Once Upon A Rejection
Chapter 25

I covertly checked my phone under the table. It was nearly 6pm, we have been here for around seven hours already. I have been looking at samples of all the different types of fabric and different designs for decorations and cakes for hours. They were all starting to look the same.

I never realised so much went into organising a ceremony like this. Did I seriously need three different kinds of flower arrangements for one day? It feels rather excessive. Honestly, I would be so happy if I never had to look at another flower again in my whole life after this afternoon. Who needs flowers anyway?

I know why luna Ward was stressed. Alpha and luna ceremonies like the one we were having were the werewolf equivalent having a wedding and a coronation at the same time. It was a big deal and the whole pack would be there watching us. It was going to be a huge undertaking to get everything organised in just a few weeks. I couldn’t imagine the amount of stress that this would put Grayson’s parents under.

“How about this one?” Grayson asked.

He pointed at a cake design from the catalogue in front of us. It was a white tiered cake and it was decorated with white roses. On top there were two wolves standing side by side. It looked beautiful and elegant.

“I love it.” I said.

“Don’t you think it is a bit plain?” Grayson’s mom said.

“What do you mean?” Grayson asked, he was looking at her as though she had just said something utterly ridiculous.

“You will be alpha and luna, you need something a bit more special. The whole pack will be there, not to mention that we are inviting alpha’s from all over the country. It is not the time to go for something understated.” She replied.

I wanted to ask how a five tier cake could ever be understated but I managed to keep my mouth shut, barely.

“Maybe we could get them to make some minor adjustments. We could get them to add more flowers and a bit of silver here and here.” I suggested, as I pointed to the rose petals and the wolves.

I really didn’t want them to get into another argument. A couple of hours ago Grayson suggested that maybe we didn’t need to have ten different appetiser options. This was enough to send his mom into a thirty minute rant about how we had to make a good impression for the sake of the pack.

“I like the way you think.” She said. Grayson let out a sigh of relief.

“Now all we need to decide is what the filling of the cake should be.” She said.

“Anything but fruit cake.” Grayson said. He shuddered. I felt as though there was a story behind that shudder but now wasn’t the time to ask about it.

“What about chocolate, who doesn’t like chocolate?” I said.

“Great that is decided, let’s go.” Grayson said. He took hold of my hands and pulled me to my feet.

“Wait a minute, what is the rush?” His mom asked, as Grayson was pulling me towards the door. Grayson paused in the doorway.

“We have a date planned, I don’t want to have to cancel twice in two days.” He said.

I looked at him. I thought he had forgotten about going on a date with me. We made those plans earlier in the week but so much had happened since then. If someone had told me a week ago that me and Grayson would be happily marked and mated now I would have laughed in their face. That felt like a lifetime ago.

He walked me out of the room with his arm around my waist. He looked down on me with so much love and admiration. I could feel my cheeks starting to get warm.

“You dealt with that so much better than I did.” Grayson said.

It was true that Grayson hadn’t done a great job at hiding his frustration but I wasn’t great at taking a compliment. I turned away and hoped that Grayson couldn’t see how much I was blushing.

He led me towards the back exit of the house.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

The only thing back here was the gardens and the forest. It wasn’t the direction I was expecting us to go for a date. What could we do in the forest?

‘Use your imagination.’ Scarlett suggested.

It didn’t take much of an imagination to guess what she was thinking about. There were literally only two things that she ever seemed concerned with, s*x or violence.

‘That’s not true, I think about lots of things.’ Scarlett grumbled.

‘Oh yeah, like what?’ Jade asked.

‘Shut up.’ Scarlett mumbled.

“I thought that we could go for a run together. I was going to take you to one of my favourite places in the forest.” Grayson said. He sounded unsure, as though he thought I would think it wasn’t good enough.

“That sounds perfect.” I said.

He smiled at me and started walking towards the forest. I followed him as he walked through the gardens and into the forest. We made sure that we were out of sight of the house before getting undressed and shifting into our wolves.

It was the first time I had seen Grayson’s wolf. His wolf was much bigger than mine, which isn’t really that surprising considering that he was an alpha by birth. He looked strong and powerful. Jade was mostly in control now and I could feel how impressed she was by his wolf form.

Grayson’s wolf trotted over to me, his tail wagging as he approached. He nuzzled into Jade’s neck. Jade leaned in towards him to let him know she appreciated his advances.

‘Bran wants to mark Jade.’ Grayson mindlinked me.

‘Jade likes that idea and I have no objection.’ I replied.

Mates don’t always mark each other in wolf form as well as human form but it is more common for alphas. Alphas tend to be a lot more possessive than other werewolves. That possessive nature means they want it to be clear in both forms who their mate is. I didn’t see any good reason to deny him that.

Jade bared her neck for her mate who immediately got into a better position. He sunk his teeth into the spot just above her shoulder. I felt the connection between Jade and Bran growing stronger.

Jade didn’t wait for an invitation to reciprocate. As soon as she had recovered she moved around to his side and sunk her own teeth into his marking spot. Bran howled.

Bran only took a few seconds to recover before taking off further into the forest. He was a fast runner but Jade had no trouble keeping up with him. The feeling of the wind running through Jade’s fur was exhilarating.

In Jade’s form I could hear and smell so much more than in my human form. The scents of the forest surrounded me. I could hear the birds and other animals moving around in the undergrowth surrounding them. Jade ignored them and focused all her attention on Bran.

Jade could have run like this for hours, she was disappointed when Bran stopped running only a few short minutes later. He stopped in a small clearing at the top of a hill about five kilometres away from the pack border. From this spot I could clearly see the whole village. There was a small picnic set out in the middle of the clearing.

Grayson and I shifted back into our human forms and changed into the clothes that had been set aside for us.

“This place is beautiful.” I said as I sat down next to Grayson on the picnic blanket.

“It really is, I like to come here when I need to think.” He said. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. He swept my hair away from my face and kissed my cheek.

“I was wondering if you would mind being Mrs Ward.” Grayson said.

He pulled a small box out of his pocket. I could feel my heart beating in my throat. I didn’t think it mattered to me, I had never been bothered about getting married the way that humans do. That was until this very moment. Now that I was here with Grayson I knew I wanted this. I wanted to be with him in every way possible.

“Yes.” I said. I could feel happy tears falling down my face.

Grayson held me tightly as he slipped the ring onto my finger. It was a simple white gold band with a large single diamond.

“Now even the humans will know you are mine.” He said. There was a possessive edge to his voice that sent tingles down my spine.

We spent the next few hours sitting together. Eating picnic food, talking and watching the view. As the sun set over the horizon the lights started to go on in the houses below. The view looked so different in the dark but it was no less beautiful. I could feel myself falling asleep on Grayson’s shoulder.

“We should probably head back.” Grayson said.

“Only if you promise that we can do this again soon.” I said.

“I promise.” Grayson said, kissing the top of my head before helping me to my feet.

We packed everything (including my ring) into a picnic basket. Then we shifted into our wolf forms and ran back to the house.