Cassie POV:
At noon, I met my mother, Mike’s mom, Mike’s 8-year-old sister Mallory, and my sister’s best friend Bethany at the wedding dress boutique. My mother wanted to me to drive with her to the boutique, but I decided I cared more about my own sanity than dealing with mother for an extra 25 minutes in the confines of a closed vehicle.
The appointment started off just as swimmingly as you might imagine. Mallory innocently asked if I was the “old maid” who was going to be modeling Megan’s dresses for them.
Yes, that’s right. At 21 years old, I am already considered an “old maid.” Might as well invest in some extra cat litter now.
Whatever. I politely told Mallory that -while yes, I would be the one modeling wedding dresses for them today— there is nothing wrong with being 21 and unmarried. In fact, it is perfectly OK for a woman to be much, much, much older and unmarried. Many women intentionally choose to never get married, and the live happy and fulfilled lives.
My commentary earned me a horrified look from both my mother and Mike’s mother, but luckily the salesclerk came out and greeted us before either could reprimand me.
When the clerk asked me to confirm that I was the bride, my mother quickly stepped up. “This is my daughter, Cassie. She isn’t getting married, but she is going to model dresses for us that my daughter Megan can wear at her wedding. Cassie and Megan have the same body type, but Megan couldn’t make it due to conflicting plans with her mate today. It’s a good thing Megan had a conflict, though, because this may be only time Cassie ever gets to try on a wedding dress.”
The clerk nodded, but seemed a bit confused. My mother quickly clarified the situation, in a low whisper (which was nevertheless loud enough for everyone within a 10 feet radius to hear): “Cassie is 21 and lives in a human town.”
The clerk instantly said “Oh, now I understand.” She then ushered me back to a fitting room while everyone else began selecting dresses for me to try on.
While I waited for the first dress, I quietly thought of ways that I would make Megan make this up to me. Somehow knowing the Golden Child wasn’t really the Golden Child wasn’t feeling like enough anymore.
After about 2 hours, I was beyond exhausted. I must have tried on 50 dresses by that point. My mother found reasons to reject each dress, but still insisted on taking multiple photographs of each one so that Megan could see them. After the first 10 dresses, all the dresses started to look the same to me. I suggested that 10 dresses were enough to give Megan plenty of options, but my mother insisted we keep going until we found at least 2-3 good ones.
By dress number 20, I started to wonder if my mother already knew which dress she wanted Megan to buy, and simply wanted to torture me as much as possible before she said it out loud. By dress 35, I was pretty sure I was right. By dress 45, I knew I was right. And by dress 51, I thought my mother had flat out lost her mind.
Unlike the other dresses, even I could see that Dress 51 was unique. And my unique, I mean it was the ugliest dress I had ever seen in my life. When the clerk brought the dress into the room, she commented, “It takes a special personality to pull this dress off.” That was an understatement.
The dress was all white, one-shoulder ball gown. It had one long sleeve and one bare shoulder and arm. The base of the dress was satin or silk; I’m not sure which nor do I care. Either which way, it all sounds tolerable so far, right? Sure. Except that the dress also had sequins, rhinestones, buttons, feathers, and lace. Each element was laid on top of each other in alternating patterns, as though they had gone to a wedding dress convention together and were told to stand next to each other in lines. Except that the person responsible for making sure the lines were straight left her glasses at home.
My sister loves frilly, feminine designs. She loves and wears anything my mother asks her to wear. But even my sister has a line, and I knew this dress crossed it. There was no way my sister would ever wear this dress.
My wolf started to pace in the back of my head as the clerk tried to coax me out of the fitting room. “Even my wolf is anxious about me coming out in this dress,” I told the clerk. She rolled her eyes and led me to my mother and the others.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught my mother holding back a laugh. Yes, I was right. She probably had Megan’s dress selected 40 dresses ago. This was about torturing me. Well, this was the last dress. I hope she enjoyed her fun.
There would be no pictures of this dress. I did a mock bow and then turned to go back to the dressing room, when the most intoxicating smell hit me. It was a combination of coffee and ocean waves all in one. My wolf got more and more agitated.
I looked up and locked eyes with a 6’2” man. He had short blond hair, hazel brown eyes, and muscles in all the right places. He had an aura that exuded power. My wolf immediately started screaming “Mate.”
As I was trying to catch my breath and process what was happening, I noticed a gorgeous blond woman standing next to him. She grabbed his arm, pointed at me, and said, “Baby! That’s it! That’s my wedding dress!!!”
F--- my life.
