Chapter 15 #2
She sucks in a breath when I pull the delicate material from its silk bed, the netting thoughtfully hand-painted with dozens of barely-there honeybees in pearl white, tasteful sparkles applied between them to elevate the entire thing.
“Dev did so much research and spent hours on this thing—do you like it?”
She’s got her short hair smoothed out perfectly around her face, and it’s the work of only a moment to slide the comb of the veil onto the back of her head and secure it.
Her fingers are unsteady as she uses them to cover her mouth. “It’s so pretty. This…this is real, isn’t it? What we’re about to do?”
I step next to her and offer my arm, pressing a kiss to her hand when she rewards me with it. “You feel like getting hitched today, Aster Pepperling-Hawthorne?”
She throws her head back and laughs as we move to the door and our future, her eyes sparkling. “I don’t think that’s how hyphenating works, but nice try.”
She takes a deep breath before I hand her off to her father so he can walk her down the aisle. “You changed your dress,” he notes with a smile.
Aster is all ready to defend her choice, but her dad holds up his hand.
“Your mom told me I could put an extension on the house for a mancave if you walked down the aisle in that hideous dress. My mother pressured yours into purchasing it for our wedding, simply so my mother would be better dressed. I’ll get my mancave another way; this gown suits you perfectly. ”
Aster starts cracking up at the story, and I dab the tears of joy away with a handkerchief, preserving her makeup. “Lets get married, shall we?”
???
You know that moment in movies, where the couple is getting married and the minister asks if anybody objects? And there's this really dramatic scene where somebody seems to know the exact moment to crash through the doors and disrupt everything? That's basically exactly what ends up happening.
Of course, we're at a park so the door thing doesn't happen the same way, and it's not a religious ceremony so we don't have a minister, but we do have a good number of people gathered that know our story and are familiar with how long this moment has been in the making.
The guys and I choreographed every moment of this ceremony to suit our needs, and we purposely left out the part where the audience is asked if they object, because we don't give a shit if one of them thinks we shouldn't be getting married. Aster is up here willingly, and that's all we care about.
So no doors, but there is a parking lot with a fire lane. A cavalcade of cars rolls up and there are people jumping out and yelling, “Stop the wedding!” as they slam their car doors.
Aster’s dad starts cussing, because somehow The Bee Court managed to get through the town wards yet again. And this time, they've brought heavier ammunition. It looks like we're not simply dealing with the princess this time; no, we've got the queen and a full council of elders.
“I'm sorry, your invitations did not get lost in the mail. We did not account for you, and we have no more place settings.” Arbor elbows me in the gut for being so quick to talk shit. At least I said it politely. Aster? Oh, she looks pissed.
“By order of The Bee Court, under which these men find themselves in jurisdiction of, we demand that this ceremony goes no further. These men are already lawfully promised to another and therefore they cannot promise themselves to this very-much-not-a-bee-woman.”
In a town this size, there are many benefits. For instance, everybody knows your business. Now, that can be a bad thing, but in this case? It means the lawyer who we've been working with is well versed on the situation and we've got a whole crowd full of people on our side here.
Said lawyer stands up to address the elder that spoke.
“Your jurisdiction holds no sway in Trash Haven.
We will not offer up our citizens to you.
It's their choice whether or not they want anything to do with you; they stopped being a part of your colony the day they moved out of it. This is their home, and these are the rules they follow.”
The line of suits parts, revealing the queen of the colony my parents left.
They allow her to get far too close to the beautiful rose archway we're all standing under.
“You boys are tricky to get a hold of. And you,” she says as she narrows her eyes at our bride.
“Did you know you were getting involved with taken men?
I don't know what your species is, but I can't imagine your people would be okay with this type of behavior. It's unseemly.”
Aster's parents stand abruptly at the insult, but Aster waves them off. I do admire how she's always so ready to fight her own battles. “Taken? I think you've been greatly misinformed.”
It seems the princess isn't even on this trip; I'm going to guess it's because she tends to be hardheaded and reckless.
Unlike our Aster, she's not so good at fighting her own battles.
Seems she prefers to send mommy dearest in her stead.
“You would be wise to watch your tongue when you speak to me, young lady.”
Aster pecks each of us on the cheek before going to confront the queen at a closer range.
Of course we trail right behind her, needing to ensure she stays safe and can't be grabbed.
I have this recurring nightmare where she just disappears in front of me, and I'm realizing now that that is a much likelier scenario than I originally thought.
“I'm not sure what information you're going off of here, but do you know anything about these men?
It's a bit of a reach for anyone from your colony to assume they were available for claiming.
They haven't lived there since they were small children, and there's a good reason their parents didn't feel comfortable raising them amongst other bees.
“Now, I'm no expert on your culture, but it seems as if men are treated as second rate citizens there. I may be a feminist, but everybody deserves equal treatment. Nobody should be made to feel as if they will be tossed out the second they stop becoming useful to you. Maybe if you want to ensure that you have shifters available for mating in your colony, then you should treat them better. This is definitely a you problem.”
