Wedding Planning

Cassie is Twenty-One

Cassie was pissed. I was in the gym fighting some poor soul who decided he wanted to fight me. He went down and I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. My father in law stepped in with a clear question in his eyes.

I knew my eyes were blazing, and they didn’t understand why. I also knew Cayden sent his dad because he was in a meeting. He asked, “Are you ok?”

I threw a punched he blocked.I replied, “Nope.”

We fought for a while before he pinned me. He said, “Let’s go for a walk.”

I heard several people sigh in relief. I scoffed, “If you think I’m bad wait until Cayden gets in here feeling my feelings!”

Now, several winced. Yeah, they could just that comment marinate. Silas and Hendrix nodded to Aaron and me as we walked out.

After we got away from everyone he asked, “What’s wrong?”

I scoffed, “We all went down, and we don’t know why.”

He nodded, “I know that. It was terrifying, but I don’t think that’s what’s wrong with you.”

I sighed, “Alexander is upset.” He pursed his lips, “I know.” I rubbed my temples, “It’s weird we all went down on Melanie’s birthday. Not just any birthday, but her sixteenth. It’s weird but it’s not. Her wolf’s name is weird but it’s not.”

He asked, “What do you mean?”

I sighed, “It’s silly.”

He shrugged, “So?”

I sighed, “Ember doesn’t go with Oden. My Fairy side doesn’t like it. Which I understand sounds insane, but my Fairy side likes all the other pairings in my family. I know it’s them. I’m telling you that beyond a shadow of a doubt Melanie and Alexander go together. So, why doesn’t my Fairy side like their wolves’ names together? Ember is a fine wolf’s name. It’s just wrong. UGH!”

I rubbed my head, and he rubbed my shoulders. He reasoned, “Maybe the name of the wolf is wrong. Drake had to get that from the pack. Melanie would’ve been running in her wolf form. Maybe they guessed the wolf’s damn name, or she did some sort of dance and they thought it was Ember. She wouldn’t have shifted back to tell them.”

I asked, “Why didn’t she correct her family then?”

He replied, “Maybe she’s thrown like everyone else.”

I wanted to argue, but he was right. I was still thrown by the events of that day. Feeling Alexander’s pain and knowing that I was too weak to get to him was something I still couldn’t get over. I grappled with the feelings like I should’ve been able to get him like he has done for me. I couldn’t though. I couldn’t get off the damn floor.

Rain whimpered. That was the other thing that pissed me off. My wolf was so sad and sometimes felt pangs like something was missing. She said all her siblings felt that way too. So, all my siblings wolves felt these pangs and I couldn’t help them. We were dealing with echoes of something, but none of us knew what it was.

I sighed, “This is supposed to be an exciting time.”

He nudged me, “I think it still is.”

Tears filled my eyes. I sighed, “I just want to enjoy being engaged and planning the wedding, but I’m so angry at myself. Then we don’t have any answers for my Alpha side to settle down with.”

He frowned, “Why would you be angry at yourself?” I answered, “I couldn’t get off the floor to help my brother.” He put an arm around me.

He said, “Your dad couldn’t get off the floor either. None of you could. Your mom was desperately yanking her Hackura family to her. She was screaming about someone getting to you and finding all her children. She was between Alexander and Eric on the floor. She couldn’t even think to use her magic to put them close together. She caught your dad as he fell.”

I winced, “I hate that she went through that.”

She had her walls up too, so I knew she was not letting us know all the types of ways she felt about it. He nodded, “As do I. Her guard’s reports are that she’s not taking it well.”

I admitted, “None of us are, but I’d bet she’s worse. Cayden’s not doing well with how he saw me either.”

He agreed, “No, he’s not but he’s not the only one.”

I asked, “What do you mean?”

He reached for my hand, “All the Crawford’s are feeling bad about it. The Cambridge’s do too. Our blood isn’t helping us out here. We felt helpless and we love you.”

I tried for something cheerful, “At least we have a name for the Blue Circle group.” He nodded, “It’s obvious now that I think about it.”

I admitted, “It is. I’m certain it was on the list of possible names from Uncle Aiden.”

I’d peaked at it in my Uncle Bjourn’s office. He admitted, “It was.”

I whispered, “Why doesn’t The Resistance want our help?”

He answered, “Your mom thinks they feel the need to do this on their own.”