Cassie’s POV: I stood in the middle of the store trying to catch my breath. The thoughts in my brain were going a mile a minute. I seriously think my brain processed an entire set of encyclopedias in 30 seconds, which is an especially impressive feat given that my wolf was whining loudly in my brain. First things first, I needed to tune my wolf out. Block up, check. Next step, I needed to calm down and think rationally. Take a deep breath, Cassie, I told myself. We will be OK. Nothing bad is going to happen. Everything is going to be fine, Cassie. But was any of that true? I never wanted to meet my mate, but here he was. And he smelled great. He looked great. He exuded power. This couldn’t be that bad a thing, right? Lots of werewolves meet their mates and live happily ever after. In fact, most wolves meet their mates and live happily ever after. Why was I worried? Just because my parents were a
Jason POV: (24 hours earlier) I wake up from a blissful sleep to a mind-link. “Jason, report to Alpha’s office in 10 minutes.” “Huh?” “Dude, you can’t still be asleep. It’s 11 am.” “I had a long night, Man.” “What’s her name?” “Natalie. No, Sarah. No, Melanie. I don’t know, Man.” “Seriously? You don’t know her name and you slept with her?” “Like you have never done that yourself.” Silence. “OK, fine. You’ve never done that. But you are boring as hell and need to get a life.” “Jason, I’m not talking as your best friend. I’m talking as your future Alpha. Get your butt up and out of bed and meet me in the Alpha’s office in 10 minutes.” “No.” “Jason.” “Urgh. Fine.” I roll over and look at the naked woman beside me in the bed. I nudge her gently. “Wake up, Melanie. It’s time to get the
Jason’s POV: After a long drive, Josephine and I finally arrived at the wedding dress store. As we got out of the car, my wolf began to get excited. “I think our mate is in the store!” he told me excitedly. When he said that, I began to get nervous. I had joked about picking up women shopping for wedding dresses, but I never expected to pick up my own mate. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. On one hand, I have dreamed of meeting my mate. Wolves can meet their mates as early as 18, and I was already 25. Seven years is a long time to wait. On the other hand, I’ve enjoyed seven years of bachelor fun. Sex with different women every night; freedom to go and do as I please. Was I ready to give all that up? Yeah, yeah I was. If I was being honest, none of the women I’d slept with had ever really satisfied me. That was why I kept trying different ones. The idea of spending the rest of my life with one woman who really, truly loved me… and with whom I could have the kind of r
(Jason’s POV): I noticed that one of the sales clerks had a mating mark on her neck, but the other one did not. She therefore became my target. I approached her at the desk, and immediately asked her name. “Candy.” “Oh, what a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” She blushed. I gestured to where Josephine is sitting. “Do you see that lovely lady over there? She is getting married to my alpha, and it is really important that I make her happy.” “Oh, so she isn’t with you?” Candy asked, expectantly. “No,” I confirmed, giving her my best charming smile. I looked Candy up and down. “I like the ladies a little bit different than Josephine. Red hair is my favorite.” Candy smiled, and gently pushed her long red hair back, so that I could see her un-marked neck. “It is?” “Yes.” Candy looked into my eyes, and blushed again. “I wish I could make plans to take you on a date tonight, but my alpha won’t let me go anywhere until I’ve made his bride happy. Is there anything you t
Chapter 8 Aaron POV: I was working in my Dad’s office when I heard Josephine and Jason return from their shopping trip. I was praying to the Moon Goddess that they had been successful. I mind-linked Jason asking him to come see me. When he came into the office, I could tell immediately that something was wrong. “How did it go?” I asked. Surely it could not have gone that poorly. “Well, Josephine found a dress she liked.” My eyes widened. “That’s amazing!” As I said that, even I realized how crazy it was for me to be this excited. I am a grown man, who likes sports, cars, and working out. I am an alpha-to-be who will soon be in charge of a pack with over 2500 wolves relying on me. I normally could care less about dresses, shoes, and anything traditionally female. Yet, due to circumstances beyond my control, I find myself highly dependent on Josephine finding a wedding dress she likes. “She didn’t get it.” “Why not???” “There was only one. It’s one of a kind. It wil
(Aaron POV) Three days later after Jason’s failed shopping trip, I found myself outside an apartment complex in a human town. I wasn’t quite sure why a wolf –much less a female wolf—would choose to live in a human town, but to each their own. I knocked on the door and waited. After a few moments –and what sounded like a woman stubbing her toe and cursing, which brought a tiny smirk to my face—a woman opened the door. Holy Goddess. I was starting to see why Jason was being so weird. This woman had the face and body of an angel; she was easily the most beautiful she-wolf I had ever seen. She had the kind of beauty that would intimidate any male wolf, even wolves with tons of game like Jason. More importantly, she had this unique energy about her. Many she-wolves have a quiet, submissive energy about them –especially when around high ranked male wolves. This she-wolf had energy that was anything but submissive. Her energy felt energized, independent,
(Jason POV) I woke up to loud, angry pounding on my door. I looked over at the alarm clock and it read 6:15 a.m.. Whoever was knocking on my door at this hour had better have a damn good reason. “Who is it?” I heard the distinct and angry growl of my best friend. “Get the f--- up, Jason.” “Aaron?” I called through the door. “What on earth? Is there an emergency?” “Open this door now, Jason, or I’m going to break it down.” “Dude, chill. I’ve got a girl in here.” I mind-linked him. “You have three seconds.” Aaron shouted back. He wasn’t using the mind-link. He only doesn’t use the mind-link when his emotions are too high to control it. Whatever he is mad about, I knew it was going to be bad. “3….2….” I scrambled out of bed and opened the door. I was immediately greeted by a punch to my face that knocked me straight to the ground. “Dude, what the ---” I exclaimed
(Jason POV) I walked into Alpha Blake’s office expecting to see Aaron. As I walked in, I was surprised to find not one, but seven pairs of angry eyes staring at me. One pair obviously belonged to Aaron. Another belonged to Josephine, who was sitting on Alpha Blake’s lap. Both of my parents were also there, as was the current Gamma (Henry) and the Gamma-heir, Ben. I walked in, and quickly made a joke to break the tension. “I didn’t rob a bank, so you all should probably look for another suspect. Perhaps the cat did it.” I laughed, but quickly realized I was the only one who did. “Sit down, Son,” my father told me. There was only one open chair, and it was right in the middle of the room with the other chairs turned to face it. I sat down. “What’s this about?” The room was silent for a moment. I could feel the tension, and I could also see the eyes of everyone glaze over as they appeared to be mi