The next morning is a blur as we rush to get everything ready and ourselves. Erin, the star she is, has gotten everything a bride could need and waiting for me all ready in her room. "There, how's that?" Erin asks, putting the final touches to my hair and make up. Looking at myself in the mirror once she steps out of the way and thinking, 'is that me?'. "I've kept it all very natural, very little foundation and very light concealer. With not too much blush or eye shadow, just enough mascara and eyeliner to make your eyes pop and sparkle". "Erin, it's... your..." speechless. "Same with your hair, I've kept that simple too. I've re-straightened your hair a little to give it a bit of texture on the layers and put some product in it to make it shine, sniff it, it smells like digestive biscuits," informing me, bleaming at me, so happy and proud of herself. "Chilli? Do you like it? Happy?" Blinking at myself in the mirror,"Erin, I look, beautiful." Erin laughs at me,"You were already b
Once the crowd settles down the officiant moves on with the ceremony, " Elias, please repeat after me, I, Elias Winters do take Charlotte Burnes to be my mate, wife and future luna, in sickness and health.". Elias repeats, then my turn. "Charlotte, please repeat after me, I Charlotte Burnes do take Elias Winters to be my mate, husband and future alpha, in sickness and health". Once I've repeated it also the officiant hands Elias a ring, "Elias, do you vow to stand by Charlotte as mates, partners and husband and wife? at her best and at her worst? To accept her and trust her judgement? To love and honour her till you leave this earthly plane?" "I do". He says gazing into my eyes as he slips a ring onto my finger, perfect fit."Charlotte, do you vow to stand by Elias as mates, partners and husband and wife? at his best and at his worst? To accept him and trust him judgement? To love and honour him till you leave this earthly plane?" "I do". Sliping the ring onto his finger, as I well
After many hours of dancing and drinking, we say goodbye to the last of the guests."Keep waving, they're going, going, going, gone. Thank goodness". Kay drops her arm, "bed time, its been a long, amazing day my lovely's but I need my pillow". "Yes," we all agree, thinking the same thing. "Good night mother". Elias says as we embrace eachother and stagger off to our rooms.Once on our own, Elias suddenly scoops me up in his arms and I wrap mine around his neck as he carrys me the rest of the way and across the threshold to our little apartment, then straight through to the bedroom. I feel so safe in his arms, not wanting to leave his warmth, I look up at my man as he gazes down at me, that burning passion still alight. He doesn't need to say a word, the bond does it all for us, we open our hearts and minds to eachother, letting the other in. My hesitations gone, I no longer worry about my past, I am ready for my future, our future together.Elias places me softly on our bed, my arms
The morning light creeping through the gap in the curtains wakes me, to find Chilli still curled up in my arms. I give her a squeeze and she purrs slightly, kissing the top of her head and inhaling her sweet scent, remembering and replaying last night extra marital activities, smiling, beaming with joy. Chilli stirs and snuggles deeper into me, "what?" She says, still half asleep, "What's so amusing?" Smiling and kissing her head again, "nothing my love, go back to sleep." But before sleep can retake us, a mouth watering smell fills our bedroom. "Yummmm, breakfast." Chilli yorns, stretching her arms and arching her back. Once washed and dressed we make our way downstairs to join the rest of the packhouse for breakfast. Hand in hand we enter the dining hall to a chorus of whoo's, cheers and clapping. Chilli clings to my arm, trying to hide her blushing face, making me chuckle at her dislike of being centre of attention. We take our seats at the main table, mother and father looking
Once we are able to move, I head for the bathroom to shower when Elias says, "Do you have any energy left?" Stopping in the doorway to our bedroom, turning back to see his grinning face, pulling his boxes back on. Oh flip what is he thinking, round two?"What are you thinking?" Elias stalks across the room to me, pulling me in close to whisper softly in my ear, "Want to go for a run?" The tip of his nose glides from my ear, across my cheek, bringing his lips to mine, drawing me in for a deep, passionate kiss. "Yeah, okay, I could go for a run." Grabbing on an old t-shirt and jogging bottoms, we head outside to the woods out back. Racing down the stairs Elias slaps my ass before jumping the last few steps. "Hay!" I chuckle after him as he dashes out into the garden, "Wait up". I follow Elias outside, to see he is already at the tree line, bare chested, waiting for me. We fold our clothes neatly by a tree, behind some bushes. Out of side from the house, I take a deep breath, calm
3 weeks later It's been a few weeks since our encounter with the unknown creature, and there have been sightings all over town but by the time anyone gets there to investigate, it's long gone and there is no trace of it even being there in the first place. Turns out father has been seeing this crazy woman from the night of the winter ball, Maria, on and off for months. Started being in some sort of contact just after Pauline ran off, thought he was taking being on his own a bit too well. She keeps trying to mother me, I had a mother, a great, fantastic mother and if anyone is to take her place, fill her impossible shoes, well, that would be her sister, my aunt Kay, not some random floosy my father decides on next to warm his bed. She also keeps trying to be my friend, which I don't like or trust. It's why I don't get attached or close to father's lady friends, because once I do they are gone and or they are just faking it to score brownie points with him. The whole packhouse is gett
