Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Brakkor
I still couldn’t believe my brother was going through with it. I mean, it wasn’t like I’d tried to talk him out of it these last few weeks; it was his life. It seemed to me that he had pretty shit reasons for agreeing to tie himself to one female for the rest of his life.
In the world where we were born, marriage wasn’t even a thing. Here it was all about legal protections and crap, and I understood why Korrad would do that for this Kesha…I just didn’t understand why he’d want to.
Still, I could admit he smelled pleased with himself, standing under this ridiculous flower archway with the rising moon at our backs.
With my hands clasped behind my back, I rolled my shoulders uncomfortably and admitted the truth to myself: It wasn’t that I couldn’t believe Korrad was doing this…it was that I couldn’t believe I’d let him talk me into participating.
“Stop fidgeting,” he muttered. “You look fine.”
“I feel ridiculous,” I growled right back. “Everyone’s looking at me.”
Where everyone meant all the males we’d come to Eastshore with: Dravik and Varron and Harkaan.
Garrak, Sylvik, and our old boss Abydos had brought their Mates, and others had brought dates.
Our younger brother Kardok hadn’t been able to fly out, since he was still in post-season.
I also suspected he was wallowing in guilt or some shit about what happened in the playoffs.
But besides the guys from Colorado, there were other males I recognized but didn’t know well, like Abydos’s brothers and their families. And they were all relaxed and comfortable and staring at me.
I scowled right back at them, relieved my brother had vetoed Jay’s suggestion that we wear suits.
It was a fucking beach wedding; I wasn’t even going to wear shoes.
Hells, I was uncomfortable enough in this simple white shirt and loose trousers.
I shouldn’t have rolled up the sleeves and put all my tats on display.
“They’re looking at me,” Korrad hissed in response to my claim. “I’m the one getting married. Now, relax, or Jay is going to think you don’t like his efforts.”
The kid did alright putting this shindig together, I had to admit. When my twin had told me that Jay really had planned the whole event—down to what food was being set out on those tables up the beach—I’d been surprised. Now that I saw it in person, I was impressed.
My nephew had the organizational gene, that was for sure. Or maybe he’d just grown up watching his father. Korrad wasn’t exactly Type A, but he Had His Shit Together.
Right now, Jay hovered at the rear of the guests, holding his dad’s cell phone and a clipboard with a bunch of paper attached…
just like a real wedding planner, I suppose.
Sylvik’s Mate was seated right in front of him and kept whispering to him.
I remembered that she was a wedding planner, and guessed that she’d helped him out with pointers and suggestions and whatnot.
He might have a future in event planning, honestly. He’d thrown this together in only two weeks?
The guests were seated in tiny white folding chairs—well, I supposed they were normal-sized for humans, but the orcs looked like they were going to break them.
Sakkara, Eastshore’s orc mayor, was standing behind the flimsy archway, which was bedecked in palm fronds and some kind of tropical-looking flowers in pinks and purples.
They smelled nice and fit the beach theme.
“You ready?” Sakkara murmured. He was going to be performing the ceremony, which I didn’t realize was possible.
I admitted, “No.”
Beside me, my brother snorted. “He was talking to me.” Korrad took a deep breath, held it, then blew it out all at once. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
I saw Sakkara raise his hand, gesturing to Jay, who nodded solemnly and lifted his cell phone to type something. With an emphatic stab of his finger, music swelled, and I found one brow lifting, impressed. The kid had managed everything, huh?
And then.
And then.
Something caught my senses. A whiff of a scent, a feeling.
My head jerked up and around, as I tried to home in on it, tried to figure out where it was coming from.
That scent…
Jocelyn.
Jocelyn was here.
I took a stumbling a half-step forward, frantically scanning the guests in the stupid little chairs. She wasn’t here. She wasn’t here! But I knew she was here! I knew she was near!
I wouldn’t forget her scent.
I’d been remembering it for weeks. I’d wrapped my hand around my cock and jerked myself off, remembering that scent, remembering the way she’d cried out in pleasure, remembering the taste of her swollen lips and cunt and—
My Kteer howled, and I felt the rumble in my chest.
“Brak,” my twin hissed. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head at him, too confused to answer. Where was she?
“There’s no danger here,” came Sakkara’s soothing tone. “Stand down.”
