My Elf Soulmate
Chapter 25: Epilogue

"I'm so nervous." I said to Renee feeling jittery with both excitement and nerves. I felt the pin of the veil as Renee firmly inserted it into my hair which had been pulled up into a bun. She gently the veil over my face, her focus entirely on what she was doing. A look of excitement and approval was on her face as she took one step back to take in her work. I still couldn't believe that I was getting married in less than an hour. Everything had just happened in a blink of an eye. Whoever came up with the whole idiom of time flies was so right because the past four years just flew by. Four happy and irreplaceable years of living and loving Paxton, honestly the was nothing that I could ever dream of changing to make them even better.

Everything felt like it had just started yesterday. In the blink of an eye, everything had changed. One world that had initially been so weird and unfamiliar to me had become my home. And somehow I had come to know it like I knew the back of my hand. A world that had initially not been mine, and not even existed in my mind had somehow become my world too. In all the time that Paxton and I had been together, he has been nothing but amazing, I can proudly say that he is the nicest guy that I have ever met and I was more than happy and excited to start this new journey with him, I was more than ready to spend the rest of my life with him. When he proposed to me last year on my birthday on a romantic getaway that we did in the human world or my original world it had been nothing but amazing.

To top off everything, Renee also found her soulmate, or more like he found her. Her soulmate, Caspian is a merman, and just like Paxton, he can also take on a human form for a day or so. Renee met Caspian about 6 months after Paxton and I started dating and they were getting married in four months. The circle was truly growing which was exciting simply because we could all relate to each other's situations on a certain level.

"You'll be great." She said dismissively just as my cousin Riley came into the room. Her bump was more apparent as she was already 6 months along. Riley was quick to marry her soulmate unlike me, her adaptability being something that I admired as she gave herself the opportunity to explore her feelings and enjoy the new world that she had been brought into. Her mate, Hunter is a werewolf. And just as the stories go, he is a bit on the possessive side, but all in all, he is a great guy. You can see that he makes her happy and vice versa and that's all that really matters. And now they were expecting a healthy baby boy in the next couple of months and it was more than apparent that both of the families were more than excited as they waited for the little one to get here.

"How's the bride doing, because the groom is a bundle of nerves." She asked as she came towards me with a large smile. Her face glowing from her pregnancy as well as from being very taken care of by her husband. "You look gorgeous, Anne." She complimented as she looked at my white modified A-line, wedding dress that pooled on the ground around me. It had just enough lace to give it an elegant appearance, a sweetheart neckline, and an illusion with floral patterns paired up with cap sleeves.

"Thank you, Riley. I'm so nervous, but I'm also so excited. Is it normal to be this nervous and excited at the same time? Is everything organised, is the food here and the cake? Oh my goodness, I'm so nervous." I said, shaking my wrists to try and ease the nerves as I took in a deep breath with my eyes closed, held it in for a bit before releasing it. The sound of a door opening instantly had me opening my eyes and turning my attention to the person that had just come into the room. Relief instantly flooded my being as my eyes took in the comforting sight of my mother.

"Alright ladies..." She started only to gasp as her eyes filled with tears, "Is that my little Roseanne?" She asked, making me laugh a teary laugh myself as I nodded. I felt like a bundle of so many emotions."You look beautiful sweetheart, wow how you have grown." She said with a teary laugh, her eyes beaming with love and joy. I could tell that my mom was happy and that made me feel even happier simply because my mother's support meant a great deal to me.

"Thanks, Mom." I said as I pulled her into her hug, gathering some much-needed strength and comfort from her as she wrapped her arms around me, and gave me a brief tight squeeze of reassurance.

"Enough crying, for now, we'll have enough time for that later. And it will be nothing but happy tears, but for now, let's get you down that aisle and to the man of your dreams. The man who clearly loves you with all of his heart. " She said with such gentleness and enthusiasm before she hastily ushered us into line and led us out of the room that we had been waiting in. Soft music could be heard as we walked to the aisle. Renee briefly disappear but was back just before the music changed to the wedding song.

My heartbeat increased as I we took a moment to collect ourselves before the first pair of the wedding party made their way down the aisle. This is it, the moment that all these years have been leading up. I watched as a cousin of Paxton's walked down the aisle with her partner and then Riley followed up with Hunter and then it was Renee's turn who shot me a thumbs up and a large encouraging smile, before she walked down the aisle, her arm interlinked with Caspian's and before I knew it, it was time for my mother and I.

