Chapter 22: Will

Chapter 22: Will

If that lavish evening tea was an indication of what was to come, it was an accurate one. At night, when dinner was served, it wasn’t done in the dining room as we had expected. It was done out in the open, on the back lawn by a well-lit pool as a violinist serenaded us. The meals were something out of a dream.

The lamb stew was exquisite enough that I had to get another helping. It paired well with the red mulled wine I was drinking. Alexis chose a clear white wine instead of red. It made sense, given that she was eating fettuccine alfredo. I had a little bit of a taste of the fettuccine. It was thick, creamy, and had delicious chunks of mushrooms in it. A true gourmet dinner, indeed. It was a rather long event, spanning over an hour and containing several dishes. The stew and the fettuccine were just two of eight courses, not counting dessert.

We tried the meatballs with gravy, the mutton kebabs, the fried fish, and the vegetable and fruit salad. It was all so wonderfully made that not at any point did we feel like we had overstuffed ourselves.

This entire dinner affair was not a silent one as I had expected. The six other couples who were seated along with the matron of this place happened to be very chatty individuals. Once the wine flowed freely across the table, their tongues loosened, and they started chatting with each other and us as they ate and drank through the night.

I learned that Jacob was a software engineer at Google’s New York office. He’d come here with his wife to celebrate their fifth anniversary. Another couple, Andrew and Bella, were tourists from Italy. They had finished their month-long tour across America and were celebrating their final night in America in this bed and breakfast. Sidra and Amir were two Indians who had just sold their first startup in Silicon Valley and were now relaxing for a few weeks before going back to that town and starting their second venture.

But by far, the most interesting couple was the one sitting to our immediate right. Jason and Brandy were two war veterans who retired from the British Army and decided to become adventure bloggers. They showed me their YouTube page and website, where they uploaded videos of their adventures in Egypt, Morocco, China, Japan, and Indonesia. I was entranced by their tales of courage and adventure, of how they’d braved the harsh climates, eaten the strangest cuisines, spent nights in dangerous places, and survived through it all to tell the tale.

“You must come with us the next time we’re going on an adventure. After this American leg of our trip is over, we’re going to Germany,” Brandy said.

“Will’s actually from Germany,” Alexis answered on my behalf.

“Oh, God, that’s so fascinating,” Jason said, squeezing my forearm.

“I used to be a maritime engineer,” I said, helping myself to dessert. It was the strangest tart that was both bitter and sweet. I couldn’t have enough of it. I poured some strawberry syrup on top of it and started simultaneously eating and telling my tale. “Of course, then I retired and came with my family to America.”

“To live the great American dream,” Brandy said, raising her cup.

Someone across the table said, “Hear, hear!” Everyone clinked their glasses in response.

“Dreams don’t have nationalities,” I said, raising my fork at Brandy. “Tell me. An astronaut sleeps in the space station, and a sailor sleeps deep in a submarine in the sea. What country do their dreams belong to?”

“Oh, it was just…I was just making a point,” Brandy said.

“As am I,” I said, smiling at her. “I mean you no hostility. We have all tied ourselves to this concept of land and country, and nationality. It’s rather unbecoming of someone as boundless as a human, am I right? You two should have an even better idea of it than I do. You’re originally British, yet you have traveled and spent more time in the rest of the world than you’ve done in Britain. I mean, here you are in America, dining with these fine folk. Would you say that you are British?”

Brandy looked at me strangely for a second, then started laughing loudly. “You’re such a funny man!”

I quizzically shot a look at Alexis, who whispered, “Just go with it.”

I nodded, then said. “Ah, yes. My famous German sense of humor.”

Now Jason was laughing alongside Brandy, and soon after, Alexis and I joined in too. We were all so drunk that none of us knew what exactly we were laughing about. It just felt so freeing and joyous to laugh.

And so we did.

And so did everyone at the table as we finished our desserts and had one last cup of tea before retiring to bed.

“I don’t want to sleep!” Alexis said as we left the dinner table and headed back to the mansion. “Look at the night. It’s so beautiful. The moon shining across the surface of the lake. The leaves whispering in the wind. We’re not going to sleep, Will.”

“I agree,” I said. “I didn’t bring you here for sleeping. Quite the contrary. The Vermont countryside and forests are especially beautiful this time of the year. All the colors come in full bloom, especially at night. We’re going to shift into our wolf forms.

“Yay!” Alexis jumped up and down with glee.

“Careful. We don’t want anyone following us. Just let them all go to bed, and then we’re going to have our fun,” I said.

