Page 34 of Awakening the Wild
"Do you think Michael will give up?"
"I think he will get bored once it's clear you're completely out of his reach." He pulled me into a hug. "Once you're legally my wife, once enough time passes that he realizes you're never coming back, the property will lose its appeal. It was only everleverage to get you back. Without that, it's just an expensive mistake."
“I hope you’re right.”
“And who knows. Maybe when he decides to sell it, we can snatch it up for a good price.”
“He’ll never allow that.”
“There are ways around that.” Kevin grinned.
TWO WEEKS LATER, Istood in the brothers' hunting cabin wearing a simple white dress I'd found in a West Burke boutique. The rustic space had been transformed—Neil had built an arbor from fallen birch branches that arched over the stone fireplace, Sam had strung lights along the exposed beams, and Shane had arranged wildflowers in mason jars throughout the room.
A handful of locals filled the wooden benches—Jerry from the garage, Martha from the records office, Sheriff Morris, and a few other faces I'd come to know. But my eyes were only for Kevin, standing in front of the fireplace in dark jeans and a pressed button-down shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders.
His brothers stood with him—Neil towering on his right, Sam grinning on his left, Shane beside him with barely concealed emotion in his silver eyes. These men who'd become my family, who'd protected me and welcomed me without question.
Kevin's dark eyes tracked my every step as I walked toward him, and I saw everything in that gaze—hunger and devotion, possession and promise, the absolute certainty that I was his and he was mine.
When I reached him, he took my hands in his, dwarfing them completely.
"You look beautiful," he said quietly, just for me.
"You clean up pretty well yourself."
Justice of the Peace Harris cleared his throat, smiling at our exchange. "We're gathered here today to witness the union of Kevin Pike and Tonya Lorenzo in marriage. Now, I understand the couple has prepared their own vows?"
Kevin squeezed my hands, his voice carrying the weight of everything we'd been through when he spoke. "Tonya, when I found you in that storm, I thought I was just helping a stranger. I didn't know you were going to turn my whole world upside down. You walked into my carefully controlled life and showed me that I'd been surviving instead of living. You taught me that love isn't about control or keeping someone safe in a cage—it's about giving someone wings and trusting them to choose to stay."
His thumbs stroked across my knuckles. "I promise to trust you, even when my past tells me not to. I promise to see your strength instead of trying to protect you from everything. I promise to choose you every single day, in every way that matters. You're mine, and I'm yours, and nothing will ever change that."
I blinked back the moisture gathering in my eyes and found my voice. "Kevin, you saved me. Not just from a storm, but from the woman I'd become—small and scared and convinced I was helpless. You saw strength in me when I couldn't see it in myself. You showed me what real protection looks like, what real love feels like."
I took a breath. "I promise to trust your love, even when I'm scared. I promise to keep choosing you, even when things get hard. I promise to be your partner, not your responsibility. And I promise to spend the rest of my life proving that you are worth choosing, that you are worth staying for, that you are everything I've ever wanted."
Kevin's jaw clenched, his eyes bright with feeling.
"Do you, Kevin Pike, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Harris asked.
"I do." No hesitation, absolute certainty.
"And do you, Tonya Lorenzo, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I do."
"The rings?"
Shane stepped forward with two simple gold bands. Kevin took mine first, his large fingers surprisingly gentle as he slid it onto my finger next to his grandmother's diamond.
"With this ring, I claim you as mine," he said, his voice carrying to everyone in the room. "Forever."
I took his ring with trembling hands, sliding it onto his finger. "With this ring, I choose you. Always."
"Then by the power vested in me by the State of Vermont, I now pronounce you husband and wife." Harris grinned. "Kevin, you may kiss your bride."
Kevin's hands came up to frame my face, his touch reverent despite the hunger burning in his eyes. "Mine," he whispered, just for me.
"Yours," I agreed.
