The Contrary Mate

Jack

Aura was like a dream, and I wanted to sleep forever.

As she flew towards me, her bare toes barely brushing the top of the lowest plants, my heart skipped a beat. This fae ceremony might not have been what I would have expected, but I was thoroughly content to be there with her.

She landed delicately on the grass beside me and shot an excited smile at me.

The officiant’s voice washed over me. “You are as two trees, planted by the same stream, growing together, roots intertwined. Hold each other when storms come, through floods, through drought, never to be parted in this life.”

She smiled at me, and my heart pounded. We’d already made these promises when I’d marked her, but that didn’t matter. Again, we were promising exactly what I and my wolf wanted, the future. My instinctual side didn’t truly understand what was going on, but the significance did not escape him.

“Bound by magic greater than oneself, two become one unto death. Join hands.”

Aura’s light fingers on her right hand intertwined with mine, and I felt pricking on my wrist, not unlike the feeling of first contact that I had felt with her, and to my surprise, light plantlike patterns appeared and solidified as the feeling faded. She smiled at me and I saw that her wrist had a similar pattern to mine. I was surprised, I had thought that I would be the only one marked in the ceremony, although as her father had said, joining ceremonies with non-fae were almost entirely unheard of.

“And now the rings to further symbolize the establishment of this union.” This part apparently wasn’t traditional, but some fae added them, especially when they had more frequent contact with humans. I slipped the ring onto her finger, and she did the same to mine. We kissed, joined hands, and he announced we were fully joined.

My wolf was extremely satisfied. Anything that made more people recognize that she was ours was a good plan in his eyes. We were congratulated by Aura’s family. Both her father and aunt seemed to be genuinely excited, her mother seemed happy enough, Lark gave me a high five, and the other relatives I was just meeting at least wished us well. Even her brother pasted on a stiff smile as he congratulated us.

Once we were finished, we got into my car, and we sped off out of the fae territory. I caught her eye as I stopped at the turn. “You look gorgeous, Aura. Want to sneak home first before we head to the pack territory? We’ve got enough time for a quickie before everything starts,” I suggested with a wink. I wanted some time alone with her.

“No.” She smiled at me. “You’ll mess up my hair.”

Her hair was quite beautiful, in some sort of intricate half up and down style with braids that I couldn’t fathom. And her dress was beautiful and begged me to peel it off of her. “I bet I could keep your hair intact.”

“Not willing to risk it. This was my mother’s doing and I can’t fix it myself. And I don’t want to have to ask her to. Too embarrassing.”

I brought our still joined hands up to my mouth and kissed her knuckles. “Well, I guess I could use the extra time to show my beautiful bride where I grew up instead.”

She smiled, “As long as you don’t mess up my hair doing it.”

We pulled into pack territory, and I mind linked the patrols so they’d know it was us, although they obviously knew that we were coming. From the sounds of music, I could tell that the celebration had already begun. While we were celebrating my fae joining with Aura and her joining to the pack, there was also a lot of excitement about another couple. Lys would be joining the pack tonight as the new delta female. Much of the pack were already present on the territory, although a few more would trickle in later, as would our few fae guests who Aura had invited.

As I had promised Aura, Greyclaw was very welcoming of a fae. The moment we got out of my car, pack members converged on us, congratulating us and welcoming Aura to the territory, everyone from the little terrors from the pool, to my cook, to my late sister’s childhood best friend. It was a messy web of interconnected relationships, but Aura took it in stride.

And then, the alpha and luna came forward and the pack scattered. Alpha Daniel had been our leader since before I was born, and his dark hair was getting increasingly grey. His luna’s brown hair only had the slightest wisps marking hers. Both were still in great health, but they were getting ready for their eldest daughter to assume the alpha role.

“Let me introduce you to Alpha Daniel and Luna Yvette.” I said. “This is my mate, Aura Darrow.”

“A pleasure to finally meet you, and welcome to our pack,” my luna said graciously.

“Pleasure’s all mine, Luna,” Aura agreed quickly and nervously. I took her hand.

“Congratulations on your marriage. We’re surprised and delighted to have a fae joining us now,” my alpha added. “Jack said he’s explained everything to you about joining the pack.”

“I believe he has,” she responded.

“We’ve no records of a fae joining us before, but since your marking went so well, there’s no reason to believe that your transition into the pack shouldn’t be just as smooth.”

