With a kiss (part 1)

I was starting to get the purpose of a blusher veil as my mouth fell slightly open in the face of all the neatly compiled documents on the table next to us.

When did I ever pass a driving test let alone receive a driver's license?

... A passport? I had never set one foot outside of Anchorage. The king and his mansion, that was what the world meant to me…

A very serious-looking judge who presided over the civil ceremony stood one step behind and faced us. Connor asked me to stand on his left, while the werewolf that drove us here stood to the side behind him wearing a black groomsman suit.

Connor leaned his body slightly to the back where his best man stood.

"Where is she, Alex," he asked in a low tone.

Right then, the door of the hall opened and a woman who looked like a human supermodel in a bridesmaid dress came running inside, her long brown hair floated as hair does in one of those shampoo ads. She carried a floral arrangement in her hand looking more like a bride who was running late to her own wedding than a mere guest.

I was surprised when she stood next to the male whose name was Alex instead of behind me... but then why would she?

She wasn't my friend, I had none of those.

She finally looked me in the eye and nodded timidly as she extended the bouquet of crimson roses to me.

When I was a moment too late to accept it, her hand shivered.

Connor took the arrangement and the assignment to pass it over, it was simple, all I had to do was reach from under the long wedding veil and take it. But I didn't want to.

I hated it.

The shade reminded me too much of a pair of eyes I didn't bid farewell to.

The judge cleared his throat. But Connor ignored him.

"Take them," he ordered.

I sighed inwardly, such a thing wasn't worth causing a scene for in the presence of humans. I reached out for the bouquet and then held it, biting my cheek when a thorn from beneath the silk that wrapped the arrangement pierced me.

I lowered it down and kept it just below my waist. My arms relaxed but it wasn't in a good way.

This little insignificant incident, this small prick, or the small drop of blood that was forming over my thumb. What were those in comparison to the invisible rivers I held firmly inside?

The officiant cleared his throat again.

"Wait," Connor said urgently. Then he held my wrist and pulled it along with the arrangement from beneath the veil and turned it to the side.

"Leave it," his voice was grave.

When I looked up and met his gaze, the green color had a tint of grief too.

I could've argued that I was fine, but I really wasn't, so I just gave it to him. I should've known his nose would be sensitive enough to smell that small amount of blood.

He gave the bouquet to his best man without interrupting our eye contact. Then he pulled me closer by the wrist that was still in his grip and bent down significantly. His hair fell slightly over his forehead covering his eyes.

He placed my thumb in his mouth and sucked gently.

It was embarrassing… the fact that he made such a big deal out of it, and the fact that I felt a strange tingling sensation just under my belly button. He didn't let go, but when I pulled my arm back, he just let me.

When he looked at me again, his eyes were darker than usual, and when he swallowed, my eyes watched the movement of his prominent Adam's apple going down and then up again.

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What was all that?

He parted his lips for a long moment, then words started flowing out.

"I call upon these persons here present, to witness that I, Connor Turner, do take thee, Elizabeth King, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, so long as I shall live.

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I was in a daze…

The sincerity that dripped out of his every word… all of it, it reached me.

When I snapped out of it, I was about to panic knowing too well that it was my turn now. But then the officiant's voice startled me.

"Elizabeth, do you take this man to be your husband, to live together in holy matrimony, to love him, to honor him, to comfort him, and to keep him in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?"

"…Yes,"

"The rings?" The officiant said. Alex quickly reached inside his pocket and took out a small golden velvety box and gave it to Connor. The Alpha focused on my face and opened it… I couldn't get my eyes off the peculiar red diamond… I had never seen one before.

"Wear these rings as a reminder of the vows you have just taken." The officiant pointed out when we took too long, probably.

Connor took my left hand, then placed the wedding band on my finger.

"I give this ring as a sign of my love." He said, then he kissed the ring with closed eyes, when he opened them, they were intense on my face again.

I felt like I had to say something out loud.

"…Thank you," it was a perfect fit.

He turned his attention back to Alex and took a ring that wasn't placed in a box, and then he put it on his finger by himself. Nobody seemed surprised by that, except for me.

"And now by the power vested in me, it is my honor and delight to declare you married. Go forth and live each day to the fullest. You may seal this declaration with a kiss."

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Oh… there was that part too...