The Contrary Mate

52 Jack

Aura was like a dream, and I wanted to sleep forever.

As she flew towards me, her bare toes barely brushing the top of the lowest plants, my heart skipped a beat. This fae ceremony might not have been what I would have expected, but I was thoroughly content to be there with her.

She landed delicately on the grass beside me and shot an excited smile at me.

The officiant's voice washed over me. "You are as two trees, planted by the same stream, growing together, roots intertwined. Hold each other when storms come, through floods, through drought, never to be parted in this life."

She smiled at me, and my heart pounded. We'd already made these promises when I'd marked her, but that didn't matter. Again, we were promising exactly what I and my wolf wanted, the future. My instinctual side didn't truly understand what was going on, but the significance did not escape him.

"Bound by magic greater than oneself, two become one unto death. Join hands."

Aura's light fingers on her right hand intertwined with mine, and I felt pricking on my wrist, not unlike the feeling of first contact that I had felt with her, and to my surprise, light plantlike patterns appeared and solidified as the feeling faded. She smiled at me and I saw that her wrist had a similar pattern to mine. I was surprised, I had thought that I would be the only one marked in the ceremony, although as her father had said, joining ceremonies with non-fae were almost entirely unheard of.

"And now the rings to further symbolize the establishment of this union." This part apparently wasn't traditional, but some fae added them, especially when they had more frequent contact with humans. I slipped the ring onto her finger, and she did the same to mine. We kissed, joined hands, and he announced we were fully joined.

My wolf was extremely satisfied. Anything that made more people recognize that she was ours was a good plan in his eyes. We were congratulated by Aura's family. Both her father and aunt seemed to be genuinely excited, her mother seemed happy enough, Lark gave me a high five, and the other relatives I was just meeting at least wished us well. Even her brother pasted on a stiff smile as he congratulated us.

Once we were finished, we got into my car, and we sped off out of the fae territory. I caught her eye as I stopped at the turn. "You look gorgeous, Aura. Want to sneak home first before we head to the pack territory? We've got enough time for a quickie before everything starts," I suggested with a wink. I wanted some time alone with her.

"No." She smiled at me. "You'll mess up my hair."

Her hair was quite beautiful, in some sort of intricate half up and down style with braids that I couldn't fathom. And her dress was beautiful and begged me to peel it off of her. "I bet I could keep your hair intact."

"Not willing to risk it. This was my mother's doing and I can't fix it myself. And I don't want to have to ask her to. Too embarrassing."

I brought our still joined hands up to my mouth and kissed her knuckles. "Well, I guess I could use the extra time to show my beautiful bride where I grew up instead."

She smiled, "As long as you don't mess up my hair doing it."

We pulled into pack territory, and I mind linked the patrols so they'd know it was us, although they obviously knew that we were coming. From the sounds of music, I could tell that the celebration had already begun. While we were celebrating my fae joining with Aura and her joining to the pack, there was also a lot of excitement about another couple. Lys would be joining the pack tonight as the new delta female. Much of the pack were already present on the territory, although a few more would trickle in later, as would our few fae guests who Aura had invited.