I bitterly said, “Well, if anyone would understand that logic it would be her. The theory is these people are directly related to it. I know everyone thinks a family member of someone who died from the drugs, but I don’t agree.”

He asked, “What do you mean?”

I answered, “Honestly, the whole thing with Ashley makes me feel like this group is using people like her.”

He frowned, “What do you mean?”

I pointed out, “We’ve suspected she’s in The Resistance. The people behind this group seem to be using her own pain. They save people to recruit them. It’s smart but I hate it for Ashley.”

He rubbed my back saying, “I know there is more.”

I groaned, “UGH! Yes, because it’s a good strategy and I love that those people that are being hurt are being giving a choice to do something. It’s good they have something tangible. They are given the tools, and they fight back. It’s great. I’ve seen in my mom’s own patients how helpful that can be.”

He grinned, “But.”

I yelled, “But Ashley is different! She should be ours. She practically is and I don’t like that she’s being used.”

He shrugged, “If we are right, and I’d bet we are, she wants to do this.”

Rain growled in my head. She’d been so quiet since we all went down, more so than usual.

I put my head in my hands, “I know that. I really do. Now, she’s the Female Lead Warrior and I just want to help her. She refuses most of Cayden and Micah’s offers, but she likes them being around. It’s like she refuses to let herself have nice things. We would bring her here. She shouldn’t be doing that job at sixteen. I’m simultaneously proud of her and worried for her. I want her here, away from them. I want to scream and rage until she understands this is all wrong. I want to tell her my family would help, but I can’t. She’s using knowledge about all of us she shouldn’t have to her advantage. It’s so annoyingly smart.”

I waved, “Then I’m here planning my wedding to an amazing man I love and adore. My wolf is so quiet it hurts me because she’s still feeling echoes from whatever happened. I didn’t help my brother when he was hurting. EJ and Alexander are driving themselves crazy trying to figure this out. Hell, I’m working with Gia and Tory to do the same. I have a piece I can’t tell them, but I don’t regret my choice to have Cayden tell me everything. My place is beside him in every single fight, but this situation is driving me nuts.”

I groaned, “Why would Ashley be mad at Everly? Cayden and I both think that’s who saved Julianna and Everly. Except her stupid pack alibies her out saying she was running errands. There was just time for her to do it. You know?”

He answered, “I know.”

I continued, “But that doesn’t jive. It was personal, I felt it.”

He agreed, “It did appear that way, yes.”

I waved, “Then Julianna got hurt. I’m not supposed to let things like that happen. All the men blame themselves and I just can’t help but feel that way myself. They don’t notice because they blame themselves.”

Alexander said, “I noticed.”

I jumped and scolded, “RAIN!”

She just sighed in my head. My father in law grinned, “Alexander.”

My brother nodded, “Aaron.” He said, “I’ll leave you to it.” He got up and jogged off.

Alexander sat down and snapped us both drinks. I asked, “What are you doing here?”

He wasn’t scheduled to be here. His squad practiced tomorrow.He answered, “I’m working my way through my siblings. I saved you and EJ for last. A lot of shit has been going on. All of you blame yourselves for not getting to me when I went down.”

I sipped on my drink.

He added, “And you are denying that you feel awful for what happened to Jase.”

I frowned, “Of course I do.”

He pressed, “But you think it was your fault. You haven’t talked to him much, and you’d have advised against him going.”

I yelled, “Because it was STUPID! I would’ve said that, but I’ve been busy here and…”

He cut me off, “You’re planning your wedding, and you have your own life. Nothing you did was wrong.”

I grumbled, “It wasn’t right either.”

He said, “Jase is fine.” I glared at him, “Because the sniper saved him.” The sniper that I thought was Ashley, but I couldn’t say that.

Alexander told me, “I felt like a failure when I saw him. I argued against him going. I said it was a bad idea. Then I saw one of my best friends nearly dead. It messes with me.”

I put a hand on his. It hurt him more than most because, as a healer, he could feel the physical damage that had been caused to Jason. He shrugged, “I’ve got a lot of feelings about everything that’s gone on and crazy thoughts.”

Rain grumbled, “Probably not so crazy.”

I nearly sighed in relief because she was talking more. That was good.

He said, “Oden and I had to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting. He was sullen, moody, and withdrawn. I think you need to have the same conversation with Rain. Most of our siblings that don’t lean wolf have. You couldn’t have gotten to me. It takes time to push pain down, and you’ve had no practice at doing it.”