"Chilli?" Sam sits on the floor with me, "are you okay?" I nod my head, fighting back my tears, lying. "I'm sorry, stupid question," I sob silently as he pats my shoulder. "You'll be okay Chilli socks, it will be okay". Nudging me with his shoulder, "come on girly, you'll be okay". Whipping my eyes I look up at him and try to smile through my pain, failing. "It's my fault"."How is it your fault?" "It just is. I should of... I could have.." Unable to complete my sentences, to form the words."Now you listen to me and listen good! It is not your fault!" Sam says slowly but surely, "But.." stuttering,"No buts missy," he sighs, placing a hand on my shoulder, comforting me. "It's hard, I know, but it will happen for you two again. Try not to dwell and lose yourself in it. Focus on the future, on your future, together. " "But I let everyone down. I .. I lost it." Choking on my emotions, bearly breathing. Sam puts an arm around me and gives me a squeeze."Oh Chilli, you didn't let anyo
Once asleep, I can feel her dreaming through the bond. It feels warm, happy and safe, heavenly, like a dream should be. Holding her still, I close my eyes and enjoy this shared feeling as I relax back into the bed. Not sure how much time passes, I think I even drifted off a bit until she jolts, bringing me out of my daze as her heart rate spikes as my eyes fly open. Looking down at her as I feel fear, fear and sadness and pain, but not just physical pain, but heart break! I'm stunned and all I can do is watch, watch as my mate tenses next to me. Snapping back to reality I pull her in tight, her head under my chin, shhhing her, "Chilli, It's okay Chilli, I'm here, I'm here", stroking her head and hair, trying to calm her, soothing her, scared to wake her. My hair standing up on the back of my neck, prickling my skin, feeling utterly useless, she's had some bad dreams in the past, but nowhere near this bad. "Come on Chilli, come on, come back to me, please?" Trying so hard to hind the
Elias POV I look up and watch as Chilli steps out from the en suite, wraped in just a towel, making her way towards her dressing table as I lay on our bed where I was just aimlessly flicking through my phone. Taking a seat and opening its draw, she removes a single, plastic pot housing her facial cream and unscrews its lid. It's nothing fancy, not expensive, its just a simple, none branded, vitamin E night cream.I continue to ovserve as she dips two fingers into the pale lotion and looks into the mirror, to then slowly drag said fingers down her face, starting at her forhead, gliding smoothly along her nose and then finishing with a dab on her chin. She then wipes a bit of the remainder on each cheek before replacing the lid and putting it back in its draw. My eyes are fixed to her as she slowly but firmly works the cream into her skin, taking extra care near and around her eyes. Her finger tips caress over her own face and down her neck, over my mark on her neck
Chilli POV Perching under a tree with Chant as we take a break from sparring whislts our mates for some reason decide to chop some fire wood. I find it amusing and humble how as the alpha he likes and enjoys chopping fire wood for the pack house, no job is to small for our mighty leader.Chant's seductive eyes never leave her mate as he swings the axe up into the air, where it seems to pause for the briefest of seconds before falling down onto a chunk of wood, spilting it into two. The whole movement and process is magical, so smooth and artistic like poetry. I had watched my own mate for a time, admiring his tensing biceps with every swing, the beauty of his movements and strength of the action, but now I'm just leaning back against the tree's trunk with my eyes shut, listening to the beautiful rhythmic sound of the wood splitting, of metal against nature, somehow for some reason I find it peaceful as I smirk at the thought of Chant lustfully gazing at Jay, it al
Elias POV That was brutal, oh my goddess do I hurt, I haven't hurt this much from training since, shit, I don't know when. Sure, I was mad and needed to work it off, but fuck me, Chilli was livid, she was masking it well, I mean, wow. My ass hurts. I had to use all my strength to stay on my feet, especially after I hit the ground hard the first few times of her kicking and taking me down. Once she swept my legs out from underneath me, my wolf instincts took over just so I could stay on my feet. I think I pulled something that time, thank the goddess for wolf healing, cos my left ass cheek and leg are killing me. With Chant now paired with Chilli and Erin and Leroy working together, that leaves me with Jay, who is as good as his mate, oh dear. I sigh inwardly as we step away from the others to train, I can spar and keep up with anyone, I'm alpha afterall, but after the beating I've just endured, I'd prefer a nice easy spar, but hay ho, lets do this. Thankfully, Jay see
