Page 36 of Vibing Unity

He nodded. “He accepts that, and you can discuss this with him, but I didn’t want to surprise you with this in front of so many people. So the five of us talked and decided that—the ring is from all of us.” He opened the box to show me a wedding band with five stones. One diamond in the center and the others… I wasn’t sure.

I frowned at him but saw he was smiling.

Then it hit me. The meaning.

“Each time I marry or mate one of you, they’ll put in their stone,” I whispered, glancing back at the ring.

“Yes, if you want. Only if you want, my sweet mate. Or it will stay this way forever. This is what we discussed and feel—this was our idea of what works. All five equal in a ring you would like. Nothing too big or gaudy. Easy to wear while working or working out.” He brought his other hand towards the box and set a ring next to it. “And I picked this as my matching band.”

It was a men’s ring with five smaller diamonds. Probably platinum like mine and—clearly matching.

I reached out my hand to touch it but stopped just short. “And you’re all agreed?”

“Yes, easily even.” He nodded when I met his gaze. “The answer was easy when we stopped worrying so much. I didn’t really care about—of course, I care, but it wasn’t about beingmyring. I just wanted to be included. We all wanted to be included and thought of. That was the part that mattered.”

I loved it. I loved the simplicity of the ring and their feelings—all of it. “Yes.”

“Yes?” he checked, smiling when I nodded. “Good, good. I’m really glad.”

I was glad we had that handled as well. I kissed him and wanted to do more but had to handle a few things in Faerie. It turned out there was something else I had to do for the ceremony that Julian hadn’t understood and would be insulting if I didn’t. He promised it wouldn’t be that bad from what Shael said, and I immediately agreed when he seemed nervous.

But of course, we also arrived to drama.

Katrina looked ready to pull out her hair—which was shocking in itself—but several of the hobgoblin kids were crying.

“Whatever is wrong, I will fix it,” I promised them as I hugged a few of them. “Tell me and I will make it better.”

“We want to match you,” a couple of the girls bawled and hugged me.

That made no sense to me, and I looked at their parents for help, noticing they were an array of colors for upset and embarrassment.

“We made a mistake,” Irma finally admitted. “We didn’t understand human traditions as well as we thought.”

“We thought everyone in the bridal party wore white, not just the bride,” another hobgoblin admitted.

“And I told them the truth and that the children have to change their dresses and suits,” Katrina grumbled, wincing when one of the boys said he wouldn’t and cried.

Well, shit.

“Guys, you can’t just throw a fit like this,” I said firmly, fighting against my instincts to give them whatever they wanted because my heart hurt.

“You don’t want us to match you?” Elasha whispered, her eyes too wide and filling with more tears.

“Not if you’re going to behave like this,” I answered. “You’re not little kids anymore who can behave like this. And I know we’re friends, but you’re at the royal family’s castle crying like this—people will talk about your parents. It’s an honor to be in a royal wedding. You can’t act like this and be in it, right?”

“Sorry,” Darfin mumbled, the other kids agreeing and wiping their eyes.

I waited another few minutes for them to all calm down. “Now, we’re going to handle this calmly, okay?” I waited until they nodded. “I get you wanted to wear what you wanted, but I wanted to elope, but I didn’t so you guys all got to join in, right? You have to do things to compromise sometimes.”

“But we’re not human,” Elasha defended.

“No, but it was how I was raised, and we always have to be considerate of others’ beliefs,” I said firmly. “It’s considered very,veryrude to wear white to a human wedding.”

“You’d be mad at us?” Darfin asked, his lower lip quivering.

“No, because I do want you to match me and all of you guys to wear white.” I hurried on when I saw they were about to cheer. “Butnow I’m upset you acted like this. What if it made me uncomfortable? Would you really hurt my feelings like that? You wouldn’t change the color for me?”

“I would,” one of the other kids promised. “Brides should be the prettiest and the star. I was mad no one asked you.”

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