I scoffed, “It was an emergency, and I couldn’t do anything.”

He nudged me, “I’ve been there myself. I have more practice at it than all of you and it still takes a second. What happened that day wasn’t your fault, and you know it. What happened to Jase wasn’t your fault. To top off the things that aren’t your fault, whatever secret you have held back from us isn’t your fault.”

My jaw dropped.

He nodded to my drink, and I sipped it. I whispered, “What do you mean?”

He laughed, “You feel guilty over the secret you’re keeping and it’s not necessary. Your life is here and at home. You straddle both roles well. You have a hybrid role as an Alpha, but your mate is here. You have allegiances here to our people as their Duchess, but more importantly as the Commander’s mate. You’ll have to keep things from us and that’s ok.”

Rain told me, “I’m talking to Oden about everything.”

I replied, “Ok. It’s nice to talk to you.”

She agreed, “Yes, it is. I’m sorry.”

I quickly said, “You have nothing to be sorry about.” I turned to my brother, “Sometimes it doesn’t feel ok.” He shrugged, “That’s life. We can’t help how feel. Your loyalties are tearing at you.” I rolled my eyes, “I see someone has been all up in the bond.”

He snorted, “Yes, I have with each and every one of you. You have to have Cayden’s six. None of us are in danger from the knowledge you have that we don’t. It’s ok. We all understand, and we’d do the same. If my mate needed me to keep a secret that didn’t affect your life, I’d keep it from you. I don’t even have her, and I know that. It’s ok to live your life. We will always be your family, but your core family is Cayden now. You’d never hurt us, and we know it. It’s all ok.”

I let my tears fall now and my brother wrapped me in his arms. I whispered, “How can I be here planning my wedding when everything is going to shit? I’m so scared about going down again. It hurt so bad and knowing you went down first is awful. You’re impenetrable. I’ve never felt that kind of pain from you and I just…”

I broke off in a sob.

He said, “It scared me too.”

I cried, “Something we don’t know or understand took you down. What if the Ring figured it out and they come for you?”

He said, “Let them come. I’ll take them out.”

I punched him in the shoulder, “Not if you’re down in pain.” He reasoned, “It didn’t take mom or my guard out.” I agreed, “That’s true.”

He advised, “Don’t feel bad about the big steps you are taking in your life because it feels like things are going to shit around us. It may be crazy, and we’ve been shown we aren’t infallible. Jase, Everly, and Julianna got hurt. EJ and Elise knowingly walked into a trap. It’s all been crazy, but there’s good in the crazy. We have Laxenread now, and we know the group we are encountering. Good things are happening with the crazy. We prepare and adjust.”

I asked, “Is that what you’ve been so busy doing?”

He answered, “Yes. I’m an Alpha Enforcer and I’ll take care of everyone. I’ve adjusted plans to keep everyone safe, and that doesn’t end at the boundaries of our border. Julianna getting taken was a wakeup call for our family. So was Everly, just in a different way. I’m adjusting.”

I sipped my drink again. I sighed, “It just feels wrong.”

He shrugged, “It would be wrong not to have fun and enjoy every second of it. It’s an exciting time for you.”

I added, “For the realm.”

He shrugged, “I don’t give a damn about that really. I just want you to be happy and enjoy this time. Life will continue to go on. Bad things happened, and that’s indisputable. We rallied though. We are fine and we have someone watching out for us. We don’t have answers about going down, but everyone is working on it.”

I asked, “Are you ok about Melanie?”

He answered, “No, I’m not. I hate everything about the entire situation. I hate being apart from her. I hate feeling like I know her through her dancing, but I don’t know her.”

I snorted, “Her conversations too.”

He shrugged, “Those feel stifled and forced. I don’t feel like I know her from her conversations with Jase. She’s clearly still upset with them.”

That didn’t make sense. Jason had told me that Melanie didn’t hold grudges because it took effort, and she didn’t like that. She said it wasn’t productive.

I had asked if that meant she was a doormat, and he’d laughed. He’d told me that she said moving on didn’t mean forgetting what happened. She just wasn’t going to waste energy on it. That girl had a massive personality change since leaving and I didn’t think it was for the best. My head began to pound, and I decided that was silly because she was living her dream.

I threw my arm around my brother’s shoulder. I whispered, “I’m sorry this hurts you.”

He said, “I’ve grown used to it to be honest.”

