Chapter 82

Raphael had bought the ring when they'd gone shopping for clothes that first time. She'd gone into a lingerie store and had told him to leave. He had laughed quietly to himself at the time, it wasn't like he'd never seen lingerie before but his mate was so cute.

He'd wandered a little distance and found a jewelry store. He had spotted an opal ring and thought of Brooke. The ring itself was $20,664 but there was sale for $11,480 so he'd gotten a little off. It was an oval cut, with diamonds encircling it and running along the front of it. A few weeks back, after she'd been kidnapped and found, he'd sent it in to be engraved with three words: My Love Always.

He looked at the ring that was now on her left hand and smiled. She looked wonderful. The day after she'd called her mother and told her the good news, then she called her older sister then her younger sister. All of the calls included shrieking and screaming and he just grinned at how happy his mate was.

At one point while she was on the phone with her younger sister she walked into his office and said, "Ulyssa wants to know how much the ring was."

He contemplated telling her, the worst that would happen was she would get angry but he didn't think she would refuse the ring.

"$20,700 originally, but I bought it for $11,500."

Her mouth dropped open.

He could hear her sister asking how much it was, but Brooke was just standing there in shock, staring at the ring on her finger.

"Tw…" She'd attempted to speak but all that came out of her mouth were small gasps and exhales.

The grin that had previously been on his face widened at his speechless mate.

"Lys," She finally said, her voice a little shaky as she shut the door to the office, "$11,500." He heard her say from the other side.

He could hear shrieking coming faintly from the phone.

"Yeah, yeah." He could hear her voice get fainter as she walked back to their room.

~~~~~~~~

"So, when should we get married?" She asked one morning in early November sitting cross legged on the couch while he worked on his laptop next to her.

"Whenever you like?" He replied. He was fine with waiting for as long as she needed.

His wolf seemed to have calmed down with the knowledge that they would be married and he didn't feel the powerful urge to mate or mark her anymore.

"Gee, that's helpful." She said sarcastically.

Then she put the end of her purple pen between her teeth, a habit of hers he'd noticed over the past months he'd known her.

"It has to be after Christmas, mid January?" She asked.

His birthday was on January 26th, "That works for me." He said, "But my birthday is on the twenty-sixth."

"That's right it is." She said and looked down at her notepad, she erased the previous words and wrote something else down, "Well then, early January."

She smiled at the notepad, "Sounds great." He said as he leaned over to kiss her.

~~~~~~~~~

The month passed slowly as he and Brooke planned for their wedding. She took him to various churches and venues.

They decided on a church that had a nice feel and big enough size to host the wedding.

There was a wedding planner in town and she was helping Brooke with the decorations and catering.

They only had to choose a venue and buy clothes.

She would be going down to Vancouver with Charm and her mother and sisters next week along with another two friends of hers to get their dresses. He would also be going with Thresh, Thomas, Duma and Mark and Nathan to get fitted for their tuxedos.

~~~~~~~~~

Raphael would take Brooke to the daycare every Tuesday and would usually leave to talk to Thresh or Thomas about something or go back home to work, but this time he stayed.

He hung their heavy, winter coats on the coat rack and took his boots off.

The weather was now always cold, averaging zero to five degrees. They'd gone shopping a few days ago and gotten Brooke winter wear as she only had one thick jacket and a pair of rubber boots.

She was wearing a loose, green turtleneck tucked into her black jeans. Her hair was in her usual long braid and her clothed neck was adorned with her silver necklace that she'd received from him, and her bare finger adorned with her engagement ring.

She was beautiful. He sighed happily as he leaned on the doorframe that led to the empty living room.

Well, not entirely empty, Thresh and Charm cleared out one of their many living rooms for the weekly daycare. There were tables set up for colouring and a rug for reading, there was a bookshelf filled with children's books and a taller table laden with snacks and juice boxes.

Brooke began placing activity sheets on the tables, her braid hanging over her shoulder.

She looked so calm and happy.

He turned when he heard a knock at the door, Brooke sprinted gracefully for the door and opened it revealing three bundled forms standing on the porch.

"Hi, sorry we're late." The women said, she was a female Lycan and apparently one of the mothers who brought their children.

"Hey, it's no problem." Brooke said smiling and shut the door behind them.

"Say hi to Miss Brooke." The mother said in a singsong voice.

"Hi." The two children said in unison as they shed their winter suits quickly and ran right past him into the designated playroom.

Brooke began to pick up the coats and shoes that were on the floor and putting them on a shelf with labeled cubbies.

More children began flooding in and some even stopped to stare at him. He'd wondered why at first but Brooke had laughed and said, "Ah, yes. The all mysterious Beta." In a fake reverent voice.

A few of the mothers stopped and admired her ring saying she was very lucky to have a mate like him. She would just blush and smile.

The children were at the house from eight-thirty in the morning till two in the afternoon, the entire time he was amazed at his mate's hidden gift. Working with children.

It looked like she was doing over a hundred things at once and all without breaking concentration. She first read them a story and they all sat on the carpet and around, then she'd let them disperse and play. She would be helping a kid with a drawing then helping them read a word to helping them clean up something then back to drawing, back and forth never stopping.

While he was watching all this he was sitting colouring a picture with a kid named Gordon.

"What do you think of my drawing, Beta?" Gordon had asked him.

Raphael really had no idea what to say about the bright colourful crayon drawing, "Wow! That's great! You used all the right colours." He said enthusiastically.

When the children had finally all left he helped Brooke tidy up. Charm had come down once but said that she was in the middle of painting the baby's room so she wouldn't be able to help.

As they walked home, hand in hand, he said to his fiancé, "You were born to be a mother."

She smiled a wide smile in response and sighed happily as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"And I think that you would be a pretty, decent father."

He laughed heartily to that.