“What?”
“You’re going to meet my family. That’s what brides do. Also, we’ll eat some lunch. You’ll need your strength for the Running, and definitely for the Claiming.”
“Which involves what, exactly?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Why ruin the suspense?” That wicked grin quirked his sensuous lips again. Oh, he was positively evil, this one.
He went to the closet, rummaged around, and came out a few minutes with a shirt and shoes. I let him lead me out of the room. Was I actually going along with this farce? Apparently. My head kept telling me to run for it. Other parts of my body kept telling me to do whatever the sexy man told me to do. I’d like to claim it was my heart talking, but it was actually something a little lower down.
I cast a regretful look back at the bed and the sex toys.
“Don’t worry,” he said, as he led me to the truck. “We’ll have plenty of time for those later.”
“That is not what I was thinking!” I said indignantly. “In fact, I was thinking what a total pervert you are!”
“Of course you were,” he said, with a knowing wink.
I stood there at the passenger door to the truck, desperately trying to think of a way to get out of this. Yes, he was incredibly hot, but this wasn’t a one night stand we were talking about here. This was marriage. To an Alpha. A lifelong commitment, the future of his pack…
“Your family thinks I should look like Camille,” I protested. “In fact they think you married a woman named Camille.”
“They don’t know what you look like because you were wearing a veil. I’ll explain the change of plans, and they will go along with it. Like I said, I’m the Alpha.”
“If you stay married to me, you’re going to royally tick off Kray Renker,” I reminded him.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure that already happened when I went wolf on him an hour ago. We’ll deal with him on Monday.”
“I’m…I’m not a stay at home type! I teach grade school! I love teaching!”
“Surprisingly enough, we here at Timber Valley send our children to school. They hire teachers at that school. I’m very progressive. I don’t mind if my wife wants to work,” he said, and literally picked me up and put me down on the passenger seat. He stood there blocking my exit, and raised an eyebrow at me.
“So. What else you got?”
Oh, I didn’t know if I wanted to slap that smug smirk off his incredibly handsome face, or kiss him.
“So, should I call my family and the Alpha of my pack, and tell them that I am now married to the Alpha of the Timber valley pack?” I bluffed.
“That would be the kind of thing they’d want to know, wouldn’t it?”
Damn him. Nothing rattled him.
And he slammed the truck door firmly shut and walked around to the other side of the truck to climb in.
I sat there, completely stymied. When was he going to quit playing this ridiculous game?
“Seatbelt,” he said, as we pulled away. “Safety first.”
“Fuck you,” I grumbled as I pulled my seatbelt on. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“You have no idea how much.”
“Let me know whenever you want to stop this farce and admit that you don’t want to be married to me,” I said irritably, turning to stare out the window.
“You’ll be the first to know.”
We drove to the special events building which housed the reception hall.
There were hundreds of shifters gathered outside. There were garlands of flowers everywhere, and a giant “Congratulations!” sign. The décor was rustic chic, with burlap bows around mason jars of flowers, and burlap tablecloths, and heart shaped garlands made of twigs.
Now I really felt bad. All these people had put in all this time and effort to create this absolutely beautiful décor for a fake wedding.
A band on an outdoor stage played country music. Couples were dancing on the dance floor. Everybody was dressed casually, just as Maxwell was – and me too, in my sundress and sandals.
There were tables laden with food which made my mouth water. Whole roast pig with an apple in its mouth, hams with cloves, turkey, goose, roast beef, fresh fruit, desserts, little appetizer platters, chocolate fountains surrounded by pastries for dipping, platters of cheese and bread…they’d gone all out.
Max took me over to the stage, pulled me up the steps, and gestured at the band; they stopped playing. He grabbed a microphone and called out to the crowd, “Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to my new bride – Josephine, of the Southpaw pack!”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then everyone began murmuring amongst themselves. Then a roar of approval went up, and a chorus of howls twined up through the air.