Our lawyer steps forward, indicating to Aster that he's good to take over. The sheriff is there too, ready to back him up. Our lawyer, Rob, knows this town’s bylaws inside and out, and knows exactly what situations we have to acquiesce to other species’ rules.
He'd have been studying up on bee laws to prepare for this. Also, it doesn’t hurt that his sister wen tto school with Aster and that they were good friends.
“Your majesty, I can understand how you might think you're in the right here.
However, I must inform you that everybody in your party is currently trespassing in Trash Haven.
You sent people that were no better than common mercenaries to attack my clients in their home, and we will be suing for damages.
“Their home needs some repairs, and the darts used had a large bore needle that has negatively affected their system regulations. Furthermore, you did not use an appropriate tranquilizing dose for my clients’ size, and they could have been even more greatly injured.
“Besides these points, you have no claim over my clients whatsoever. You claim that they need to be under a queen’s direct purview after they lost their other queen.
What you might not realize is that they filed intent with the town to pursue a new queen; immediately after losing their mother, when by all accounts they should have been granted permission to do nothing but grieve.
This is important to them though, and they followed your laws to the letter. ”
“I know nothing of this paperwork.”
Our lawyer continues to hash this out, and Aster sneaks back to the dais, bringing us with her. I think she's ready to get out of here; I just need to make sure we're not going to have any other problems here, because we've been waiting for this day for too long and it's already getting messy.
“Likely because nobody from your side of things bothered to amicably reach out to Trash Haven and inquire about it. It was filed at town hall and is in public records. You could have accessed it at any time.
“In addition, you stopping this ceremony has little effect, seeing as how they became officially mated to Aster Pepperling after your goons attacked them. It was not in a public setting. The current ceremony that you’re so disgracefully interloping into is simply for their friends and family to help them celebrate.
We will be adding this disruption to our list of complaints when we file our lawsuit. I must advise you to leave now.”
The queen narrows her eyes, meeting our attention.
“And you boys are fine to let this clown in a suit dictate your life? Or this woman who knows nothing about our way of life become a part of your future? She will never be able to enter into your nest or fulfill all of your bee needs. Only a bee queen can do that. You will constantly be searching for what my daughter alone can provide for you.”
Arbor steps forward, ready to take over the conversation. “We want nothing to do with the bee way of life. We have nothing else to say to you, you're no longer welcome here and never were in the first place.”
I can tell that the queen is not happy with the way this situation is turning out for her, and I'm sure she'll have to go home and deal with an irate princess, but I don't feel bad for making their life more difficult. Not when they’re the reason we've had to grow up amidst totally different species.
They walk off towards their vehicles with their shoulders back and trying to look as dignified as possible under the circumstances.
They’re definitely fuming but have the good sense to let it go for now.
The wedding guests are all talking loudly about the disruption, making sure the queen knows exactly what they think of her rude behavior, and this soothes parts of my soul that needed soothing.
After our conversation with Aster and learning about what she's capable of, I know to keep a close eye on her body posture, because she should sense if things are still unsettled or if there's a threat we’re still facing. She’s not relaxed yet; her shoulders are still tense, and even though she's putting on a smile for the sake of the crowd and the kind soul who's performing our ceremony, I can tell something is telling her to remain alert.
The crowd settles down as all the uninvited cars pull away, but even as we wrap up the actual ceremony and move to the reception tents nearby, Aster continues to hold tension in her shoulders.
I watch her throughout the evening, and as soon as Dev finishes his dance with her, I steal her away and pull her beyond the tent, to the other side of the large Live Oak that should shelter us from the view of others.
The fact that she's not fighting me pulling her away tells me my intuition is spot on. “You're still sensing something, aren't you? Some sort of trouble from them?”
She bites her lip and nods, eyes searching the dusk beyond us. “I know my father said that they left town limits, but I can't help thinking or feeling that there's something else coming our way. I don't know. Maybe it's nothing.”
“If your instincts are telling you to be on guard, then I trust them. Just make sure you stay close to us; we don't need to be separated. In case something crazy happens, I would prefer if the four of us were close to each other.”
She nods, trying to figure out why I've still got her caged back here away from the party guests. “What?”
“I just want to say, you make a really hot bride.”
She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. We should probably get back to the party, we're kind of the reason people are here, you know. I'm surprised you guys didn't have any freaky honey ritual or anything planned for today. Maybe that's what my instincts are warning me against,” she teases.
I kiss her, grinning like a fool when Arbor gets over the loudspeakers and calls everybody's attention up to the front.
“Shit. I totally spoke too soon, didn't I? Is this going to be like a weird garter toss type thing where you— you know what? I don't want to know. Do I have to do it?”
I tow her behind me, winding her hand around my arm. I’m ecstatic right now, because I just married my dream girl, but my bee is rearing to make her his in his own way. All I can say is that she's probably going to be considering inviting the queen back to take us before we're done with her.