Authors: Sarah Brocious
Raina reached for her phone.
I guess I will see you at the altar.
She set her phone down and it buzzed immediately.
You doubt me?
She rolled her eyes.
My guards and your guards…
I broke you out of prison…
True…
“Who are you texting?”
Raina glanced up and smiled. “No one.”
“Raina, focus.”
Raina held her hands up in surrender and then handed her friend her phone. She threw her wet towel at her too.
Emily squealed and then scowled at Raina. “Really mature!”
Raina stuck her tongue out.
There was a knock at the door.
“Mindy,” Emily laughed and then growled when the door opened and Nolan walked in. His eyes focused on Raina and he ignored Emily all together.
Raina smiled and hurried to her feet.
“I have a mob after me,” he chuckled, grabbing her hand. “Come here!” He pulled her into her bathroom, shut the door, and locked it.
Raina laughed as he rested his shoulders against the door and pulled her into his arms. Her laughter faded when he kissed her. She gripped his shirt and leaned him harder into the door. It shook with the pounding behind it.
The voices of Michael Jonathan and Bradley were behind it.
Nolan’s chest rumbled with laughter and he kissed her harder. “Ah I needed this,” he sighed. “You are always worth the mutiny Aelan, always.” He brushed her wet hair from her face and kissed the tip of her nose, both her cheeks and her lips again.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“No second thoughts about me?”
“Never,” she laughed. She lifted up on her tiptoes, tilting her face up for another kiss. She giggled when he vibrated from the pounding.
“Last night was crazy,” he sighed. “I had to be sure you were okay.” He cupped her face with his hands. “You are okay?”
She nodded. “He’s still alive,” she sighed. “I had to make sure. I texted him this morning.”
He growled.
“Don’t be mad. I had to know for my own peace of mind.”
He sighed. “Did he say anything that made you think he would try anything today?” The silvers searched her face.
Raina shook her head. “I don’t think so. I…there was a text when I came up to message you but I didn’t look at it.”
Nolan rolled his shoulders.
Raina tugged his collar. “Don’t get worked up Nolan, please. It’s our day.”
He lowered his lips to hers. He gave her a tender kiss. “Where is your phone?”
“Why?”
“I need to see that text.”
Raina sighed. Their moment was over for now. She dipped her head.
He tipped her chin up. “I need to see it.”
Raina shrugged. “Emily took it from me when we were texting earlier.” She held to his arms. “Nolan?”
He set her gently aside, turned to the door and pounded it roughly. “I’m coming out now and I don’t need jostled. I need Raina’s phone! Understood?” It got quiet, so he opened the door and reached for her hand.
Jonathan didn’t say a word, he knew. The other two saw the seriousness now in Nolan’s eyes. They stepped back. Emily timidly handed him the phone.
Raina felt his fingers contract around hers as he took the phone.
Nolan started to open the message and then stopped. He drew in a deep breath, and then turned to Raina. He set the phone on the desk, took her face in his hands and kissed her.
“No, it doesn’t matter,” he whispered. “It doesn’t matter what it says.” He kissed her softly again and pulled her into his arms. He pressed her head to his chest and sighed. “I don’t need to see it. Whatever it says doesn’t change the fact that you are mine and I am marrying you today.” He smiled and squeezed her gently.
Emily made an aw sound.
Raina laughed at this and looked up at her beautiful immortal. This was her Nolan. “It doesn’t matter,” she agreed.
He touched his forehead to hers. “But I will not stand it if he interferes again Aelan.” He met her gaze. “I am not going to lie and say everything is okay and I’ve let go. I haven’t.” He bussed her nose with his own. “He broke my heart in more way than one. You think you are hurting by not having him here? He was to be my best man. Imagine Emily kissing me and then disappearing without ever having said one word to you. You have known her for what? Twenty years? I have known Thanatos for Two hundred.”
“Give or take a few decades,” she teased softly. It was something Thanatos had said to her on more than one occasion.
He smiled sadly.
She looked up at him with adoration. “I admire you for not going after him.” She had not said this to him since it had happened. “If I had been in your shoes, as you put it…I would not have been so kind.” She glanced around his shoulder at Emily. “Sorry Emily.”
Emily laughed and held up her hands. “Message received.”
Nolan chuckled and ran his knuckles down his Aelan’s cheek. “I love you sweet woman, you do know that?”
“I know,” she sighed.
He went to kiss her again and was pulled away.
“Okay lover boy, enough.” Michael had his arm about Nolan’s waist and Jonathan around his biceps from behind. Bradley was opening the door.
“Later Raina,” Jonathan sang.
Bradley rushed forward and kissed her cheek and then his wife’s before closing the door behind the struggling mass of immortal males.
Raina was still giggling when Melinda entered shortly after.
“We could sell tickets to that show and make lots of money for that show,” she teased. “That was a lot of hot men twisting and fighting their way down the stair.” She immediately went for the hair dryer and brush. “Now come on Raina! It’s time to make you pretty!”
Raina’s Mom joined them at that moment. “Those crazy men are all but wrestling in the hall!” She shook her head.
Raina smiled at her. “Come on Mom…the girls were just about to make me pretty!”
And hour and a half later they had done just that. Her hair was brushed and twisted and curled until it was a beautiful mass of curls and shine. Her makeup was flawless and the lovely strapless dress with its empire waist was perfection.
Raina stood and twirled for the mirror and for the woman. She smoothed her skirt and the ruby red belt that graced just below her bust line. “What do you think?” Her blue eyes were shining.
Her audience sighed.
Emily clasped her hands together. “It’s like a fairytale,” she cried.