The fuck was he to tell me to calm? He wasn’t in charge of me! He didn’t know—
And then Korrad’s hand rested on my forearm, and I did feel myself calming. “Brak,” he said gently. “My bride is about to show up for my wedding. There something you need to mention to me?”
I took a deep breath—godsdamn, she was here somewhere!—and managed to shake my head. Rolling my shoulders, I forced my expression to clear, forced myself to step back by his side.
This was Korrad’s day. Night, whatever.
Jay had planned it because it was something the kid had always wanted: a mother, a brother, a sunset beach ceremony. I wasn’t going to ruin the whole event because my dick caught feelings.
Right?
I glanced at my brother and saw him watching me with concern. So I nodded, one abrupt jerk of my chin, to let him know I was in control again.
His brow smoothed, and he nodded back, then exhaled and turned back to the little center aisle Jay had arranged between the chairs.
The music switched to something I recognized from human movies over the decade and a half we’d been in the human’s world, and there was an air of expectation. More than a few of the humans in the audience twisted in their seats to stare behind them.
It was then that I realized Jay—or someone—had set up lit torches leading back toward the dunes. They made a pathway someone could follow, in addition to the light from the full moon.
I sensed movement behind all the sea oats, and then two figures stepped around the dunes and into the moonlight. One was a lady I didn’t recognize, wearing a simple white sundress. She was clutching a flower in one hand, and her other gripped the hand of a boy smaller than Jay.
Well, since he was human, he was bound to be smaller than Jay. But this kid looked like he’d be smaller than Jay even if he was an orc, was my point.
She looked terrified, frankly. The kid looked thrilled.
Beside me, my brother shifted, and I sensed his ease with this decision. Who the fuck married a female they didn’t know, just to help out her son? Noble fucking bastard, like I said.
I was in the middle of scoffing when the air shifted again, and my gaze jerked up.
Because there was a third human stepping out from behind the dunes. Her curves had been poured into a sleeveless purple dress, and her hair was up in a bun instead of curling around her shoulders, and she was clutching a flower instead of my skin…but I recognized her.
I’d recognize her in my sleep.
Jocelyn.
Pretty sure I stopped breathing.
Jocelyn was here, and I could see her.
A sense of calm settled over me as I forgot about everything else—my brother, his bride, this wedding—and kept my gaze glued on her. She was here, on Eastshore Isle, and suddenly, I thought maybe I could believe in the gods after all.
They’d brought her back into my life.
In my chest, my heart hammered against my ribs and my Kteer paced restlessly, and still I watched her.
Eagerly watched her touch her fingertips to the back of the bride’s hand, exchanging whispers, before stepping into the torchlight and lifting her chin.
One last almost-worried glance at the bride, then she began to walk.
Down the aisle.
Toward me.
My nostrils flared, dragging in her scent, as my eyes tracked her like a hunter.
Hunt. Catch. Fuck.
I told myself it was just my body reacting to the memory of her in my bed.
Hunt. Catch. Fuck.
I wanted her again. Hells yes, I wanted her again. And now I had the opportunity to catch her again.
Fuck her again, if I was very lucky.
She was barefoot, just like me, and I don’t know why that eased the band around my chest a little. I just knew that seeing her step past that back row of chairs with her head held high made pride flare in my chest. I was proud of her, and that made fuck-all sense.
I inhaled again, wanting to burn this moment into my memory.
And then she met my eyes.
I knew the moment she recognized me—something hot and electric flared between us—because her eyes went wide in surprise, and she stumbled sideways.
Jocelyn
Eastshore Isle was just adorable, and I could see why Kesha had planned a vacation here. I mean, now she was getting married and staying, and I didn’t know anything about the guy, so I wasn’t about to pass judgement on him…but I could pass judgement on the island, and so I decided it was adorable.
I’d done some reading on the place in the last week, of course, and the pictures online were great. I was really looking forward to exploring some more tomorrow and Sunday, before I had to leave.
The hissy fit my boss threw when I told her I wanted a long weekend off?
Toddler-level temper tantrum. To be honest, I didn’t go to grad school to sell clothing in a second-rate mall store, and I think she knows I don’t have any love for the job.
So when I told her I would be attending my bestie’s wedding and helping her settle in, my boss finally backed down and let me have Saturday and Sunday.