Page 55 of A True Mate Bond

“I loved all of them.”

“Even the white dress and lanterns?”

“Especially those. I was thinking we could exchange our rings before the blood vows. And we might need to adapt the blood exchange because you heal so fast and our blood needs to mix together.”

“If my blood doesn’t flow into you and yours doesn’t flow into me, the blood vows aren’t binding?”

“Exactly. We bind each other with our blood and our words. Neither works without the other.”

“Does it matter where we cut each other and who cuts first?”

“No.”

He could see the wheels in her head turning as she was trying to figure it out. “Maybe we should cut our wrists. At the same time pressing them onto each other as the knife cuts us?”

“That should work.”

She looked up at him. “I am yours.”

“And I’m yours.”

“I like that.” Her face was glowing with anticipation. “I can’t wait for our official forever to be here.”

“Me neither.” He bent down and kissed her head. “And I can’t wait to see you in a white dress.”

“Usually, the bride walks down an aisle. Some even say the groom is not allowed to turn around and see her until she’s handed to him by her father–or another family member.”

“So, everyone gets to see your beauty before I do?”

She giggled. “I’m not going to tease you like that. I want to see your face when I walk toward you.” She paused for a moment and her face changed. “Unless that’s not what you all do.”

“We’ll do whatever we want. The only part that cannot be changed and needs to stay the way it is are the blood vows.”

“So, if I would like to walk down the aisle, I could do so?”

“Of course, and I’ll be waiting impatiently by the roots of Selene’s tree, watching as your beauty grows the closer you get.”

She blushed and looked down to her feet, but he could see that she seemed to like that idea very much. It wasn’t usual for the mates to enter separately, but she was different. Their whole relationship was anything but ordinary, and their ceremony would reflect that. He would also look into traditional weddings and hopefully find out more about them to adapt their ceremony so she would feel comfortable with it. He knew all of this was so different to what she’d expected from her life, and he wanted to give her as much normality as possible.

They’d circled back to their starting point and he led her onto the clearing. Seth and Michael had shifted, and Lyliann and Layla were packing up the blankets, getting ready to leave. Throughout the night, the rest of the pack had left. Most men had gone out racing through the woods while the women and children had gone home. Darron and Alizia were racing around and Aaron seemed to be watching them from Michael’s arms.

Seth looked up as Niev and Blake came closer. “Mother and Father have invited us to have breakfast with them. We were about to head over there.”

“I don’t think I could ever say no to one of Mayra’s food invitations.” Then Niev pointed at Seth’s tattoo. “I destroyed it.”

Seth’s tattoo had a white line running through it. Not a scar, just healed skin. Blake hadn’t noticed it before, but he remembered Niev healing Seth with her blood before the battle.

Seth grinned. “I like it. It reminds me of who I owe my life to.”

“I like it too.” Lyliann stepped closer to Seth and ran her fingers over the fine line that parted his tattoo. “It’s like a battle scar, only much more mystic.”

Michael chuckled. “Come on. Let’s get going before our future alpha turns into a soft lovey-dovey person and I see something I’ll never be able to unsee.”

They all laughed and made their way to the main house with Alizia and Darron leading the way.

His mother was already waiting for them, the table set and the food ready for everyone to dig in. It was a good morning, and he enjoyed spending as much time with his family as he’d done the past few weeks. His mother was updated on the plans that had been made throughout the evening for their commitment ceremony, and they all decided that the next full moon was the perfect date to have it. Blake liked that idea, and it gave him time to learn more about human weddings.

While Niev was busy planning out more details about their ceremony with Layla and Lyliann, his mother pulled him aside.

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