Page 317 of Bride of Choice

“Me first!”

“I asked first!”

Celia and her… one, two, three mini dopplegangers, triplets, all proceeded to argue over who was going to get to fawn over and hang with Kehko first.

Kehko’s eyes widened and she quickly scurried behind me. Tiny claws pricked my leg as she ducked between me and Gopher to steal peeks of his sisters. “Who that, Aunie Jojo-mine?” she whispered.

“Aunie Jojo has lots of sisters now,” Gopher told her, dipping down to talk to her.

Kehko glanced between us, then looked to her mama for confirmation. Rosa smiled and nodded. “It’s okay, baby. They’re family now.” Rosa glanced from Gopher’s parents to us.

“Cousins,” Mamma offered.

“Cousins family,” Kehko whispered, like she’d just been given a most marvelous gift. Her lavender eyes darted towards the gaggle of girls of varying ages, zeroing in on the youngest. “Can I go and play with them?” she asked.

“I take?” Gopher asked her, holding his hand out to her.

Kehko once more glanced to Rosa, then Zhuii and Noyel, who all nodded their okay.

Her smaller hand slipped into his and he escorted her over to his siblings. I grinned at his warnings for them to be nice to her, the or else tacked on growl style.

“Odix has the greened jellies,” Odix admitted, coming up behind me to wrap his arms around me and brush the side of his face along the top of my head— I would lament the fact I’ll never have hair that doesn’t look like someone’s just rubbed a balloon all over it but I was too jazzed to care.

“Why is that, my hairy butt?” Twisting to meet his gaze, I grinned at the little pout of his thick lower lip.

With a long suffering sigh, he muttered, “Gopher marriaged my Jo and it special and Odix didn’t think it first.”

“I believe this is OUR wedding,” I told him. “Gopher mighta stolen the show there for a minute, but I believe this day belongs to all of us.”

“Odix special day with Jo too?” he rumbled out softly.

“It is to me,” I murmured as I cupped his face and kissed him softly, sweetly.

Odix’s deep, revving rumble had me pulling away with a smile.

“As will our honeymoon be, for all of us three,” I teased as I booped his snoot, causing him to grunt and grab at his nose protectively, giving me the opportunity to slip from his arms and dance away.

Odix’s don’t tease me growl cut off abruptly, a garbled purr taking its place as my words registered.

Grinning, I tossed him a wink.

“Tease,” I thought I heard him mutter as he spied Dorothy’s males working to get the large fire pit at the village center going to put all the pots of food they’d brought onto it.

“Daisy and Red are coming, too.” Rosa walked over and gave me a hug. “They’re bringing the cake.”

“Cake!” the boys happily echoed, dancing around their mama, full of boundless energy.

“How did you- I don’t understand,” I burst out, overwhelmed with gratitude.

“Gopher, Odix, Doogie. According to Noyel,” Rosa spilled as Mal and her males and baby girls joined us, “Gopher made it back last week. He talked to Doogie about a surprise proposal and a meeting with the village big wigs, Veck and all them. Bia and Noyel were enlisted by Gopher and Doogie, and Bia asked Daisy’s mates if she wouldn’t mind making a cake after talking with Mina. Red’s fellas agreed to help find a “wedding band” to play, something I must tell you was, I was told, easier to accomplish once all of your secret support group guys found out it was for you, then Noyel said it was a madhouse of who was going to get the honor. And now here we are and there are like twelve beasts that have been scrambling to learn to play a song from something you showed them on a movie or something that you said you loved, by ear, and here we are.”

“They- what?” I spluttered. My mind, consider it absolutely blown.

Like I was in some kind of wild fairytale fantasy come to life, music started up as more beasts and their mates piled in.

My hand clapped to my mouth and I burst out laughing as the first strains of an instrumental version of Just Can’t Get Enough filled the space.

“Oh, I love this song,” Mal chirped. Coming in for a hug, she gushed, “Happy wedded bliss, bish.”

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