Page 67 of Unforgivable Fate

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Luna sniffled, “Now, wait sixty seconds and then follow me. We’ll all be waiting for you.”

Nova watched as her sister straightened her spine and stepped out the door, looking every bit the Pack Alpha’s mate that she was. Nova closed her eyes and forced a couple of deep, calming breaths once she was alone. She forgot to count like Luna had coached her to do when they practiced the ceremony but when the crowd went quiet outside the door and the music swelled, Nova knew that it was time.

Deep within herself, she reached for the bond to her mate and felt it sizzle with heat and awareness. She had only meant to draw Griffin’s strength up and around her. She’d wanted to feel him as she walked towards him. She’d expected to hear his voice inside her head but instead she gasped as a vision filled her head.

Images piled on top of one another, spinning faster and faster, making her dizzy with the speed and quantity of them. It was like nothing she had ever seen or experienced. It was a vision but she knew without being told that it was also a gift.

A wedding gift, from fate.

For the first time in her entire life, she’d been given a glimpse of her own future. She’d seen herself in the visions. Images of her from the future as close as the next few minutes, when she would be surrounded by friends and family and pledging her life to her mate. Images of her older, belly swollen and Griffin beside her in a rocking chair. Images of them as wolves running through the forest, little wolves trailing behind them or wrestling in a patch of green grass. Images of them older still, holding hands as they watched their family celebrate something together, a birthday perhaps. Images of them at a wedding ceremony, gray-haired but beaming as everyone cheered. And then, as quickly as they’d rushed into her, the visions were gone and she was left gasping in the wake of the future fate had shown her.

Nova wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream at fate for withholding her visions for so long only to allow her this now. She wanted to fall to her knees and thank the same fate for giving her such an incredible opportunity to see the path that lay before her, to see the proof that this was the right choice and that she and Griffin were indeed fated mates, with a long and happy future ahead of them.

Instead of doing any of that, she tilted her chin up just as she’d seen her sisters do. She pressed her shoulders back to stand up tall. And then she stepped out of the house and into the late afternoon sunlight to go and meet her future.

As was customary, the altar was set up in the middle of town square. It was a beautiful arch of natural wood, flowers, greenery and limbs picked up from their own land and built specifically for this occasion. All around it, pack members formed circular rows that led inward, getting smaller until the front row was filled with family and those closest to the couple. At the sight of Nova in her gown, one by one, the rows began to part to allow her an aisle to the front and then as if on a cue, they dropped to one knee.

It wasn’t often that shifters went to their knee for anyone. They kneeled for their Pack Alpha when ceremony called for it or when they were begging a favor. But long ago, someone had decided that the traditional shifter wedding ceremony required every pack member in attendance to kneel at the entrance of the bride in a show of respect and acknowledgement of the commitment she was making both to her mate and to the pack.

Nova had always thought it was an outdated practice. After all, not every couple had a bride these days and not only that but those that did weren’t necessarily agreeing to the covenant to continue the pack lineage by producing heirs as had been the original purpose. But she forgot all about her personal feelings towards that aspect of the ceremony when she caught sight of Griffin standing at the altar, smiling at her and waiting for her to come to him.

Her breath caught and she realized in that instant that maybe the old ways weren’t just about respecting rituals. With the crowd kneeling, she could walk the entire way to the center of the circle without looking away from her mate. If they’d been standing she wouldn’t have been able to see him until she was through the pack but this way was so much better.

She offered a soft smile back at Griffin as she walked towards him.

He wasn’t the only one that was still on his feet though and her heart felt like it grew two sizes when she met her brother’s eye. Leo was standing next to Griffin because he’d agreed to be the one to marry them. As Crescent Pack Alpha, he married a lot of the other pack members but since Luna and Maya were both Moirae Pack by the time they had their ceremonies, Nova was the only one of his siblings he would be officiant for and the pride beaming off him told her he was as thrilled about it as she was.

She smiled at her brother before turning her head to where her sisters and their husbands stood. Since they were all Moirae Pack wolves now they weren’t required to kneel for a Crescent wolf wedding ceremony. Yet, as she watched, each of them lowered their heads for her as she drew near and Nova had to fight the tears that wanted to swell behind her eyes again.

Michael and Luna had their boys between them, clearly in an attempt to maintain order with the twin whirlwinds. Maya held Zander’s hand and he held little Carmen on his other hip. Beside them, Rafe and Zoey had their arms around one another, their girls and Violet filling out the space before the circle wound back around. Darius knelt at the end of the circle but he looked up to wink at her as she walked past and it took everything in her not to drag him to his feet and insist he walk her the rest of the way to the aisle since he’d been so much of a father figure to her over the years.

She swallowed back her tears and stepped up to where Griffin waited for her, taking his hands in hers and squeezing. He had tears in his eyes too and she wanted to throw herself into his arms and hold him tight. She reached through the bond, using their connection and pressing her thoughts into his mind to ask if he was okay. She thought maybe he was looking around at everyone and wishing he had family of his own to fill out the first circle but the answer she got only reminded her why she loved this man so much.

He wasn’t sad that he didn’t have his own family here. Because he did. Because her family was his family.

“I love you.” she whispered aloud, just for him and he released one of her hands to reach up and brush a stray tear from her cheek.

“I love you too.” His eyes gleamed with unshed tears and his smile was knowing when he whispered back. “I can’t wait to start the rest of our lives together. It looked like it’s going to be everything I hoped for and more.”

Nova gasped before she could help herself and her eyes scanned his face in surprise, “You saw it too?”

Griffin nodded, “I did. Shocked the hell out of me. I nearly collapsed I was so unsteady for a second there.”

“But you’re okay, right?” She searched him top to bottom but he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“I’m better than okay. I’m marrying the woman I love, the woman that fate created as my other half. I’m ready to start the rest of our life together, if you are.”

“I’m ready.” She nodded, shooting Leo a sidelong look because she knew he’d been able to overhear everything they’d said.

He raised an eyebrow, “A shared vision?”

She nodded.

“Fate’s full of surprises.” He smiled softly, “I wish you a lifetime of them. But first, let’s get you two married, what do you say?”

“I say, I do.” Griffin grinned and Nova giggled happily.

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