Page 73 of Prayers for the Prickly

Loose cotton pants, flowy, comfortable tops, that was the attire we’d opted for, and he looked damned handsome, even without that leather vest I’d come to love snuggling against.

I couldn’t believe it was finally here. The moment I’d dreamt of since childhood. My handfasting with my mate, who looked at me with such love in those deep brown eyes of his that it was almost overwhelming.

“Today, we welcome summer and all the gifts the warm months bring,” Aunty Eunice began. “Including the gift of love and unity, which is what brings us here today. Each time new mates embrace one another, it doesn’t just make them stronger, it makes their families stronger, too. All of us gathered here today, all of the extended family that couldn’t be here, but are watching live on the video feed, we all gain something by welcoming a new a addition to our family.”

“We gain a new friend, a new brother, a new sibling, someone to watch hockey with, which in this family is a pretty big deal,” Aunty Clara said. “We gain a new confidant, someone to go to the movies with, someone to learn from, grow with, sit and chat with on a cold winter’s day. And we’re reminded that though our circles might already be large, there is always room for another person to love.”

“August and Gregor have chosen to express their love by coming before you today and joining hands so that they may be permanently joined before the gods and goddesses of the sea and sky,” Aunty Eunice said.

“This blue cord represents the unity of our families,” Aunty Clara said as she started winding it around my forearm. “Let it remind us of the importance of being there for one another, not just today, but every day going forward.”

Aunty Clara reached my wrist, then wrapped the cord around our joined hands, before continuing up Gregor’s forearm.

“August, Gregor,” Aunty Eunice began. “Remember to always be there to listen when the other needs an ear. To give and receive advice freely, with an open mind and a welcoming heart. Remember to love one another in the hard times just as fiercely as you do in the good ones. Give yourselves the grace to own up to your mistakes and grow from them, because you will both make mistakes, many, many mistakes, but that’s not what will be remembered years down the line. What you’ll carry is how you handled them, together. Your willingness to forgive and not hold whatever it was over the other’s head from here to eternity.”

Aunty Clara had finished with the blue cord, and now Aunty Eunice picked up a yellow one, while Gregor grinned at me, that smile of his and the slowly rising sun making his eyes shine brighter.

“This yellow cord represents the dawn of your relationship. Everything is all laid out in front of you, new and ready to be explored,” Aunty Eunice said. “There may be pieces of the path that appeal more to one of you than the other but always remember that you were meant to walk it together. Fate chooses mates meant to be the strength to the other’s weaknesses, but it also intends for you to find your common ground and build off the things you both love. Your challenge will be to strengthen the connection you’ve already forged, so that there is nothing you can’t handle together.”

She’d started her cord on Gregor’s arm, winding it down and over our joined hands, before working up mine.

As many times as I’d seen this done, heard the words, they’d never resonated with me the way they did today. Maybe because this was for me, for us and what we’d come to mean to one another. My wolverine had shown me his heart the day we’d first met, when he’d tried to fake a laugh after he’d accidentally snarled at me and startled me a little. He hadn’t known, not for certain in that moment that I was his mate, and yet, he’d thought of me and my feelings, above everything else.

His little dance on the beach, that I’d witnessed every minute of, had been the first thing to clue me in that he did have a playful side. Every day since then he’d shown me a bit more of it, like the way he’d taken to leaving little drawings of a hedgehog bravely taking on a mound of taffy or wrangling a pile of sugar into colorful little treats. My favorite was the hedgehog propped up against a full candy case, belly round while he nibbled a cocktail shrimp. I kept them all in a scrapbook I’d started along with the selfies we’d taken on the beach, at home and in both of our shops.

The look on his face the first time I’d asked him to take one with me had been a bit stormy, and skeptical, which had translated into a tense smile when we’d finally taken the picture. I’d still printed it out. Now, when I looked back on them all, I got to see the way the tension in his face had shown less and less, until his eyes had started lighting up and those full lips of his had been turned up in a real grin, with the same joy I saw on his face right now.

“You are joined now,” Aunty Eunice said. “From here until the of time.”

Cheers went up from those in assembly, sunrays snaking across the grass, like the ropes that bound our hands together. I felt the slightest tug from Gregor and went with it willingly, wrapping my free arm around him as we embraced each other. Being pressed against his chest with our hands still joined was a bit awkward, but there was nothing awkward about the way he looked at me as he drew back, slid a hand up to cup my cheek, and kissed me like we were the only ones at the top of the cliff.

We didn’t stop until Aunty Eunice and Aunty Clara had cleared their throats a couple of times before finally drawing our attention back to where we were, and the party that was about to kick off, just as soon as we released each other. As far as I was concerned they could wait on punch and dancing until I’d had a chance to kiss my mate again. Laughter followed when I fisted my free hand in his shirt and tugged him to me, claiming his lips in just as fierce and passionate a kiss as the one we’d just shared.

“Well, if these two vanish inside we’ll know what they are getting up to,” Aunty Clara said to more laughter and cheers.

My face only felt a little heated when we stepped away from one another, while his blush had spread over his nose and disappeared beneath his beard where he could at least hide it. I couldn’t hide anything and didn’t care. I was mated, handfasted and expecting whelplets, nothing in my world could possibly be better than this moment right here.

“I love you,” Gregor said, cupping my check while several family members took pictures of us with the perfect sunrise backdrop bathing us in beautiful red and orange rays. “I love everything my life has become since I met you. Coming home each night to dinner together, the fun television shows you’ve introduced me to, the way you dance in the doorway of the open fridge whenever you see something you like, I love it all. I look forward to finding something new to love about you each day.”

“You’re amazing,” I told him, staring up into those beautiful brown eyes. “You might think you’re growly and grumpy and snarly and all these other things that you like to call yourself, but you’re the sweetest person I know, in here, where it matters most.”

I touched his chest when I said it, then pressed my hand right over his heart. “The way you stopped to make a little girl a whistle on the beach when her little brother had accidentally broken the plastic one she had. You didn’t have stop and look for a little piece of driftwood, but you paused our walk to do that, and to etch her name in the side of it, too.”

“And you didn’t have to give them each a bag of candy, but you did,” he murmured.

“Because it made them smile.

“Yeah,” he said, covering my hand with his. “That’s why I did it, too.”

“And that’s why I love you,” I said, swallowing around the lump in my throat.

Tears shimmered in my eyes, making my gaze a bit wavy and distorting his features.

Aunty Eunice and Aunty Clara tied the cords, which would remain on our hands until the sun set tonight. Afterwards, they’d untie them and we’d place them in the shadowbox Gregor had already carved and mounted on the wall, with a space for a photo to go beneath it. From all the cameras pointed our way, I knew we’d have plenty to choose from. Even if we did creep away, we’d have to get creative with our hands bound the way they were, but I was sure we could manage, if those in attendance allowed us the opportunity.

Something told me they wouldn’t, though.

Turning, we raised our bound hands high, finally facing everyone and woah, there was Ever, with the rest of our siblings, front and center, smiling, crying, clapping and cheering me on. There were a lot of teary eyes and a lot more smiles, as Aunty Clara and Aunty Eunice made their last proclamation.

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