That annoyed me. I admitted, “I’m scared.”

He replied, “I know. We all are, but denying that isn’t helping anyone. What happened was probably the most terrifying thing that’s happened to us as a whole. Werewolves all over the world went down and we don’t know why. No one has taken credit which tells me it wasn’t supposed to happen.”

I instantly asked, “What do you mean?”

He answered, “If the Ring took us down intentionally, they’d be mocking us. They would’ve been there to swoop in on, probably us or one of our allies, and slaughter the whole pack. Maybe more than one. Not a single pack lost someone while we were down. Hell, even the rogues went down. Yet to this day, no one has taken credit.”

I snorted, “Someone should, even to brag.”

He nodded, “Exactly. Even if they were lying someone should be bragging, but they aren’t. They want it to fade from memory because something happened that wasn’t supposed to.”

I muttered, “We can’t forget.”

He replied, “Many will let this go in time. I will never stop searching for answers, and neither will our allies. The longer this goes without a whisper of who did it tells me it wasn’t intentional. Something horrible happened that day and went horribly wrong for whoever did it.”

I guessed, “Maybe they are dead.”

He shrugged, “I doubt it. More like they are laying low. They either got what they wanted that night, with extra effects, or they are regrouping. I doubt anything like that will be attempted again though. Once is bad enough, but if you take all Werewolves down twice every single supernatural will look into it.”

I figured they were all doing it now, but his logic made sense. Some people wouldn’t care and figure that someone else would figure it out.

We sat there in silence drinking our drinks until Cayden came and joined us. Alexander nodded to him, kissed me on the top of the head, then popped out. Cayden sat down. I put my head on his shoulder and just sat there enjoying being with him.

After several minutes he said, “Pop us to our pond.”

I did as he asked, and we were in the place in this realm that had become our place. My place where I felt safe as a child was now ours. He said, “I wish I could help you.”

I told him, “You do. You’ve been there every day for me, but Alexander picked at me. I’m sure he did with all our siblings. He got me to admit everything that’s bothering me. He’s so sneaky that way. He did it by sharing his observations and his own sorrow.”

He pulled me into his chair with him, so I was in his lap. He looked deep into my eyes. He said, “If you want a bigger role in your pack, it’s ok.”

I shook my head, “I’m doing what I’m meant to do in both places now. I just felt bad about what happened to Jase. I felt I should’ve stopped them. Alexander pointed out he argued against Jase going.”

Cayden stiffened. I knew he didn’t like to talk about Jason, but he would for me.

I added, “Plus, I’ve been scared. I worry a lot about going down again. It’s why I haven’t gone out.”

He cupped my face, “My Duchess, if you don’t want to go out on a mission you do not have to. I just don’t want to see you letting fear win. You got hurt in the field and went back out sending me into a spiral, but I understood why you did it.”

I nodded, “I’ll go out again, it just really scared me. Rain and I aren’t on the same page we’ve always been. She’s been withdrawn and I let her stay that way. We feel out of sync.”

He cupped my face and called, “Rain.”

She pushed forward, “Mate.”

He grinned, “Will you take me for a ride?” I felt my wolf’s joy. She loved Cayden riding on her back while she ran. She answered, “Yes.”

She backed away from him then shifted. Cayden climbed onto her back, and she took off running. I sat in the back of her mind enjoying the ride. I jolted when I realized this was our first run since we’d gone down. I closed my eyes, realizing I should’ve gotten her to run sooner. We were both so messed up from what happened I didn’t even realize she hadn’t asked to run.

After an hour, she brought us back to the pond. Cayden got down and she shifted back. She said, “Thank you, mate.”

He leaned in and kissed her before she put me back in charge. I dropped to my knees and licked up his hard length.

He groaned, “Fuck, Cass.”

Rain teased, “He knew it was you back in charge.”

I teased, “Because he knows you’d just throw him down and mount him.”

She chuckled, “I get the job done.” Just like that, we were back, and it felt so right.

I took Cayden into my mouth and looked up at him. He gripped my hair and let me see all his love and lust in one look. He tried to let me go at my own pace, but that wasn’t what I wanted. So, I teased him with little touches. I cupped his balls and played with them. When I knew he’d get close I’d let his dick slide out of my mouth to suck on his balls.

He was nearly growling after the fifth time. I linked, “Is there a problem, My Commander?”

He told me, “You need to stop playing with me.”

