Chapter 33
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So…………… this is Harry without the rose-colored glasses…? Respectfully, no.
Maelin
“Maelin?” Harry takes me in, takes in the company I’m clearly with, and scrunches his nose—which is painted brown. His dark hair’s grown an inch, hanging around his wolf ear headband in a disarray that looks like it hasn’t been brushed in weeks.
Viktor and Lukas, almost instinctively, close my circle when Harry leans forward, dramatically sniffing. His lips curl in a growl as he snuffs.
I…do not know what to do with this.
The moment I saw him, a slice of dread ripped through my stomach.
Now that he’s…publicly…in front of four world-renowned household names… sniffing at me…I’m just a little crippled by…second-hand embarrassment?
“Step back, chihuahua,” Lukas murmurs. “If you bite someone and haven’t had your shots, we’ll need to crack open your skull and take out a bit of your brain to see if it’s got rabies.” His fingers flex at his sides. “Assuming, of course, you’ve got enough brain left in there to sample.”
Harry grips the flute glass he’s holding as his eyes narrow. “Watch your mouth. I deserve respect . You have no idea what it’s like, knowing you were born to be more but you were stuck in human flesh.”
“You’re so right. I don’t know what that’s like at all.” Turning to me, Lukas asks, “Can I snap his legs now?”
“No,” Viktor mutters.
Harry growls some more and tosses a couple barks out before waving his free hand at me. “I’ve business with that woman! We dated for years . She was my fiancée, before my awakening. I don’t know what she’s told you or done to convince you to bring her here, but she’s here because of me . She’s obsessed with me.” He forces a shudder that rocks his whole body. “It’s disgusting. If only her soul were more like mine, I could have added her to my pack. But she’ll never understand.”
“Your pack?” Zakery interjects. “Don’t you mean your harem ?”
“My family . Who understands and respects me.” Harry tosses his nose in the air, not at all like a giraffe. “As their alpha .”
“Cringe,” Kyran mutters, ignoring most everything, and playing…I think that’s snake? on his phone. Kyran is playing snake.io on his phone right now. That is how little Harry matters.
Scanning Harry up and down his cheap tux, I clasp my hands against the skirt of my gown. It’s probably rented, unless MoonWoof saw fit to buy him one. Where is MoonWoof anyway? She’s big enough to have gotten an invitation to this gathering, so that must mean she’s got the sense not to antagonize the Bachelors, right? Maybe she needs to collar her, um, alpha .
“Well, Maelin?” Harry snaps. “Are you going to explain yourself?” He scoffs. “If you’re this obsessed with me, you could have begged to join my pack. I may have made an exception, let you be my omega and tend to us. You never were very obedient when we were together, though.” Something thoroughly demented and the opposite of attractive slips into his eyes. “Have you had a change of heart? Admit you were being idiotic every time you turned down your alpha, and I’ll consider taking you back so you don’t have to chase me.”
“Um.” I clear my throat, try again, stronger, so Harry can hear me as I deliver a message of utmost wisdom and import: “No.”
“What? You ungrateful—”
Zakery steps forward when Harry swears. “I wouldn’t talk to the princess like that if I were you.”
Harry snarls, like a man who has quite thoroughly lost his mind. By comparison, adding over a dozen layers of tulle to my dress was sane. “Who are you to tell me what to do?”
Simply, Zakery says, “Hers.”
Disgust riots through Harry’s being, and he takes Zakery in, narrowing his eyes. “Did she make you wear that? So flowery . It’s clear you’re not an alpha like me.”
“Thank—” Zakery swears. “—I’m nothing like you.”
Snarling and barking some more, Harry lifts his flute glass to throw it.
Before I can blink, Lukas grabs Zakery’s shoulder, jerks him back toward me, and wraps his grip around the slender pedestal of Harry’s glass. Silence buzzes in my ears as Zakery catches his footing on the edge of my skirt.
Zakery doesn’t get a chance to step off my hem. The glass explodes . Shards and drink erupt to run down Lukas’s hand as lethal promise vibrates in his voice. “I’ll let you choose, little runt…should I break both your legs, or one and an arm?”
Viktor cusses under his breath, but he doesn’t stop his brother. He merely flags down security while Harry…wets himself.
