Authors: Ella Celestine
Kristy followed her mom, somewhat reluctantly as she kept glancing over her shoulder at Stacey. Once they were gone, Stacey blew out a breath of air. Her hands were shaking as she pushed them through her hair. The woman couldn’t be serious. Between the two options; jail or imprisoned, Stacey wasn’t sure which was worse.
“I’m sorry,” Nathan said, his words cutting into her thoughts. “I didn’t mean to get you involved in any of this.”
“But you did,” Stacey mumbled.
“I said I was sorry,” the man said, narrowing his eyes. “Besides, it’s not like I told you to follow me around and stalk me.”
“I wasn’t stalking you!” Stacey yelled. “I was...I was….” Nathan raised an eyebrow making her temper boil. “Shut up! This is all your fault.”
“How am I the bad guy here? Once again, you were following me!”
Stacey groaned, her fingertips going up to massage her temples. “I never would have met you if you hadn’t been fighting. Besides, what does that mean anyway? Who were you fighting?”
Nathan seemed embarrassed as he glanced away. “It’s a game we play sometimes,” he said as he ran a hand over the side of his neck. “It gets out the aggression and kills the boredom.”
“What game?” Stacey asked, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be pissed.
Nathan shrugged. “Shifters fight each other, usually for money. I usually win, but I was having a bad day.”
“You said you were attacked.”
“Well,” Nathan said with a devious grin. “That’s
partly
true.”
Stacey shook her head. “Now what?”
“Now, we either get married or my mom locks you away in our basement.”
“Oh, great. That’s just great!” Stacey said as she buried her face in her hands. “I don’t want to get married yet, I’m not ready. Besides, I always thought that would happen down the road with someone I care about.”
“Me too,” Nathan said, folding his arms across his chest. “I don’t think either of us has a choice though. It has to be done.”
Stacey winced. Why had she followed him out into the woods? Why couldn’t she have just minded her own business, enjoyed her vacation and gone home? Now, she might never be able to leave this place again. She glanced around.
“What if you just let me run away? I could go through there,” she pointed to the trees that filled the edge of the backyard. “And you can say that I got away.”
Nathan shook his head. “There’s a gate through the trees. You can’t see it from here, but it closes in the entire property. Besides, I wouldn’t do that anyway.”
“Why not?” Stacey asked, irritation working its way into her voice.
“There are rules here. If I let you go, by accident or otherwise, I get punished too.”
“Punished?”
Nathan nodded. “That’s just the way that things work here.”
Stacey sighed. “I guess we really don’t have a choice, do we?”
“Don’t sound so down! I’m not going to eat you or anything. I like to think I’m a good person.You make it sound like marrying me is a death sentence.”
Stacey surprised both of them by chuckling. “I didn’t mean to.” She sighed. “Fine. I guess we’re getting married.”
“I’ll tell my mom. You sit tight. I’m sure you need a minute alone.”
Stacey nodded. When he was out of sight, she ran the back of her hand over her eyes. It was hard to swallow that she would never go back home. Never again would she see her little apartment. She wouldn’t go back to work, or talk to her friends and family or anything that had become a part of her life over the years. She sighed before she raised her head high. No matter what happened, she would be fine. That she was sure of.
Nathan came walking back out. She glanced at him briefly. It could be worse, she thought. At least Nathan was charming, sweet and definitely sexy. A girl could do a whole lot worse.
“Come on inside,” Nathan said, extending a hand to help her up. “We’re going to figure everything out right now.”
As she placed her hand in his, she nodded. Things were going to be just fine. She gave him a small smile as he helped her to her feet. For a moment, her hand lingered in his. Nathan didn’t pull his hand away, didn’t turn away from her. He simply smiled, gave her hand a squeeze and led her through the patio doors.
~
“Well, that’s excellent news!” Emily said with a smile. “Why don’t Kristy and I go and get your things? You and Nathan can stay here, get to know each other a little better.” The woman pushed herself out of her chair.
“Wait,” Stacey said quickly. “Does this mean I can’t speak to my family anymore? Or my friends?”
“Of course not,” Emily said. She took Stacey’s hands in hers. “At first, yes you’ll be watched closely so that I know my family is safe, but you will still get to talk to the people you love. They’ll even be able to visit when I can trust you. I wouldn’t keep you locked away.”
“You
literally
just threatened that not even an hour ago,” Nathan said, mumbling.
“Don’t get snippy with me,” Emily growled.
Stacey could tell they all had a temper. Emily patted her hand before she and Kristy wandered off. Nathan sat beside her heavily. He ran a hand over his beard.
“This is weird.”
“I agree.”
“Here,” Emily said, laying a book on the coffee table, “look through that together.”