Raina did another twirl. She in turn admired them in their crimson dresses. They were also strapless and cut just above the knee. The cut was classic and flattering on their slim forms. She glanced down at her curved hips and shook off the insecurity. Her dress was breathtaking! And her curves? Nolan loved her curves! This made her smile.
Melinda slipped out to go check on the men’s progress.
Raina laid a hand on her tummy as the butterflies set in. “It’s getting close isn’t it?” She looked to her best friend.
“Almost,” Emily promised.
Raina turned to the mirror again and had to catch her breath. “I hope he likes.”
“He will love,” her mother whispered. She leaned in and kissed Raina’s cheek. “I’m going to make sure your Dad is doing okay with his tux. He’s in our room changing.” She squeezed Raina. “You are perfection,” she promised. She left as Melinda returned.
“Well, the guys are in their suits. “Looks like a models convention in there. I can’t believe the tailor found enough material for Maxim’s arms,” she laughed.
Raina chewed her lip. “Are they in Nolan’s room?”
Melinda nodded. “But they said something about cigars.” She made a face. “I told Nolan you wouldn’t want to kiss a man who smells like that.” She sat down on the bed. “They look really good though!”
Raina gave a little shrug. “Can’t I just take a peak?”
Emily raised her brows. “Uh uh.”
Raina pouted. The idea that Nolan was wandering around the house somewhere in a tuxedo was a little too much to resist. “The wives tale is…it’s bad luck for him to see me in my dress not him in his suit.”
Melinda giggled from her perch on the bed. “I love your reasoning Raina, but no…Emily is right. You should wait to see him!” Her eyes danced. “He looks gorgeous by the way. It’s the kind of gorgeous that makes a girl fan herself and say, “Oh my!”
Raina stuck her tongue out at her friends. She patted her hair and went for her phone to pass the time! Maybe she could text her Nolan. She sat at her vanity table and slid her screen to unlock. Right away Thanatos unread message caught her eye. She glanced over at the girls, where lost in their own primping.
She opened the message and let out a soft gasp.
Emily and Melinda were both on alert.
Raina shook and held out her phone with the message she had received over an hour ago. Her hand was trembling when Melinda took the phone.
Melinda frowned. “I will see you there beautiful.” She shook her head. “Here?” She looked to Emily. ‘Why would he come here today?”
Raina wanted to bury her face in her hands but she knew that would just ruin her makeup. “I don’t know,” she groaned.
“There has to be more to this message! What did he say before?”
Raina shrugged. “He felt like hell…”
“Maybe he wants to apologize to Nolan?” Emily looked very hopeful.
“Nolan is in no mood to apologize,” Melinda growled.
Emily frowned. “Did he come to stop the wedding? Last night…did you get the feeling he was going to do anything to force his hand?”
Raina shook her head. “No…as far as I knew, he was saying he was…done, gone, dead. I bawled right there and begged him to talk to Nolan. If he was going to apologize he would have done it then! He went to go see Maxim last night…I had thought to do the deed…”
“Wait! Maxim? Last night?” Melinda held up her hands.
Raina scowled. “Yes, why?”
Melinda chewed at her nails. “Michael went to a late meeting last night and I thought nothing of your little encounter last night but…”
There was a great pounding at the door suddenly. “Raina!”
Raina jumped at the pounding at the dressing room door. She heard Jonathan’s frantic voice on the other side and it chilled her.
“Raina, now, you have to come now! He’s going to kill him!”
She hiked her dress up and jumped away from the vanity. All of the girls protested, but she didn’t pay them any attention. She rushed to the door and threw it open.
Jonathan’s dark eyes were full of horror.
“Jonathan…what’s wrong? Nolan? Is he…”
“He won’t listen to me and he just went crazy when he saw him. No one can restrain him and…God, just hurry!”
Melinda and Emily protested again.
“I have to,” Raina growled at them. “Now the two of you go to my parent’s room and distract them.” She was almost as white as her dress.
Melinda looked to Jonathan. “Don’t let her get hurt.” She grabbed Emily and hurried her the other way.
He grasped Raina’s hand and drug her down the hall.
They were outside the door when Raina heard the crashing and the yelling.
Her blue eyes were wide.
Jonathan put an arm around her shoulders. “He’s crazed right now Raina. I have never seen Nolan like this. I can barely read his thoughts he’s so jumbled.”
She knew they answer but she had to ask. “Who is fighting?”
“Nolan and Thanatos.” His brown eyes darkened. “And it’s bad.”
She pushed past him and into the room.
The sight before her chilled her. She had seen blood before. She had seen fights before. This was beyond that! The room was trashed and there was something not quite right.
Nolan was beyond crazed as he was going after Thanatos but the fight seemed one sided. Thanatos was weak and wasn’t fighting back. The muscles beneath Nolan’s dress shirt were priming and moving with the force of his punches. He was like a lethal animal moving with precision.
Thanatos was a bloodied mess. Even his blonde hair was caked in red.
“Stop,” the word barely escaped her throat she was so afraid. “Please, Nolan!” She hurried toward him, but Jonathan grabbed her.
“Call him from here,” he said softly. “Don’t touch him he may turn on you!”
Raina thought that sounded ridiculous. Nolan would never hurt her…but she had never seen her immortal like this! “Nolan,” she shouted.
The immortal paused and turned toward her. His chest was heaving from his exertion. His shirt was ripped and his thick hair in shambles. His silver eyes were wild and there was dried blood on his lip where a cut had already healed. “Get her out of here,” he growled.
“No,” she whispered. “I’m not leaving.”
His eyes took her in. She was so beautiful standing there. But her eyes were all wrong. There was fear and pain…and it was aimed at him. He couldn’t have that.