21 - Dominic
December 6, 2022
“I s everything ready?”
“Yes, Alpha,” Anthony replied, apparently a beat away from rolling his damn eyes at me.
So what if my wolf’s anxiety was weighing on everyone around me? It was a special day!
“Although,” he continued, ignoring my inner turmoil, “I have to ask once more: are you sure about the bridal bouquet?”
“As I’ve already told you, she loves dandelions. They might even be her favorite flowers. So just worry about taking photos, okay? That’s what I’m paying you for.”
“Alright,” he smirked, and I wanted to punch his lights out.
The things I did for my mate, like keeping his pup’s smile intact.
“How is she?” I finally allowed myself to ask what I really wanted since the moment I saw him.
“She’s almost ready. She’s happy, chatting away with all the females in her room. This will be a really great ceremony,” he conceded as he looked around the festively decorated pack hall.
My wolf huffed haughtily. Why was the pup so surprised? We’d enlisted the help of everyone who knew and loved our mate to prepare this special experience for her birthday.
I heard a commotion outside, and then his scent hit me.
“There’s the male of the hour,” David boomed happily, and all the wolves in the hall bared their necks to their king. I just grinned at my friend.
“John, hello. I see you brought your brother with you.”
“Careful, Dominic, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were making a joke,” David hugged me, and John shook his head at the two of us.
“This is Anthony,” I introduced them before I sent Anthony to take more photos of Penelope getting ready and Gabriel in his tiny suit. I couldn’t wait to have our pup on the dais with us.
“Thanks for having us,” John told me as he took in the room. “You really went all out, huh?”
Was it too much? The hydrangea flower arch alone was an expense that made all of Mom’s friends swoon and tell me I was a good male, but I knew that Penelope wouldn’t care about that. She’d care only in the sense that she'd notice its beauty, and she’d care that I’d made an effort. I hoped it was obvious that I had.
Faking a calm I didn’t feel, I just nodded at John. But there was no fooling his brother.
“Is the great Alpha Hedge perhaps nervous? Don’t tell me young Penelope has managed to thaw your frozen heart?”
“What if she has?” I raised an eyebrow at him, knowing how much it bothered him when I answered his questions with my own.
“It would make me happy beyond belief,” he said, his smile honest and warm. “I’ve always rooted for your happiness, Dom; you’re my friend.”
I cleared my throat and gave him a hard pat on the back. John cleared his own throat. David blinked a few times.
“Thanks, David.”
We stood in awkward silence for a few beats until David, out of nowhere, announced that he was abdicating the throne.
“I’ll propose John to take over as my replacement, and we’ll vote on it at the Summit this summer. I’d appreciate your support on this.”
I looked between the two brothers, and I couldn’t believe how I hadn’t seen it before. John would be the better king.
“What does your mate say about it?”
“She says she’d love me more if I wasn’t king,” he laughed, and I shook my head with a grin.
“Well, then, let me help you out.”
“Thanks, Dominic,” John said. “I’d love to have you at Court as my advisor. I’ve seen what you’ve done with the University, and I’m really impressed. I was thinking, we could set up another one on the West Coast, but I’d need your expertise for that.”
I was shaking my head before he even finished, “You can take that up with my mate. Only if she says yes and only if she accompanies me. My long absences from home are a thing of the past now. But I gotta tell you right now, she loves our pack, I don’t think she’ll want to leave her support network.”
John nodded thoughtfully, “Elizabeth and I will talk to Luna Penelope. I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to make everyone happy.”
“Suit yourself,” I shrugged because I really didn’t care.
If Penelope wanted to move, we’d move. It was as simple as that.
“Where are your mates anyway?”
“They went to see the female of the hour,” David grinned. “I can tell you that Regina is sobbing right now, but with the pregnancy, she almost always is.”
I felt the familiar mixture of regret and sadness when I (once again) realized that I’d barely gotten to witness any of my mate’s pregnant habits. It wasn’t David’s fault, but since he was the one who’d invited me to accompany him to Spruce Mountain, I felt the urge to break his nose just a little bit. He’d heal in time for the ceremony.
