The Lion's Arranged Mate: A Paranormal Lion Shifter Romance (7 page)

Behind them a long piercing shriek of a bald eagle crackled the air like cellophane. A light wind trailed down from the high mountains behind them, smelling like the sharp crack of new ice and wild flowers, and the skin on Anastasia’s arms bristled with goosebumps. There was only the sound of the wind rustling through green stems and the distant gurgling of the creek that wound through the fields.

Anastasia gestured with her head to a small knoll among a clump of purple lupines. “There’s only one problem with shifting back and forth between my wolf form,” she said, hiding her smile with her hand.

“Oh, and what’s that?”

She tugged on his hand, leading him away from the road towards the mossy outcrop. “I get rather horny afterwards,” she said without blushing, “and it’s such a lovely morning. Can we rest in the flowers… just for a while?”

Alan laughed, a full hearty laugh that reached into his arms and legs as he bounded with her. Their clothes trailed behind them like clues, and the only witness was a lonely eagle circling on thermals and bannisters of cloud.

THE FINAL
CHAPTER

The day of the wedding finally came. It seemed as if the whole affair with the Stormfangs was nothing more than a bad memory, and the daily routines of the two seemed to return to normal. At Anastasia’s behest, Alan was able to cover for Elias’ apparent transgression of the Council’s edict – in truth, it would have only made matters worse if they got wind of it. Besides, as far as all parties were concerned, it was over.

Anastasia had chosen a red Chinese-style dress for the occasion – it hugged every angle of her body with a supple grace, and Alan joked that if she was intent on wearing it, she’d have to worry about the rest of the bachelors at the wedding trying to imagine what was underneath.

“Let them,” she said with a wink, “only you know for sure.”

This time Alan did rely on Kyle for a suit, however. It was a dark charcoal number that felt a little snug around the chest. Nevertheless, he had to admit he looked more than a little suave when he caught his reflection in the mirror. What neither of them were prepared for however was how big the reception would be.

The venue that had been chosen was a small nature park beside the long twisting divide of the blue green river that ran down the middle of Cedarhaven’s valley. When they arrived, most of the guests had already shown up, and it was as if the whole town had shown up. On a stage near one end, wooden pallets had been set up to harbor the band that was playing, and he recognized more than a few faces strumming guitars or wailing on a homemade drum set.

Cameron and Kyle were also there. Cameron had taken some bruises from an altercation, and Kyle as well had a few smarting scratches.
I’m the only one that managed to avoid injuries with this whole arranged marriage
, he thought with a bit of amusement, but also regret that he couldn’t have shared in his brother’s adventures.

Nevertheless, he had his own adventure, and when he saw Anastasia give him a knowing look, decided to keep it a secret – with the clans perched on the edge of civil war, and with the union of the three of them imminent, there was no reason to bring it up.

“I had no excuse,” Kyle slumped, lamenting on not being there to help out Cam, “I should have been there. I feel like an ass. I can’t believe it. Still, I’m glad you’re okay, Cam.”

“From what I heard, you had an interesting time, too?” Cam said, nudging his brother’s elbow, and cocking his head.

At that instant, Kyle’s wife-to-be, Krista, appeared and chided them all for not being better gentlemen. It seemed that she had more or less fallen for Kyle, and Alan politely bowed his head. He caught the mature look of Anastasia again, and she was withholding laughter.

As the party drew on, the ceremony finally came to a head. The three grooms and three brides seated at their places of honor both made vows in the Old Tongue of the shifters, and as the liaison, it was Alan’s responsibility to oversee it. Cam and Elise, and Kyle and Krista, took their vows with deadpan formality, but it when it was his time to christen himself and Anastasia, she broke tradition and held his hand.

In front of a large brazier, they both wrote their vows and tossed them into the flames. She winked at him out of the corner of his eye, and he smiled.

The party seemed to carry on for hours, and even Cam got up to dance. But as the night drew on, he noticed Anastasia getting restless. As the voices and energy began to wind down and people began to say goodbye or give their last congratulations to the newlyweds, she left her seat under the canvas tent. Alan trailed after her, leaving the lights and dwindling music behind. In the rushes and grasses by the side of the river, she stopped, and he came up behind her, caressing her lower back.

“You okay?”

“Mmhmm,” she murmured, “just strange to be a married woman.”

“Strange to be a married man, as well.”

She sniffed the air. “That’s the question isn’t it? What do we do with such freedom?”

It hadn’t really occurred to him. Or rather, he had tried to avoid it as an inconvenient question, but she had brought it full circle. “I’ve been asking myself that a lot. The truth is I don’t know. Maybe freedom, like love, is spontaneous. It’s not something you can plan for, it just happens. And when it does, you have to go with it.”

“That’s very poetic,” she said impressed.

“You think? Gosh, maybe I missed my vocation,” he joked.

They were still for awhile longer, and then a pale light glanced down from above. The full moon had been hidden by a veil of clouds, but now its shape cast a blue-toned ambiance against the river and the shoreline.

“Then for tonight,” she said, pushing away from him and unzipping the back of her dress. It fell down, and she looked coyly at him, the white of her back like soft cream. “Let’s be spontaneous. I want to teach you something.”

He undid the black buttons on his vest. “And what would that be?” he asked

“How to howl at the moon,” Anastasia said, her lupine eyes dancing with his own.

As the wedding officially ended and people began to depart, a few of the more sober guests noticed that  Alan and his bride had disappeared.  Some joked that they’d eloped in order to spend the night together, others that they’d simply grown bored and departed without a goodbye. It was taken for granted, and no one held it against them.

But a very few of the guests would later have remembered seeing two shapes running the shoreline, large and fleet-footed. A lion and a wolf, stitching their footsteps to the bank, and calling out with their heads tilted towards the blue-struck moon.

THE END

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