Peaches

XXXVI

I hear muffled sounds in my sleep. Unable to open my eyes, I tune my ears to listen. I hear Raph and Adam, I feel their concern and panic. I hear a gravelled voice, like audio from a cell phone.

"So this is normal, she'll wake up?" I hear Adam ask, his voice strained.
"Yes, Alphonso and Marco said that their mate didn't wake for many hours after marking. It was more overwhelming than a regular marking and with the amount of power an Alpha mark possesses it's unsurprising your mate hasn't awoken yet."
Is that a Mexican accent?
"Thank you for the information Alpha Perez," Adam replies.
"No problem, I wish a speedy recovery for your mate and I hope to see you in Paris in the fall."
I hear the line get cut off and a shudder omitted from Adam.
"She'll wake up Raphael, don't worry," I hear the soft and silky voice of Maria say.

My eyes flutter as the light peeks from between them. I roll over and groan from the rigidity of my body, stretching my legs outwards.
"How long was I out," I ask in a croaky voice.
"Peaches, you're awake," Raphael says from my side. I open my eyes to see him kneeling at my side, still dressed in a dishevelled version of his tux, my blood staining the collar.
"What's wrong," I say turning to him and touching his cheek. He grasps my hand and kisses it.
"Right now, nothing, nothing at all," he says back to me.
I feel a dip on the bed. I look behind me to see Adam also dressed in his tux, looking down at me. Red outlining his jade eyes.
"What happened?" I ask, sitting up against the headboard. I look down to notice I've been bathed and changed into one of their clothes.
"You were asleep for a while," Luna Maria says. "Almost 20 hours. They were worried but I tried to tell them I slept for 12 after I was marked and you were marked twice."
I take my fingertips and touch them to the sides of my neck feeling the bumpy scars in the shape of a bite.
"I feel great," I say. "But I do wish you guys weren't still covered in my blood."
They laugh.

"What happened after I fainted?" I ask.
"I panicked and got you the hell out of there," Adam says.
"Oh goddess." I bury my face in my hands. "I can't believe all that actually happened. I can't believe I did that in front of so many people."
"Don't be embarrassed dear, I did it," Luna Maria says.
"You did it with one I did it with two," I groan under my breath. "Where are my parents and brother?" I ask.
"They're waiting downstairs," Adam replied. "I let them know when you woke up."
"How am I going to face them?" I groan still hiding my face in shame.
"Actually dear, it might help. I don't think you know what it was actually like to watch," Maria says.
I lift my head from my hands. "Is Jude here?"
"He's downstairs, would you like me to get him?" Maria looks at me with sympathetic eyes and I nod.
Soon after, a gentle knock at the door can be heard. Jude and Jessica saunter in nervously. "Good to see you're alive sis," he says.
"Please tell me that I didn't just whore myself out in front of the entire pack and my whole family," I say whining to Jude. I feel Raphael slide in bed next to me and Adam rub my shoulders.
"Actually sis," he says a chuckle under his breath. "It wasn't what I thought it was gonna be like."
"What do you mean?" I asked apprehensively.
He scoffs to stifle a laugh, pausing to find the words. "I thought I was gonna have to look away and cover my ears and imagine I was in a different place." I bury my head back into my hands and groan.
"Wait wait, but it was actually kinda surreal."
I peek up at Jude. "What do you mean?"
"Well for starters to the rest of us it kinda just looked chaste, like a hug," he shrugs not making me feel any better. "At first it was a little awkward but when you were marked..." he pauses and I become nervous. "It was..."
Jessica finishes for him "Magical," she says. "You started to glow under the moonlight and the light connected the three of you in a way I've never seen before. It surrounded you and stretched out to us. In an instant, this connection ran through all of us like you being connected made us all connected. I could feel what everyone around me was feeling and... I'd never felt more love. It was magic."

I look up from my hands. "Really?" I ask looking at Jude.
"Yeah," he says. "My advice, show your face around the pack soon Reiney, the people are worried about their Luna."
I nod. "Thanks guys," I say.
They nod back to me. "Glad to see you're okay," Jessica says and she takes Jude's hand in hers while they head for the door.
Raph strokes my hair. "Feeling better?" he asks. I nod. He kisses me chastely on the forehead.

"So, Raph and I were thinking that you may want something more symbolic to represent our union, and since you've been living amongst humans for so long." Adam pauses and leans over to the bedside table. He pulls out a velvet medium jewellery box.
Hesitantly, I open the box to see a large diamond ring in the centre. The ring was gold and the centre diamond, a large oval. The oval was surrounded by smaller diamonds and gold trimmings as well as diamonds trailing down the band. Around the diamond ring were three plain gold wedding bands. A tear slipped out at the beauty and thoughtfulness.
Raphael takes the wedding band and slipped it onto my finger. Adam then takes the diamond ring and does the same. They look at me with expectancy.
"Oh," I realise in the midst of my sniffles. I take the gold band and first place one on Raphael and next one on Adam. I take a moment to admire the diamond that sparkled in the dim light of our bedroom.
"They're beautiful and this is perfect," I mutter while sobbing and sniffling.
Adam takes my face in his hands and places a gentle kiss upon my lips. Raphael then does the same.

"Thank you," I whisper.
"You should get some more rest," Raphael says. "Adam will bring you some food before you sleep." Adam then gets up and heads towards the door.
"I'm not hungry," I say.
"You haven't eaten in almost two days. Peaches, you will eat or I will force you to. The choice is yours," he says and I smile.