Stacey glanced up at the woman. She and Kristy had changed into shorts, heavy boots and tank tops. Both of them carried backpacks as well. Stacey looked down at the book that Emily had given her.
Wedding Planning Guide.
She swallowed thickly. This already? Wouldn’t she even have time to get to know him? Neither Nathan or Stacey seemed to want to touch the book. With an exasperated sigh, Emily picked it up before placing it in Nathan’s lap.
“Seriously, get moving. Shifter law gives us a very small time frame to do this. We’ll be back.”
“Don’t you need to know where I’m staying?” Stacey asked quickly.
“No offense, but we can smell you a mile away. Get started you two,” Emily said before she and Kristy breezed out of the door.
“Do we have to do the whole wedding bit? Can’t we just go to a courthouse and elope?”
“Traditions,” Nathan started.
“Yeah, yeah. Traditions.”
Stacey felt as if she was living in a surreal, parallel, universe. Nathan gave her a small grin. She could tell that he was just as unsure as she was about the whole thing. At least that gave them something in common.
No matter how imminent her fate was, Stacey wasn’t prepared to face it yet. She pushed the wedding book away from her. That was something that could be done tomorrow. For now, she was in need of something strong.
“Do you have anything to drink?”
“I know just what you need,” Nathan said as he pushed himself off of the couch. He ducked into the kitchen before returning moments later with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. “Is this okay?”
“Oh, that’s perfect,” Stacey said with a small smile.
Nathan filled both of the glasses before he handed one to Stacey. She took a deep sip from it, surprised that it was missing the usual burn that she’d become accustomed to. Sighing, she took another sip.
“This is really good,” she said.
“I have a thing for good drink.” Nathan said with a chuckle.
“How do you get it? I mean, do you ever go into town? Or do you guys always have to stay here?”
Nathan laughed. “That’s not an easy question to answer, really. Shifters typically keep away from other people. We can control our changes for the most part, but only if you’re older and you keep calm. Getting pissed off in public isn’t something anyone wants.”
“How many are there?”
Nathan shrugged. “At least twenty nearby, maybe more now.”
“How can you not know for sure?” Stacey asked with a raised brow as she swirled her drink.
“Well, I don’t get along with everyone, who can? On top of that, there are different kinds of shifters.”
Stacey had a dozen more questions, but Emily and Kristy were walking back through the door. They’d neatly packed her suitcases and sat them by the front door. Emily wiped a hand across her forehead, even though there wasn’t a bead of sweat there.
“Are you two getting along? How’s the planning going?”
“We’re doing that tomorrow,” Nathan responded quickly to Stacey’s panicked look.
“Well, no time to lose. It will be adorable!”
Stacey had to stifle the craving to roll her eyes. As nice as Emily seemed, the pressure that she was putting on her wasn’t exactly welcome. Stacey downed the rest of her drink in several long gulps.
“Wow,” Nathan said with wide eyes.
“Where should I put my things?” Stacey asked, sitting her empty glass on the table.
“I’ll show you to the guest room.”
“No, you’ll show her to
your
room. You two will be staying very close until after the wedding.”
“Mom,” Nathan said, shaking his head. “Stop.”
Emily shrugged. “It’s the truth. Once everything is done, she’ll be able to move into your home.”
Nathan picked up her bags. Stacey grabbed her backpack before she followed him up to his room. When he pushed open the door, a large space opened up in front of her. The bed was huge with a thick comforter and fluffy pillows.Everything was done in gray and blues.
“Nice room. You have another house?”
“Of course. I love my family, but I couldn’t live here all of the time. They’d both drive me crazy.”
Stacey chuckled. She sat her backpack down before she sat on the bed, the mattress sinking down only slightly under her weight. She watched Nathan moving around the room, his hands working quickly as he put away the rest of her clothes.
“There,” he said when he was done, “that’s better.”
“Thanks,” Stacey said quietly.
“No problem. And look, don't worry about things too much. We’ll do the planning for this thing tomorrow.”
Stacey nodded, her belly still twisting with anticipation. “Okay.”
~
The day of the wedding came quickly. They’d only had two weeks to prepare. In that time, Stacey had gotten to know Nathan a little better and was surprised about how much they had in common. Both of them could easily get lost in reading books. Both of them liked to cook and eat equally. On top of that, Stacey found that Nathan was kind, calm. Even when they didn’t agree on things.
The day of the wedding, Stacey nervously clenched and flexed her fingers as she paced around the room. She wanted to slip out of the house, run away. However, another part of her had began to like Nathan, a lot. She didn’t want him to get hurt because of her, or to never see him again.
A knock broke Stacey out of her thoughts. “Come in,” she called distracted.
Emily stepped into the room. She looked immaculate in a long, powder blue dress and matching heels. Her hair was brushed straight, a smile on her lips.
“It’s almost time,” she said excitedly.