Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Matthias
Dawn finds me in a tiny dressing room of the Las Vegas Little Chapel of Love, getting ready for my own wedding.
“Matthais and Maisy, sitting in a tree. Getting M-A-R-R-I-E-D,” Canyon keeps singing. “Bern and Hutch join in, and then they all start singing “Chapel of Love” with full harmony and everything.
“Shut up,” Darius growls.
“Let them sing.” I straighten my collar. The white tux wasn’t my idea–my brothers made it happen somehow–but I look pretty good. I turn and face my brothers, who have somehow sourced black tuxedo jackets and matching kilts. “They’ve behaved all night.”
They even went out and picked up the marriage license. We had to call in a favor to get it, of course, but our contact Lucius can do anything, even convince a clerk to sign off on a wedding in the wee hours of the morning. It’s good to have the Southwest’s vampire king as your friend.
Our wedding will be official.
The moment I heard another man planned to marry Maisy, my bear flipped out. The Moon Cure barely kept me from spontaneously shifting and going on a savage rampage across Las Vegas, tearing apart every male who got near my mate.
The only way to calm my bear was for me to claim Maisy.
And since she’s not ready for me to claim her bear style, my hope is that a legal claiming will soothe him enough, so I can function.
It has the added benefit of slowing or halting whatever plans Lucky Lou had for her. We don’t even know why Lucky Lou wants to marry Maisy, but he can’t very well marry her if she’s already wed.
Not that I plan to let him anywhere near her.
When I glance in the mirror, my eyes glitter blue. I can’t deny that my bear is ecstatic about what’s about to happen.
Even if our marriage won’t be real.
I need another dose of Moon Cure, but I don’t want to pull out a needle in front of my brothers. None of them know I’ve been self-dosing for the past seven years to keep from going feral or claiming my mate.
“How’s Maisy doing?” I ask.
“She’s almost ready. The dress Lana found fits her.” Darius pauses. “She has tons of energy.”
Vampire blood will do that. I’ve been distilling medicines of my own from the potent blood of immortals. I’ve tested them on Daisy, with her consent, so I know they work on humans.
“Who’s guarding her?”
“Axel.”
A growl rumbles in my chest. Axel took Maisy to prom her senior year. I heard Daisy arranged it because she wasn’t going to go, but that doesn’t stop my bear from wanting to rip out his heart for being near her.
Darius holds up his hand. “Teddy’s there too, but she wanted Axel. She feels comfortable with him.”
I growl some more. I don’t like that, At All. Axel says he’s just a friend to Maisy, but my brother could be hiding a crush on my mate behind his quiet facade. Why else would he get so close to her?
“I have an update on Allen,” Darius says.
“While you were with Maisy, we went to his apartment but didn’t find him.
Kylie says Lucky Lou is blowing up Allen’s phone, accusing him of taking Maisy.
Allen’s probably scared and on the run. He doesn’t have the money to go far, so he’s probably lying low. Should we go after him?
“Later. I want all of you here as witnesses. This needs to look legitimate.”
Darius doesn’t question my logic. Lucky Lou has no idea who I am or that I have seven brothers. Even with a single witness, the wedding will look real enough to serve our purposes.
But I want my brothers here. There’s no denying I want this wedding to be real. I want my mate to be bound to me by human laws, even if the marriage is only real on paper. Even though once Maisy’s safe, the right thing to do would be to let her go.
For a few days, I’m going to pretend that I have everything I want.
“You folks ready to get this show on the road?” An older white guy in a gold sequin-covered suit jacket pokes his head into the dressing room. His bushy sideburns and thinning hair are dyed black to look like Elvis. He sees me and points his finger. “Oh yeah, there’s the hound dog.”
My bear bristles. Dog?
“Who are you?” Darius asks.
“I’m the officiant. Gonna float this love boat right down the canal. Put on your blue suede shoes, and I’ll meet you at the altar.” Faux-Elvis clicks his teeth, shoots his finger gun my way, and disappears.
“Huh,” Darius gives me side-eye. “So, what were you saying about the wedding needing to look legit?”
“Shut up.”
Maisy
My hands shake as I fix the white lace on the sleeves of my wedding gown. I don’t know how Lana did it, but the dress she found fits perfectly. She must have called in a bunch of favors to wake up a Las Vegas designer at 3 a.m. and get them to deliver this.
I can’t believe I’m about to get married in Vegas at an Elvis chapel. It’s too crazy for me to even contemplate, so I don’t.
