28. Keith #2
“Members of the Rizoli pack and honored guests,” the officiant started.
Mr. Rizoli had said he was the best of the best for pack weddings.
I was surprised that they didn’t have a family member or even an Italian shifter do it, but there were some things even a hundred family members didn’t have experience with, and being ordained was one of them.
The photographers were also shifters, although neither was from the Rizoli pack, so we didn’t have to worry about anything slipping out from them, either. Despite having three humans among their number, everyone present at our wedding was in the know.
“We welcome you here today to honor the joining in bloodlines of Keith Insrym and Olivia Rizoli. We invite you to share in this joy with us and encourage any who have objections to keep them to themselves, as the time for that is long over.”
Olivia had worried about that, since some of the more traditional members of her pack were still pretty pissed at my incursion, but I seriously doubted anyone would try to ruin the wedding of their alpha’s daughter. That seemed like a great way to get themselves kicked out.
“For many years, we have segregated ourselves, humans to humans and shifters to shifters,” the officiant said. “We told ourselves it was for our protection. That these two species, so alike yet so different in nature, could not coexist.
“But today, Keith and Olivia attest that, when it comes to love, there is no divide that cannot be bridged. No differences that cannot reach an accord. No irrevocable logic that forces us apart. Today, a human and a shifter join together in front of you not as outliers, or exceptions to the rule, but rather proof of what can happen when walls come down and we reach outside of the norms we have been programmed to accept.”
My eyebrows went up a bit at the officiant’s speech.
While we had told him about our relationship, and what we wanted the overarching message of our wedding to be, we’d largely let him do his own thing.
He had asked us to go over the general outline of his speech, as he did warn us that he liked to move “where his spirit led him” on the day of, and we had approved it, but I hadn’t expected his address to our guests to be so... emphatic? Touching?
“Because love is the one constant in all our histories. Time passes, magic shifts, power dynamics come and go, but no matter what, there is always love. And today, as we witness the incredible love of this pair, I want each of us to remember and cherish our own as well. For it is these bonds that make us stronger, that help us grow.”
His address to the audience seemed to end, because suddenly his attention was solely on us. “Do you, Keith Insrym, stand before us today to wed this woman and join yourself to the Rizoli pack from your next breath to your very last?”
“I do,” I said with all the conviction that I could muster.
When we first started really getting down to the brass tacks of our wedding, I thought shifters would have a lot of new and exciting traditions that I would have to learn, but other than some key points and phrases, a wolf wedding wasn’t much different from a human one.
It kind of went to prove exactly the officiant’s point; our differences were far fewer than our similarities.
“And do you, Olivia Rizoli, stand before us today to wed this man and join him to your pack from his next breath to his very last?”
It was a small reminder of my own mortality, and even though it might wig some people out to know that they were going to die so much sooner than their spouse, I took it as a reminder to cherish every single minute.
Every second. Because while I was getting off the ride that we called life before my love, it didn’t mean that we couldn’t squeeze every drop of happiness and joy we could out of it along the way.
“I do.”
“And I do believe that each of you has brought a token of your eternal commitment for the other?”
“We have,” we said simultaneously, and I had never felt so close to anyone else in my entire life.
Ginna gave the tiniest of whistles, though it was probably a lot more audible for all the shifters around. Oregano and Rosemary were on the move immediately, one in front of me and one in front of Olivia, standing on their hind legs so we could take our rings from the cushions on their backs.
“Now, as you exchange these tokens in front of your pack, family, and friends, state the vows that will entwine your souls and your fate from here on out.”
He looked to me, and though I’d known it would be my turn first from our rehearsal, it still surprised me. My mouth went dry, and for a fleeting moment, part of me wanted to kiss Olivia and be done with it. Even after all our time together, I still wasn’t comfortable in the limelight.
But the temptation was gone almost as soon as it existed.