Two men in all black with dark glasses and earpieces approach. One separates Harry from the rest of us while the other addresses Lukas. “Sir, is there a problem here?”
“Yeah,” Lukas purrs . “I don’t think this little pup was housetrained.”
“I— I’m being harassed,” Harry croaks, like a big strong alpha man (clearly). “H-elp me.”
The security guard talking to Lukas glances at Harry, promptly returning his attention to people with functioning brain cells. “Mr. Bachelor, sir, I’m terribly sorry about this. We’ll take care of it.”
The other security guard grips Harry by the scruff of his suit coat, then presses the button of his earpiece. “I need cleaning service. There’s been an…accident. Literally.” Bowing toward the Bachelors, he then says, “Terribly sorry, sirs. They let anyone into these things these days…”
Leaving his partner to monitor the mess, the other guard drags Harry—kicking and screaming and barking and howling for his “luna”—away.
Lukas flings glass shards from his hand before Viktor sighs and grabs his younger brother’s wrist. “Let’s get you cleaned up in the bathroom. Kaleb, you’re in charge.”
Kaleb lifts his brows. “We’re all adults, Viktor. No one needs to be in charge .”
Viktor provides Kyran—still on his phone—and Zakery—who flashes his teeth in a not-at-all comforting smile—a look, then repeats, “You’re in charge.”
“Do you think they’ll throw him out back?” Lukas asks as Viktor drags him past me. His eyes spark. “Do you think if I go wait at the door, I’ll still be able to break his legs?”
“You’re not going to break that poor idiot’s legs,” Viktor mutters.
“But—”
“ No. ”
If I need anyone’s legs broken, ask Lukas…got it.
Kaleb glances at me, then at the accident . Smiling gently, he says, “Why don’t we relocate?”
Kyran strides forward first, swiping his thumb across his phone screen. “This is why you’re in charge.”
Once we’ve moved securely away from the mess, I let a full breath into my lungs.
“You okay?” Zakery asks.
I scan Kyran as he falls against a clear slice of wall near us and continues playing snake.io, then I nod.
“How’s the character?”
I wet my lips. “Developed…”
“For better?”
“I…” I take another breath. “I hope so.”
“Kyran!”
My stomach dips as MoonWoof skips out of nowhere, wearing her iconic set of rainbow-plumed ears and a flouncy dress with a tail to match.
Kyran flicks his gaze toward her, then back down. “Hey, Moon.”
“I didn’t think these things were your speed.”
Kyran lifts a shoulder. “My sister needed the manpower.”
Sister.
My heart flutters.
Lip jutting, MoonWoof tilts her head. “Didn’t realize you had a sister, just the three brothers.”
“Well.” Kyran doesn’t pay Kaleb—his fourth brother—an ounce of recognition. “Fun the things we can learn, huh?”
“Totally. Hey, speaking about relationships…have you seen an absolutely bonkers little man scrabbling around down here? We were on the balcony, watching the little cliques form, when he cussed and ran off like he’d seen a squirrel.”
“Security dragged him out,” Kyran informs, grimacing. “Why are you hanging around with a guy like that?”
“He’s so stupid it’s funny.”
Zakery coughs, covering his mouth.
I roll my lips together.
She continues, “Come on. He’s a grown man , but he thinks he’s an alpha wolf? My partner and I can’t get enough of his utter delusion. You know, we went to that Sunny Con in your town a month or so ago. He chased a furry . Hi-larious. The footage I got from that is my second-best performing video this year.”
Kyran’s brows furrow. “If he’s getting dragged out of multiple events by security, that’s not going to look good for your brand, Moon.”
MoonWoof sighs. “You’re no fun. Last I checked, my brand put me in fake rainbow fur while I whispered into a mic on camera, so I’m really not sure how much more hate I can worry about. Not all of us can be naturally charming genius gamers, Kyran. Some of us have to rely on the scandals.”
Kyran spares her a look, sighs, and turns off his phone. “My bad. I thought you were better than that.”
“Not really. I’m kind of a sellout.”
“Well, at least you’re honest.”
Zakery’s hand falls against the small of my back while I’m fixated on the exchange.
