so frivolous as getting a manicure and pedicure, this day was damn near perfect.
Maybe learning the ways of the omega – as Amir called it – wasn’t so bad after all.