Page 31 of Alistair

They’d arrived at the club an hour before the ceremony and he’d met her family: her sister, Penny, and her parents, Barbie and Glen. He waited in the foyer while the family had photos in the garden, and his elephant didnotlike being separated from Maggie one bit.

He felt her before he saw her, his elephant in tune with everything about her. She stepped into his embrace, and he kissed the top of her head.

“How was it?” he asked.

“Boring. And my feet hurt. These are such cute shoes, but my toes are numb. Are you bored silly?”

“Not at all.”

She peeked up at him with a grin. “Liar.”

“I’m fine now that you’re here, sweetheart.”

“Good. Come on, my mom and dad want to spend a little time with you before we need to find our seats.” She took his hand but then paused. “Thank you so much for coming with me. This last week has been nothing short of amazing, and I’m so happy you’re here.”

He wanted to tell her everything right then.

That he was a shifter and they were soulmates.

That she was his entire world.

He even wanted to tell her that he loved her, because he did.

Instead, he kissed her gently on the lips and said, “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Maggie.”

She smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners, and gave his hand a squeeze. They walked outside where the ceremony was going to be held on a beautifully manicured lawn that was bordered by flower beds. White chairs in long rows were separated by a black aisle runner, and the chairs on the ends of the rows had flower bouquets hanging from them.

“Why didn’t your sister make you her Maid of Honor?” he asked.

“She and I aren’t super close because of the ten-year age difference,” she said. “I wasn’t offended when she wanted her best friend as her Maid of Honor since they were keeping the wedding party small. Plus, I didn’t really want the headache of being at her beck and call for all the wedding stuff. I helped out enough as it was.”

He chuckled. “It looks really nice here. I’ve never been to this club before.”

“My parents joined so they could have the wedding here, but my dad likes coming to play golf.”

They met up with her parents, and her mom gushed over the decorations and the perfect weather. Glen rocked back on his heels. “Wanna grab a drink?”

“Glen!” Barbie said. “We have to be in the foyer for the wedding entrance in fifteen minutes. People are already coming in to find their seats.”

“I can drink fast.” He put his hand on Alistair’s shoulder and said, “Come on, I never like to drink alone.”

Alistair smiled at Maggie and followed Glen into the building where an old-fashioned bar setup had a long mahogany counter with a mirrored back and glass shelves filled with bottles of colorful alcohol.

Alistair wasn’t much of a drinker beyond the occasional beer when he went out with the guys, but since there wasn’t much time, he took a whiskey on the rocks like Glen did. When they were settled on padded stools on one side of the nearly empty bar area, Glen said, “I wanted to talk to you away from the girls.”

“What’s on your mind?” Alistair sipped the whiskey, the ice clinking against the crystal.

“Well, first I wanted to say that it’s a pleasure to meet you. Maggie has had nothing but wonderful things to say about you.” He stared down at his drink. “She and I talked Wednesday after the bachelorette thing. Maggie was really hurt by what Penny did with her ex still being on the invite list. I offered to call him myself and tell him to hit the road, but Penny begged me not to. It turns out that because Brian and that asshole work at the same place, Brian won’t let her disinvite him because he’s afraid it will make waves.”

“I didn’t realize they worked together.”

“They don’t, they’re in different departments, but Brian isn’t looking for any blowback from anything, so when Penny said he had to come, I had to just wash my hands of it.”

“I understand. I mean, I don’t in a way because I think it’s shitty that the guy who hurt her so badly she didn’t go on a date for a year is still coming to this, but I do understand that Penny wouldn’t want to cause a problem for her soon-to-be husband at his job. Maggie wouldn’t want that either.”

“Maggie is a good person,” Glen said. He cut a look at Alistair that, if he didn’t know for sure the male was human, he would have thought he was an alpha. “I’m giving you the obligatory father threat: don’t hurt my daughter. I don’t want to see her go through what she did with that asshat again.”

“I’m crazy about Maggie,” he said. “I promise I only want her to be happy and I think I’m the right man for the job.”

---