Blinking out of the daze, I locate his pale gray eyes.
“Hey,” he says, and my nerves settle. His smile warms me through. “Do you want to raid the snack tables and honor me with a dance?”
“I have no idea why you think I can dance in this. It’s a shock I’ve yet to fall on my face.”
“If you start to fall…” He pushes my hair back over my ear. “…I will catch you.”
The face I’ve yet to fall on blazes.
“We can also wander around until you see someone you’d like me to introduce you to.”
I laugh. “Oh sure. Because I’m known for staying upright when I meet celebrities for the first time.”
He ponders. “True, I’d prefer you not start a harem.”
“Um. Yeah. I think I have all the pack I need.”
“That you do.” Zakery hums, guiding me toward the food, hand firm around mine, in case I fall over all this perfectly reasonable tulle.
“I have an idea for what we can do after food,” I say.
“Oh? Do enlighten me, princess.”
“We could flag down a reporter,” I offer. “Give them a big scoop .”
He perks, turning from perusing the snacks to grin at me. “You want to mess with a reporter?”
My smile mellows. “Yeah, let’s mess with a reporter. What do you think we should tell them?”
“That I moonlight as a furry. You could still make me that cotton candy blue fursona. We could keep the joke going until—on one blustery winter morn while I’m putting on my paws—I look at you, concern rippling in my eyes, and say, Maelin, I don’t think this is a joke anymore. ”
I genuinely think I’d rather make five hundred pairs of pants than ever attempt another fursuit. “Or…” I begin, “…we could tell them you’re getting married in a few hours.”
Eyes going wide, Zakery squeezes my hand. “Are…are we?”
“We could.”
“You want to?”
“I…do.”
Skeptical, Zakery steps in as close as my skirt will let him. “You do?”
“Yes.”
His lips part, speechless.
I smile, close the distance, and kiss him.
Elation floods, swelling like something physical between us. Without warning, he braces his hands at my waist, lifts me in a spin, and reels me back for another kiss. “You do ,” he breathes against my mouth.
I laugh. “Yeah, I think, somehow, my brain separated Harry into a before and after picture. I could remember pieces from before that weren’t good. I knew about the pressure, and the undermining, and the ego, but there was still a moment that felt like a drastic, unexpected change. After seeing him tonight, my eyes are open. There was no before and after . That was literally…consistently…Harry.” Sinking into Zakery’s arms, I say, “If my love could paint him in kinder shades, if I could stomach that for years, I am more than equipped to love you. Through anything. Unafraid.” His heart beats against my ear. “I’m making my decision. Love is an action, and I’m choosing to experience it again with someone who not only knows that, but who taught me what it looks like. I love you, Zakery.”
His heartbeat stumbles. “I love you, too, Maelin.” He squeezes me, tight, close, his . “So much.”
So very, very much .
“If soulmates are real, I think they must be chosen as well,” I whisper against him, letting my lashes flutter closed. “You’re mine.”
“You’re mine,” he echoes, kissing my cheek. “Forever.”
Forever.
Peace consumes me up until my husband-to-be murmurs, “So…um. Maelin?”
I hum, deliriously happy.
“Who’s going to tell your sister?”
Well. I was deliriously happy.
My eyes snap open as I recall the fact I have yet to tell my twin sister that I’m getting married tonight. “Crap,” I hiss. She didn’t want to let me have marsupial cereal—why would she be okay with me having the husband I told her I’d totally be taking things slow with?
Of course she knew we were going to meet Mom and Dad last week, but that alone did not imply that marriage was going to fall within the next ten days.
While I’m contemplating a breakdown, Zakery’s chest begins to shake…
Then, before I know it, it’s like the first moment we met—except this time, he’s holding me when he loses his grip on his oh-so-princely facade.
And, this time, I find myself inconsolably laughing with him.
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The next day, when I wake up around noon beside my husband, half insane with bliss, I learn that both Harry and I made headlines across the news stories showing up on my Leopard feed. While Zakery cuddles me from behind, I peruse the articles.
In Harry’s picture, he’s being dragged out of the Creator’s Ball.
In mine, Zakery’s lifting me high, as though he’s entirely unconcerned I might block out his sun.
Because, to Zakery?
I am his sun.