27. Hunter
TWENTY-SEVEN
HUNTER
“I want to marry you.”
“Suffering from memory loss, are you?” Odell placed a hand on my brow. “We did that.”
“No, you’re human.”
“As far as I know.” He peered under the covers before cupping his ear. “You trying to tell me something?”
“Humans want weddings with flowers, rice, and things. Like at City Hall.”
He shuddered, and I realized my mistake. Why did I bring up that dark memory?
“Humans like weddings, don’t they? It’s the whole dreams-come-true scenario. The commitment, a sense of belonging, the joy, the happy ever after.”
“I have my happy ever after.”
My mate and I worked together now. We did retrievals together, with him driving, and he helped me manage the club in the evenings. He was so good with the customers and was even better at flattering the regulars and big spenders than I was.
“I guess. But I’ve never given it much thought. And my track record for ceremonies is one failed and one in an underground bunker.”
“Ahhh!” I held up a finger. “I forgot to mention something.”
My mate furrowed his brows. “Do I want to hear it? Does it include Draven, kidnapping, or Stefan?”
“One of them, but it’s not bad bad. Just a blip. No, not that. It’s like misfiled paperwork.” I hoped I hadn’t confused him.
“Good. That’s crystal clear.” He clamped his hands on my shoulders. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but your paperwork at the club is a mess.”
“A mess.” I removed his hands and dropped an arm around his shoulder. “And am I a mess?”
“You are kind of a slob, Hunter, dumping your clothes on the floor.” He giggled. “So yeah, you’re messy.”
“Let’s get back to weddings, shall we?” Being reminded of my untidy ways wasn’t part of my plan. “Turns out our old pal Stefan wasn’t a certified celebrant. Your brilliant mate literally brought our enemy into the panic room to do something he wasn’t qualified to do.”
“Well done,” Odell deadpanned.
I jumped out of bed and bowed. One where I twirled one arm in front with the other behind me.
“You were trying to protect me and you made a spur-of-the-moment decision to call Stefan, thinking he was being blackmailed by Draven.” He planted a kiss on my lips. “I don’t need another marriage certificate.”
We had the one Stefan gave us, which was a keepsake, but as he couldn’t file the paperwork, we didn’t have a legal document.
“Do we want to be reminded of Stefan fake marrying us?”
Odell sat in silence. “Not sure. We met and mated, so a check mark. But it brought us in contact with Stefan again, so that’s a big red X. But mating is more important than marriage, so do we need another wedding?”
I took both his hands. “It’s up to you, but I want to celebrate our mating, and by marrying you, it will cancel out Stefan’s involvement. Wash away any trace of him.”
“We can’t do that, remove him from our past, but I get your point. It would be nice. But I refuse to go to City Hall.”
“You don’t have to. Uncle Arnie is now a registered celebrant. He can perform the ceremony.”
My mate closed one eye. “How about that? Your uncle just happened to get licensed so he can marry people. What are the odds?”
The longer we were together, the more Odell could suss out my departures from the truth, the whole truth. “I might have mentioned my intention to Uncle Arnie.”
“Shocker!”
I fell to my knees and extended a hand to grab a rose from a vase. “Would you do me the honor of marrying me, Dellie?”
“You had to do it. Using that pet name.”
“Gotta bring out the big guns.”
My mate slid onto the floor so we were both kneeling. Clasping my hands in his, he replied, “I will marry you.”
I traced over his paper clip ring. If we were not eliminating memories but maybe incorporating them into our lives with additional layers, I had to come up with a solution.
“What about these? Toss, keep, or reinvent?”
My mate removed his hands from mine and twisted the ring on his left hand. “I can’t throw it away.”
“Hold that thought.” I raced to the desk and got two paper clips, and from the kitchen I grabbed a ziplock bag. “Trust me?”
“To not bring a killer to marry us? The verdict is still out. But to love me forever and protect me? Always.”
We removed our paperclip wedding bands and placed them in the bag. I fashioned the two new ones into rings, and we placed them on each other’s fingers.
“These are temporary. On our wedding day, I’ll return our originals in adifferent form but still the same.”
“Makes perfect sense. As always.”
Today is the day .
Cake might be nice for you, but I’d prefer a juicy rabbit . My beast was peeved that a human wedding didn’t offer anything for a wolf.
Tomorrow, I promise .
Dad and Uncle Arnie had taken care of the food, the guests—it was just family—and the decorations. My mate and I chose our outfits.
I’d worried that Odell’s aunt might not want to come, but her altered lifestyle had changed her outlook. While she might never “warm” to me, she no longer tried to get Odell to leave, and she stopped mentioning having Stefan annul the wedding.
She’d come to dinner once every couple of weeks and was pleasant enough.
I couldn’t ask her for more than that.
She was getting on with her life. Having been a receptionist at a real estate company, she had decided to get her realtor’s license and work for herself. She had plenty of contacts.