In the meantime, we walked along the pond, then tracked our way to the lake, holding each other’s hand. While we stood at the lake, watching our reflection on the surface of the clear water, Alexis squeezed my hand and said, “Isn’t it completely strange?”

“What is?” I asked. The night was quiet and calm, sending waves of peace within me. I could feel myself healing emotionally from all the scars on my soul.

“Like…just a few days ago, you were on the brink of death. Go a few days further, and we’re both not even on speaking terms. A few more days further, I was sure you were dead. We were always surrounded by danger until very recently. So many uncanny things have happened in such a short amount of time that it’s getting hard to keep track of everything. Did I get kidnapped at one point? All that chaos, all that madness, and now we’re here, in this peaceful corner of the world, our bellies stuffed with delicious food, our moods rendered pleasant by this night walk, and our troubles were forgotten in the throes of rekindled love. Isn’t that strange? How the crests and troughs seem to continue on this sinusoidal wave that we know as life?”

Wine made some people very introspective while rendering others too lax to string together two coherent words. Alexis, it turned out, was the former. She had managed to unlock the wordy part of her consciousness, a part that I was pleasantly surprised to notice. I, on the other hand, turned out to be the latter type, the type turned lax by too much wine. And so, I struggled to keep up with her stream of consciousness.

“It is the very nature of fate,” I said after mustering some sobriety. “Someone out there is mourning the death of their loved ones while at the same time, a mother is celebrating the birth of her child in a hospital ward somewhere. There’s a war going on in the same world where peace is being brokered between two countries. It’s like a dance of destiny,” I said.

“But why? Why can’t you and I have just a long spell of peace and prosperity? Why does destiny put us through the wringer now and then?” Alexis asked, looking at me ruefully. “I just want you and I to live happily ever after, celebrating our life together, creating our moments of happiness. Is that too much to ask of fate?”

It wasn’t too much to ask of fate. But I did not want to spoil my surprise right now. There was a reason why I had brought her here of all places. I had intended to propose to her. Now that I had found her, I did not ever want to be separated from her. The only surefire way of doing that—at least in such a way as to lessen the restlessness in my heart—was to propose to her and get married to her. I wanted to make her truly mine, and what better place than this to initiate this engagement?

“Will? You’re too drunk. Come on. Let’s go back to the room. We can talk in the morning,” Alexis said, pulling me by my arm.

Instead of going back with her, I jumped into the bushes ahead of me and disappeared on the other side.

“Will! What games are you playing?” Alexis called from the other side.

I shifted into my wolf form and howled.

“Oh, is that what you want, is it? Alexis laughed, then jumped across the hedge and joined me by shifting in mid-air.

Now that we were both in our true forms, the drunkenness brought on by alcohol was quickly leaving our system, thanks to the faster metabolism of our wolf bodies. I raced ahead, leaving Alexis behind as I traversed across the forest, feeling the cool air on my body.

Alexis did not want to accept her defeat so easily. She sprinted past me and jumped ahead, leaving me alone in the clearing where I stood. It was time to stop holding back. I had to make use of my wolf within form and show her my true power. Instead of racing after her, I leaped into the air, well above the trees, and hurtled myself forward, landing right in front of her.

Alexis was shocked, a story that her widely blinking eyes told clearly. Then she purred and lowered her head playfully. I chased her tail in a circle until we both became tired and fell on top of each other. There we lay, two wolves basking in the light of the moon, licking each other’s fur, purring and gently whistling in the wind.

This is a beautiful place.

It’s all in the eyes of the beholder, I said.

Do you want to race up to that big elm tree? See who’s faster once and for all? Alexis asked.

On the count of three…. two….

Before I even had a chance to say one, Alexis broke into a sprint for the elm tree. Even though I knew I could cover that distance within less than a second, I let her have this victory. I wanted her to feel powerful, strong, and fast. She’d need her strength for the surprise I had waiting for her.

At midnight, we shifted back into our human forms and went back to the bed and breakfast. All the lights were turned off, which made finding our way to our bedroom tricky.

“Why is it so dark?” Alexis whispered, bumping her foot into me.

“House rules, I guess,” I said, lying through my teeth. I’d already given explicit instructions to the matron and the staff. Everything had to be absolutely perfect. It was just a happy coincidence that all the guests had retired to their rooms and were probably either asleep or busy in their bedroom affairs.

“Will. Something doesn’t feel right. What is happening?” Alexis asked.