“I’m willing to take the small risk,” she said, and she looked determined. I was nervous at the mention of her facing any risks.

“I’m confident all will be well, or we wouldn’t do it,” he said in a way that calmed my wolf’s nerves. I did trust my alpha. His head perked up. “Seems we’ve got more visitors. You should stick around to greet this group before you show your mate around, Jack.”

Aura looked at me questioningly, and I shrugged. I didn’t know who was coming, not until a car pulled up a few minutes later and Vander and his family piled out of the vehicle, much to my surprise.

“Congratulations!” Kylie said to my mate with a warm smile and they began talking.

“I didn’t know you’d be here again so soon,” I said to my friend after he slapped me on the back unnecessarily hard and added his well wishes to his mate’s.

“Lys invited us. Also heard you’re now married. Would have crashed that, but we were told werewolves weren’t welcome?”

“We were trying not to rock the boat on that one. We decided not to rub extra werewolves in their faces. I’m already apparently notorious, and the fae aren’t my biggest fans. Something to do with magic and tech mixing heresy.”

“Huh. Well, guess they probably don’t like me either,” Vander said, sounding amused.

“Probably not, if they found out who you are.”

“So, lots of friction?”

“Yes, and I hate that it’s difficult for Aura.”

“Well, no one wants their mate to suffer. She seems happy though.”

“I do believe she is.” I paused. “I was going to show my mate around, want to tag along? Kylie hasn’t been here before.”

Vander inspected me. “Sure you two want company?”

“I’m forbidden from anything that might mess up her hair.” A shame too, because she looked good enough to eat. Maybe later in the night I could get away with something.

“There’re ways to work around that.”

I just laughed. “Come on,” I said, and we started showing the girls around. Vander had a few stories himself to add, and they seemed to enjoy it, at least until we got to my childhood home. Vander and Kylie started conversing silently, and Aura didn’t look particularly at ease, either, since she still wasn’t that familiar with my family.

“Should we...?” Kylie asked, her eyes going between myself and Vander.

I nodded. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, I promise.” My mother had been complaining that Vander had been avoiding her ever since they had visited me. I knocked on the door.

It opened almost instantaneously like my mother had been waiting at the door to pounce on us. She rushed outside, arms extended as she grasped Aura with hearty congratulations. Then she turned to Vander. “Why have you been avoiding me, son-in-law?” Yep, she remained predictable.

“Well, I—”

She didn’t give him time to answer, turning to Kylie. “And this must be your second chance! She’s so beautiful! Kylie, is it?”

“Nice to meet you,” Kylie said, clearly not sure what she was supposed to be doing. I reclaimed my mate with an arm around her waist and just watched my mother in action.

“Is this okay?” she asked me.

“It’ll be fine.”

My mother was now looking at little Nadia, who seemed slightly cautious, probably picking up on her parents’ moods. “Can I take her?”

“Okay,” Kylie said, and after a glance at Vander for reassurance she passed her baby into my mother’s arms.

“She’s an absolute doll,” my mother said. “Come to Grandma Kirsten. Maybe you can tell me why your daddy took so long to introduce me to my first grandchild, huh?”

Vander grimaced. “Well, I...”

She turned towards my friend with a small headshake. “You’re still my son-in-law, so that makes your family my family, silly boy. Did you really believe we would begrudge you your second chance?”

“I... No. I’m sorry, Kirsten,” he finally said, looking a bit ashamed of himself. I felt a bit sorry for him, but at least my mother didn’t have the full force of her attention focused on Aura. I was happily willing to sacrifice Vander’s comfort for the sake of my mate.

She didn’t leave him to suffer in his guilt for long. “You’re forgiven. You’ll be getting a visit from us all at Christmas. But for now, let’s all go inside for a few. You’re probably all starving. Plus, I need to get to know all these ladies a bit better, and then we should get to the celebration. Can’t keep the happy couple from their own party for too long, now can we?”

“No rush, Mom. I’m sure Delta Carter and Lys would like to have the spotlight to themselves for a while anyway and the pack would be happy, too. Not every day we find our delta female. And you haven’t seen Vander in a long time,” I said. It would give Aura a bit of time as not the sole focus of my mother’s interest.

Vander shot me a what-the-hell-man? expression. I just grinned innocently about throwing him under the bus and walked into my parents’ home with my mate.