I stood in the guest bedroom observing the activity outside. The sun would set in an hour, and my brothers and their families had arrived and the kids were racing over the grass between the white chairs and under the archway, decorated with pink roses from the garden.
On the terrace there was a huge table with fairy lights intertwined with foliage from my garden and Dad’s. My dad was scurrying around checking off a list on his tablet, while Uncle Arnie was fussing over the table, saying he’d need help bringing out the food after the ceremony.
“Being the celebrant and the caterer is a huge responsibility,” he said to his grandson Treyton who’d helped prepare the food. My uncle caught my eye and gave me a big grin and a thumbs-up. I hoped I was as energetic and spritely when I got to his age.
Odell’s Uncle Stan hadn’t been invited. My mate went back and forth on that decision, wavering between wanting to punish the man and remembering how he’d been a loving father figure most of this life. But we promised to film the ceremony and to send him some cake.
My mate wavered on how to fit his uncle into his life. There were no rules for that, but after speaking to Tony and Matt who had experience with family members’ betrayal, he decided their relationship would evolve with time and they’d work it out as they went along.
“I have forgiven him. That is for me, not him. He has to live with what he did,” he repeated often.
But he and Odell had never had “the hard talk.” My mate had only spoken to his uncle on the phone, but the conversations were superficial. That needed to change.
But not today.
Like Louisa, Stan had a renewed sense of purpose. He loved living in the countryside, had made friends with the guards, created a vegetable garden, and was making jellies and sauces with the produce. And while he was taken off the property during a full-moon run, I wondered if he’d caught on to who we were.
One last look in the mirror at my dark suit and pink shirt—Odell’s favorite color—and no tie. My cufflinks had belonged to Papa, they were sterling silver with a wolf insignia.
I strode outside onto the terrace. The fire pits had been lit and the kids corralled by their parents. Striding under the archway, I grinned at Uncle Arnie dressed in a new navy suit.
A rumbling and a straining engine heralded the approach of a vehicle, catching everyone’s attention, and we all looked toward the driveway. Odell was driving the Red Beast with Louisa beside him. They emerged, and his aunt tucked her arm in my mate’s. Walking up the aisle, they smiled at everyone, but I only had eyes for Odell, my Dellie. He looked a little pale, but grooms were supposed to be nervous on their wedding day.
He was wearing a linen suit and like me, a pink rose in the buttonhole.
“I love you.” I took his trembling hands. This was much better than our first fake marriage.
“Love you too.”
Uncle Arnie said words and more words. Our family chuckled and sighed as Odell and I said our vows.
Mine was very short. There were no words to describe how I felt about my mate.
“You were my partner in everything, from the moment we met, and no matter the challenge, you accepted it and met it head-on. I love you, Dellie.”
Now it was Odell’s turn.
“Hunter, you turned my life upside down, but in a good way. And now I like looking at life with my head on the ground and feet up.”
And when I brought out the rings, Odell awwed. I’d had the paperclips coated in gold so the twisted shape was still visible.
“They’re engraved. ‘From a paperclip to forever.’”
Everyone sobbed, even Uncle Arnie dabbing at his eyes. We removed the temporary wedding bands and replaced them with the permanent ones.
“Husband and husband forever bonded,” he intoned.
We kissed, but Odell pulled away. “I love you, but?—”
He turned, leaned over, and threw up.
“Ewww,” the kids said.
Everyone leaped up, and I held my mate’s shoulders as he heaved. Tony grabbed napkins from the table, Ranger poured water into a tall glass, and the children were pointing out vegetables in my mate’s puke.
“Uncle Dellie ate some carrots,” Lottie said. My niece and nephews used the name Dellie because it was easier to pronounce.
Everyone was concerned except my dad who was grinning, doing baby claps, and dancing on his tippy toes.
When my Dellie finished heaving, he rested his head on my chest. “I ruined the wedding.” He sniffed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Are you kidding? We’ll remember this until the end of our days.”
“Must be a tummy bug, but I feel a little better.”
Dad popped up beside us. “Can I guess what made you sick?”
“Dad, not now.” I needed to get my mate into bed. Everyone else could party through the night. “Stay and eat the amazing food Uncle Arnie prepared.”
Odell put a hand on my arm. “We have to at least cut the cake.”
I steered him to the layers of white chocolate mousse, each one decorated with strawberries and drizzled with caramel.
We picked up a large serving spoon, with a satin bow tied at the end, and “sliced’ into the mousse before giving one another a small taste.
“Congratulations!” everyone shouted.
But Dad piped up. “Not just on your marriage.”
What was he banging on about? I gave him a look.
“I’m pretty sure my son-in-law is pregnant!”
“Pregnant” That was me, Odell, and everyone else, including the kids, apart from my dad.
Treyton put his hand up. “As I’m a midwife, I offer my services for the birth.”
We were getting ahead of ourselves.
“Can we still have cake?” Lottie asked before she and her brother stuck their fingers in the mousse.