“My mate is probably telling her how much she admires her. I don't know for sure since Penelope and I are blocking each other today. She thought it would be nice to pretend we weren’t marked yet,” I said instead, putting all the things I’d learned with Vera to good use.
Breathe.
Acknowledge the feeling.
Sit with it.
Let it go.
Don’t get stuck in the past.
Forgive yourself, but never forget and never repeat.
“Dominic Hedge, you big softie,” David laughed, and I didn’t want to break his nose anymore.
“We should probably go say hello to your in-laws,” John said.
I frowned, “Only Isaac is here.”
Neither male asked anything, which I appreciated. Both twins had been reluctant to invite their father. Penelope, because she'd feared he’d decline or say the ceremony was frivolous and unnecessary. Isaac, because he was trying to keep his mate away from his father for as long as possible.
He’d introduced them, of course, but kept a healthy distance between them in order to give her as much fun and freedom as possible before settling down in their pack. I was already dreading their mating ceremony, which was scheduled to be held over the holidays.
I couldn’t blame Isaac. Alpha Hansen and his son’s mate didn’t see eye to eye in many things but were both very stubborn, so it was better to keep them apart unless absolutely necessary. And I wanted Penelope to be happy and enjoy her day – if that meant keeping her father away, so be it.
The ceremony part was a blur. Even under Alpha command, I didn’t think I’d be able to explain why. I was suddenly seized with nerves and jitters and excitement – this was technically my third mating ceremony, but it was the first time I was feeling like this.
Years later, I’d think back on the day, and there would only be flashes of memories: Penelope’s shy but radiant smile, the mirth in her eyes when she saw the dandelion bouquet I had the florist make for her, like she knew something I didn’t.
Her dress was a nod to the one I saw her in at the pup shower the day I’d come back from Spruce Mountain. She looked like a nymph emerging from turquoise sea foam, and her eyes shone with unrestrained love for me while Isaac fastened our hands together with a red ribbon.
I could feel my heart beating in my throat, and as Isaac was speaking the words about love, mates, loyalty, and honor, I silently made my own vows.
I’ll never make you feel unloved again.
I’ll never abandon you again.
I’ll always put you first.
While I’ll probably never hold your hand while driving, I want to hold it any time I’m not.
You’re the most important wolf in my life, and I’ll make sure you know it for as long as we both shall live.
The one thing no one who was present that day would ever be able forget, though, was my Gamma coming to the dais during the speech part of the ceremony. We’d already heard from my mother, Isaac, and Charlotte, and I tried remembering whether Theo was even scheduled to speak, but with Penelope’s warm hand in mine, I couldn’t care less who was up there, talking.
“Hello, everyone,” he started saying, but gone was the confident, at times even aloof male that normally whipped my enforcers into shape.
“Theodore Lucas Hooper,” Theresa hissed from the table next to us. Her sweet pea smell was heated with unbelievable anger, “Get back here!”
“I’m sorry, Tiny, I have to get this off my chest. I need everyone to know how I messed up and how badly I hurt my mate. The one female who is perfect for me.”
He swallowed and fixed his gaze on her.
“You’re perfect, Tiny. You’re so vicious and bossy, and when you clawed my arm earlier when I tried to hold your hand, fuck, it made me hard as a rock,” he explained dreamily as Penelope choked on her drink and Theresa’s face burned bright red.
I didn’t know whether it was from shame, anger, or arousal.
“All my life, I’ve had these urges, some might say less than masculine urges, and I was always worried that my mate would be someone who wasn’t able to respond to that. When we first met, you were so quiet and shy and reticent that it freaked me out, I was terrified that I’d live my life hiding away an important part of me.
But Tiny, you’re the female of my dreams. I want to be your humble servant for as long as we live, and I want you to unleash all that pent-up fury and heat onto me,” he said, and then he was being dragged off the dais by Theresa, and no one saw them for the rest of the evening.
The next day, they were seen in town with marks on their necks, and from that day onward, Theo got into all sorts of petty mischief so that his mate could sort him out.
◆◆◆
“How long will it take to furnish it?” I asked Darryl, our interior designer.