Chilli POV Finally everyone is out on the field, we can get started. I am needing to hit something. Elias insist on sparring with me first and to Erin's relief but Chant's dismay, I agree. Which just leaves the others to pair up, one of them did suggest mate paring but the guys seems a little bit wary so it's girls vs girls and guys vs guys. For now anyway. After a fairly rough spar with Elias, I finally start to calm down and release my rage, which I guess was his plan, so I don't feel gilty later now if I cause anyone else major harm. Clearly sensing this, Elias allows us to switch partners and Chant and I go straight to each other, to which the rest of the group chuckle at our predictableness. Chant and I exchange a sinister grin as the others repair up, Elais with Jay and Erin with Leroy. I mirror Chant as she raises her arms up into a defensive stance, declaring she is ready, a smile growing on her face. As we stare down on each other I am reminded of our rematch
"You know there was no way he would accept and train with us," Leroy says once we are alone and with just our own pack members, "I know, but it was fun and satisfying to embarrass him like that, the look on his face at the mere thought of it was golden. To watch him squirm." I can't help but let out an enormous laugh, to which Chilli shoots me evil eyes for finding any of this so amusing. "What?" I chuckle at her before pulling myself together because if looks could kill. I had to laugh, if I didn't I think I would have lost it, plus it felt so good, too good to put Jordan down a bit like that in such a slight way in front of the others. However, by Chilli's facial expression, she does not agree, goddess, did I want to kill him, thankfully in a way he did say no, or we would have had a dead alpha on our hands and territory. "Come on, your telling me you didn't want a chance at hitting him?" I ask her in a teasing way, she looks at me whislt crossing her arms across he
"I hear some incorrect information has reached the ears of my children," "Oh, and what's that got to do with us? Idle gossip is not what these meetings are for." "No, not normally, but," she pauses for the briefest of moments to adjust her tone and the ferocity of her words, "but when it comes to petty, stupid, horrible lies about my family, my children, then you and I have a problem! A big problem!" He nearly chuckles in her face as he asks half heartedly,"Pray tell what are these so called insults?""A spare heir, a baby," she lists off the tamer ones first, working up to the biggest and worst one, before she stops again as I feel a heat burning off of her directed straight at Jorden, "and an inbreed!" The room falls silent after everyone gasps and shoot death stares at the alpha. A low growl escapes from mine, Erin and Leroy throats, our protectiveness taking over. Jordan looks like he doesn't know weather to laugh or bite back."Jordan!" One of the ot
Jordan holds his hands up in defence as I take a few deep breaths to calm myself before turning to the rest of the room to acknowledge our other guests. "Alpha Jonathan, Luna Suzie, beta Willow, sorry for my tardiness, how is Maxwell?" I ask taking my seat next to Elias, pushing my anger down for now, eyeing up Jordan in the cornor of my eye, I'm not done with you yet, I think to myself."No problem Luna Winters, father is doing well and thoroughly enjoying his retirement," he smiles with a nod of his head, which we return, "thank you for asking." Jonathan took over as alpha of the west pack two years ago with his mate Suzie and appointed Willow Steal as the first female beta of the west pack. She is a strong minded woman with a powerful right hook."Alpha Alex, Luna Ela and beta Karl, welcome and thank you for coming today," Elias smiles to the leaders of the Spring rise pack from the south, who joined our alliance about four years ago.With the greetings done and out of the way, we
The drive to school is a pretty normal one, we talk, sing and laugh all the way there, forgetting about any and all problems the day may have already brought. Once there and out of the car, we all walk hand in hand with Marcus in the middle, through the blue painted gates."Luna," the teacher on the gate addresses me with a nod of the head, as does any other adult that comes into eye contact with me. I smile back and return their nods.Like always, even though we come to Lily's class room first, we walk Marcus around to his first at her insistence, she says its part of her job to look out for him to make sure herself she sees him to his door. It warms my heart the care and love they have for each other. As I kiss my son goodbye and he hugs his sister, I take note of the other high ranking children from other packs, sitting at their tables ready for the lessons to begin. Future alpha's, beta's and Luna's all learning together including Tammy and Willow, Erin and Leroy's twins who are a
Chilli POVEleven years later"Lilith Kay Rosalee Winters! Get your furry tail out here now! Don't make me call you again!" I call out by the front door as I wait for my ten year old to take her to school. "Mummy, is Li-li in tuble?""She will be if she doesn't hurry up sweetpea,""Oh,""Lily!" I shout again,"I'm coming, I'm coming," my oldest calls back at me, jeez, ten going on fifteen, she's acting like a teenager, where does the time go? It feels like only yesterday that she fitted in my arms as I rocked her, singing her back to sleep.Take me home tonight, I'd do anything with you, buy a bottle of whiskey, we'll get matching tattoos, tell me that you love me, let me drive your car, we can sit 'til morning light, just countin' every star, 'cause if there's a hell, I'll meet you there, and if there's a heaven, they're serving beer, and if you're an angel, then I must be high, if there's a church, It's rock 'n roll, if there's