The good thing is–I feel amazing. Whatever Matthias gave me has energy zooming through my body. I glance in the mirror to see my skin is glowing like I’ve spent a week at a wellness resort. I swear even my hair is shinier.
All this energy made my video conference call with Daisy go smoother. I swear she was seconds away from breaking down and weeping. At one point, Everest, who was crammed in our living room in his giant bear form, gave her a hug. Daisy’s voice shook, and she looked every one of her ninety-two years.
I didn’t know how to tell her I’m getting married. To Matthias. I kept it vague. I told her I was okay, and she should get some sleep. She looked like she hadn’t slept last night.
I feel like I’ve lived several lifetimes between yesterday at 2 p.m. and now.
Someone raps on the dressing room door. “How you doing?” Axel asks.
“Fine.” I try to reach the buttons up the back, but my arms are too short. “Actually, can you help me?”
The door opens, revealing Axel in a black tux. I gasp. “You look like James Bond.”
“Except I do my own stunts.” He swings his hair back, so it falls in a shining cape over his shoulders, and looks me up and down. “Maisy, you look beautiful.”
“Thanks.” I blush. Even though we’re friends, I’m aware of how handsome Axel is.
Everyone in my senior class had a huge crush on him.
Even Missy, though she always acted like she didn’t like him.
“Can you button me?” I present my back to Axel, and he deftly does me up.
I can’t believe how well this dress suits me.
The neckline is wide and very flattering, almost off the shoulder.
I smooth down the satin skirt and turn to face him. “How do I look?”
“Perfect.”
“The triplets got me this.” I show him the dinky plastic tiara with a little white netting for a veil. The “Bride to Be” sign pasted on the front is peeling off, and underneath it says “Happy New Year.”
“I think we can do better than that. Here.” He pulls a black velvet case out of his pocket and opens it to reveal a dazzling diamond necklace inside.
“Oh my God,” I gasp. The necklace looks like something a celebrity would wear on the red carpet.
Or a princess attending a ball. I’m not a princess…
I’m not even Cinderella. I’m one of the mice scurrying around, holding a clipboard, making sure the wheels don’t fall off the pumpkin. “Axel, I can’t accept this.”
“You can.” Axel is quiet, but he’s stubborn, and when he wants something, he gets his way.
“It’s a gift from Matthias. I guess he robbed a bank or something.
” He winks. “Turn around.” He sets the necklace around my neck and does the clasp.
“Perfect. It matches the ring,” he adds, and I blush harder.
I can’t believe Matthias got me diamonds. A real diamond ring and necklace with the papers to prove it–not a cubic zirconia or something. How did he get the money for them?
I can’t believe I’m really marrying him. I mean, it’s to protect me from some mob guy’s crazy plan, but what even is my life right now?
A few rooms away, a microphone crackles and a man’s voice booms out, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to welcome you folks to the little Las Vegas Chapel of Love. Let’s get this party started.”
“Who’s that?” I ask.
“Elvis.” Axel grins. He puts his hand on my back, guiding me forward, and we both glide out of the dressing room towards the chapel.
The triplets greet us at the door. I remember when they were gangly young guys with hands and feet that seemed too big for their scrawny limbs.
These past few years, they’ve filled out.
They’re taller than all their brothers besides Everest, and so big and broad-shouldered, I can’t see past them to the chapel behind. They’re all so handsome, too.
“Who's going to walk you down the aisle?” Hutch asks.
“I'll do it,” Canyon volunteers. Bern puts a hand on his chest and shoves him back.
“Maisy?” Bern looks to me. “You decide.”
“Axel,” I say. “You were my prom date, so you know the drill.”
He gives me a smile and offers his arm. I take it.
“We’ll be bridesmaids,” Bern announces. The next thing I know, they’re all holding matching bouquets of fake purple flowers. Where did they even get all this stuff?
Beyond the triplets, in the chapel, the wedding march starts playing. The triplets fight for a moment over who’s going down first but then fall into line and disappear down the aisle.
Then it’s Axel’s and my turn. At the altar, Matthias waits for me, with Darius and Teddy by his side as best men. The twins are identically gorgeous in black tuxes, but Matthias outshines them all.
And me? I’m wearing a designer dress and tens of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds about to marry my long-time crush. Not even in my wildest dreams could I have thought of this moment.
Axel must feel how tense I am because he leans close.
“It's no big deal,” he murmurs. “It’s just pretend, right?”
“Right.” I let out a shaky laugh. This will protect me. That’s the only reason we’re doing it.
But as he starts walking me down the aisle, it doesn’t feel pretend.
It feels real.
Matthias