An Alpha's Duty

Chapter 50

Lenah smoothed the black material down across her stomach as she checked her reflection in the mirror for the millionth time.

"You look beautiful Lenah." She looked up at James stood in the doorway. The girls had already left to go to their seats a few minutes ago, after helping her change and fixing her hair and make-up again.

"You don't think it's too dark, a bit too much? Do you think I should have just kept the white one on like Sally and Ashley wanted?" She fiddled with the neckline of the dress, looking at one of her oldest friends, knowing he'd tell her the truth.

James looked at her, a rare smile showing on his face.

"Tell me why you wanted this dress and not the white one, first?" James sat down gracefully in one of the cushioned chairs in the bedroom.

"The white one was pretty, but it didn't feel like me. In this dress I feel like me but it's not traditional like the white one. It shows so much skin and it's not demure enough." She stopped talking as James jumped to his feet and now stood at her shoulder, looking into the mirror at their reflection.

"He loves you, you know." He said to her carefully.

"I know he loves me J-."

"No Lenah, that boy loves you inside and out. He loves everything about you good and bad. If you say this dress is the one that feels like you, then I know he'll love it. Nobody else matters today, except for you two so you hold your head up high and you make sure that boy's eyes never stray from you."

"And I guarantee in that dress there is no way the poor boy stands a chance." The two of them whipped their heads towards the corner of the room where a sharply dressed man stood smiling at Lenah.

His dark black wings cast shadows on the wall behind him as he held his arms open for Lenah.

"Maalik! You must have heard my prayers. I'm so glad you came." Lenah threw her arms around the reaper, careful not to touch the delicate wings on his back.

"Like I would miss the opportunity to walk my princess down the aisle to her mate." His words were oddly accented as if he rarely used English.

"Glad you could make it, she was getting nervous that you weren't going to be here." Maalik raised his head and acknowledged the undercurrent in James' words.

Lenah would have been disappointed if he'd missed something so important in her life and yet he knew she expected nothing of him. She would have understood; it was out of his hands.

Although his interaction with this world was limited, Lenah was his exception, but even then he couldn't always be there. It made him glad that his princess had found her mate, and he was proud of the family she'd built herself.

Taking Lenah's hand, he led her back over to the mirror.

"You look breathtaking, my princess." He said bowing low in front of her, causing her to laugh.

Turning back towards the mirror Lenah scrutinised her reflection.

"There's just something missing." She wasn't sure what it was, but she felt like there was something she'd forgotten.

"Perhaps because although this dress is you, you've not embraced all of you." As usual, Maalik's words were cryptic and Lenah pondered over their meaning.

The reaper rarely answered direct questions, but it was something that Lenah enjoyed. He let her figure things out for herself.

Looking at her reflection she twirled her hands, loving the feel of the shadows running aimlessly through her hands. A sparkling caught her eyes in the mirror as she looked at the top of her head. It brought back a conversation that she'd had with Ajax the day before.