Page 54 of Thirsty
Gray turned to stare at him slowly. “No, it is,” he said, dripping scorn. “We’re all just here to witness true love.”
He wandered off to glad-hand some of the pack luminaries. “Ouch,” Charlie said. “So he’s not a romantic, huh?”
Lorenzo sighed, though he was still smiling. “Well, you can’t blame him. This is all a bit...staged.”
“Aren’t all weddings?”
Lorenzo shook his head. “This isn’t really a wedding. It’s a...an Instagram backdrop. An ad for the packs.” He tossed back a flute of champagne from a passing tray, and Charlie tried not to stare at the bob of his throat. “It’s a big, expensive party to celebrate the merger. A few months ago these two packs were on the verge of ripping each other apart. Now they’re...”
“Making peace?” Charlie said.
Lorenzo shrugged. “I was going to say horizontally integrating.”
Charlie chuckled. “Are werewolf packs subject to antitrust law?” He blinked. “Wait, are they?”
Light music started playing, and the guests quieted as it became clear that the ceremony was about to begin.
An elaborately gilded officiant made his way down the aisle, followed by a dozen groomsmen, all walking to a Vitamin String Quartet cover of something Charlie couldn’t place. “Why is it always so many people in the wedding party?” he muttered to Lorenzo, as another of the nearly identical groomsmen passed by.
“VIPs from each pack,” Lorenzo answered. When thegroomsmen were finished, the groom walked down the aisle and took his place on the marble podium.
Next came a dozen bridesmaids, all in the same diaphanous shade of blush pink. Once they were in place, the music swelled, and all eyes turned back to the edge of the clearing. After a moment, a woman came walking down the aisle wearing a knee-length black dress. She had dark circles under her eyes, and she looked nervous. “Huh,” Charlie said.
Before Lorenzo could respond, the woman reached the podium and whispered hurriedly to the groom as the officiant watched on in astonishment. Whatever she said, the groom reacted badly, turning his back on her and speaking swiftly to his groomsmen. “What...” Charlie started.
“I don’t know,” Lorenzo muttered.
Finally, the woman turned to the mic that had been set up for the ceremony, and said in a smooth, corporate voice, “I’m so sorry, everyone. A quick announcement, um, the wedding has been slightly...delayed.”
Furious murmurs swept through the crowd, and an older woman in a very expensive pantsuit stood up. “Where is she?”
“She’s—um,” the woman at the mic stammered, while seeming to gesture to someone across the clearing. “She’ll be—she’ll be right here.”
The groom’s voice was starting to become audible even without the mic. Turning from his groomsmen back to the corporate flunky, he shouted loudly enough for the whole wedding to hear, “Is she with Emily?”
Shouts and chaos broke out among the audience. “Uh,” Charlie said. “What does that...”
Audience members were starting to argue with each other.What had been a serene, almost boring ceremony a few minutes ago was swiftly starting to feel bruised and ugly. “I think perhaps,” Lorenzo said, sounding distracted, “the bride has run off with...”
Charlie was starting to hear things likeliar!andbetrayal!in the rising din. “A wolf from another pack...” Lorenzo added, as they watched the dawning mayhem.
The arguments were rapidly getting physical. The groomsmen were starting to brawl, and the bridesmaids were putting distance between themselves, two distinct sides giving each other forbidding looks. The very air seemed to darken.
“What—uh—what do you do?” Charlie stammered. Lorenzo had been invited to the wedding for the same reason he’d been at the prom, to serve as security. “You said vampires can, um—can handle werewolves?”
“Yeah,” Lorenzo said faintly. As they watched from the edge of the clearing, two hundred wedding guests—two hundred werewolves—were shouting, shoving each other, and starting to grapple.
Then a wash of bright moonlight hit the clearing as a cloud passed by overhead, and the human noises in the fray began to lose their grip, becoming low, loose, animalistic rage.
“We’re getting out of here,” Lorenzo said, and grabbed Charlie’s hand as they fled into the woods.
They weren’t the only ones running—human guests maybe, or werewolves who just had no interest in fighting, joined them as they fled—and soon the darkening woods were filled with the sounds of twigs snapping and desperate panting. Charlie’s shoulder and arm were screaming with how fast Lorenzo was tugging him along, forgoing the path in favor of darting asquickly as they could between the trees, but he didn’t mind—he just ran.
He knew they were being chased. Something about the sight or scent of skittering prey must have caught the interest of the wolves back at the wedding, because he could hear snarls behind them, almost smell the scent of blood. The air seemed to get colder and colder as it whipped by, and then a scream ripped through the air, followed swiftly by another.
Then Lorenzo stopped short, Charlie collided into him, and he realized it was because a wolf was in their path.
She was still human—mostly—but her beautiful gown was streaked with mud, and her eyes glowed red. She let out an inhuman snarl as her face collapsed in on itself, taking on a canine shape, and her lips pulled back to reveal jagged yellow teeth.