“It can be done in three weeks when I get your final decisions. But we’re talking after the holidays, right?”
“Yeah, no worries. We’re in no rush. My mate has a way of talking that makes it seem like he’s angry with you, but it’s just how he talks,” Penelope reassured the male, who did seem worried, now that I looked at him closely.
“Thank you, Luna.”
“No problem, Darryl, thank you. I’ll bring the final choices to your office by the end of the week.”
Later, at lunch, we looked at the mock-ups that Darryl had made for us, and it felt good to be included in the process. I already made plans for the home gym and a workshop for Gabriel and me (once he was a bit bigger), and gave my suggestions for our family room, all of which Penelope wholeheartedly accepted.
It was mind-boggling that I was surprised that she acted like it was my house, too. It made me realize how easy it was to notice that other people were accepting shit treatment from someone, and how difficult it sometimes was to recognize when you were the one doing it.
She absentmindedly twirled some pasta onto her fork and offered it to me. I couldn’t hide my grin. I fucking loved having her fork in my mouth, sharing food with her, doing anything involving her mouth...
“Dominic, please,” she said primly while her thoughts were anything but. “We’re in a restaurant, at lunch. I don’t think our pack members have to smell our various fluids.”
She was right. Respecting others’ noses was the foundation of decorum in our world.
“Are your friends ready for graduation next week?” I asked in order to change the topic, but it made her so sad that I almost wanted to go back to being uncomfortably hard.
“Yeah, they are. Charlotte will travel a bit and try to find her mate. Anthony is angling for a job at the Royal Hospital. Lynn and Rowan are going back to Illinois to start apprenticing for their future as Alpha and Dr. Luna,” she smiled despite the pain and fear she felt.
“I’ll make sure you still see them regularly, you do know that?” I asked her, and I meant it.
I’d already written to Rowan’s father to cement a few more joint projects with his pack. And I’d write a glowing recommendation for the pup so that she could see him whenever we went to Colorado for the Alpha Summit. And as soon as Charlotte settled down, I’d think of something for her as well.
“I know,” she smiled and put her hand on mine. “I really appreciate that, Dominic.”
I fought against my natural reticence and told her, “I love you, and you never have to thank me for that.”
“I love you too,” she smiled and it hit me like an arrow to the heart.
“Anthony gave me a parting gift,” she continued with a teasing smile.
I just raised an eyebrow in question.
“He gave me a bunch of photos he took of you looking at me throughout our mating,” she said as she took the envelope from her bag and handed it to me.
There must have been fifty different photos there, all with an oblivious Penelope in them or just outside them, and me gazing at her either possessively or like a lovesick pup. Huh. Anthony had an eye; I’d give him that.
“I can’t believe I never saw it before now,” she said pensively as she carefully arranged the photos before putting them back into the envelope.
“I made sure to hide it,” I shrugged. “As stupid as that was.”
She frowned. She never liked that word.
“Okay, it was thoughtless, cruel, unwise.”
“Well, I’m glad we’re past it now,” she yawned. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m so tired now that Gabriel has been sleeping more. It makes no sense.”
“I spoke to Ariadne; she said it was hormones that made you feel energized in the beginning, and now they're wearing off.”
“I can’t believe you run to the pack doctor for every little thing,” she shook her head in disbelief. “But I also talked to someone, Charlotte and Grace, namely. We talked about breastfeeding and heats, and they told me that now that Gabriel started sleeping through bigger chunks of the night and will be starting solids in a little while, I might go into heat soon.”
I took a deep breath and imagined a really horrific rotting carcass in order to prevent an erection. In vain.
“Okay,” I said carefully. “Do you have an estimate on when?”
She looked away, fighting the same thoughts I had.
“Some time after we come back from Utah, I think. I’ll keep you updated on how I feel.”
“So we have around twenty more days. Do you...” I took a sip of water to steady my voice, “Do you want to try for another one so soon? I mean, there are ways to...”
She shook her head adamantly, “I want to. I can’t wait, actually,” she grinned. “I can’t wait to go through it together this time.”
I just squeezed her hand and nodded because it would be really terrible for pack morale to see their Alpha tear up in a restaurant.