“It’s all okay. Let’s just sleep it off in our room,” I said. It had been one hell of an impossible task to keep this secret from Alexis. We were bonded together. Whatever I thought, she could intercept, and whatever crossed her mind, I could read. While we had agreed not to snoop about each other’s minds unnecessarily, I had to remain extremely cautious as I pulled off this surprise.

“If you say so,” Alexis said tiredly, then pushed the doors to our room.

As the doors flung open, dozens of warm yellow and orange lights lit up in the room in the form of lamps, the chandelier, and those fairy lights that hung from the curtains. The room came alive with the sight of more than a hundred roses sprawled on the bed, sprouting from vases, covering the floor and just about any other surface.

Alexis gasped as she stepped into the room. I stepped in behind her, feeling overwhelmed by the smell of the roses, the cozy warmth coming from the fireplace, and the gentle wind coming through the window. The curtains lightly blew as Alexis came to a halt at the center of the room.

There were roses, there were chocolates, and there were teddy bears just as she had asked.

But those were just decorations on a set meant for a much larger thing. A lifelong commitment.

As she turned, she found me bent on one knee, holding a ring in my hand.

A second gasp followed the first one as she held her face in her hands. I could see that her legs were shaking. If only she could see the state of my heart right now.

“Alexis Richards,” I began, but she lifted her finger and shook it.

“Stop. Just stop. I have to take it in. Otherwise, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life. Oh my God, I’m feeling so overwhelmed. The tears…the t-” Her eyes were just beginning to get wet. I couldn’t let her cry on this sanctimonious occasion.

I stood up and held her, hugging her, kissing her, and comforting her as she steadied herself.

“Okay, you may resume,” she said, drying the two tears that had leaked from the corners of her eyes. “These are tears of joy,” she said, smiling at me.

I went back to my knee, then took out the ring again, holding it in front of her.

“Alexis Richards, from the moment I met you, you have been making me undergo a journey—a journey filled with growth, delight, joy, understanding, and compassion. I am not the man I once was when I came from Germany. You have performed a miracle by changing this obstinate fool into someone who’s capable of understanding what true love really is. It humbles me how much I love you. It moves me, this great force that exists invisibly between us, drawing us closer to each other every day. I am truly blessed to have found you in this world. I thank the gods, all the gods that ever were or ever will be, that you found me that day in the forest. I am grateful to you for sticking around with me, for not leaving me when I was a pain in the ass, and for saving my life not once but so many times that I’ve lost count. You are truly my mate in every sense of the word. I would love to make you my wife and see that nothing can drive us apart from this point onward. And for that, I promise that I will do everything within my power to ensure that we live together harmoniously, in love and peace. So, Alexis, love of my life, will you marry me?”

It was the longest silence in the history of the universe as I kneeled in front of her and watched the reflection of the fireplace’s fire dance in her eyes. I could try to reach into her mind to see what she was thinking, but I did not. I needed to not know so that the answer would incite a genuine reaction.

This was one of the times when I could not use my bond with her.

Alexis’s lips quivered as she tried to speak. Her fingers shook as she held out her hand.

“You are a difficult man, Will Grimm,” she said, her voice not quite breaking but just about to. “Loving you has been a challenge, and it has not been easy for me at times. You are intense in everything you do. But I know one thing. I love you. And I would trade all the ease in the world for just a moment with you. I choose you. I need you. And just as I have changed you, you have changed me into a better version of myself. A much more mature and stable person. So, yes. I’ll marry you!”

I slid the ring onto her finger, and then, without waiting another moment, I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. I needed to feel her body next to mine, not in a sensual or sexual manner but in a familial one. Moving forth, she would be my wife. An extension of me. A part of me just as much as I’d be a part of her.

For the first time ever in my life, I was holding my fiancé in my arms. Not just my mate, not my girlfriend, my fiancé.

“I promise I’m going to make things easier from now on,” I whispered in her ear. “And no more surprises.”

“Some surprises,” Alexis said. “I kinda loved this one.”

“I love you,” I said.

“Well, I love you too, fiancée,” she said, kissing my lips.

“So…do you like the ring?” I asked.

“Never really got a chance to examine it,” she said, then held up her ring in front of her eyes. “My God, Will. That’s about the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen.”

“This ring belonged to my mother. It was one of the few things that I’d brought with me to America in the hopes that when I found my mate, I’d give her this ring. And today, after almost seventy years, I have fulfilled that promise to myself,” I said, holding her in my arms and feeling fulfilled in ways I didn’t even know were possible.