I gasped, “Me? What?”

Rain snickered in my head. He still wouldn’t take over and fuck my mouth, so I decided to take a page out of my mom’s book. I stood and snapped myself in an outfit I’d been thinking about wearing for a long time.

Cayden’s eyes widened. He asked, “What the fuck? Are you…?”

He trailed off. I answered, “Sexy Sailor Moon? Yes, I am.”

I twirled around and shook my ass that hung out of the very short blue skirt I’d conjured. He whispered, “Even your hair is like hers.”

I winked, “Maybe someone’s mom dropped off their old Manga books. I might have noticed you had every single Sailor Moon one. It gave me ideas.”

He snorted, “Ideas? Cass, she had a whole shirt on.”

I grinned, “But doesn’t the red bow covering my boobs and a few white glittery straps connecting the bow to my skirt make it more fun?”

He gulped and adjusted his pants. He answered, “Fun is a word.”

My phone rang and I answered. “Hi, mom.”

He asked, “Are you for real right now?”

My mom asked, “Is this a bad time?”

I popped further away from my mate. He sent me his incredulity. I answered, “Nope. What’s up?” She said, “Well, I know you’ve been having trouble finding a dress.” I chuckled, “I know you can solve that if we can’t find it.” She’d just conjure exactly what I wanted.

She replied, “But you want to shop and find one. So, I found a place for us to have some mother daughter time. It’s long overfuckingdue.”

I laughed, “Alright, that sounds fun.”

She replied, “So does whatever you’re doing.”

I laughed, “I dressed up as Sailor Moon.”

My mom asked, “Who the fuck is that?”

I answered, “Look it up, you’ll like the outfits.”

She squealed, “That sounds fun! Go get you some well deserved orgasms. Make him work for it.” I laughed, “I love you so much, mom.” She replied, “I love you too.” I hung up.

Cayden was stalking towards me. I winked and popped to his parents’ house. His dad choked on his drink. I waved, “Hi, Ashlyn. I just wanted to let you know my dress problems may soon be solved. My mom found a shop.”

She sighed, “Thank goodness. I was about to delay my mission.”

I laughed, “There’s no reason to worry. My mom would’ve conjured what I wanted.”

She grinned, “But you wanted to find a dress and fall in love, just like your mom did.”

It was true. My mom had pictures of what she wanted though. I just wanted to fall in love with a dress the second I saw it or tried it on.

Aaron asked, “So, what’s with the outfit?”

I grinned, “I’m messing with your son.”

He snorted, “I figured that out.”

His mom winked at me. I said, “Speaking of messing with people, a little birdie told me you like Scooby Doo, Aaron.” He raised an eyebrow, “It was my favorite cartoon growing up and I made sure all my kids watched it. Why?”

Ashlyn teased, “Yet you didn’t crush on Daphne like everyone else.”

He wiggled his eyebrows, “No, the smartie pants had all my attention. Just like my mate.”

I snapped her into a red pleather skirt that was short enough it showed her ass, just like mine. I had her in orange thigh highs with red high heels with a strap. I matched it with a skin tight long-sleeved orange crop top. He hair was in a medium length bob already, but I snapped her fake glasses too.

Aaron was instantly standing up and stalking towards her as Cayden burst into the house. I giggled and grabbed her hand, popping her to the gym. Several people turned to stare as us. Beagan cackled and popped next to me. She grinned, “I like it.”

She snapped herself into a tight pink see through bodysuit that had fishnets over it with green and purple spandex shorts and lace up thigh high boots.

Ashley asked, “Aesir above, are you Patrick from SpongeBob?”

I laughed, “She is.”

Aiylee squealed, “Ohhh me next. Am I picking up the theme correctly and this is our mate’s childhood interests?”

I nodded, “Yup.”

She kissed my cheek, “Glad to have you back to normal. I told Alexander he was on the clock for his plan because I had one myself. It was amazing.”

I laughed, “I wish you had done whatever it is.”

Rain groaned, “Don’t tell her that. Now she will do it.”

Aiylee snapped herself into a black corset blazer with a white ruffled collar shirt. The black skirt she had nearly showing her bits, but the back was longer with thigh highs. Beagan and I clapped. Beagan said, “Oh my god! You totally nailed that look.”

Ashlyn asked, “What’s the look? What is that hat?”

She did have on a top had with flowers on it.

Aiylee answered, “It’s Maristelli Aboqui.”