Yes, I was nervous, but I was so full of emotions that it felt like there was a very real threat of me popping like a balloon.
I wanted everyone in the room to hear how much Olivia meant to me.
Their daughter. Their cousin. Their sister.
To them, Olivia was many things. But to me, she was everything.
“Olivia,” I started. “Two and a half years ago, if someone had told me that an angel was going to walk into my woodworking class, I would have told them that angels didn’t find guys like me. But I would have been wrong, because you walked in and changed the course of my life forever.”
I lifted her hand, placing the ring in front of her extended finger but not sliding it down yet. She’d had her nails done, because Amanda had insisted, and I allowed myself the tiniest moment to admire the golden moons and stars delicately painted into her manicure.
“I’ve never been very glib beyond nerdy references and snarky banter, so while I don’t have all the words to express exactly how much I love you and truly how much better you’ve made my life, I pray a lifetime of actions will show you everything my vocabulary is lacking.
“But even that full lifetime will not be enough to get my fill of your smile, your sense of humor, all those shower-thoughts that make me look at the world in a different way. Your kindness, your beauty, all of you. You are my better half, Olivia, and I love you.”
Finally, I slid the ring down her finger and beamed when it fit perfectly. I knew my bride had been worried about swelling up with the stress of the day, but it wasn’t an issue.
Judging by some of the sniffles I heard in the crowd, I’d done all right on my vows.
More importantly, Olivia was smiling broadly at me through her veil despite the fact that her tears hadn’t stopped rolling.
I thought about trying to make a joke to put a pause on things so she could have a moment before she started to speak, but it seemed my almost-wife was just as eager to get hitched as I was, because as soon as the officiant asked her, she began to speak the vows she had written.
Naturally, I’d been a bit curious about what she would say, especially since she was much more articulate than I was, but much like Christmas, I knew better than to spoil the day by pestering her about it or trying to get a sneak peek.
So I was hearing the words from her heart for the first time, and goodness.
“My darling Keith, the love of my life, you have shown me truly what it means to live wholly and joyfully. For the first thirty years of my life, I was paying rent for my existence by being useful. I was so assured of my worthlessness that I thought I had to buy my way into being a loved member of my pack. While I wish I could go back and tell young Olivia how wrong she was, I wouldn’t change a single step of it, because you have shown me over and over and over just how loved I can be without any bribery or bargaining.
“From the first moment you walked into that woodworking class, I was smitten. The entire time I was waiting for you to come to my station for our one-on-one, I was sweating bullets. Granted, I sure didn’t mind watching you leave though.
” There was a small titter from the crowd, and my ego surged.
I’d never really given my own rear end or thighs a thought unless it was whether I was going to fit into a chair, but Olivia’s appreciation for them had opened my eyes to a lot of things about myself.
Just like I had, she lifted my hand, and positioned the ring, a thick, solid obsidian band with a razor-sharp line of platinum through it and on the inside. It suited my aesthetic quite fine, even if it was quite different from Olivia’s.
Hers was a thin, platinum band with three clusters of gems arranged to resemble the same shape of the Italian national flower, the white lily.
Except the gems weren’t all diamonds. No, they were the birthstones of all her siblings on the left cluster, her parents, my mother, her nonnas and Amanda’s on the right cluster, and finally, in the center, our own birth stones.
“Then you opened your mouth and I was done for. Not just because you have an amazing voice, but there was such kindness in it. And you were hilarious—still are, of course! Little did you know that with a little help from the best wing-woman in the world, we went to the mall and racked up the biggest credit card bill I’d ever generated in my life to give me a makeover so I could be confident enough to ask you out.
“And then you beat me to the punch.
“I didn’t know it was possible for a near-perfect stranger to be on the same page as I was, but we were, and we have been ever since.
Even when I was hiding such a big part of myself from you, I still felt so entirely seen.
And while I still think you let me off the hook far too easily, I will spend the rest of my days being so very happy that you did.