"Deep breath in, deep breath out." I heard my mother whisper loud enough for me to hear. I took her advice and took in a deep breath, and let it back out. Mom and I finally rounded the corner and stood at the end of the aisle for a brief second before we slowly started walking down. My eyes refused to completely look up as I kept repeating the breathing exercise to try and distract myself from my thoughts which ranged from, hoping that I wouldn't trip and fall and being concerned about the decor and food catering and everything even though no one had come to me about any complaints in relation to it. I finally got the courage and looked straight forward, my eyes caught instantly catching Paxton's, who was looking at me with so much love as he wiped away the tears that had trailed down his cheeks. My heart tugged with joy as my eyes remained fixated on him, my mind all but forgetting my previous concerns as I walked down until I finally reached him and my mother gave me away. I gave her a quick hug and then I turned and looked at Paxton who looked so nervous that I kind of wanted to laugh and hug him at the same time. 'Hey,' he mouthed to me 'Hey' I mouthed back as I reached over to take ahold of his slightly shaking hands. I gently caressed them with my thumbs to try and comfort him. To try and tell him that I was here and we were going to be doing all of this together. Everything that the officiator said went through one ear and out another as I stood in front of Paxton with my eyes fixated on him and his fixated on me. It was almost as if we were both just taking in the moment, imprinting it into our memories forever.

"Paxton could you please share your vows?" The Officiator asked a large smile on his face as he looked between us.

"Roseanne, love of my life and holder of my heart. I love and I have always loved you, and standing here in front of everyone today, I vow to always love you, to always cherish you, to be with you through sickness and in health, to be your partner until the last day that we both shall breathe. And I vow to always be there for you regardless of the situations that we might face." He said as he slipped on the ring onto my left ring finger. His voice steady and full of so much emotion, so much promise, that I almost couldn't stop myself from kissing him then and there.

Roseanne, could you please share your vow?" The Officiator asked as he turned to me, and looked at me with a patient gaze.

"Paxton, love of my life and holder of my heart, I vow to always love, to never leave you, to be with you through sickness and in health, to be there for you when you need a shoulder to cry on and I vow to be yours until the last day that we both shall live." I vowed as I slipped the engraved ring onto his left ring finger.

"Do you Paxton Woods take Roseanne Jordans to be your lawfully wedded wife and soulmate for as long as you both shall live?" The officiator asked.

"I do." He said with his eyes glued to mine. Not a note of hesitation was traceable in his voice as he said the two simple words which held so much meaning today.

"Do you Roseanne Jordans take Paxton Woods to be your lawfully wedded husband and soulmate for as long as you both shall live?" He asked me.

"I do." I said looking into Paxton's eyes which seemed to soften and fill up with adoration and love as I said 'I do'.

"With the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride." The officiator said with a booming voice just as Paxton removed my veil and cubbed my face with both of his hands as he leaned down to seal it all with a kiss. Cheering could be heard in the background as we pulled away from our kiss.Paxton placed his forehead on mine. His eyes closed for a brief second as we took in the moment, before he opened them and connected them with mine.

"You look gorgeous Mrs. Woods." He said to me with his face beaming with happiness. It was official, from today on I was Roseanne Woods, the wife of Paxton Woods.

"Why, thank you, Mr. Woods, you look just as dashing," I said liking his white tux with the black trimmings on the collar and the pockets of the tuxedo. His bowtie was also black and to top everything off he wore black dress pants and dress shoes. A somewhat simplistic but amazing combination, or maybe I was just being biased, but hey it suited him quite nicely.

"Thank you, love, I'm glad that you approve," He responded as we both laughed at each other's new endearments. "You've made me so happy my darling wife that I have no words left to say." He said as he gently caressed my cheek with his thumb. His eyes looked into mine with a gentleness that I wasn't sure I had ever since him showcase to me.

"You've made me just as happy, my loving husband," I said as I kissed his inner palm and watched as he melted from the new endearment. "Now let's go and mingle with our guests, some of them have come a long way to be here." I said as I laced our fingers together and pulled him to the awaiting crowd of people who stood with large patient smiles as they took pictures and waited for us to join them.